Carribbean Cruise, Day 2, Hemingway House Museum

After a long walk through the streets of Key West, we ended up at Hemingway's house which is now a museum. Every time I hear of Key West, I think of Hemingway. He was one of the best known residents of the town.

We decided to take a guided tour of the house and our guide did a fantastic job of giving us the history of the house as well as Hemingway's life. Hemingway was a collector of antiques from all over the world and the house contains many of them.

After the tour of the house, the guide took us on a tour of the property. The house sits on one of the biggest residential lots in Key West and has lovely gardens. Hemingway was a cat lover and there are cats all over the place--more than 60 cats reside on the property now. They lead a charmed lives and are visited weekly by a vet to ensure they are in good health. When a cat dies, it is buried on the property.


A visit to Key West would not be complete without visiting Sloppy Joes, a bar that Hemingway visited frequently. It is said that many of the characters for his books came from the customers that visited this bar.

This was the one place in Key West that was crowded and we thought we might not find a table. We finally got seated and ordered lunch and with a cold beer. Food was great and everyone in the restaurant were friendly.


We left the bar and went back to the ship which was leaving within the hour. We had time to rest a little, then get ready for dinner. As usual the dinner was great. We went to see a live performance which was great, then to listen to a piano player at the piano bar. He was better than the live show and we decided to listen to his show every night. He played for 2 hours each night.