Full Conch Train Tour Ride (Duval Street, Southernmost Point),Key West FL.

we get this show on the road here welcome to Key West I'm going to be taking the left here on to whad Street a whole lot of history here on Whitehead Street as I make my left turn want you folks to glance over here in the corner that is the Key West aquarium back there that is the oldest tourist attraction here in the island been here since 1934 good way to spend an afternoon they've been added new exhibits over there by-weekly a new Mor exhibit new shark exhibit recently let's continue on up Whitehead Street on the right over here my favorite museum on the entire Island Mel Fisher's Maritime Museum well Mel Fisher lived here on the island in Key West and he was a legitimate treasure hunter M Fishers searched for 15 years looking for two specific Su Spanish treasure Gallants that had gone down in a hurricane 400 years ago the Atocha and the Santa Margarita and after looking for 15 years old Bell Fisher found that be located about 50 mil west southwest of Key West here and when he did he was instantly $450 million weth here and according to Old Mel Fisher he only found half the treasure scheduled to be on those two gallions the rest is still out there on the right over here they call these the presidential Gates only been open four times ever and only for US presidents but you can enter on either side walk back about a block or so on the left hand side there's a museum there dedicated to former president Harry S Truman The Little White House Museum former president Harry S Truman loved it here in Q West he spent 176 days of his presidency right here in Key West doing exactly what we do today he was known to walk around wearing very bad Hawaiian shirts he hit all the bars onall Street look on the left here is my favorite tree the Bion tree if you're not familiar with the Bion the limbs grow out and they drop these aerial Roots When those roots hit the ground they start another truck and just continue the process largest Bion tree in the world picks up five full Acres located in India again we're on white head Street whole lot of history here one block over the infamous Duval Street most of the notorious de film stories you've ever heard about ke West and they're all True by the way have taking place on Duval Street over here on whad history and these two streets run parallel for the entire 14 blocks all the way down to the southernmost point a little bit of History over here in this building this is our post office here on whad Street the architect that designed that building designed to look like the silver warps here on the island which are at three we'll go by one of them here shortly the architect that designed that his name was sunny McCoy who at the time was also our mayor serving his fourth ter as mayor s McCoy to elections were coming up he wanted to be reelected to his fifth term so he decided he had to draw a little bit of attention to himself and hej came up on the bu of he stun Sun McCoy announced he was going to slom ski that's one single ski all the way from KY West to Havana Cuba that's 125 miles he was not a young man by the way but guess what he pulled it off covered 125 m in 6 hours nonstop he arrived in Havana Cuba the cubits had no idea he was even coming they promptly arrested him they put him on an airplane they sent him back to Key West as fast as possible they wanted nothing to do with sunny McCoy who did get reelected to his fifth turn and did make the Guinness's World Book of Records on the left over here is the oldest bar on the island it's called The Green Parrot very popular with locals and visitors alike when you go by there you can see all that fancy metal work on the windows that metal work is on there not to keep you from getting in but to keep those drunk hippies from falling out while they're at the Green Parrot also across the street over here these are called the timeout benches if you get a little too inebriated you drink a little too much they'll walk you over set you on those benches over there once your head clears up us the duck they'll tell you hey you over there with the hat come on back All Is Forgiven if you get really bored at home you can go to Facebook the timeout bench and Key West whoa has its own Facebook [Music] page again here the left the green PA good live music all day and all night right there now we're rolling right into one of the villages within the village of Qs this is called The hmer Village we have a long history of the Bohemian people they've been coming here for hundreds and hundreds of years originally to take advantage of the work we've offered over time things like shipwreck sponging fishing shpping development big Industries here a lot of the folks that live around this part of town are direct descendants of those original Bohemians from hundreds of years ago they're still here cross street up in front of me here is petronia Street if you take a right on patronia going to have one block on the right on the corner of petronia is one of my favorite restaurants called Blue Heaven it's very Key West you can sit inside with the air conditioner you can sit outside with the roosters your choice good food best ke pie on the island in its former life was a brle one block down on the right Blue Heaven and coming up here on the left behind this very curvy ply buil looking like a couldn't fall down red brick wall over here is the erest tamy way house Ernest Liv in this house from 1931 to 39 8 years wrote five of his most famous novels while he was living here you can do your own self-guided tours through here the grounds are equally interesting like the house itself the house was actually a wedding gift to Ernest and his wife from his wife's uncle first swimming pool on the island ever right on the other side of this wall here dig down in the coral Rock to install it the house is currently occupied by 60 six-toed polyal cats and they are the descendants of the original pair of Sixto cats that received as a gift back in the 1930s they're still here they're laying around in there anywh they like to lay over here in the way behind that beautiful banion tree is our Lighthouse not the original Lighthouse the original one blew down in the hurricane 150 years ago down by the southernmost point directly where we're headed here so when they built our next Lighthouse that one right there they moved a little further Inland matter of fact it's so far inland it's within the city limits currently today