Answer: Visit the Turtle Hospital in Marathon (http://www.turtlehospital.org/), the Shipwreck Museum (http://www.shipwreckhistoreum.com/) and Mel Fisher Museum (http://www.melfisher.org/) in Key West...and, of course, the mandatory pilgrimage to Mallory Square!
It was an interesting and full day. We returned to Key West to do some land touring and to act like several of the thousands of tourists who flock to this Margaritaville and madness mecca.
However, before we headed to Key West, we visited the Turtle 
Hospital in Marathon. The hospital is a unique organization with a mission to rescue, rehabilitate, and release sea turtles that are injured either by the negligence of humans or by one of their natural predators...sharks, for example. Peggy was our guide and gave us a lecture to introduce us to sea turtles and the work of the hospital. Sea turtles are found in all the world's oceans except the Arctic Ocean. There are seven species of sea turtles: flatback, green, hawksbill, Kemp's Ridley, leatherback, loggerhead and olive ridley.The leatherback is the only sea turtle that does not have a hard shell. Instead, it has a mosaic of bony plates beneath its leathery skin. The loggerhead is the largest of the sea turtles, measuring six or seven feet in length at maturity, three to five feet in width, and weighing up to 1300 pounds. Other species are smaller, for example, two to four feet in length.
A turtle is considered injured when it is found floating on the surface of the ocean and can't dive under. Anyone who spots a turtle in this condition...whether or not there is any other evidence of distress...can call the Turtle Hospital who will arrange to have the injured turtle brought to the hospital. The hospital receives as many as 70 injured sea turtles a year and has released more than 750 sea turtles to date. The hospital uses the services of a volunteer reptile vetrinarian and has the ability to perform surgery. There is even one turtle that is being fitted with a prosthetic device to replace the flipper lost to a shark
After an informative and interesting hour, we headed for Key West. Our
first stop was at the Turtle Kraals for lunch. The restaurant is located on the site of a green turtle "corral" which was once used to produce green sea turtle soup before the turtles became an endangered species. In retrospect, this was an interesting contrast…first we visited a place dedicated to the preservation of turtles and then we visited a place where turtles were slaughtered to make soup. Lunch was very good and turtle soup wasn’t on the menu! While we were eating a contingent of “suits” trooped in and sat at a table near us. At the same time, several armed Customs and Border Protection agents took up strategic positions surrounding the restaurant. Of course, Sarah couldn’t resist moving in on one agent and inquiring what was going on, who they were protecting, etc. I’m not certain she learned anything, but she did manage to get her photo taken with one of the agents!After lunch we visited the Shipwreck Historeum where we learned the story of the Florida Keys 
wreckers or shipwreck salvagers. The wreckers began their trade on Key West in the 1800s and made Key West one of the most prosperous location in the United States. In the mid-1800s ships were piling up on the reef at the rate of nearly one a week. The museum is a reconstruction of a wreckers warehouse containing items salvaged from the Issac Allerton which sank on the reef in 1856 and was the largest individual award by the federal court in Florida…or wrecking court…in the history of wrecking.
Above the warehouse/museum is a tower the wreckers used to keep a lookout for ships grounding on the reef. When a ship went aground on the reef, the cry from the tower of “Wreck Ashore” alerted the town and the race began to lay hands on the hull to claim salvage rights. The dark side of the humanitarian work of the wreckers is the rumor that some navigation lights were moved to mislead ships approaching the reef…now who would think of doing something like that?
The second stop on our touring itinerary was the Mel Fisher Treasure Museum which contains items salvaged from the wreck of the Nuestra Señora de Atocha (Our Lady of Atocha) which was the most famous of a fleet of Spanish ships that sank in 1622 off the Florida Keys while carrying copper, silver, gold, tobacco, gems, jewels, jewelery and indigo from Spanish ports in the Western Hemisphere. In 1622 the Atocha was driven by a hurricane onto the coral reefs near the Dry Tortugas.
In case you don’t remember the story, American treasure hunter Mel Fisher and a team of sub-contractors, funded by investors and others in a joint venture, searched for the Atocha for 16 and a half years; potential helpers were discouraged by the fact that this dangerous professional diving job was at minimum wage unless the ship was found. The Atocha wreck and its mother lode of silver, gold and emeralds was finally discovered in 1985. After the discovery, the U.S. government claimed title to the wreck, and the State of Florida seized many of the items retrieved by Mel Fisher. After eight years of litigation, the U.S. Supreme Court finally ruled in favor of Fisher and the items on display in the museum are owned by the Fisher family.
