Greetings from the Conch Republic

Our last port of call was The Conch Republic, the new nation created when Key West residents decided to secede from the United States because federal agents shut down the only road in and out of the island for eight hours. I think a healthy dose of year round warm weather, good rum and pure cussedness are often responsible for such rebellious acts by the locals. The presence of renegade lawyers probably doesn't hurt, either.
We arrived late and took a Conch Train tour called "Discover Key West." The last time I was in Key West, I was three years old, and the only memory of that trip I have is of sitting on the console between the front seats for the long drive down, with my mother, one of her sisters and three of cousins all in the '65 Ford Mustang which was my father's idea, at that time, of a family car. Judging from what I have read and heard about what Key West used to be like, it is not hard to see that now it is quite a different place altogether. I got off the boat expecting (and hoping) to see lots of locals--gays, hippies, druggies outrageously dressed and behaving outrageously. Instead, what I saw were mostly tourists, many from cruise ships, I think, wandering the streets of a squeaky clean little town that bore more resemblance to a street in Disney World than a tiny unique island refuge of pirates, scalawags, and misfits. It is all shiny and polished and cute.
But it wasn't a complete disappointment. There are little booths where they sell delicious conch fritters and Key West's oldest tourist attraction, built in the 1930's, Key West Aquarium
We have seen bigger and more expensive aquariums all over the world, but this one is the best, I think. There are low tanks inside the central courtyard which make it possible for one to get very very close to sharks and those most graceful creatures of the seas, the rays. We stayed long enough to hear Jon, the resident marine biologist, talk about the creatures, to handle the sea urchins and starfish, and to watch the feeding of the sharks and rays. Now you can watch them.


No trip to Key West is complete without a view of the sunset from the 'ends of America', so here you are. In spite of the rather Disney-fied atmosphere, I would still like to live there. Who could not love warm weather and abundant sunshine year round and a cast of locals who would rather secede from the Union than wait for a road block to clear?