A visit to the Hemingway Home is an essential part of any trip to Key West, Florida. This 19th century house was the first on the island to have a swimming pool, indoor plumbing and a fireplace. But that’s not the reason that thousands of travelers visit it every year. The famed writer, Ernest Hemingway, live here for thirty years writing some of his most famous works. A guided tour is available and lets you see Hemingway’s study, the European furnishings and other artifacts such as his safari trophies. Look for the penny Hemingway embedded in the flagstones near the pool and when he declared,”Here take the last penny I’ve got” because of the construction cost of pool. Don’t miss the lush tropical gardens surrounding the house. Check out the 50 cats on the property many with six toes that are descendants of a cat given to Hemingway by a ship’s captain. The home is open every day of the year from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. It’s easy to buy tickets in advance from Trusted Tours (http://www.trustedtours.com/store/ernest-hemingway-home-and-museum.aspx). For a limited time you can even get a 3% discount with the coupon code KWHH3. At http://twitter.com/trustedtours get more coupon codes and daily deals on other tours and attractions.
The Key West Old Town Trolley, Conch Tour Train and the Harry S. Truman Little White House are proud to offer complimentary admission on November 11 to all military veterans, whether active duty, retired or honorably discharged.
Walk amongst the dead in burying grounds nearly four hundred years old, hear stories of those whose mortal remains lie beneath your feet, and listen to tales of many of the sordid practices that went along with them. Join us if you dare! www.GhostsAndGravestones.com
In May of 1822, Key West was established as a Port of Entry – requiring the salvage of all shipwrecks in surrounding waters to pass through its harbor. Wrecking became the primary business of our island city and by the middle of the 1800’s, it had made Key West the richest city per capita in the United States. Almost two hundred years later, guests at the Key West Shipwreck Treasures Museum can explore four centuries of shipwreck history, beginning with the first Native American salvagers and continuing through Key West’s rich wrecking era to present day. Two floors of shipwreck artifacts ranging from Spanish treasure to exotic cargos from faraway lands are exhibited throughout a re-creation of the 19th Century warehouse once owned by wrecker tycoon Asa Tift.
Lighthouses, those stoic, sturdy, silent sentinels perched on treacherous rock outcroppings in the swirling sea, atop protruding reefs and perilous shoals, or guiding the way to the safe haven of a protective harbor, do more than guide, protect and rescue seafarers – they captivate the imagination.
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.
Of all the creatures in the sea, dolphins, hands down, win the popularity contest. We are inexplicably drawn to them, we personify them, we see ourselves in them!
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.
The Green Flash, not a comic book character, but an atmospheric event - that startling glint of neon green that appears just for a second on the upper curve of the sun just as its last little sliver dips under the horizon. An optical sunrise or sunset atmospheric phenomenon, it lasts but a second or two and is the piéce de résistance of an etheral event, if you are lucky enough to see it.
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.
A visit to the Hemingway Home is an essential part of any trip to Key West, Florida. This 19th century house was the first on the island to have a swimming pool, indoor plumbing and a fireplace. But that’s not the reason that thousands of travelers visit it every year. The famed writer, Ernest Hemingway, live here for thirty years writing some of his most famous works. A guided tour is available and lets you see Hemingway’s study, the European furnishings and other artifacts such as his safari trophies. Look for the penny Hemingway embedded in the flagstones near the pool and when he declared,”Here take the last penny I’ve got” because of the construction cost of pool. Don’t miss the lush tropical gardens surrounding the house. Check out the 50 cats on the property many with six toes that are descendants of a cat given to Hemingway by a ship’s captain. The home is open every day of the year from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. It’s easy to buy tickets in advance from Trusted Tours (http://www.trustedtours.com/store/ernest-hemingway-home-and-museum.aspx). For a limited time you can even get a 3% discount with the coupon code KWHH3. At http://twitter.com/trustedtours get more coupon codes and daily deals on other tours and attractions.
In May of 1822, Key West was established as a Port of Entry – requiring the salvage of all shipwrecks in surrounding waters to pass through its harbor. Wrecking became the primary business of our island city and by the middle of the 1800’s, it had made Key West the richest city per capita in the United States. Almost two hundred years later, guests at the Key West Shipwreck Treasures Museum can explore four centuries of shipwreck history, beginning with the first Native American salvagers and continuing through Key West’s rich wrecking era to present day. Two floors of shipwreck artifacts ranging from Spanish treasure to exotic cargos from faraway lands are exhibited throughout a re-creation of the 19th Century warehouse once owned by wrecker tycoon Asa Tift.