it's in aable currently but it's open the public you can walk right up there there's a spiral staircase up through the middle take it all the way to the top look out over the coral refle back over the island here now we are rapidly approaching the southernmost point I can see it from here we're about three blocks away little bump right here I hit every day hold on a little bit here we go all right we made it through again coming up on the right over here is one of our Naval bases right over here it's called The Truman annx we currently have six navy bases here on the island in a long history with the Navy the Navy's been coming here for over 200 years originally to fight Pirates back in the day old Blackbeard himself used to frequent the Florida key there we also have something very similar to a Top Gun program here we train Navy Pilots out of fly f18s you can hear and see them flying around the island all day every day and while those Pilots are here training this is where they stay at the annex the best locations over the island well again we're rapidly approaching the southernmost point our gentleman's indicating I should stop so I'm going to do that let see what's going on here oh trolley a those trolley [Music] indecisive is the word of the moment well here we are wow they're lined up down the other side normally they line up down the other side I see they got a big truck over there and we've had a lot of flooding here a lot of water lot of sand from our tropical storm looks like it's still a little choppy here they're working on something here so we're going to continue on here we are at the southernmost point of the United States in front of me they call this the buoy nobody knows why it doesn't resemble any known buoy even over there I see them over there today are the southernmost iguana sitting out there in the Rocks can't believe they're out there in this kind of weather quite frankly what kind of puts it in cont text for me where we're located right now see how this works for you is where we are sitting right this very moment we are closer to Al Cuba then we are the closest Walmart think about that for a minute we're pretty far south they want to take their picture next to the booie there they'll stay in the line for hours everything down here is southernmost by the way folks over here on the right we have what What's called the southernmost house now it's a southernmost and fancy and you can stay at on the left the southernmost food truck at the stop sign to the right southernmost Beach down further on the right Southernmost Hotel and across the street the southernmost Resort you get the idea lot history over here at the southernmost end Thomas Edison designed and installed the original electrical wiring in that house there if you look at the second window when the light hits it right there's a bullet hole in that window that's where somebody took a shot at Old Al Capone when he was standing there back in his bootlegging days unfortunately they were a poor shot and they missed a little bit of a story attached to this house right over here at D doat he was a very wealthy cigar maker here on the island he had a son at D doat junior senior built Junior that house right there but when he built it originally it was on this lot over here on my right Junior would sit out on the front porch every morning smoke a big old Cuban cigar did not like the way the sun hit him in the eyes in the morning on it so Junior asked senior to move the house senior picked it up from here moved it over here turn around set it down you can see the address over the front door 1327 well that was the original address when the house sat over here on the right making that house the only odd number house on an even number side of the street on theall Street we're on theall Street the famous Deval Street the infamous Dev Wall Street the the joyous Deval Street look the snoody end Deval Street on the left over here is the butterfly obervatory that is the most popular tourist attraction on the island here if you look on the back of the building there you can see there's a big old Atrium back there you can do your own self-guided tourist through there inside that Atrium there's over a thousand butterflies flying around over 60 different species also a bunch of tropical birds flying around pair of flamingos are one of the nicest collections of tropical plants on the entire Island at the Butterfly Conservatory check it out while you're here it's fun again run Deval Street Deval Street runs 14 blocks about one mile runs from south to west again most of those notorious debauchery filled stories you've ever heard about Key West and they're all true generally take place down at the other end of Duvall but between you and me there's a whole lot of Deery takes place in this third house on the right where it says VIP the girls sit out here all day and all night and they are very very very friendly even have a shuttle park out front don't come pick you up I never look over there brings back bad memor some Focus Straight Ahead obviously they're busy though nobody sitting out there so we're going to continue on coming up on the left over here was a Cuban part of town 150 years ago 150 years ago the Cuban Revolution was going on a lot of those flight folks fled here to Key West I they a live a little bit longer stayed in this part of town right over here they were fighting against the Spanish rule there even the leader of the Revolution Jose Marti fled here West while he was here he stayed over here in Gau Village got up on the balcony here what is today ly doy speeches to the Cubans gathered below to listen to him he was a cly good recruiter trying to recruit folks take him back to Cuba with him and fight a good fight against the Spanish rule on his last visit here he collected 40 souls to take back with them unfortunately Jose Mart and the entire 40 souls he took back with him all died on the battlefield in Havana Cuba never to return to keep West Jose Marti on the left here this was the Cuban Social Club 150 years ago you could walk in there 150 years ago learn to trade learn to speak English get a meal but they're remembered for one thing and one thing only the dances they had there on Saturday night the best dances the best Cuban bands on the island at the Cuban Social Club we're under Ball Street we're coming up to our first stop here this is known as stop El like boy also known as tral at the intersection of Truman and dual in a moment I'm going to pull