Like a siren’s song, they call to us.  By day, we are compelled to climb to the very top to gaze out to sea, hoping to see we know not what. In the pitch black of night the unique rhythmic cadence of their flashing beacon signaling out into the unknown is at once haunting and comforting.   

The oldest known lighthouse, the Pharos of Alexandria, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, was constructed by the ancient Greeks in the third century B.C. on the islet of Pharos marking the entrance to the major Medierranean port of Alexandria on the western tip of the Nile delta.  Rising 383-440 feet above the delta, it was one of the tallest man-made structures on earth for centuries.  Originally a daytime marker, the Romans later added fire and reflective mirrors for nighttime use.  As commerce and trade in Europe grew throughout the Middle Ages, lighthouses were built along the coasts of France and Italy.  During the competitive European maritime commerce of the 17th and 18th centuries, the number of lighthouses dotting the coastline of Europe increased dramatically.

The lifeblood of colonial America was dependent on maritime commerce.  As colonies grew, 11 lighthouses cropped up to safely guide vessels around dangerous rocks and shoals into the harbors of colonial towns.   

Boston Lighthouse

The first of these was a tower at the entrance to Boston Harbor on Little Brewster Island, built in 1716 and lit by tallow candles.  Accessible today by boat only, tours of this National Historic Landmark are offered June through October.  

Remarkably, the massive masonry stone light tower of the original 1764 Sandy Hook Light in New Jersey is still intact.  While an offshore light has lessened its importance, it still greets vessels entering New York’s busy harbor.      

Colonial lighthouses not ravished by nature were destroyed by the Civil War.  However, their role was so important that new ones were rebuilt on the same sites and many more added in the late 1800s.  To the delight of lighthouse lovers, many picturesque 19th century structures – some operational; others not - remain along America’s coastline and around the Great Lakes.  Made of brick, stone and masonry, distinctively painted in stark white, pitch-black, bright red, or painted in black and white stripes or diamonds, each holds a certain mystique.  We can only imagine what their eye has seen!

Florida’s extensive wrap-around coastline is dotted with historic lighthouses.  The oldest known structure in America, a Spanish watchtower in St. Augustine, appeared on a 1589 map belonging to Sir Francis Drake!  This precise location was so important for protection and navigation that subsequent towers were built on the same site by the English between 1763 and 1784, and the Americans after 1821, only to be washed away by coastal erosion.

St. Augustine Lighthouse

The current St. Augustine Lighthouse was built in 1876, about ¼ mile away from the original Spanish watchtower on more stable land, and is open to the public.  This distinctive black and white spiral banded lighthouse on Anastasia Island is said to be haunted, with good reason. The spirits of the keeper’s young daughters who perished there have been seen by some; the smell of cigar smoke from a keeper who fell to his death while painting the tower is detectable by others.   

While the history of the St. Augustine Lighthouse site is certainly older, the oldest existing lighthouse in Florida is the Cape Florida Lighthouse at the tip of upscale Key Biscayne in bustling Miami.  It, too, is open to the public. 

Cape Florida Lighthouse

Established in 1825, this little lighthouse, peacefully nestled among the sea oats on a sandy beach at Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Recreaton Area, has seen its share of violence and tragedy.  During the second Seminole War in 1836, it was under siege by the Indians who murdered the keeper’s family and left the assistant keeper for dead.  His account of his horrifying experience is told in the lighthouse museum.

Sombrero Key Light

Perched atop the submerged coral reefs paralleling the Florida Keys are a series of pile tower lighthouses, skeleton-like structures built in the late 1800s to keep mariners traveling the busy Gulf Stream shipping lanes from straying into the jagged reefs.

Prior to their existence, Spanish galleons traveling northward on the Gulf Stream, heavy with gold and jewels, where blown off course and torn apart by reefs, scattering their bounty along the path of destruction.  Some of their treasure, recovered buried under the sand by legendary Mel Fisher, is on display in the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum.  Similarly, later merchant schooners lost cargo and lives on the reef, leading to the lucrative salvage or wrecking industry in early Key West.

Since their construction, the skeletal arms of these lighthouses – Fowey, Carysfort, Alligator, Sombrero, American Shoal, Sand Key – have sustained ferocious hurricane winds, seen their keepers and their families perish, embraced Cuban and Haitian migrants trying to reach America, alerted against illegal drug boats speeding ashore for secret rendezvous, and mark some of the best snorkeling and recreational dive spots in the world.

