As many of you know, I was on vacation for the last week, and I have to say, they Florida Keys isn't the sun-drenched tropical paradise of Isle Delfino. (Sorry you have to have played Super Mario Sunshine to understand that one.) The place actually has more historical appeal than it does resort atmosphere. Ernest Hemmingway, Robert Frost...lot's of famous writers had homes there. Most of you probably don't know this, but Key West actually seceded from the union when the government shut off their ports and roads. Tourism makes up 80 percent of their industry, so the town began to run out of resources and the mayor actually declared war on the rest of the country. He stood on the road leading to the mainland and the navy's ships came in, but they didn't shoot him, they just let him be. When the ships came close enough, he and some of the townspeople actually bombarded the ships with stale bread from the island. The man was captured and the government agreed to open the ports and roads again, and Key West joined the union again. So one of the island's mottos is: "We seceded when the others failed." (I don't have all the details right, but thats the basics of the story.)
About 2/3 of Key West is man-made. The army actually expanded the size of the land during the civil war. (I'm not sure if thats the right war.)
There are many shops and restaraunts in the downtown area, and every night, there is the sunset festival, where street performers and vendors come to perform their art. There were singers and dog trainers, and ever one of those torch jugglers, but the best act that I saw was very original. The man wore pants and a shirt both colored silver asnd he painted his whole face silver. Pretty much every bit of him was silver. There was a bike in front of him and he had a wrench in his hand. When my family and I walked up to him, he was standing completely still, and I was thinking, "What a life-like statue!" But then someone came and put a dollar in his jar, and this statue suddenly started to move and make robotic noises, which startled me for a moment, and I realized that that was the act. The guy made very robotic movements and made the mechanical noises with his mouth. The woud bend over and "fix" the bicycle and you would be watching him, mesmerized, and he would suddenly stop moving. This guy was smart. His act didn't work unless people payed him. So people would reach into their pockets and pull out a few bills, and the guy would start up again. It was incredible.
As you can guess, Key lime pies were sold just about everywhere. Seafood was sold in every restaruant. But there was more than food and festivals. There were many boats you could charter and take trips on. There were parasailing boats and fishing boats. Tour boats and sunset cruises as they called them. One that bothered me though was a sign that said "Clothing Optional Charter." Yuck. Yuck doesn't go near the truth, but I'm tired and I don't want to bother to be poetic. We even went to a restaraunt that had a bring your own fish option. Finally, the time came to leave and I sat through another two day car ride from Florida to Oklahoma, accompanied by my DS and large selection of books, not to mention my parents vast collection of music. Unfortunately my dad doesn't like country so that part of the selection was removed, but Kansas, Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Beach Boys, Santana, etc. got us trough the trip without having to replay a single one.
I'm getting very tired and I was supposed to go to bed an hour ago, so I'm going to stop now, since I covered most of the trip.
Don't expect this to be updated or expanded later.
AHamster4444 Community Member 
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