up for this little stop I'm going to come to a complete stop right there when I do if you want to exit or change seats that'll be your opportunity but wait till I get up in there I'll come to a safe and complete stop and let you know got a new coffee company here in town Black Rifle Coffee Company I've seen them on TV and online they're vetor known wish them the best but they got a tall order in them we have a local coffee company here called the Cuban coffee Queen very strong flavorful Cuban coffee I highly recommend it her motto is drink our coffee do stupid things faster we already put Starbucks out of business Unfortunately they might be next here we go occasion we got folks looking to join us here I don't see anybody yet it's a little early for Key West than T to open up here in about 11:00 only 30 minutes from now all right I call that a safe and complete stop anybody would like to exit a chain seat now's your opportunity how you doing brother everything good all right jumping on Truman Avenue here named after former President harryz Truman yes sir all right right we're on the way here we go again this is Trin Avenue formerly known as Division Street this street used to divide the wealthy folks from the working class over here's a museum dedicated to playright Tennessee Williams wrote two of his most famous plays while he was staying here in Key West at the M Hotel on hot roof a street car named desire right above there on the left over here's a very interesting restaurant it's called better than sex I don't if that's an accurate description or not you have to decide for yourself but I love their concept they only open up at 7:00 at night they only serve desserts all the desserts have very very erotic names when you enter here it's like entering a bordell or a broel it's very dark when you get inside there's erotic pictures and paintings all around the walls crystal chandeliers it's a whole experience and a lot of fun and the desserts are definitely the best on the island I highly recommended to make reservations they're always busy and we'll continue on in a moment here we [Music] go now coming up on the right over here was and still is a Catholic church and the Catholic school this is the school building right here 120 years ago when the the yellow fever epidemic rolled across this island it killed off 20% of the population while that was happening the nuns turned that building there the school building into a hospital to treat those yellow patients and they did a real fine job nursing back to help everybody they possibly could once that epidemic kind of burn itself out once it was over the decided that play a lot harder that never happened again and the NS got together and built that M right on the right right there still in use today 30 or 40 people over there just days ago here's the Catholic church in the complex right here this Catholic Church is famous from the James Bond movie was in called license to kill it was probably the worst James Bond movie ever that Timothy do he was not a good James Bond the whole premise was James mom has got to go to Key West to attend the wedding that's where the wedding been place in the movie now most of the houses here on the aisle built 100 150 200 years ago all of the houses in this particular neighborhood what we call C style Bohemian style houses wasn't unusual even 150 years ago to a s a house in the Bahamas Flo over here the US P it into place with a team of oxin or FS lot of those houses were built with fancy wooden joints and wooden pegs so they're not quite as rigid and g a windstorm these houses will actually give a little bit they'll Flex a little bit not as rigid that's why they're still standing today now in this neighborhood all of these houses on both sides of the street for the next three blocks all started out with little any bitt what we call shotgun houses they were built 180 190 years ago they've all evolved quite uniquely Something's Cooking around here some of them have sheds or garages now some have second stories some have additions there's one down here looks like it was widened there's one down here has got a stone exterior they're all quite unique looking now but they all started out little shoe box siiz houses 700 Square ft built by aato the cigar maker for his employees to live in and the reason there's so many of them here because there's a building in the next block on the right hand side that was one of his cigar factories so he built these little houses all around the cigar factories for his employees to live in built 500 of them here on the island now in this neighborhood excuse me the neighbors have requested that the narrators on the train go quiet when we cut through here this next two blocks so I'm going to go silent I'll catch you at the end of these two blocks on both sides of the house everything started out a shotgun house couple original looking ones on the left Midway and then the actual cigar Factory on the right up there I'll see you in that two blocks spee spee [Music] e all right folks I'm out of my quiet Zone back into the danger zone I'm going to talk for a minute about something known as the overseas railroad that was an extension of the railroad from Miami all the way down to Key West was built 120 years ago was the brainchild of Mr Henry Flagler who 120 years ago owned most of the railroads on the eastern half of the United States Mr Flagler was a very wealthy man he was also partners with a gentleman named John D Rockefeller together they owned a little company known as Standard Oil little bump right here folks Standard Oil became ESO became Exon still in business today 120 years ago Mr uh Rockefeller Mr flag were the wealthiest men of the country quite possibly the world Mr flag was wealthy enough to indulge in his three favorite things in life which wore railroads five star hotels and the State of Florida and extend his rear road down into Florida all the way down to St Augustine when he arrived there he discovered there was no five star hotel for himself and his entrez just saan so he built one it was called the P Leon still there today Mr flag was seemed kind of content there for a minute or two and he decided to go further south and he did extend his railroad all the way down to Palm Beach when he arrived no festar Hotel he built the breakers still there today right on the ocean in Palm Beach and again he was content so ad minute but then again he got that isch to go further south and he did all the way down to