Key West Lighthouse

 

The historic Key West Lighthouse is landlocked and open to the public.  The view of quaint Key West from the top is 360° wonderful!  The first lighthouse was built in 1825, only to be destroyed by the violent hurricane of 1848, which killed 14 people sheltering inside. The present tower was built in 1848, but over time the sea built up land around it, rendering it ineffective.

Garden Key Light atop Fort Jefferson

Seventy miles off Key West, perched on top of the brick walls of the remarkable Civil War-era Fort Jefferson is Garden Key Light.  The fascinating fort, appearing out of nowhere, a sliver of red brick appearing where blue sky meets turquoise sea, is a sight to behold on the day-long trip aboard the Yankee Freedom .  The isolated fort, 70 miles from land, is an engineering feat - visually incongruous, eerily isolated, extremely historic.   

Picturesque lighthouses dotting the outer banks of North Carolina belie the navigational challenges that lie offshore.  The lighthouses of Cape Hatteras, Cape Lookout, Cape Fear, Ocracoke Island, Bodie Island – all witnesses to the tragedies of this treacherous navigational hook of perilous shoals wicked currents, fierce winds, and dense, disorienting fog.  Besides the perils of nature encountered along this heavily traveled sea lane, mariners also contended with pirates, most nortorious among them, Blackbeard, who lurked among the coastal inlets, ready to pounce on passing merchant ships. 

During Civil War, the lighthouses of the Outer Banks were caught in a blockade/blockade-running tug of war between the Union and the Confederacy.  As recently as World War II, German U-boats prowled the Carolina coast in search a way to stage a submarine attack on the U.S.  In their efforts they sank so many merchant ships and Navy vessels the waters off the Outer Banks were known as Torpedo Junction. 

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse

Marking the easternmost tip of the elbow of the Outer Banks is one of the best known of U. S. lighthouses, Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.  Jutting out into the Altantic where the warmer Gulf Stream collides with the cold Labrador Current, the area is so treacherous it’s called the Graveyard of the Atlantic.

 One of the most interesting lighthouses, Tybee Island Lighthouse, sits at the mouth of the Savannah River, leading to the port of Savannah, the fourth busiest and fastest growing container port in the U.S.  Some form of a tower has sat on this very spot since 1736, guiding mariners safely into the Savannah River. 

Tybee Island Lighthouse

The present-day 1867 structure sits on the foundation of a brick tower built in 1773, which was built as on the site of the original wooden tower of 1736 , the third of the colonial lighthouses!

The venerable Old Charleston Lighthouse on Morris Island at the entrance to the port of Charleston is the eighth of the colonial lighthouses.  Ancient-looking, with the sea lapping at its edges, it was retired in 1962, but it’s a great photo op. 

America’s historic coastal guardians - Visit them, climb them, photograph them, paint them, collect miniatures as souvenirs.  Picturesque and charming, they command attention.

They appear playful, curious; they show off, display a certain joie de vivre, and even look us right in the eye – all personality traits we claim as our own!   Like us, they’re mammals, and are therefore warm-blooded, have lungs that breathe air, give birth to their young and nurse them.  Add these facts - they have large brains, live in complex societies, help one another, learn from experience.  It’s no wonder we’re intrigued.There’s a bit of envy too.  We wish, that like them, we could transition effortlessly between the air above the surface and the mysterious sea beneath it.  We wish we could frolic with abandon beneath the sea, unfettered by flippers, snorkels and masks.

Since at least as far back as the ancient Greeks, human characteristics have been attributed to the dolphin.  In some Greek myths they appear in the nick of time to rescue lost seamen, transport humans from the sea to serve a larger purpose, and are depicted as once human, transformed from human to dolphin through act or deed. They were so important in the culture of ancient Greece, that they appear in sculpture, pottery, and mosaics, and the ancient Greek astronomer Ptolemy named one of his original constellations Delphinus, the dolphin.

However we spin it, there is no doubt that the attraction is there, and in resort destinations all over the globe people attempt to connect with them.  We flock to see them in the wild on dolphin watching trips, applaud their choreographed performances in facilities where they are trained to entertain, clamor for the chance to “swim” with them, either in captivity or in the wild.

