Windley Key Fossil Reef Geological State Park

It is one of the lesser known state parks in the Florida Keys and for the absurdly small fee of $2.50 you can enjoy wandering around here any day except Tuesday and Wednesday. It's worth a stop when you are driving through Islamorada.

I took my sister in law who was visiting to escape the fearsome cold of Appalachia and she took the time to study the quarry operations that created the park.

From the state parks website:

Formed of Key Largo limestone, fossilized coral, this land was sold to the Florida East Coast Railroad, which used the stone to build Henry Flagler's Overseas Railroad in the early 1900s. After the railroad was built, the quarry was used until the 1960s to produce exquisite pieces of decorative stone called Keystone. Today, visitors can walk along eight-foot-high quarry walls to see cross sections of the ancient coral and learn about the quarry and its operation- an important part of Florida's 20th century history. Samples of the quarry machinery have been preserved at the park. Visitors can enjoy the natural attributes of this island while strolling five, short, self-guided trails. Picnic tables are available. The Visitor Center, open Friday through Sunday, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m., features educational exhibits about the history of this site. Located at Mile Marker 84.9 on Windley Key near Islamorada.

Aside from being on a leash Rusty had a pretty good time. Every time I stopped to admire the trees he started whining as though bored so it was a bit of a forced march.

I slowed him down a bit to admire the cuts in the coral rock quarry:

Windley Key is a great place to take  a walk:

Rusty worms his way easily into any stranger's affection:

Fishing By Bridge And Boat

Channel Five Bridge is one of two 70-foot tall bridges in the Keys and it happens to provide great shade if you choose to walk the old Flagler Bridge or fish from there.

I was encouraged to see them  keeping the new bridge up to snuff in whatever way they do that kind of thing: 

Fishing, and I am not an angler so I'm theorizing here, requires quite a bit of equipment. He smiled cheerfully from behind his mound of stuff at young Rusty whom I leashed as we walked by, mostly because I remember what a hound Cheyenne was when bait  fish were lying around. The old Labrador was after them like a pig on truffles. Rusty is less food driven but I figure it's better to be cautious.

 It was  a glorious day.

 The temperatures were below 80 degrees, the wind was light but cool, seas were flat.

 Rusty enjoyed himself too I am happy to report, as we strolled all the way to the end of the fishing pier.

 This lot looked terribly disappointed:

 The inevitable exercise enthusiasts:

We stopped and looked and ambled and took pictures:

We had most of the bridge to ourselves. Imagine driving a car down here in 1981 and meeting your neighbor head on. It was a slow tense drive to Miami in those days. 

 These solid cement arches are well over a hundred years old and as strong as ever. Impressive:

Playing Tourist

It happens from time to time that you get out of town visitors who breeze into town and you end up seeing home from the other side's point of view. It was several days of eating out, walking between landmarks and coming up with explanations for the odd and inexplicable.

 My sister-in-law lives in Asheville the home to the terminally hip in Western North Carolina. It reminds me rather too much of California where the social pressure to conform drives non conformists like me to rebellion and drink, and not necessarily in that order. 

She liked the fresh fish in the Keys and I had the first of several tacos in a week of eating out that ended up with me feeling liverish. Alonzo's puts on a good spread.

 The streets of Key West present a colorful spectacle to someone stepping out of the short damp gray days on winter in Appalachia. I don't sit around in bars much and neither does my sister-in-law but one can appreciate the scene.

 And it's good for me to be reminded of the merits of endless summer.

Tourists are on the sidewalks though I have to say traffic doesn't seem as heavy as it has in years past. I wonder if people are leaving their cars at home or not holding onto the ir rentals or what. It's very nice.

My sister-in-law is barely aware of the existence of Ernest Hemingway who is not apparently part of the curriculum when you study to be a doctor so I was spared the almost inevitable tour of the House, one of the more popular destinations in town as you can see:

Passing by the new fire station her insatiable curiosity was aroused by the residentially challenged and their lifestyle and the facilities provided for them. Recycling is definitely not on par with Asheville's heroic efforts but our treatment of street people surprised her with my ability to rattle off shelters, soup kitchens, mental health facilities and so forth. One likes to present a Key West that extends beyond alcoholism and men dressed as women singing on various stages. Three live theaters, independent movies, a symphony and a few extra citizens of the streets. 

She noticed the scooter parking and I made a point of it to say that I didn't see many people using fuel efficient modern scooters in Asheville (neenah neenah neenah) and she allowed as how Key West is thoughtful in providing free parking.

Sometimes it feels as though having great weather and mild winters is as much as we should expect in Key West. It makes it hard when visitors discover you can live a  well rounded life here as well. I just know I'm no hip enough for Asheville and as much as I like to visit the mountains I am fine on flat land surrounded by turquoise water.

Mario Sanchez

I was in the Key West Art and History Museum at the Old Custom House on Clinton Square and I determined that I wanted to enjoy certain pieces of art. For instance "The Old Neighborhood" below:

Sanchez  was self taught, drawing his pictures on brown paper bags and translating them into wood carvings. Pretty amazing:

As  you check out my rather angled photographs (it's not easy to adapt to the lighting and stream of cruise ship passengers!) you'll notice that Sanchez's "photographic memory" includes no street chickens. I was also checking out the Works Progress Administration watercolors from the 1930s and they too show no wandering chickens on the streets of Key West. Promoters of the fowl say they are a tradition. Not that I can see...

 Cigar making is also recorded by Sanchez:

Below you can see the reader keeping the makers of  cigars amused as they roll their leaves. Cigar making was a big deal in key West after socialist revolutionaries from Cuba failed to oust the Spanish and got ousted themselves. They came over in exile and got to work making cigars. However Key West's peculiar problems reasserted themselves  even in those days  and  the bosses found cheaper land in Tampa where they created Ybor City and made that the cigar capital of Florida.

Hot bollos are Cuban falafels if I can be so crude. Essentially they are spiced ground black beans deep fried and utterly delicious. Five Brothers make a good version but in Sanchez's art they were for sale on the streets. Happy days!

 In the picture above you can see the street car rails for the horse drawn carriages.

Sanchez also turned his hand in his outdoor studio to creating fish of which I photographed just one. Grunts were  a precious food during the Depression when they were  a staple in the impoverished city. 80% of Key West's workers were on Federal assistance at the time and the city went bankrupt. People ate grunts and grits and were happy to get them.

Key West changed quite a bit to accommodate the railroad in 1912 by building up the north shore where the train arrived and unload people while rolling freight cars into ferries bound for Havana. Since that earth removal things have stayed pretty much the same shape around the edges. The interior map changed with the construction of Sears shopping mall in the 1960s and the expansion of the population into New Town where people could have a garden and a ranch house with modern conveniences.

 Back in Sanchez's day there were stories to be told:

Which commentary refers to this:

I have read the newspapers discussing the arrival of the train in January 1912. There were lamentations that the service would wreck the Key West spirit, that of an isolated island. Many people had never seen a train before that fateful day. Flagler's railroad took all day to get to Miami with it's load of people and Cuban winter fruit and it never turned a profit till it was wrecked by a hurricane in 1935. Below the picture showing the arrival of the first train.

In those days it was possible to drive  a car to he mainland but there was a ferry from Big Pine to Matecumbe and another from key Largo. It was an epic journey made easy and comfortable by Flagler and his slow moving train (25 mph maximum speed on bridges). Sanchez provided an invaluable and beautiful record of those days.

" I know my modest art isn't good, but people like it hey?"