Miami when he arrived no festar Hotel he built a royal pal well then he decided to come all the way down here to Key West it took him eight years to build that last section from Miami here to Key West C him $50 million that was a whole lot of money 120 years ago but he got here when he got here surpris surpris no festar Hotel he built a Kasa Marina here it is runs a city block in both directions here we're actually looking at the back of the Marina still facing the ocean here I've the parties over here when you're at the parties out on the beach you look back at the Marina it looks like a palace it's quite beautiful quite quite nice originally when they opened up over here 120 years ago rooms were $8 a night and that included all three meals the cile marina actually translates to house by the sea now we're down here at one of our public beaches this is known as H Beach and the weather's good there's a lot of people out here the water's very shallow depending on the tides it could be 3 4 ft maybe 5 ft you see a bunch of sand here that that washed up with a lot of seaweed here that kind of collected in here redistributed or get it out of here this body of water out here is known as the Florida streets in the streets of Florida this is where the Gul of Mexico meets the ATL right here about 5 or 6 mil out is the coral reef that is the only living Coral re United States at Coral Reef runs for 220 M all the way from Miami to the dried for tuas which are 70 mwest there you see some big boats sitting out there offshore those are shrimpy boats we do our shrimping here for a pink shrimp we have here at night during the day the pink shrimp bur down on the sea only come out at 19 so right now those boats are sitting there and they are processing what they caught last night and preparing to go back out the night when it gets dark when it gets dark they'll shine lights in the water drop those Nets drag them through the water pull them up full of pink shrimp in front of me here there's a red Bri building on the right hand side coming up here this was the Silver War Fort known as West marello Silver War Fort today it's the Key West Garden club it's free you can walk right in here in the back and on the other side they have an acre or two of beautiful tropical plants you do your self guided tour through there there's one of those shrimping boats out there they've been lining up there's another one over here about a dozen of them out here recently I see another two or three down here further on the right over here this is the White Street fishing pier that is the only fishing pier here in Key West also known as The Unfinished bridge to CU uh I never will finish it water is very shallow I can almost see the sand bars over here a little bit higher tide right now 5T 4T deep there lot of times it's 2T deep there we go to a beach down a little further here sometimes we take our chairs out there the sandbar down the cocktail so shallow on the right over it here is the KE West Wildlife and Indigenous Park the indigenous animal like sea turtles and Pelicans if they're ever injured or ill the folks over here will scoop them up take them over here and nurse them back to help and then release them right where they found them they're also for the public every day it's free you can walk right in and see the animals have one hand there down here by the ocean reminds me it's time to talk about what was the most profitable industry to ever hit this island and it peaked about 200 years ago called shipw Wrecking or wrecking over time we had thousands and thousands of boats and ships rck into our Coral reol Shore 5 six miles and we turned to a tri industry we actually built something called Wreckers Towers they were wooden platforms four or five stories tall they were built all along the ocean here they were man 24 hours a day watch out over that coral reef for ships to wck into that coral reef and if they spotted one they would Scurry down off of that platform as fast as possible get to them V to their ship and make their way out to the Shipwreck as fast as possible because the first Captain to arrive there was known as the Wy Master he was immediately entitled to 50% of the cargo on that Rec ship 25% went back to the original owner and 25% was auction B and the funds were distributed evenly to the citizens of usest making the citizens of Q per capita the wealthiest in the country quite possibly the world back then a profitable industry first billionaire in the State of Florida William curry made his money in ship rank C right here in Key West his descendant Sten here today we'll go by his big beautiful Victorian house here shortly 200 years ago we had a ship full of pianos wreck out on the coral re every family on the island received a piano as a gift only problem was there were no piano teachers anywhere on the island hopefully they enjoy them nonetheless most people recognize this this is known as a Coke shell a Coke is nothing more than a big old snail we got introduced to the c as a food source hundreds of years ago by the Beman people there's a lot of Coke live in the Atlantic Ocean between the Bahamas and the Florida keys so we eat them every day down here we never tried cor be want to try some cor fers while here they're quite tasty but we also eat cork strips cor steaks cork chowder conk salad we've totally the con here our high school football team is known as the fighting con go con our cheerleaders of the conet our our sidewalks are made out of con cre yes it's true once this light changes we're going to cross over here we're going to go from Oldtown into even older Town first five or six houses on the left over here called shotgun houses talked about them earlier the reason they're here and there's more of them over here that have changed quite a bit they've evolved is because this used to be a cigar Factory here one got those cigar factories so then he built those shotgun houses for his employees to live in again most of the houses in this neighborhood across the street we built 150 even 200 years ago here we [Music] go another architectural feature I want to point out to you is I look around every house on the island has a metal route every single one it's mandated you must have a metal roof and there's two good reasons why the first reason is the Great Fire of 1886 it swept across this island and burnt down 80% of the homes on the island entire neighborhoods were burnt to the ground the reason so many homes and buildings burnt down is previous