It's A Haigood Life!: The Southernmost Point in the Continental U.S.!

Looks like I need to catch up on the blog about our travels! We are doing well and moving into more of a routine since Alan has seminars almost every Saturday now for awhile. Last month, we made it to the Southernmost point in the continental U.S. - Key West!

We took a quick 2 day trip down because it is very expensive to stay down there (and it is hard to find a vacancy in the winter as well). We also needed to get up north for Alan's scheduled seminars. We stayed at Sugarloaf Key and drove one day down into Key West which was only around 20-30 minutes away. There are tons of trolley tours available around town, but we decided to tour the area on foot instead. After all, walking is free...and boy, did we do A LOT of walking!

I realized that often times on the blog, I try to post those "picture perfect" photos where everyone is looking at the camera, smiling, standing up still, etc. I finally have resigned to the fact that with a family of four boys, most of the time, well- it just ain't gonna happen!!! We are a normal family with normal boys who like to be silly! And- sometimes, my boys just get sick of posing for just another photo! So- this post has many examples of my boys in front of the camera in real life moments:)

Below are a series of pictures at the southernmost point. You see, my boys realized that behind the big marker (from the picture above) is the actual southernmost point. They all decided to try to be the one who was the farthest out. Therefore...the wrestling match and competition began...

As you can see, Caleb just gave up and just sat down in a slump, Joshua was not happy either, and Nathanael was still trying his best to squeeze out past Micah. Oh well!

You want to know what is really funny? After this episode, the boys looked over and noticed that there was actually land farther out than where we were. It turns out that just southwest of this area is the southernmost point on the island of Key West, but it is owned by the U.S. Navy so civilian tourists are not allowed to visit. And- the actual southernmost point in the continental U.S. is a privately owned island where they strictly prohibit unauthorized visitors. So...this famous buoy marker is actually not located at the southernmost point in the continental U.S.! Apparently, this "buoy" was originally an old sewer junction that was dug up and ended up being too heavy to move. So- they just painted it to look like a buoy!!

There are many things to see and do around town including Ernest Hemingway's home, the historic White House where some U.S. presidents have stayed, Mallory Square, and Fort Zachary Taylor. We caught a few of these, some just from walking by and not actually going inside. We captured a few photos along the way.

Mile Marker ZERO! How cool is that?!

This was an interesting tree with roots everywhere! I took this picture quickly because there were people waiting to see the tree and so I think it was before my boys were actually ready (and they were just being silly again of course!)

Aww...showing brotherly love:) I'm glad I got a picture of that!

This store had shells everywhere! One of the boys thought it was funny that people would buy shells when you could get them for free at the beach near by!

We had heard that there are lots of chickens and roosters just wandering around Key West! We saw several that day. One mamma hen had all of her little chicks with her. Cute:)

This is a beautiful lighthouse, isn't it? We didn't go inside, but I just thought it was worth the picture.

In the afternoon, we toured Fort Taylor (named after President Zachary Taylor). In response to the War of 1812, the United States started building fortresses to defend the nation's coastlines. This fort defended the waters around Key West, the Straits of Florida, and the Gulf of Mexico. It was used in four wars and was decommissioned in 1947, although it did have brief use in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis. It actually took over 20 years to finish the fort, due to disease, hurricanes, and lack of materials.

This cannon was used during the Civil War. The plaque says it had a range up to 3000 yards!

The stairs up to the top were steep and narrow. Joshua decided to crawl up them just to be safe:)

Can you tell what this is in the picture below??

When I told the boys that this area of the fort was called the "Tidal Flush Latrines" it took them a moment to figure it out. As you can see from Nathanael's reaction in the photo...they thought that was pretty gross! Interesting...but gross!

After a long day of walking, it was time to see the beach at last! The boys were SO excited! We finally made it to the Atlantic Ocean! The beach was a bit rocky, but the boys enjoyed digging in the sand and taking a dip in the water. It was a beautiful day!

My boys were enjoying the ocean, when I noticed a couple walking on the beach all dressed up! They were getting their wedding pictures taken that day!

Then, it hit me...it was Valentine's Day! I had almost forgotten about it! We had made our plans to be in Key West that day just because it fit our schedule. We had been so busy recently that we really didn't plan anything like we usually do. So- I told Alan..."You can say you took your wife to Key West on Valentine's Day! Who can top that?! Ha ha!" So I asked our son, Micah to take some pictures of Mom and Dad on the beach to remember this Valentine's Day. Alan and I struck a romantic pose and of course I had to add the vignette...