Key West

Tags: Florida, Key West, USA

Date: May 23, 2018

After driving back to Marathon Key and spending a few days with boat projects we left for Key West. We spent the time there eating out and seeing the sights. There are quite a few lovely houses with beautiful gardens in Key West:

Some of the trees in town are almost taking over the pavement:

Lots of chickens roam free in Key West. The locals call them gypsy chickens. Here is a particularly photogenic rooster:

The Key West cemetery is in the middle of the old part of town. Many locally famous people were buried here:

We visited the Key West Garden Club located inside the West Martello Tower, once part of the naval defense of Key West. The tower was built in 1863 as part of Fort Taylor but was never armed. Instead, it was used along with its sister tower, East Martello Tower for storage and quartering troops during the Spanish American War in 1898. During the Second World War the tower was used as a radio station. In 1949 after being sold to the County, the West Martello Tower became the home of the Key West Garden Club who established a garden inside the fort. The garden is tended by volunteers and is open to the public.

The garden was hit hard by Hurricane Irma in 2017, but when we visited almost 8 months later, the garden looked beautiful:

There were some pretty orchids on display:

A wall of green plants with the bricks of the old fort in the background:

More green plants but not part of the Garden Club. This is out on the street and there is actually a house hiding behind all these palms:

Félicie in front of yet another example of a Key West front garden and house:

...and one more:

While sitting in the cockpit of Amanda we saw this floating bar come by: