Not THE destination place for me!

Historical Photo:
 
These bullets were found on a battle field in WWII. can you imagine the odds of two bullets meeting?

But today: Then there was Key West. I have sort of a love hate relationship with Key West.  We lived there three or four years. We owned a 24' Cuddy Cabin to fish from. Sleeping quarters to rest in. 

 The boys charcoaling in KW Below is Sherry's dad fishing from the Coast Guard pier in KW

 Jackie graduated from Boot Camp with Mark (Kiss Fan) and Grandpa Wiley

Son Mark loves KW and returns any time he has a chance. Son Jack is sorta like myself, eh----. Sherry likes Key West but not her favorite place.
To clarify, the weather is great. The fishing is fantastic. Florida lobster can be netted. Key West is the only place I allowed the boys to play hooky once and we went fishing all day. The water was calm and our depth finder read 125 feet and you could see the bottom as clear as a bell.
One particular time we spotted a Jew Fish, he actually appeared to be as big as a Volkswagen. The boys loaded the biggest hook with the heaviest line we had, baited it and dropped it just in front of Mrs Volks. She was having no part of it. Jack was guessing a 1000 lbs. “Dad, that sucker is worth $3000 at the pier. Jew is selling for about $3.”
Laughing I said, “What are you gonna do with it if you hook it? We could never bring it aboard, and if we did it would kill us with it’s tail.”
Mark said, “WE will tow it in.”
With all the talk and excitement the fish was not interested in going to the pier to be sold.  HA!
Today we received an e-mail from Mark. Yep he is in Key West. He is there with Kenny & Windy. Kenny and Mark met in Key West and have remained friends. Kenny now lives in the Melbourne area.
He reminded me of a pier Dan Doughton and I built for our boats. Evidently he and Kenny are on a boat close to where we lived. 
He sent a picture:

Subtitled: You built this pier 40 years and 5 hurricanes ago and it is still standing!

The people born in Key West are proudly called ‘Conchs.’ I predict there will be less and less ‘real conchs’ as the real estate climbs forcing the taxes to climb also.
The neatest thing at KW then was the Sunsets viewed from Mallory Square. At the time the 10-30 people gathered. We always applauded the show of nature, just as the sun dipped below the horizon. That was before cruise ships and super tourist traffic. Now Mallory Square is a Circus almost. (I compared it to Fisherman’s Warf in San Fran.) As a rule if you do not have a reservation you will sleep in your car Christmas season. And if you have a room you might have to finance it.
We will probably go back sometime, but I would rather be in Texas, Utah or Arizona. (KW nice place to live, but not to visit!)
Nite Shipslog