This is a picture of where I stayed on my 2001 vacation in Key West, Florida. Key West is the southernmost city in the continental United States, and the second oldest city in the country. It is a laid back town with a very dark past, and many, many cool people to meet and things to see. Shops range from the "Pelican Poop Shoppe" that deals in typical tourist desires, to the unnamed shops that sell everything from bongs to tarot decks, to runes.

A Troubled Past - Key West was originally the home of a tribe of indians retreating from the violent Seminoles. In a bloody massacre, the entire tribe was destroyed save for the few that fled 90 miles south to present day Cuba. When the first Spanish ships arrived, they noted intricate patterns of bones on the ground, bones in the trees, and just bones in general. They mistook this for a burial ground rather than an old battlefield, and named it "Bone Island", which if slightly mispelled (as the case was), can be translated into English as "Key West". Key West was known as a haven for pirates, and a very poor settlement up until the time that it came into the United States. After a railroad was built connecting the mainland to the island, it began to grow rather quickly, espeically because of its location for the United States Navy. Key West is home to stories of hauntings, necrophiliacs, and murder. One bar owner even has a skeleton (actually made of three bodies) hanging in his establishment, as well as a room with headstones still in the walls and the old Key West hanging tree going through the roof (Yes, Captain Tony is a strange fellow...) So if any of you are interested in a city with more stories than a building full of aging veterans, this is where you need to go!