to the metal roofs everything had a wooden roof and the houses are very very close together so the flames and Sparks from one wooden roof jump to the next burnt down entire neighborhoods again 80% of the homes and the buildings on the island Excuse me while I look around this corner before I commit to this street oh good example I can't get through got to keep going I have no reverse so if I commit to a street like that and can't get through we're all going to have a bad day I got to call for help they'll come disassemble the train tow us out of there but we're good to go we'll go around bu bit here and cut through this neighborhood and most of the houses in these neighborhoods were actually built by ship's Carpenters why ship's Carpenters well because they were here they were Shipwrecked here stranded here waiting for the next ship leaving the island they had to eat had to work so they built a lot of these houses a lot of very intricate time consuming work by the way no electric saws so it was all done by hand they were as much Artisans as they were Carpenters and a lot of these houses here in these neighborhoods are actually built with shipwreck Lumber why ship Lumber well we had a lot of uh ships wreck into our coal Reef over time we have no indigenous Lumber trees here in the Florida Keys sure we could go up north of Miami or down to Cuba which is even closer and brought back some wood from there but it's still been quite costly so we had a lot of shipwrecks into our coral reef therefore we had a lot of shipwreck Lumber and that's what we used to build lot of these houses originally look at this intricate work even in this old fence over here all done by hand very tight consuming another architectural feature coming up on the left here in just a moment this house on the corner at this intersection [Music] here right over here on the left up on top there that's called a captain's walk also known as a Widow's walk a wrecker's Captain had that house built for himself 200 years ago they the only folks who could afford a big house like that 200 years ago H get up on top of that Captain Walk look out over the Cory for those shipwrecks he didn't spend his all his time up there though cuz he did own a boter ship sometimes he R SE for weeks even months at a time while he was gone his wife would get up there watch for him to return sometimes he did sometimes he didn't it's the other name a Widow's walk a captain's walk and a Widow's walk here's another fine example of a captain's walk and a Widow's walk at the Captain John lwh house built 200 years ago for a another shipwrecker Captain John [Music] low we're going to be turning here on to simonon street named after John simonon he was a wealthy man here on the island self-made wealthy man his business was importing tobacco from Cuba the finest tobacco in the world he would travel to Cuba bring back that tobacco to sell the cigar like Mr Edward did quite well for himself on one of his visits to Cuba he ran across a Cuban military officer and Admiral who offered to selling the entire island of Key West for the sum of $2,000 this was all going on about 200 years ago Mr simonon thought about it for a minute and accepted the offer purchase the deeds and the documents showing the ownership rush back to qest as fast as as possible went down to the courthouse presented those documents to the clerk there the clerk looked at the documents unfortunately laughed told him he was the third person this week to come in with those very same documents he been tricked in Hoodwink but they were fraudulent but Mr simonon was not dismayed he had friends in powerful places in the federal government the US Navy and he approached him and said look help me become the legal owner of the entire West I'll give you 25% of the island to build your Navy bases well the federal government and the Navy thought about it for a moment and said okay we accept your offer since then we've had a lot of Navy personnel here and a lot of navy bases Mr simonon did become the legal owner of the entire island of Key West he lived here for eight additional years then legally sold the island to four of wealthy gentlemen and returned to the Bahamas where he was from John simonon now we're coming up to our next stop here about four blocks our next stop we're going to stop for 10 full minutes I'm going to pull up next to a building inside that building there are clean restrooms there are cold drinks snacks souvenirs we're going to sit there we're going to be there for 10 minutes after about 8 minutes I'm going to hit my whistle kind of like this that's an indicator time to come on back we have more to see more to do this will not be the end of our tour more to see more to do once we re boarded we got another 20 minutes we go down the notorious end of theal Street cut through a old neighborhood head down towards our historic Seaport back through another old neighborhood and end up back in mallerie square where most of us started so we'll be at this next stop in about three blocks on the corner on the right down here this Old Red Brick Warehouse building this is currently today the earnest Hemingway R Distillery they manufacture and bottle their own rum right in there it's open the public every day you can walk in a self-guided tour get some free samples over here red is another R distiller same thing free samples I was in there the other day they gave me a p colada there one of the best P coladas ever had in my life you're a r drer check out one of those two places in case you didn't know I didn't know till I moved here to Key West Key West is the driest city in the State of Florida we get the least amount of annual rainfall in any City in the State of Florida right here Key West there's the cruise ship up in front of us [Music] there Here Comes next stop here at this station wait till I come go safe and the complete stop before you decide to disembark or change [Music] seats my name is Steve if anybody has any questions feel free to come up and see me here what is this inside here clean restrooms cold drinks snacks souvenirs I'll be sitting right here I'll hit my horn in the about 8 minutes and we'll continue on I call that a safe and complete stop folks enjoy [Music] and we're pulling out onto Devall Street here the infamous Devall Street the Wall Street runs 14 blocks approximately one mile end right here to the right this is the Westerly most end versus the southerly at the other end as I pull out here there's a red and yellow