In Florida, bottlenose dolphin are the ones you’ll see, captive or in the wild.  Captive dolphins are headline acts in major aquatic facilities where they are trained to leap through hoops, beach themselves on platforms, jump in unison, and “tail walk.” These attractions include big, splashy Sea World in Orlando; smaller Marineland, between St. Augustine and Daytona Beach, where dolphin have been entertaining tourists since 1938; Miami Seaquarium in Miami; the Gulfarium in Fort Walton Beach on Florida’s panhandle; and Theater of the Sea, halfway down the Florida Keys.

In addition to the staged performances, these attractions offer dolphin encounters - immersions or “swims,” shallow water contact, feedings, and trainer for a day experiences - all under the supervision of trainers.  In land-locked Orlando, the all-inclusive Vegas-style “island retreat” resort, Discovery Cove, offers scheduled interactions in tropically landscaped lagoons with its resident dolphins.

In the Florida Keys, Dolphin Cove Marine Mammal Education Center in Key Largo and Dolphin Research Center on Grassy Key are more low-key, emphasizing the marine education component of their facility by demonstrating and explaining the intelligence and abilities of the dolphin, as well as offering “swims” with their resident dolphin in on-site coastal lagoons.

“Swimming” with dolphins sounds exciting, but it is not without controversy.  Much has been written about the appropriateness of such interactions, and the concerns of conservationist are available online.  For those wishing to “swim” with dolphins in the wild, it’s important to remember that while we have personified them and attribute playful qualities to them, they are first and foremost big, strong, unpredictable wild creatures. There are regulations overseeing human/dolphin interactions and they vary greatly throughout the world.  In some locations, the ability to get in the water with them is restricted to those holding special permits.  Check with the operator at your destination to fully understand what the experience holds.

While watching trained captive dolphins perform is entertaining, and being in the water with them exciting, there is no better way to see dolphins than in the wild, in their own habitat, on their own terms, doing what they do naturally.

Throughout Florida, the popularity of ecotours is rising as tourists increasingly seek out the chance to catch sight of wildlife unique to the area.  Those offering dolphin sightings provide the chance to get out on the water to experience these wonderful creatures, unchoreographed!  The moment is special when suddenly, out of nowhere in the never-ending expanse of sea, a pod of dolphin suddenly surfaces.

Such an encounter is exhilarating, usually accompanied by shouts of “Dolphin – over there!”  What a sight it is! They surface, rolling upward in a “porpoise” motion, breathe through their blow hole, only to “porpoise” back under again.  Before you know it, they pop up again, amazingly far away, a testament to their incredible underwater speed.  They leap into the air with joyous abandon.

They swim, sleek and streamlined, just below the surface, right up in front of the bow of the boat, keeping just ahead of the boat’s forward speed, a majestic bowsprit leading the way.  Or, they zoom up to the boat out of nowhere, break the surface purposefully parallel to the boat, roll a bit to one side to peer up with one eye!

All along Florida’s coast, these wonderful naturally-occurring encounters happen just by chance, on trips aboard boats of all sizes.  In Tampa, the Florida Aquarium, which does not exhibit dolphins, offers a Wild Dolphin Ecotour on a boat ride out to areas dolphin frequent.  On day trips aboard smaller charter boats like Wild Dolphin Adventure in Key West, you might see them frolicking in their natural habitat, on the move, searching for fish to eat.  While dolphin are always the star attraction, a trip like this is a  wonderful chance to get out in the turquoise water of the pristine “back country” of the Florida Keys to enjoy memorable times swimming, snorkeling and bird watching in the crystal clear Gulf waters.

Pay attention when you’re out there!  You may get lucky and experience the best sight of all – As these majestic creatures break the surface of the sea nearby, one just may be accompanied by a calf, tucked in tight alongside her, mimicking her every move, but in miniature form!

So elusive and mystical, it’s the stuff of movies and books.  It’s the soul released in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End; an indication of true love in Jules Verne’s 1882 book Le Rayon Vert (The Green Flash).

Florida Keys Sunset

Key West, the southernmost point in the United States, with its awesome sunsets and unobstructed views of the flat ocean horizon, is an ideal place to try to catch it…if you can. 

