My World TuesdayFebruary 2, 2009
My world this Tuesday is a collection of photos from my visit to Key West, Florida last Monday, January 26, on the Costa Fortuna cruise ship. This first photo is of downtown Key West near Mallory Square.
Key West is definitely a Caribbean paradise with lots of lush green vegetation. Love those palms.
Bougainvillea grows very tall in Key West, Florida.
Behind this iron fence lies the Little White House that was made famous by Harry S Truman. This Little White House is now a museum run by a commercial company on land that was part of the Key West Naval Station. The Naval Station is still there and our cruise ship docked at the station but we could not walk on the station. We had to immediately board the free conch trains that took us to Mallory Square in downtown Key West.
Outside of the Naval Station the most famous attraction in Key West is the Ernest Hemingway House which we toured in 2004 so last Monday we decided that we would visit the third most famous attraction in Key West which is the Harry Truman House which is known as the Little White House. This was a very good tour but we were not allowed to take photos inside the home but only in the museum's gift shop. Probably this rule exists today because former presidents as well as the current president can come to the Little White House for a special dinner or diplomatic event. Below is a photo of one of Harry's casual shirts that he wore in Florida while conducting business at the Little White House.
Below you see Harry wearing one of his Florida shirts while meeting with his secretary of defense James Forrestal. (Side note: I took this photo because Jack used to work in the Forrestal Building which is right next door to the Smithsonian Castle on the Washington Mall.
Harry S Truman and Dwight Eisenhower were the first presidents that I remember as a school girl in the fifties. There were a lot of parallels between the two men.
After Jack and I finished visiting the Truman Little White House we went to the second most famous attraction in Key West. You ask what that is? Well, it is the famous watering hole that Ernest Hemingway frequented after a long day of writing prose. It is Sloppy Joes Saloon on Duval Street.Cruise passengers going there have been known to do the Duval crawl to get back to the cruise ship after one too many tropical drinks there.
There is lots of memorabilia on all the walls of the saloon.
Each year this saloon crowns the new Ernest "Papa" Hemingway look-a-like. Here are photos of some past Papas.
Some of these guys with the grey hair and full beards really do like Hemingway.
Click on the above photo to see all the Papas.
Yes, we did treat ourselves to a libation but we didn't have more than one a piece so we didn't need to do the Duval crawl back to the ship. If you play the video below, you might get a feel for this place. Now go visit some more My World Tuesday blogs by clicking here: http://showyourworld.blogspot.com/
5 comments:
Wow, I see it that you are both enjoying the cruise. I love the one with the palm tress most. Thanks for sharing Key West to us.
Holy cow!! A toga??!! You have totally surprised me with that one!
We visited Key west a while back. Very fun place. I had my cheeseburger in paradise :)
That was nice! Thank you for taking us on your cruise! It was both interesting and very pleasant. Some of the Hemingways, however look too cheerful, but that's because I've never seen him smiling on his book covers. Thanks for your visit!
Joann: What a fun look at your trip, fun music at Sloppy Joe's.
Looks like a great trip and really makes me appreciate how far south this area is, as it sure is different to the weather the rest of us are getting!
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