Don't Stop - the Florida road trip section UPDATED 3/16 - Page 40 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Wow! You guys did see a lot of rain!! But that water was a beautiful blue!
The hotel & your meal & all your pics looked lovely. I'm with you - a nice place to visit, but probably a bit too far out for me.
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My goodness, that was a lot of rain. I can imagine how tough it was to deal with on that long drive. Glad you made it to Key West safely. I'm hoping that the rain stops so you can properly enjoy the sights!
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Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
Great photos, Cheryl. I would be scrolling through the daytime photos and I kept thinking that the sky was looking more promising and that it looked like the sun might even be trying to come out in a couple of the pictures. How wrong I was! I've never been to Key West...the water looks amazing. What a nice evening you and Mark had. Thanks and more...please.
Saturday 19 December – part one: an odd start to the day...
We were up early, but took our time getting going. This is Key West after all. A lot of the time was taken up with Mark ironing and re-ironing his shorts, which had goat soaked with Sprite, when we opened it in the car yesterday, when we stopped due to the rain. He also did my socks, as due to a mis-calculation on my part, I had somehow run out of fresh pairs yesterday and needed two more to get me through until we got to our one-bedroom villa in the Beach Club Villas. I’d washed my socks last night, but they were just not drying. Fortunately, he managed to get them dry for me in the end.
We headed down to the lobby and bought our tickets for the Old Town Trolley Tour and were told that one should be with us in about 10 minutes and it was.
Can you tell it’s early in the morning? Planning our next move...
When we boarded, we were the first people on there, which was a weird experience, so we had something of a private guided tour, at least until the next stop, from our driver Jim. He was an absolute star and really threw himself into the commentary 110%, telling us about everything about all that we saw and about the history of Key West.
Apparently, it was originally known as Bone Island and, in Spanish, that was sort of similar to Key West, which is how the place got its name. It was interesting to find that out, because of course, there are a lot more islands to the west of here and I did wonder how they had come with the name, bearing that in mind.
He also told us how the Conch Republic seceded from the US in 1982. I knew that they had done this, but I didn’t know why and, when he explained how US Border and Immigration had set up check-points in Florida City, it suddenly made a lot of sense. As he said, it really hit tourism, as people didn’t want to have to go through those controls and I can see why. What they were thinking when they introduced that little idea, I do not know. Anyway it backfired and what I find interesting is that technically they are still an independent state, as the documents to end the secession have never been signed. It’s all fascinating stuff and certainly this is a very different place to mainland America.
The Conch Republic flag
We decided to stay on for a few more stops to get to the Southernmost Point and, on the way, we saw some sites around the island, including Hemingway’s House that we would return to later and the Lighthouse, along with the new Harbour area and the south of the island. Everywhere we looked, we saw beautiful architecture with wonderfully vibrant colours. It’s exactly what I had expected of Key West and it definitely delivers on this front.
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Oh my gosh...the sun is out! For how long though? I cannot believe how it looks like it hadn't rained an inch, much less 14! If that were in our flat state of North Dakota with our rich soils...well, I don't want to think about how much water would be standing! As always, great pics!
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Disney Magic - Oct 2015
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Thanks for the night time stroll through Key West too! 
More please!
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