Sunsets all over the world are glorious phenomena – firery orange over a tropical sea, cool mauve, blue and silver streaks over a northern sky, golden hued haze through desert sand, saturated shades of coral overpowering for the moment the silhouette cut-outs of majestic mountains.  Sunsets, wherever they are, are magical, mysterious, unpredictable, yet consistently there, and the human response to them is universal.   

They have the capacity to hold us spellbound.  Regardless of who we are, or how many we’ve seen, we never tire of them. Never the same twice, each contains an element of surprise.  We may know precisely what time they’ll occur, but what they’ll look like is a mystery even as they unfold.  

Our connection to them is visceral, emotional.  They are so incredibly beautiful, yet so fleeting.  They put the day to rest, and offer hope for a new one. They bring out the romantic in us, and in their glow, the unremarkable and ordinary turn magic.  We paint them and photograph them, hoping to capture their essence, but never quite do.  They are, quite simply, a quiet natural wonder with a powerful mystique.

Key West has a special kinship with awesome sunsets – so much so that this atmospheric show is celebrated daily at the Sunset Celebration on the Mallory Square docks, and aboard wonderful sailing schooners, the Schooner Liberty, and the Schooner Western Union , which sail into the sunset every day to celebrate the happening with champagne, island cuisine, laughter and song. 

As the schooners head out of Key West Harbor just as the colors begin to build for their splendid spectacular, everyone eagerly anticipates the celebrated event.  All eyes are on the edge of the horizon where water meets the sky, watching the fireball slide silently into the water and disappear.

Sunrise in the Keys

As the vivid color dims, quickly turning into the blues and mauves of velvety dusk, the passengers grow mellow, knowing that the cycle will begin again at as the sun rises on the other side, a chariot fire moving across the morning sky on its way to its nightly ritual.

To catch the elusive moment, watch the last few moments of the setting sun (wear sunglasses and never look directly at it).  Look at the horizon appearance.  If the bottom of the sun is spiky and ruffled-looking, the chances increase that you may see it.  Blink, and you’ll miss it! 

Many in this island community swear they have seen it.  I have!

Truman White House, Key West Florida

Truman Little White House – Key West, FL.
What do Cynthia McKinney, Ralph Nader, Chuck Baldwin, Bob Barr and  Gloria LaRiva have in common?  They are all running for President  along with John McCain, Barack Obama and a host of others!

With less than a month away until the general election, the Harry S Truman Little White House, Florida’s only presidential museum, proudly opens a new exhibit entitled “Every Four Years”. Learn about the US Electoral College as well as see a large collection of pro and con presidential buttons used by Democrats and Republicans to encourage the selection of their candidate for President in the 2008 election.

The 2008 Florida ballot features 13 candidates for president. Most of these as well as some that qualified in other states are featured in this 2008 election exhibit.

Also for your enjoyment are a number of rare items from our museum collections for the 1948 presidential election when four major candidates , Harry Truman, Thomas Dewey, Henry Wallace and Strom Thurman , and a number of lesser known and hopeful candidates sought the highest office of the land. A smaller 1952 Dwight Eisenhower exhibit is also featured.

This free exhibit runs October 8 until December 1, 2008

Walk on the unusual side – take a tour of a historic cemetery, graveyard or burying ground. Macabre, moving, or appealing, these silent cities have fascinating stories to tell.  Beneath fieldstone, granite, marble and bronze, lie superstition and belief, tragedy and triumph, romance and scandal, humor and sadness, politics and war.

Burying ground, graveyard or cemetery - all are time frozen, part history, part folklore.  There is a certain stillness about them - reverence mixed with intrigue.  In them, gravestones, simple or ornate, provide clues that fuel the imagination.  Through artistic symbolism and fascinating phraseology, gravestones tell the stories of a generations, one person at a time.  They reflect the historic quirks, artistic taste and architecture of a moment in time. They lay bare prejudices and honor heroes.  They tell of prince and pauper; the known and unknown.

Some silent cities, moss-covered, ancient-feeling places like Boston’s historic burying grounds, tell America’s early story through those buried there.  Others, like Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah, are serenely quiet green spaces with magnificent grounds and remarkable statuary.  Some make unique architectural statements, like those in New Orleans, so dryly observed by Mark Twain: ”There is no architecture in New Orleans, except in the cemeteries.”   Yet others, like Arlington National Cemetery in Washington D.C., in their sheer simplicity, have the power to move.

