Key West and Dry Tortugas National Park

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Geo: 24.629, -82.8732

On Sunday, Jan 23rd, our fourth day of the trip, we drove down to Key West and checked into the trailer that we had rented on the Naval Air Station's vacation rentals at Trumbo Point. This is a great deal for active or retired military and certain retired government workers. The cost is about half of what a chain motel in Key West costs and a whole lot less than the fancy resorts charge. The trailer had two bedrooms, bath, fully equiped kitchen, & cable tv and was located within walking distance of downtown Key West. We were able to park the car here and not get back in it until Tuesday when we drove back to Ft. Lauderdale.

Got up early on Monday morning and walked to the ferry dock for our trip to the Garden Key and Fort Jefferson in Dry Tortugas NP. The pictures on this page include several from Key West as well as several from Fort Jefferson.

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Photos

The Key West Museum of Art & History
This museum is housed in the old Key West customs house. Didn't go in. This was taken on Sunday after we arrived in KW and were just walking around gawking at all the sights and the throngs of people enjoying them.

Trailers at Trumbo Point
These are the trailers at the NAS Trumbo Point Annex. There are about 45 or so of these and, together with a complex of three and four bedroom condos, make up the vacation rentals offered by the Navy Moral, Welfare, & Recreation (MWR) activity at NAS Key West.

Sunset Pier
Near Mallory Square where all the tourists (except us) go to view the famous Key West Sunsets. Every evening there is a "sunset celebration" down in this area,

Ernest Hemingway Museum and Home
Located in Key West, this is the house where Ernest Hemingway lived. He was an inveterate cat-lover because he admired the spirit and independence of cats. Hemingway acquired his first cat from a ship's captain in Key West. This cat, which may have been a Maine Coon, had extra toes. Today, approximately 60 cats, half of them polydactyl (many toed), make their home here protected by the terms of his will. At least some of those cats are descendents of Hemingway's first cat. If you know Anne, you know why we had to take this picture.

Garden Key & Ft. Jefferson from the ferry
The pilings to the right of the picture are the remains of the old coaling docks used by the navy in the late 1890's. The USS Maine refueled here prior to going to Cuba where she was sunk which helped precipitate the Spanish American war in 1898.

The Yankee Freedom
Our ferry docked at the fort.

The sign for Fort Jefferson
Note the openings in the fort wall behind the sign. The ones on the second level look as if they have been damaged but actually are simply unfinished. The fort was never completed and these openings were some of the last things worked on and were never finished.

Bush Key
Bush key is a restricted area closed to the public. It is used by seabirds as a nesting ground. It is only a few yards from the shore of Garden Key and the shallow water could be waded across easily.

Interior of Ft. Jefferson
This interior shot of Ft. Jefferson shows the three levels of the walls of the fort, the powder/ammunition storage area (the arched brick structure to the right), and the foundation of the wooden enlisted barracks (the 2 parallel lines of stonework) which have been removed.

Seaplane
The seaplane that brings the rich folks to the key ties up between Garden Key and Bush Key.

Totten Shutters
The iron window shown here in the wall of the fort is a replica of a Totten Shutter installed on a restored wall of the fort. The shutters were invented by Gen. Joseph Totten. A cannon monted behind the closed shutters could be fired and the gases escaping from the muzzle would momentarily throw open the shutters just as the shot came out of the cannon. As soon as the shot passed through the opening the shutters would automatically close. Unfortunately the iron they were made of has seriously deteriorated all of the brickwork surrounding them. The next picture shows some of that deterioration. The park service has an ongoing project to repair/restore this deterioration.

The Moat
The west side of the fort showing the deterioration caused bu the Iron Totten Shutters. The water between the wall of the fort on the right and low wall on the left is a moat that totally encircles the fort.
Also the bricks on the top section of the wall are a different color from those on the lower section. The top section was completed during the War Between the States. The lower section bricks came from near Pensacola, FL, and after war broke out they were not available. So the upper portion bricks came from Maine.

Frigate Bird
These Frigate Birds are huge with a wingspan that can reach 6 feet.. They nest on one of the nearby keys called Long Key and the whole time we were at the fort there were 20 or 30 of them soaring over the fort and around the island. They cannot take off from water and snatch prey from the ocean surface or beach using their long, hooked bills. They catch fish, baby turtles and other birds' chicks in this way. Frigate birds will rob other seabirds of their catch, using their speed and maneuverability to outrun and harass their victims until they drop their catch, hence their nicknames of "Man of War birds" or "Pirate birds".

Continental US - Southernmost Point
This is supposed to be the Southernmost point in the continental United States. It is a concrete bouy erected by the city of Key West because the sign proclaiming the spot kept being stolen. The claim of being the southernmost point is, however, not accurate. Florida's official southernmost point is Ballast Key, a privately owned island just south and west of Key West. During low tides, several sand bars farther south than Ballast Key are exposed, the southernmost one of which is Sand Key.
Additionally, the point isn't even the southernmost point on the island of Key West. Land on the Truman Annex property just west-southwest of the buoy, on the other side of that fence in the picture, is the true southernmost point on the island, but it has no marker since it is U.S. Navy land and cannot be entered by civilian tourists. But it makes a nice picture.

Comments

[LeeAnne]

Is the water really that blue?? So pretty!