US Travel Guide - Key West

Key West Entertainment

Pet a shark, tour a cemetery, stroll in the footsteps of the famous and the decidedly infamous. Sit in the sun, roar across the waters, visit forts, islands, mangrove swamps, Gulf of Mexico waters and the Atlantic Oceans surf.

Swim with a dolphin, drink like a fish, eat like a trencherman. Visit old churches and dive to a visit with a Christ of the Deep. Shop 'til you drop, revel in resort amenities, romance by candlelight.

From the top of the keys at Key Largo through Marathon, Islamorada, Big Pine Key and into Key West, the diversions are as diverse as those who seek them.

Here the elusive, soaring marlin lurks in sapphire depths and wily fish of the sandy flats know more disappearing tricks than a magician.

Here you can revel in the history of islands, whose roots trace the history of Florida and all the United States, from Native American tribes who perished in the wake of the European arrivals to Spanish and British settlers, Caribbean islanders from many shores, and winter-weary Yankees seeking eternal sunshine.

On these islands in the stream that have lured pirates and planters, authors and artists, sponge fisherman and cigar makers, you meet the shipwreckers of the past and the street performers of the present as you flip from past to present and back at will.

Among the lacy architecture, picket fences and imposing Victorian manses of Key West, you meet Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams and Madonna. On the shores of Islamorada, you may meet a president or a devil-may-care pauper, both living out the days in a style that is as similar as they are dissimilar.

If you drive to the Keys from Miami and points north, your introduction to the Keys' maņana lifestyle begins at Key Largo, the first of the keys. Here, visiting on the nations most famous coral reef, which runs just a few miles off the coast, is the primary goal and for good reason. Whether you choose to do that on a glass-bottomed boat or with snorkel or scuba tank, an underwater world of amazing beauty awaits in John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, one of the best diving sites in the world and home to 78 square miles of coral reefs. Hiking trails and a visitors center with a floor-to-ceiling aquarium are among the other diversions of this not-to-be-missed park.

Islamorada, which stretches for 20 tropical miles, is devoted to sportfishing for record catches and scuba diving for lobster, shrimp, crabs and just for fun. Sorry, we can't say you read this fishing news here first. Sportfishing fans have been coming here for years, indeed centuries, and among them have been sports stars and authors, artists and presidents, including in recent years former Presidents Jimmy Carter, Harry Truman and George Bush, who still shows up annually for a fall fishing tournament, staying at posh Cheeca Lodge.

At the Windley Key Fossil Reef State Geologic Site on Windley Key, you can see what a coral reef looks like when its left high and dry, and visit middens left behind by the earliest Native American residents of the keys, who clearly knew a good thing when they saw it.

At the Theater of the Seas, you can swim with dolphins, sea lions or stingrays or become a trainer for a day, putting creatures of the sea through their paces.

For an offshore adventure, explore Indian Key State Historic Site, ferrying over on the twice-daily ferry or paddling your own canoe to the island, where you will learn of murder and mayhem on this 10.5-acre islet. Or try a visit to the 280-acre Lignumvitae Key State Botanical Site, a hardwood forest that was home and gardens of a millionaire who put it all together in 1919 in such style that the site is now on the National Register of Historic Places.

In the Middle Keys, the Dolphin Research Center offers another opportunity for swimming with dolphins, while Pigeon Key under the Old Seven Mile Bridge near MM 45 at Marathon offers a look at the work and workers involved in the creation of the Overseas Railroad, the Railroad That Went to Sea, connecting these islands with mainland Florida. Lest one forget: the Seven Mile Bridge is a manmade wonder enhanced by the scenic beauty that surrounds it.

In the Lower Keys, Nature reigns supreme, offering small islands that are home to birds and tiny Key deer, barely bigger than collie dogs, alligators, fish, snakes, raccoons, migratory birds, and a host of Keys' flora, from ferns to grasses, mangroves and palmettos. Looe Key Reef is home to a beautiful coral reef, and and Bahia Honda State Park offers sand dunes, waters clear as a teardrop and views that go on forever.

In Key West, the southernmost point in the United States, history comes to life in dozens of attractions devoted to maintaining the memory of what made these islands whimsical and weird, wild and wooly, and downright wonderful when you throw yourself into the spirit of the place.

And you will.

Marylyn Springer