With a cluck cluck here and a cluck cluck there ...

Yesterday Rick decided that we should spend Christmas day in Key West.  So around 11:00 we headed south.  Over the famous seven mile bridge we went ... (that is a great wikipedia post by the way - one of the better I've linked on the blog).  Above is a photo of the bridge and below is a photo of the original bridge which was built by Henry Flagler in 1910 (ish) as part of the railroad he was creating.  That tree in the photo below is really growing there - it is not a Christmas tree that someone put there!

As you can see from the photo below the bridge starts and stops (yup that is the Flagler bridge NOT the bridge we were on!!)  Now the original bridge is used for fishing and a bicycle path.  It is very active ~ even as we were returning around 9:00 last night in the dark, there were people out there fishing!

Below are two photos just outside Key West - probably mile marker 10 or so.  These were taken looking north (or is it east at that point? ~ okay, northeast) at what I always considered the Gulf of Mexico, but Chester pointed out to us last year it is actually the Straits of Florida!  Call it what you want, it is lovely.

When we left Tavernier yesterday it got pretty cloudy and about 15 miles down the road we ran into rain, then further we really ran into rain!  Key West however was hot and sunny.  

Because we are at mile marker 92.5 it is a 92 1/2 mile treck to Key West and we knew it would be probably two hours down, two hours back and at least two hours there so we took Sir with us.  Sir was on very very very best behavior, met lots of new "friends" and enjoyed the sights and smells of Key West.  

For whatever reason I just was not in the least thrilled at the thought of heading out yesterday.  For one thing I had planned  to create a turkey dinner.  On top of that I've been fighting this damned cold for over two weeks and I am just flippin exhausted (yes this weight gain I'm sure is contributing to that) but I just basically feel like crap.  Well, once we got there and we got off the "main street" (Duval Street) I was alright with it all.  For some reason I just don't have a need to go back to many of the places I've been before - there are lots of other Keys along the way that we haven't explored, but, being Christmas day and all, there was not going to be a lot open and we knew at least a couple places would be in KW.  Well it was pretty "mobbed" down there, but like I said, we got off the "main drag" and had a great day.

We did do a couple tourist photo ops for Sir's "scrapbook" (god are we crazy or what!).  I had a photo of him at the marker for the "southern most point" (don't know if he was looking out over the water for Fidel or not) but for some reason ~ not intentionally ~ I deleted it on this post and have no patience to try to upload it again so you've gotta "take my word " for it.  Anyway, below are Rick and Sir in front of Rick's name sake joint in KW.

And here we have Sir posing (Auntie Mary this was taken with you in mind as Sir acts like a what?!?!?........ stay tuned for a later post that will clearly show you he fits right in down here) outside the "famous" Hog's Breath Saloon in KW ~ yet another tourist photo op we took advantage of there!  Last time Rick and I were here together ~ a few years ago, one of the bar tenders here was from Hanson, MA - a neighboring town to Whitman where we lived!  Small world once again!

Another of the many things Key West is "famous" for is the chickens!  Here are a couple shots of the chickens!  The first one is inside Hog's Breath and the second one is on a side street down near the harbor.  Ya gotta (well maybe not) love the KW chickens and roosters, not to mention the cats!!!!

And finally, just a random shot of the harbor area in KW.  Pretty darned crowded huh!

I suspect that we will probably be back in Key West before we leave here in five more weeks.

For now, Rick is out on his bike, Arlo is laying on the floor trying to recover from his busy busy day yesterday and I am blogging, sort of (but not really) watching a movie ("How to Make an American Quilt"), doing laundry and cooking a turkey dinner!

Hope y'all had a great Christmas spent with loved ones or whatever puts a warm and sniggly  feeling in your heart.