Key Largo……a Bogart kind of day

   Day 7 began with our journey north to the last key on our list to visit, Key Largo. Darlene and I left the resort and headed 40 miles north. We stopped at a south Florida chain for breakfast. CAO which stands for Cuban American Original. It is a cafe and bakery combining cousines from both countries. Darlene got a Spinach Empanada, I got a Beef Empanada and we split a Chocolate Eclair. We also had two very good cups of coffee. I would recommend stopping here if you are in the area.

   We finished brunch and looked around Key Largo. We stopped at a souvenir shop called Shell World. This is a large store with mostly local unique gifts from the area. My wife is a talented craftsman and was looking specifically for ideas to paint oyster shells. The store was interesting and I thought unusual.

   Our next stop was the Carribean Club. If you are like me, a Humphrey Bogart fan or a movie buff, you find places like this interesting. This is the spot where most of the 1948 hit movie, Key Largo was filmed. The picture starred Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Edward G Robinson, Lionel Barrymore, and Claire Trevor in her oscar winning role. The movie had a two story hotel with the downstairs lounge where the scenes were filmed. There were also a few scenes shot upstairs in a couple of the rooms. The building is not original due to 2 different hurricanes. One storm took out the upstairs in 1956 and the second hurricane completely wiped out the rest of the building in 1965. However the docks out back are the same ones that were there at the time of filming.  There are many photos and memorabilia all around the place now. A remarkable fact is before the 1948 movie, the town of Key Largo’s name was Rock Harbor. The name was changed to Key Largo in 1952 after public pressure to change the name.

   The next stop was one we booked and paid for including tips back in April. The second part of a Bogart kind of day. We had booked a ride on The African Queen. Yes the real one from the 1951 movie starring Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn.

The boat was built in 1912 and really was used as a mail runner on a river in Uganda. John Huston bought the boat, the rights to the screenplay and directed the movie. He insisted it be filmed in Africa on a river in Uganda. The real reason as we learned on this excursion was he wanted to go elephant hunting with his buddy, Ernest Hemingway. Turns out Katherine Hepburn wanted to go to. Hemingway crashed landed his airplane entering the airport and injured his head and couldn’t go on the hunt. Bogart did not hunt and only wanted to drink scotch. So Huston, Hepburn, and a few of the crew went elephant hunting.

   Captain Scott was in charge of this trip and Darlene and I were the only passengers. Very friendly that way. We pulled out and followed the canal looking at the large yachts and houses. We listened to the captains orations about each. It turns out the property values start at approximately one million a bedroom. We left Largo canal and entered the Gulf of America. We did not go out far, but got a good history of the Queen and her two trips around the world and her many owners. Captain Scott showed us a scrapbook full of old pictures from the movie’s filming and had us recreate some scenes, making our own memories and pictures.

  The day was so interesting and filled with fun seeing and learning about Key Largo and my favorite movie actor. I now have more “useless knowledge” as my wife calls it about movies, sports, and trivia.

   We headed to supper and went to The Fish House. It seems anywhere we travel, we find just how small a world we live in. Here we are in Key Largo at dinner time some 800 miles from our hometown and we run into Darlene’s friends from when she went to work at her current job some 8 years ago. She had not seen Sandy and her family or talked to her in months. Yet, that far from home, at the same time, and at the same restaurant out of many, we park right next to them. We enjoyed visiting with them. The Fish House is a restaurant I highly recommend. The food was delicious. We shared a smoked Fish Dip and a fried Seafood Platter consisting if Grouper, Clam Strips, Oysters, Shrimp, and Scallops. All of it was excellent.

   We stopped and purchased a few t shirts and headed back to the resort and got back just in time to see our last beach sunset before leaving tomorrow. Check back here in a day or so to hear about Little Havana and South Beach in Miami before our midnight flight home.