Living La Vida Local - Part 3

And then we were off to the Aquarium. Whenever we pass this statue I'm always intrigued at how big it is. It's in front of the Custom's House - you can't miss it. The statues were created by Seward Johnson, but oddly the Art & History website doesn't mention it. Well, they were.

The Aquarium has been around for a loong time, although not always as an aquarium. A quick Key West history lesson here: During the 1800's Key West was a very rich island. First because of ship salvaging (lots of wrecks on the surrounding reef were very profitable) and then because of all the Cuban cigar factories. Sponging was going well until all the baby sponges were crushed under the feet of the folks picking up the adult harvest...Sheesh. When the depression hit in the early 1930's, the island's isolation didn't help its cause. The federal government gave Key West some money for projects that would get it back on its feet, with the Aquarium being a part of that effort. Unfortunately, not long after the railroad was completed (a great story, btw), just as a road was being built, and just as everyone was ready for business, the worst hurricane in history walloped the Keys and that was the end of that. The Aquarium became a military firing range for a few years in the 1940s (WWII), was converted back, and it's been successful ever since.

Not to sound jaded (I'm sure kids love it), but most of what was in there was the same life we'd seen under our boat hulls. Of course, the last sting ray we saw was leaping out of the water trying to escape a shark, so this encounter was a bit more serene. I  loved the seahorses.




And got a kick out of the eels too.






There were nurse sharks, again we've had plenty of close encounters with those, some small alligators, squid, fish of course, and turtles, but I had been excited to see a manatee. Had I checked their website, I would have seen that they didn't have any, but it just seemed obvious that they would. This is Florida! They have an outdoor enclosure that opens to the ocean and I thought for sure that was where one or two might be, but there were sharks in there. So - you Key West groupies - where do we get to mingle with some manatees? I look when I'm running along S Roosevelt, but haven't seen any (just seaweed).

Then it was off to the Shipwreck Museum.



That observation tower in the distance is part of it, and brings us 65 feet up. If we see a shipwreck, we're supposed to yell "Wreck ashore!", but we didn't see one. You will note the nasty clouds in the distance though; and, in fact, by the time we took the tour inside and started climbing the tower steps outside, it was raining. I hope I didn't pick my nose or something while up there - it turns out there was a webcam. I could have called my mom and waved!



I got a head of myself a little there. The museum is part theater so workers play characters from the 19th century and try to hire us to join the crew. Once inside, the "boss" explains about the treasure before letting us wander around and take in some films about wrecks, salvaging, pirates, current efforts, etc. This piece of silver had sunk, had been found, and then sunk and found again a couple of times, leading some to think it was cursed. I did dare to touch and lift it to feel its heft, because the old man said that found treasure is always good luck. I don't know about the luck, but it was heavy.

We were starting to get on overload by now, so didn't watch any of the films available, but we did go down to the basement to smell the ancient seawater. This location was the lowest point in Key West and we wanted to be able to say we'd been to the lowest  (5 feet below sea level) and highest (16 feet above sea level)  points of the island in one day (we were also at the southernmost point). And we did...say that....I'd like to go back when I'm not so tired and take in what we missed. A contractor we knew in St. Kitts has an underwater metal finder. He goes diving every weekend, especially after storms, and looks for treasure off the island. He has found a few old coins, cannon balls, and other items that he'll probably auction off someday. Cool!

By now, we were really ready to sit the heck down. So we were onto the Conch Tour Train. I don't know how those drivers talk louder than the riders and drive around this town at the same time.  You can see that we were hounded by some nasty weather as we tootled around, there was thunder and everything, but somehow we managed to get the whole tour in without getting drenched.



The tour was interesting, but would mean nothing to you in pictures so I didn't take any. We learned of the different styles of architecture (why do we all have metal roofs?), who owned what (Calvin Klein lived here?), what burned down when, and various tidbits that you'll just have to take the tour yourself to learn. I could do that trip a couple more times, with different drivers for different nuances, and enjoy it.

I'd say we totally took advantage of our freebie local day. Thanks to whoever thought of that idea. We still have one more freebie that I know about - The Eco-Discovery Center. It's free to everyone (not just locals) and is near the the beach we never made it to, so we'll try to combine that one next weekend.

Wasn't that fun?