Key West – Conch train

Duval Street musician - take a picutre, give a tip

The cloudy weather has departed and the sun is out! Still, it’s a little cool at 68 but much better than yesterday. Matthew spent the morning on the last of his homework before his family arrives on Tuesday, 2/15. They are visiting over the spring break and will return with Matthew to the frozen north!

With the return of sun and warmth, we decided to take the Conch Train tour. It winds its way all over Key West and provides a good overview of the area. It’s not really a train, it goes on the roads but has cars like a train. We learned that the reason all buildings on Key West have metal roofs is due to the time all of Key West burned down and the residents at the time were in their boats to avoid the fire and noticed that the spread of the fire was from rooftop to rooftop via the burnable shingles used at the time. Since then, all structures must have metal roofs. Also, Key West is twice the size it used to be since the Navy filled in the area immediately to the east of Key West to gain more space. In the process of doing that they also removed the breeding grounds for mosquitoes. Since we’ve been here the last three weeks, we haven’t seen a single mosquito! In fact, we haven’t seen any in all of the Keys.

Shelby Cobra was being raffled off

Returning to the boat, we had hamburgers on board and watched the boat traffic off the back of the boat. Very relaxing.