The five nights we spent in the Florida Keys last month were devoted almost entirely to chill time. We decided to savor the warm climate and gaze at the expanse of water that -- unlike our trip there in 2017 -- we could see from the window and back deck of our room in Marathon, a city in the Keys about halfway between mainland Florida and Key West.
Consequently, I wasn't out and about a whole lot to shoot pictures, so there will be only two posts devoted to our time just in the Keys -- the one yesterday, and this one.
In the weeks before we started out trip, we had been concerned about the state of the Florida Keys, which only four months previous had been battered severely by Hurricane Irma. Indeed, as recent as three weeks before we left, we heard that residents and merchants there had piled debris along U.S. 1, the Overseas Highway that connects the Keys to mainland Florida. And in the week we spent in Savannah and St. Augustine, we learned that a lot of the debris had been picked up and cleared.
It wasn't until we drove from Marathon to Key West on Feb. 8 that we saw leftover remnants of the terrible storm, mostly in the form of broken windows, missing palm tree tops and battered mobile home trailers still near the highway. A couple pictures of the latter appear at the bottom of this post.
While in Marathon, we had dinner Feb. 6 at the Sunset Grille and Raw Bar (in yesterday's post, I presented some sky and sunset shots I took during that visit). We again took advantage of the eatery's scrumptious smoked prime rib on Tuesday barbecue night.
And, on our last full day, Feb. 8, we made a return trip to Key West.
We had seen a lot in Key West on separate trips to Key West during an 11-day visit to the Keys in 2017, so we didn't feel compelled to do a lot of touristy stuff this time. And we didn't, really. We revisited Mallory Square -- which is known as a nightly gathering spot for sunset lovers -- but did so in the early afternoon. This time we simply strolled slowly and gazed out at the sailing vessels, such as the one you see leading off the post.
For lunch, we made a return visit to Sloppy Joe's, where we had stopped last year as well. We'd had a nice meal and drinks there in 2017, and the same was true last month. This time was different, however, in that we met and shared a table with a nice couple from Ohio (right). They told us they live on
South Bass Island in Lake Erie, 3 miles off the coast of Ohio, and also maintain a home in Shelby, which is inland in northern Ohio.
Meeting this couple was a somewhat eerie coincidence. Until about two weeks before starting our trip, I only first ever heard of Lake Erie's three Bass Islands (there's also Middle Bass and North Bass islands), when Lee Ann and I looked in on an episode of HGTV's
Beachfront Bargain Hunt on which a couple seeking a home on South Bass was featured.
The couple told us that they made an annual visit to the Keys, that they always met up with a group of other people from those islands on the trip, and that the guitar-playing singer on the stage at Sloppy Joe's at the time they joined us at the table also was from South Bass. The couple introduced themselves by name -- the gentleman even told us he owns and flies a plane and that their home is near the island's airport. But it's been over a month since we crossed paths, and sadly, I've forgotten the names. If you guys see this post, please forgive my forgetfulness.
As always, to view a larger and sharper version of an image, simply click on the image. This is particularly important if you access the blog using a mobile device. To view a
full gallery of our trip to Key West last month, click on the link in this sentence. Photos far below -- beginning with the one of Leigh Ann's Coffee Shop -- can be found
in a Marathon folder at the link in this sentence.
Photo geek stuff: Most of the images in this post were taken with a Canon 6D and Tamron 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di PZD VC lens equipped with a B+W polarizing filter. Each composition was bracketed for three exposures to allow the possibility of treating some shots in Photomatix high-dynamic range (HD) software. Almost all of the shots in this post are single-frame images. Two shots were taken with my iPhone X -- the one above of the couple we shared a table with at Sloppy Joe's, and the one below of the wall mural (right below the dog).
Above: All kinds of vessels can be found in the water off Mallory Square.
Above and below: Mallory Square is a popular gathering spot all times of the day for people ...
... and waterfowl alike (above and below).
Above: I hadn't been aware of there being such a festival before coming upon this sign. After checking the website, I see we missed it by two days.
Along Duval Street, the main (or at least best-known) commercial thoroughfare in Key West, we'd come across street performers before. As we approached the woman above, though, I wasn't sure what we were looking at. She was so still I thought at first it was a statue. As we neared, her eyes popped open (below), and it startled both Lee Ann and I. That was no statue! We stopped to check out a store nearby, and a few minutes later when we emerged from the store, I turned to see the woman -- sans toga -- busy on her cellphone (second below). It was pretty warm that day, so I can understand her wanting to shed layers to cool off.
Above and below: I don't know if this bird owner fell into the category of street performer, but he and the bird (possibly a cacaw?) attracted a lot of attention and inquiries ... and requests for photos. He gracefully consented.