Boston is home to some of America’s oldest burying grounds.  It is in King’s Chapel, Copp’s Hill, and the Granary, that legendary figures of America’s founding, those we learn about in history class – Paul Revere, John Hancock, Samuel Adams, victims of the Boston Massacre - are interred.  These sites are of such historic value that Boston’s Freedom Trail runs by them, and all are highlights of the stops on Old Town Trolley Tours of Boston’s tour route.  For the more sinister, Old Town Trolley Tours of Boston’s entertaining Ghosts & Gravestones tour offers a different prospective on night walks through Copp’s Hill and Granary Burying Grounds.  In nearby Plymouth, on the interesting Historic Plymouth Cemetery Tour, the meaning behind some of some of the gravestone iconography is explained.

In other colonial cities, look for early graveyards alongside historic churches, testaments to the religious beginnings of some colonies. Benjamin Franklin and four other signers of the Declaration of Independence are buried in the Christ Church Burial Ground, two beautiful acres in the heart of the historic “Old City” of Philadelphia.  Other signers of the Declaration of Independence are buried in graveyards of St. Michael’s and St. Philip’s Churches, the early churches of Charleston, S. C.

As populations outgrew small burying grounds and church graveyards, the large, park-like ”rural” cemeteries of the mid-1800s provided final resting places.  They, too, offer interesting perspectives on history and are great places to walk.  All contain unusual elements, beautiful and bizzare.  Some have spectacular grounds; others, elaborate monuments.  All have an atmosphere more uplifting than the burying grounds of the somber colonial era.  Noticeably absent is the ”death’s head,” common on colonial gravestones, which gave way to the more hopeful winged cherubs, reflective of the more romantic thinking of the Victorian era.

Spend an awesome morning or afternoon walking through Savannah’s Bonaventure Cemetery, a fine example of America’s rural cemeteries, revealed to the world in the book, “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.”  Here, under canopies of live oak, surrounded by an array of elegant statuary and impressive monuments, the silence is serene.  While you won’t see the famous Bird Girl there anymore (she’s been moved to Savannah’s Telfair Museum of Art for viewing), there is so much else to see and photograph.

Big and diverse, Manhattan should have equally interesting cemeteries, but all it has are remnant cemeteries!    Forbidden by ordinance as available land became scarce, graves were relocated to the other boroughs, displaced by glass and concrete towers.  What’s left are remnants: the tiny, tucked away Marble Cemeteries in the Lower East side.  And, in San Francisco, similarly land-limited, nothing is forever - at least one’s final resting place is not!  The city has moved its dead time and time again, each time to a “newer” spot, further and further off the peninsula, and there are amazing stories of those left behind, only to be discovered during later ground excavation!  Today, there are only two cemeteries left within city limits, the graveyard at historic Mission Dolores Church and the San Francisco National Cemetery in the Presidio, and two columbariums, one inside the famous Grace Cathedral on Nob Hill.

While each historic burying place is unique, it’s hard to top the visual impact of the above-ground vaults of New Orleans’ “Cities of the Dead,” miniature cities of elaborate tombs built like small houses laid out along streets.  Lafayette Cemetery No. 1, in the historic Garden District is significant for its history, location and architecture.  In St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, just outside the French Quarter, offerings are left for Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau.  Elaborate marble tombs and larger-than-life statuary in Metairie Cemetery are dramatic statements of “new” wealth and prestige of the city’s intriguing, ethnically diverse residents.   For safety reasons, as well as for a memorable time, take one of New Orleans’ Cemetery Tours.

Bigger isn’t necessarily better.  Another sea-level city, albeit small, with an above-ground cemetery is the island of Key West.  As haphazard and colorful as the island itself, and true to the character for this quirky place, the small-scaled cemetery, located in the dead center of town, as locals are amused to say, is not grandiose.  Eye-level, whitewashed tombs are close-quartered, and giant gumbo limbo tree roots pushing up against the ground, causing cracked gravemarkers and lopsided statuary, leave a lingering sense that the tropical elements are about to take over.  It’s a great place to take in the oddities of the inscriptions on some of the gravestones: “I told you I was sick” reads the gravemarker of a well-known hypochondriac!

Wherever your travels take you, tour a historic cemetery.  Bring your camera; bring paper for gravestone rubbings…and most of all, bring your imagination!