brick building over here in the corner of my left right now to be on my right when I get around that's the Cuban Bank founded in 1891 I told you I'm not giving you your birth we had Cuban immigration here for hundreds and hundreds of years and some of those folks became quite wealthy when they did the Cubans decided they did not trust the American Banks so the Cub got together and built their own bank this building right here I'm sure if the original owners and Builders of this building knew was a t-shirt store today they would certainly roll over in their grave on the left over here one of my favorite restaurants on the island Batel it's like a white tablecloth restaurant nice place you can sit upstairs here you can uh enjoy the food hear all the music over here at hog bre and watch all the nonsense here on Deal Street best C CR on the island right there at the shack your here coming up on the right over here is the world smallest bar six good friends can fit in there at any given moment they're coming up on the left down here right across street is the infamous Sloppy Joe's made famous by Ernest hemway and his buddy sloppy joe Russell live music there all day every day this is definitely the most popular spot to uh stop when you're here in Key West Sloppy Joe's but right over here is the original Sloppy Joe's today it's called Captain Tony that was Sloppy Joe's from 1933 to 37 then they move down to here to what was an empty Warehouse been here ever since Sloppy Joe's on the right of here Reckless Ricks noisy place next to a dirty hair is another noisy place whenever hear the noisiest of them all Irish K ladies over here on the right is the husband day care center you can drop your husbands off there for a while they'll watch them a little Sho you always see yourself and they're always glad to see you alive at the H dayare [Music] Center on the right over here the B watch three story bar here on the island theorious place you can sit here in the dark and get your drunk on if you want serve food or anything you sit there long enough you can Venture take those stairs up to the next level looks like it should be in B Street in New Orleans but really you get some pictures up when you take those stairs all the way up to the rooftop up there there's a notorious bar up there called The Garden of Eden that is our clothing optional bar here on the island 365 days a year here closing optional I encourage you to go take a look around but I'm warning you now you could see things up there that you can never ever ever on the sea I have tried on the left over here the Hard Rock Cafe today for 200 years ago William Curry built that house for his son and the one next to it for his daughter that was the first Brick House on the island right there it's the Women's Club Women's Club hi there Women's Club they always complain I don't mention them so I got to do it every now and [Music] then on the right over here this was the old schoolhouse you can see the Bop there on the Second Story used to ring time to go to school on the left over here St Paul's Episcopal Church that's the oldest church here on the island and the fourth church is sit on that corner lot there actually it's not the oldest I I stand corrected on that but it is the fourth Church there the first one was blown down in a hurricane the second one burnt up in the Great Fire of 188 86 a third one another hurricane well that church has been there over a 100 years now we believe it's here to stay time will fa they leave their doors open all day every day you can walk right in take a look at their stained glass windows there and they're valued at over $1 million run all Street coming up on the right is the Lona Hotel tallest building in Old down at 7 story this is where he Wasing back the day build always will be the tallest building on the island by the way the locals were so upset when they built this building it's so big it's so tall we hate it that they change a LGE you can never get buildt on a seven story building here in Oldtown Key West the Laona will always be the tallest on the right here right in front of this truck on the right is the original Jimmy buffets Margaritaville right aille been nonstop busy for 3 months or so Quint about when Jimmy passed on on the left over here Willie teas another local favorite bar live music all day every day over here and Willie te right next to it Walgreens our drugstore that was formerly The Strand Theater that building is built in what they call the Coco style of architecture which is very popular in Miami and Cuba not as much here that's the only example of a Coco style architecture here in West we're jump it off jump back on whad Street we're on it earlier it's like back and forth all white head all white head and a lot of history over here a lot of debauchery on through ball I like this up Windows here in this bar here called The Beard to Lady the first window says good beer decent wine questionable staff the next one says sorry we're open now we're going to swing around we're going to cut through an old neighborhood head down to this dor SE Port area here this block of pulling onto here on whad street is a very important block why do you ask well I'm I tell you because this block is either the first block or the last block around one depending which way you're headed if you were to turn around and go the opposite way that I'm heading right now you can stay on this road right here route one for 2200 miles it'll take you all the way to Fort Kent main rout one begins and ends right here in Key West right the most photograph sign on the island the end of route one with the zero mile marker right here across the street facing the opposite direction the beginning of r one the Z mile marker begins and ends right here in Key West right there I don't think they're going to be able to pull this off let's see maybe maybe maybe maybe maybe maybe maybe not by now I've bet a bunch of you have said uh look at all those roosters wonder why those roers and ends around around the streets here tell you why they're here and how they got here we had Cub immigration here on the island for hundreds and hundreds of years when the cubits immigrated here over time they brought all their Traditions with them just like we would if rols were reversed one of the Traditions that the Cubans bought with them that they held very dear to their heart was fighting so the Cubans that immigrated here were able to legally fight for hundreds and hundreds of years but