Sloppy Joe's has live entertainers throughout the day. The performer shown in the photo above and next two below was the guy who was from the Ohio islands mentioned in the narrative above. He started his set about 10 minutes after we arrived. The couple I mentioned who sat at our table with us here said the performer managed to get a gig in Key West at the same the group from Put-In-Bay Island made its annual trek there (or perhaps it was vice versa). The guy in the third photo below was near the end of his gig when we arrived.
Above: This duo was performing outdoors not far from Mallory Square.
One of Sloppy Joe's claims to fame was that it was a favorite haunt of legendary author Ernest Hemingway, who lived on Key West for most of the 1930s. Until this visit to Key West, I had no idea that the current Sloppy Joe's property (above), which fronts Duval Street at the intersection of Greene Street, was not the same place Hemingway visited. From the time the bar opened in 1933 until 1937, Sloppy Joe's was a half-block west on Greene (below), a place that now operates as Capt. Tony's Saloon. Hemingway owned his home in Key West from 1931-39, so most of the time he dropped into Sloppy Joe's was when it was at the original site. The Wikipedia entry for Sloppy Joe's indicates that there is no evidence Hemingway stopped into the bar after it moved, so I feel a bit cheated thinking, since my first visit last year, that I had been in the same place where Hemingway tipped his elbow. We didn't stick our head inside the door of Capt. Tony's to check it out, but it did not appear to be a very spacious place. Not even close to the room in the current Sloppy Joe's.
Above and below: At the corner of Duval and Caroline streets in The Bull and Whistle Bar. As the above photo shows, it's one place I decided I would stick my head into. I was in there long enough to grab this single shot before leaving.
At 322 Duval Street is Key West's Oldest House and Garden Museum. The photo above is a view of the house's back side, which looks out into the garden, which is where I spent the majority of my time. There were some interesting plants there (next three below).
A nice looking dog was outside the walk-up window of a Cuban coffee shop that we made our last stop in Key West on this trip. The mural below was right around the corner.
Above and below: Mobile homes damaged from Hurricane Irma can be found in a few spots along the section of U.S. 1 between Marathon and Key West. I took both of these shots from inside our car while driving past the scene (i.e., we didn't stop).
Above: When we visited the Keys in 2017, both times we returned to Marathon from trips south to Key West were at night because we wanted to enjoy sunsets there. So I recall getting only one chance to appreciate this view of the abandoned Overseas Railway extending into Bahia Honda Key and State Park. That was the day, last year, when we visited the park and when I photographed the infrastructure from the park vantage point. I also took the above shot from the passenger seat of our moving vehicle on the 7-mile Bridge portion of the Overseas Highway, as there is no place to pull off and stop to do it.
Above: During last year's visit, Lee Ann and I stopped several times at this place, Leigh Ann's Coffee House, in upper Marathon, a delightful shop for coffee, pastries, breakfast dishes and even beer and wine. Lee Ann even bought one of their ceramic store-name emblazoned coffee mugs as a souvenir. We had heard that it closed after Hurricane Irma, and as it turned out, it was one of the Keys businesses that did not reopen (or, at least, has not reopened yet). We felt compelled to stop by last month to see how badly it was damaged. There were obvious roof issues in the upper left of the photo, but that was that was the only apparent affliction to the eye from this vantage point. We did not check the back of the shop, and it's quite possible it incurred flooding and/or costly mold issues.
Above is one island a very short distance from the shoreline behind the lodge where we stayed in Marathon. I've captured it in a few of my sundown photos, so I thought I would present a view of it here during the day. This version was treated in Photomatix to bring out some color in the sky.
Above: Palm Island is another island a short distance from the lodge shoreline. It appears to be a private island, and there is a bridge access from the main key to the right of this view. This view is a slice of the island's left side (as viewed from the lodge shoreline). The color version is pretty good, but I found myself liking this contrasty version of a monochrome conversion slightly more.
Above and the remainder below are a sampling of the wildlife photos I took while in and around the lodge in Marathon. The first one below showing a waterfowl with wings spread in the "touchdown" signal position -- was a radical crop of the original composition because I caught it by dumb luck. The iguanas in the last two photos were something we'd seen there last year; the hurricane did nothing to chase them away.
Next up: Heavy fog at Ormond Beach, Fla.
For lunch, we made a return visit to Sloppy Joe's, where we had stopped last year as well. We'd had a nice meal and drinks there in 2017, and the same was true last month. This time was different, however, in that we met and shared a table with a nice couple from Ohio (right). They told us they live on South Bass Island in Lake Erie, 3 miles off the coast of Ohio, and also maintain a home in Shelby, which is inland in northern Ohio.
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