My trip to Key West, Florida in April 2005, began with an auspicious start as my flight down was severally delayed. In order to get to Key West, I first flew from Washington to Atlanta then took a second flight to Key West. The first flight had now problems but the second flight had quite a few. First the flight was delayed for an hour due to a sever thunderstorm that hit the Atlanta Airport. Then the flight was delayed another hour when a tire needed to be replace on the aircraft. Unfortunately this was not the end of the troubles, but just the beginning.

The plane that was to take me too Key West took off now 2 hours late and flew down to Key West without a problem until we were about to land. At that point the pilots discovered that they could not deploy the spoilers (devices on the wing used to slow the plane during a landing) and the plane had to be diverted to Miami.In Miami it took about half an hour to determine that the spoilers could not be fixed and that we would need to be bused to Key West. The trip down Route 1 to Key West would take 4 hours and unfortunately the bus did not leave Miami for another hour and a half. I arrived in Key west, 8 hours late at 1:00 AM. Luckily the hotel I was stay at Bottle Inn, made arrangement for me an I was able to get to my room where I promptly fell asleep.

The next morning, I formally checked in to the hotel and began my exploration of Key West. The first place I visited was the Key West City Cemetery to see memorial to the USS Maine, the battleship that blew up in harbor in Havana, Cuba in 1898 which precipitating the Spanish-American War. I then walked to downtown to see The Hemingway House (Where Ernest Hemingway lived when he wrote From Who The Bell Tolls, Death in the Afternoon, The Green Hills of Africa and To Have and Have Not), The Key West Lighthouse, the Southernmost Point Marker (90 Miles to Cuba), and Duval Street. I had lunch at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville where I had to have the Cheeseburger in Paradise.

In the afternoon I stayed on Duval Street to see the Annual 'Drag' Race, where men in drag (fueled by alcohol) raced down an obstacle course. The race was held on the April, 23rd - Conch Republic Independence Day. The Conch Republic "seceded" from the United States, in 1982 over a dispute related to Customs regulations. Each year a 10 day celebrations of the secession is held with may off the wall events like the 'Drag' Race and Bed Race. The celebrations end with a battle between citizens of the Conch Republic and the US Coast Guard using food as weapons.

In the evening I headed back downtown from my hotel to Mallory Square to see the world famous sunset. The sunset was good, and I was able to get a few good pictures. For dinner I went to Alonzo's Oyster Bar where I had a lobster sandwich and Key Lime Pie for desert.

The second day I saw The Little White House (used by President Harry S Truman as a retreat from Washington when he was President). I then went to Mel Fisher's Maritime Heritage. Mel Fisher found the wreck of the Atocha off Key west in 1985 after a 16 year search. The Atocha was a Spanish Galleon that contained a treasury of gold and silver worth about 400 million US dollars. I spent the afternoon reading a book on the veranda of my hotel, getting some much needed relaxation.

The last day of my trip I went to see the Dry Tortugas National Park . In order to get to the Park, I had to take a seaplane from Seaplanes of Key West. Flying in a seaplane was an interesting experience made even more special as I sat in the copilot's seat as I was the only person flying by myself. The flight took about 45 minutes and never go more than 500 feet of the sea so I had a great view on the Keys. The main attraction of the Park is Fort Jefferson, a fort originally built to protect Key West but became a military prison in the US Civil War. The prison's most famous prisoner was Dr. Samuel Mudd. Dr. Mudd was charged and convicted of conspiracy in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. (Dr. Mudd was the doctor who set John Wilkes Booth's leg after Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln.). Dr Mudd was paroled in 1869 after helping stop an outbreak of yellow fever in Fort Jefferson.

The next day I flew back home. Fortunately this time I had no problems and got home rested and relaxed after an enjoyable trip in the Florida Keys.

I used a Olympus C-750UZ 4.0 Megapixel Digital Camera. The images were cleaned up a bit with Adobe PhotoShop Elements (To correct the color balance). Additional Camera Information