After we left the museum, we discovered a neat place we wish we had included on our itinerary…the Key West Museum of Art and History. It looks like it would have been an interesting tour, but it was closed when we discovered it and we had other things on our agenda. Actually, we missed a number of interesting things like President Truman’s Little White House, the Custom House Museum, the Key West Lighthouse Museum, the Butterfly and Nature Conservatory, etc. We did manage to snag a photo of a couple standing outside the door of the Art and History Museum and had our pictures taken with one of the more famous Key West celebrities...we think he wrote a story about an old man and a fish...probably true since he had a fishing rod in his hand when we found him!
wreckers or shipwreck salvagers. The wreckers began their trade on Key West in the 1800s and made Key West one of the most prosperous location in the United States. In the mid-1800s ships were piling up on the reef at the rate of nearly one a week. The museum is a reconstruction of a wreckers warehouse containing items salvaged from the Issac Allerton which sank on the reef in 1856 and was the largest individual award by the federal court in Florida…or wrecking court…in the history of wrecking.Above the warehouse/museum is a tower the wreckers used to keep a lookout for ships grounding on the reef. When a ship went aground on the reef, the cry from the tower of “Wreck Ashore” alerted the town and the race began to lay hands on the hull to claim salvage rights. The dark side of the humanitarian work of the wreckers is the rumor that some navigation lights were moved to mislead ships approaching the reef…now who would think of doing something like that?
The second stop on our touring itinerary was the Mel Fisher Treasure Museum which contains items salvaged from the wreck of the Nuestra Señora de Atocha (Our Lady of Atocha) which was the most famous of a fleet of Spanish ships that sank in 1622 off the Florida Keys while carrying copper, silver, gold, tobacco, gems, jewels, jewelery and indigo from Spanish ports in the Western Hemisphere. In 1622 the Atocha was driven by a hurricane onto the coral reefs near the Dry Tortugas.
In case you don’t remember the story, American treasure hunter Mel Fisher and a team of sub-contractors, funded by investors and others in a joint venture, searched for the Atocha for 16 and a half years; potential helpers were discouraged by the fact that this dangerous professional diving job was at minimum wage unless the ship was found. The Atocha wreck and its mother lode of silver, gold and emeralds was finally discovered in 1985. After the discovery, the U.S. government claimed title to the wreck, and the State of Florida seized many of the items retrieved by Mel Fisher. After eight years of litigation, the U.S. Supreme Court finally ruled in favor of Fisher and the items on display in the museum are owned by the Fisher family.
After we left the museum, we discovered a neat place we wish we had included on our itinerary…the Key West Museum of Art and History. It looks like it would have been an interesting tour, but it was closed when we discovered it and we had other things on our agenda. Actually, we missed a number of interesting things like President Truman’s Little White House, the Custom House Museum, the Key West Lighthouse Museum, the Butterfly and Nature Conservatory, etc. We did manage to snag a photo of a couple standing outside the door of the Art and History Museum and had our pictures taken with one of the more famous Key West celebrities...we think he wrote a story about an old man and a fish...probably true since he had a fishing rod in his hand when we found him!
It was now time for the Sunset Celebration at Mallory Square and we hurried to the bulkhead to take our place with several hundred close friends. Predictably, the sun set at the appointed time and the crowd went wild. Before and afterwards we walked around the square to catch a few of the street performers who work for tips…some of them even were talented. All were entertaining and since we were going to be in Key West to visit Dry Tortugas, we’ll probably drop by to see if we missed anything.Perhaps we'll even be back to celebrate the next "Leap Year!"
One last item...on our way back to the car to return to Marathon, we stopped at the Key Lime Pie Factory (http://www.blondgiraffe.com/) and bought a whole pie. After we got back to the boat, the three of us ate half of the pie with no apologies for our indulgence. It was wonderful and worth every calorie. It may even live up to its advertisement "Best Key Lime Pie in Key West and Florida...5 years in a row!"
1 comment:
Grow your beard, and you're just about the right look for the Earnest Hemmingway lookalike contest.
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