We jumped on the hotel shuttle bus at eight a.m. to go to the down town area of Key West. Early start and all. And the first thing we noticed? Chickens. Chickens everywhere. Roosters crowing. Hens cackling chicks peeping. Running freely in the streets. Well, except at Ernest Hemingway’s house. See, he loved cats. Cats with six toes, to be exact, imported from Gamma 17, a planet Hemingway allegedly once visited. He write about it, but the manuscript was lost when Hemingway couldn’t get back into Cuba in the 60’s. Cold War and missile crisis and all. But no chickens. Just cats. Cats everywhere. It was worse than going through a haunted house. Then we saw a sign in the back yard that read, “Cat Cemetery.” Yeah. I know how that movie turned out. We left.
Next
we went across the street and toured a lighthouse. Had to climb all of 88 steps to get to the
top. It was worth it, though. Great views of the whole island. So … lighthouse. Chris was happy.
Next,
on to the Harry S. Truman presidential library.
Had to wait about 20 minutes for the tour. So we spent some time in the gift shop. Chris found a Christmas tree ornament. I found a bottle of water. As it turned out, Chris needed the water more
than me. As we came down the stairs, she
missed the last one. She reached back to
steady herself and wrenched her torn rotator cuff shoulder. She came very close to passing out from the pain. And the worst part? She couldn’t sit on any of the furniture. It was all reserved for Harry Truman only,
and he’s dead. Chris had to ease down to
the floor and recuperate there. We
finally got a bottle of water down her.
She ran a smart watch EKG during the event, so she has a picture of her
pain and how it affected her heart.
Pretty fast little critter there.
Once
she recovered, we made our way to Caroline’s, a restaurant highly recommended
by the clerk at the Truman house. Then
we walked over to Kermit’s for the number one (so far) piece of key lime
pie. Next we found the famous Mallory
Square. It was just a huge hunk of
concrete. People like to gather there to
just hang out and then watch the sun set.
We browsed the shops, then sat in the shade and watched a few gila
monsters easing around … in the treetops.
They were munching the flowers on the tree. I wondered what chaos would ensue if one of
them happened to lose his footing.
We
came “home”on the hotel shuttle and crashed for an hour or so. Then we were directed by the hotel concierge
to a place on the next Key over for some good, local food. Hog Fish Bar and Grill. Not a place you would accidentally come
across. You had to know where you were
going. We tried the hog fish for the first
time (google it … we did). It is pretty
good stuff. Kind of like red
snapper. I could eat it again. No key lime pie offered, though.
From
there we went to the Fort Zachary Taylor Park.
There we walked along the beach.
Had to do that at least once. It
was weird. No sand. Just crushed shells and lots of rocks. We hung around with a hundred or so of our closest
friends to watch the sun set over the Gulf of Mexico. Really pretty. It was supposed to flash green just as the sun
dipped below the horizon. I didn’t see
any green, but the other colors were pretty spectacular. It was a great way to end our romantic date
evening.
Hebrews
13:16 says, “And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with
such sacrifices God is pleased.”
Father,
you did another masterful job on that sunset last night. Amen.
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