Lined up like green gemstones over crystalline water for 120 miles, the islands of the Florida Keys offer awesome water activities: incredible snorkeling and diving on the magnificent coral reef, deep-sea fishing in the azure Gulf Stream, kayaking ecotours through mysterious mangroves, snorkel safari tours in the pristine backcountry, exciting wild dolphin sighting adventures, bonefishing on endless flats, reef discovery from glass-bottom boats, romantic cruises aboard sailing schooners but, contrary to expectations, there a few “traditional” beaches.

But, don’t be discouraged.  They are there – special tucked away places; little coves where sand has collected; easily-missed spits of sand hidden among mangroves; diminutive idyllic sandy spots shaded by palms; not-so-long stretches of beach, man-made, man-enhanced, or by geological fluke, natural.  Whatever the size and character of the beach, the water is crystal-clear, flat-calm, and delightfully warm.

Why are there no “real” beaches in the Florida Keys?  Think of it as a trade-off.  The Keys have miles of spectacular coral reef just offshore; the rest of coastal Florida has miles of beaches.  The island chain has the unique geographic good fortune of having the only living coral reef in the continental U.S. running parallel along its length.  The reef acts as a barrier to the waves coming in from the Atlantic Ocean, preventing waves from pounding against shoreline rocks, thereby inhibiting sand build-up.

So don’t look for broad beaches with rolling waves in the Keys.  As a matter of fact, many Keys beaches are really tidal flats where sand has piled up, and you may have to wade out quite a way to reach deep water.  Bring water shoes, as the going can sometimes be bumpy, with coral bits and marly rock underfoot.

Some Keys beaches, like Veteran’s Memorial Park, a spit of rocky, beachy area in shallow water at MM40 on Little Duck Key at the lower end of the 7 Mile Bridge, don’t look like “real” beaches at all.  Others, like Anne’s Beach, oceanside at MM 72.8 on Lower Matacumbe, barely a ribbon of sand along a mangrove shoreline in turquoise wading water, are little gems, making up in beauty what they lack in sand.  Both of these area along US 1, great little roadside spots to pull over when driving down the Keys.  Take off your shoes, roll up your pants, and wade in!

Most public Keys beaches are community, county or state parks.  Like many Keys beaches, Harry Harris Park, oceanside in Tavenier at MM 93.5 in the upper Keys, is man-made.  In Islamorada, Founder’s Park & Beach at MM 86.5, is a large-scale recreational facility with lots of amenities that just happen to include a bayside sandy beach.  Also in Islamorada, Library Park Beach, a secluded little bayside beach known mainly to locals, is tucked into the mangroves behind, what else?… the public library!  Nearby, there’s a great little bayside restaurant, Morada Bay Beach Club, where lunch and dinner are served on tables set in the sand.  For something bigger and busier, try the seafood on the waterfront deck at Islamorada Fish Company, just next door.  Sunsets at both are breathtaking.

In the middle Keys, Marathon’s Sombrero Beach, oceanside at MM50, has a nice, curved sandy beach, good for swimming and limited snorkeling, as does Cocoplum Beach on the eastern end of Marathon.  A few miles beyond the 7 Mile Bridge is the beach of the Florida Keys, Bahia Honda State Park.  Here there’s plenty of white sand, long stretches of it, so put out your blanket and enjoy the beach, nice swimming, and food and sundries from the concession hut.

Because of its location at the end of the island chain, Key West has several substantial beaches.  Smathers Beach is popular with spring breakers.  The beach is man-enhanced, the water quite shallow and there’s plenty of action, with kayaking, parasailing, jet skiing, and beach volleyball.  South Beach, where popular Duval Street ends at the Atlantic Ocean, is a great little sandy beach with a pleasant waterfront restaurant – very Caribbean.  A local favorite, it’s the beach where Tennessee Williams hung out during his time in Key West.  Higgs Beach has a nice stretch of sand, but it’s also the favored seaside hangout of homeless transients.  They keep to themselves, however, gathering daily under a couple of the shaded picnic pavillions.  The patio at Salute Restaurant at Higgs Beach is a great place for a breezy beachside lunch.  Rest Beach, just on the other side of the White Street Pier from Higgs Beach, is a small, sea oat lined beach.  Only in Key West could there be a Dog Beach.  Tucked between the Reach Resort and famous Louie’s Backyard, there’s always romping, frisbee catching, swimming, and lots of shaking going on at this palm-shaded little beach. 