finally about 40 years ago the State of Florida made figh fill Eagle to protest that R the Cuban Fighters released all their roosters all their chickens all their hands into the streets and they've been here ever [Music] since who would park a golf cart right in the middle of the street like that [Music] H that's unable unbelievable who is it over here unbelievable did I mention unbelievable how you doing everything good man yeah good to see you I don't know either thank you let's see if we can start her up here uh right here yeah you don't know who this is do yeah it's I don't know what to press ah okay yeah yeah yeah good good good yeah good yeah thank you very much you guys good to see you yeah I see I want here thank you speeech [Music] speee what were you thinking okay HS sometimes you just got to take care of business thank you very much sorry again I apologize but boy oh boy came here we go hold on folks hey you all have a good day all right see you buddy BL thank you you're welcome take care always glad to see you I see you every day you know I know yeah I know you [Music] know well folks let's get back on track here yeah sorry about that I'm not sure if I finished up with my rooster story I don't think I did so let's see here I told you that the Cubans have immigrated here for hundreds and hundreds of years they brought all their Traditions with them and about 40 years ago or one of the Traditions was fighting 40 years ago the State of Florida made fighting illegal now previous to that those Cubans were able to legally fight here as much as they wanted but 40 years ago they made it illegal to protest that the Cubans released all their roosters all their hens all their chickens into the street and they've been here ever since they're now protected they're considered an indigenous species it's a $500 time if you mess with them so just leave alone and watch them from afar little dinosaurs I think I touched on earlier yes I did I got to the cigar maker about 180 190 years ago the making of cigars using Cuban tobacco the finest tobacco in the world was the biggest industry watch these branches here folks sometimes they'll reach right in and again 180 190 years ago cigar was the biggest business on the island made some very wealthy Folks at that time 180 190 years ago we had over 160 cigar factories here on the I I just there's no end to my obstacles today I'm sorry I got another one here in front of me I got to figure out what to do be with me a minute make a turn here get around it I always say if this job was easy anybody can do it going to make it happen so again 180 190 years ago there were over 160 cigar factories right here in the island they were producing whoops big bump I didn't hear I didn't feel that one coming sorry sorry it's not a street I normally get on they were using Cuban tobacco the finest tobacco in the world and we were churning out over 100 million handhled cigars every year right here in the tiny Island you big big business but after the Great Fire of 1886 swept across the island here it burnt down a whole bunch of those factories and that industry did not survive here instead it pulled up and moved up near Tampa Florida to a little city called eore City where it remains today they're still sitting there hand rolling tobacco with the cigars oh went right the street that's right we'll figure it out I got maybe keeps getting worse no no I got it I got it I got it all right trying to get down to our cport we're almost there my phone the last one coming up on that street I'm not nor on one right by my street turn we'll be right back just head down towards the C4 a little stop down there little stop and go if anybody's looking to get off of the sea that's where most of the boats are on the island especially boats of take you out on the Sunset Cruise diving snorkeling fishing had a bunch of private yachts when the wealthy F come to town apart down there also a lot of good restaurants and bars down here and I'll get right back on track here in just a moment there's no a couple bumps right here as I go through this intersection this is one I travel regularly so be prepared right there then there's another one want to make the turn here all right couple more bumps here coming [Music] up all [Music] right only thing worse than a taxi driver is an Uber driver little more bumps here also talked earlier about the railroad coming here to Key West came down from Miami it was 154 miles of tracks They had to build they built 40 bridges over 140 Islands to get here it took them 8 years to build it before that you couldn't drive here no Bridges no highways you couldn't fly here no Airlines I Mead coming here changed everything again it took 8 years to build that last section but it only lasted for 23 years and the most powerful hurricane ever hit the United States with over 200 M winds RI through the keys here washed out 70 miles of the tracks and the bridges and it never recovered that was the end of the railroad here's our next stop it's a little stop and go in here anybody wants to get off at the harbor this will be your opportunity here little bust there again watch it Mr gab Mr Billy how you two doing all right quick little stop here anybody looking to jump off here at the harbor if you are here's your chance lot of good restaurants and bars all right here we go folks see you Billy we're going to head up by our Harbor right here hello there how are you good to see you you look great as usual if you were to pull up this little Street here 809 years ago look out in the water in front here you see five or 600 shrimping boats out here it was a big big business it was the biggest here on the island at that time we didn't even know we had shrimp here we saw their shrimping boats earlier I pointed out to you we have pink shrimp here they burrow down the sea Flor during the day only come out at night to see that's when all of our shrimping boats are out there looking for them those pink shrimp are on the menu of every restaurant here on the island and those pink shrimp have a different texture and a different taste from the shrimp from up with that I'm used to different texture and they have a little crab or Lobster flavor to them here I don't know quite what it is but a little different here I think I've learned to prefer it over time over here again we got a lot of bars a lot of restaurants one of the more famous bars right here on the right called Schooners War bar that white building there I know from here it looks like a nice place but let me tell you what you get around the other side you can see it's a total dive they still have dirt floors there for God's sake they call themselves the last little piece of Old Key West that did looks like it used to wonder why everybody liked it so much it is such a real dive but they do and I figured out why it's because they take their drinking real serious there they have happy hour there three times a day the first happy hour starts at 7:00 in the morning they call it the Breakfast Club over here on the left this was called The Red Door Saloon not that long ago notorious place frequented by Naval Sailors and fishermen alike and they don't care for each other very much it nickname back in the day was the bucket of blood everybody that injured the bucket of blood out there was Frisk at the front door for a weapon and if you didn't have a weapon they gave you one it was a rough place this is Caroline Street here made famous by Jimmy Buffett back in 1971 oh Jimmy Buffett was ran the room from a lady right over here at that point he was one step away from homeless used to sit here on the streets and play his guitar and sing for coins wasn't doing too good old Jimmy Buffett actually got caught shoplifting Twinkies a little cuan B used to be right up here on the right but the's gone now so is Jimmy he swore he'd come back and pay for those twees but I do believe he forgot yeah this is Caroline Street he wrote a song about Caroline Street called woman gone crazy on Caroline Street said was about his landlord at the time 1502 200 years ago the wealthiest folks on the island lived right here on Carolina Street including the wealthiest of them all Mr William Curry he was the first are in the state of Florida 200 years ago did quite well for himself Mr Curry's family had immigrated from Scotland to the Bahamas over 200 years ago over 200 years ago Mr William Curry all alone at the tender age of 16 immigrated from the Bahamas here to Key West looking for work became the wealthiest man on the island and the first millionaire in the State of Florida did quite well and his descendants still live here on the island today and know one of them personally coming up on the right is Mr Curry what was his big mansion today it's a museum and a fancy hand youate stand right here at the curry Mansion think house deeper than it is wide it's quite quite nice actually we had to cross over new mall on the right over there is the B I mentioned to you before up on the rooftop there's the Garden of Eden that to is uh as I told you I encourage you go and take a look but I warned you you cannot see those things and there's their advertisement right there you can take these more discreet steps if you like all the way to the top nobody even know you're up there on the left over here this house belonged to Mr Kenny Chesney he bought that house he lived in it for like a full week he wanted to be down here near his buddy Jimmy Buffett when he bought the house and moved in the very next day they're back hanging on his front door like hey Kenny Kenny can I get your autograph Kenny he hated that put the house on the market the same week and moved away still comes here four or five times a year to record a Jimmy Buffett secret recording studio that everybody knows about on the left over here is the original home of PanAm Airlines Pan American World Airways remember them they were a big Airline back in the 40s 50s 60s 7s 80s got their start in that building right there the original flights were SE PL flights out of Ky West to Havana Cuba round trip tickets were $24 up in front of me there's a replica of the recers tower that's attached to the Shipwreck Museum if you ENT the museum you go all the way to top that Tower as you folks up there look out over the coral reform back over the island here anybody that might be interested I have discount coupons I can give you just come see me on the right of here's the John oton house famous painter of Birds inside on display are 14 of his original hand colored prints the birds of Florida part of his larger collection and book the birds of America we're back in mallerie square where I started cruise ship is right over here between the buildings here I'm going to pull in mallerie square come to a stop here in a moment there's the ship oh my Jamaican friend over here he's really good on that steel drum but usually so high he doesn't even know he's [Music] nearing I guess Square comes in two parts I'm pull up into the little shopping area where I have a designated parking spot here and right out in front of me is Valerie Square proper I don't know if everybody's on the cruise ship but if you're not you're here tonight get out here an hour before Sunset we have our Sunset celebration every single night get out there an hour before Sunset there'll be over a thousand people there'll be acrobats performers musicians mentors artists it's all free we've been voted the fourth most beautiful sunset in the entire world this is the a place to see it right here you can watch sunset set behind this island over here that's called Sunset key that's where the Uber Rich Live old Oprah Winfrey had or has a house out there nobody's quite sure she don't want anybody to know Timmy Buffett used to have a house out there Kenny chesy and other people that don't want you to know they're there exclusive isin I'm pulling up here in front of that ship R Museum this will be the end of our time together now if anybody would like to continue on right this very moment walk right between these buildings right here the next train leaving is right out here on the street all day long the next train leaving will be parked right there you have any questions for me my name is Steve you're to call and see me thanks spend a little time with me on the con train and have a very very good time while [Applause] you're [Music] and people that got

Channel: Adventure Tastic

Views: 11,870

Keywords: Ride, Tour, best places to visit in key west, best things to do in key west, best things to do in key west florida, fun things to do in key west, fun things to do in key west fl, going to key west florida, key west, key west fl, key west fl travel, key west florida, key west things to do, key west travel guide, key west vlog, keywest, point, things to do in key west, things to do in key west florida, traveling to key west, visiting key west

Id: OihNk1mB0ag

Length: 68min 8sec (4088 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 05 2024