The beach at Fort Zachary Taylor State Park, located along the entrance channel to Key West Harbor, is Key West’s biggest and prettiest.  Looking more like those picture-postcard beaches, it’s a real favorite for its shady Australian pines (an exotic, recently saved from destruction) and water deep enough for swimming.  A small sandy spit on the sheltered side of Ft. Zach that is no longer there, was a favorite beach of President Harry Truman who spent 11 vacations at the Little White House in Key West.

 For a real Keys treat, take a day and go out to the Dry Tortugas and Fort Jefferson National Park on the Yankee Freedom II.  Seventy-five miles west of Key West, it’s a wonderful ride and a great way to spend a day.  Besides the amazing Civil War-era red brick fort to explore, there are small beach areas to enjoy, gorgeous water in which to swim, and intersting places to snorkel.

While in no way resembling the wide beach of Daytona, the powdery white expanse of Panama City Beach, or the remarkable shelling on Sanibel Island, the beaches in the Florida Keys are delightfully different, if a little unconventional, just like the Keys themselves. 

To me, visiting Key West, Florida is not so much about a place as an attitude. A mindset… more than an address. I think of Ernest Hemingway and Jimmy Buffett. I think of the Conch Republic declaring independence from the U.S. in 1982 with a hail of stale Cuban Bread. I think of the Cat Man and the Gymnast in Mallory Square. I think of Sloppy Joe’s, the Hog’s Breath Saloon and the Green Parrot bar.

Here you can dare to be different. Here you find citizens of the planet, pirates in training and artists of every stripe.  Laid back doesn’t really capture the essence of the Keys, does it? Eccentric, funky, colorful and relaxing all describe this island; which seems more Caribbean than Floridian.

People come here to be what they aren’t at home. They come here looking to chill out, blow off steam, or forget the past. They come here hoping to find themselves or reinvent their lives. Some just come here for fun. In Key West, Florida anything is possible. Those that live here watch the endless parade of humanity go by and smile. See you there…

More Key West pics here.

The Conch Tour Train in Key West, Florida rolled out in 1958. Today, it’s still going strong and for many is an icon of the Key West vibe. What started out 50 years ago with one train and two people has grown to 14 trains and over 33 cast members now. People from all over the world enjoy and remember a ride on this great tour. So, raise a toast today to 50 years of fun, education and entertainment Key West , Florida style.

Happy Birthday, Conch Tour Train!

Of course, the Johnny Depp, Pirates of the Caribbean, clone helps and snappy technologies imagineered inside are great but what I like best is the storytelling and authentic artifacts like the flag in the photo. This is one of only two, known, surviving Jolly Roger pirate flags in the world! In a fairly small space they have an astonishing collection of rare and interesting pirate regalia.

This just might be the museum attraction of the future combining authentic objects with recent technology, good storytelling and solid performance. It really strikes all of the senses. The debate rages on. It is important to preserve our past but I favor showcasing it in the most interesting way possible. (The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois and the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia are good examples.)

I predict with shrinking audiences and increasingly short attention spans that this trend will blossom and morph. “Don’t bore me!” is the battle cry from today’s guest.

What can you do to be more interesting? Let me know.

Just attended the Florida Attractions Association Conference at Hawk’s Cay Resort on Duck Key, Florida and heard some great speakers like Judy Randall and Josh Hallett.

The main message this year was that attraction audiences are changing their needs in some very fundamental ways and the Industry needs to keep up. Research is showing that travellers want more choices and less structure than in the past. The ways people communicate a good or bad experience have accelerated and mushroomed on the Internet. “Word of Mouth” on steroids! Folks don’t just tell their friends, they tell the whole world. Obviously, this can work for or against an attraction and the bottom line is we are seeing more transparency at these facilities. Better sweep that sidewalk.

A great experience involved Theater of the Sea in Islamorada, Florida. Hands down the best Dolphin show I have seen! The grounds are beautiful and the animals there are healthy and enthusiastic. Parrots, Dolphins, Turtles, Sharks, Fish, Sea Lions, Seals and more. The natural setting is wonderful and the staff there is top notch. A real treat.