Hernandez Casa
sunrise
KeyWestStreets
Chickens Everywhere
John Sylvia Hernandez
Keys of Florida, New Friends and Monsters
Tuesday – Saturday, January 22-26,2019
Ty and I have had a pretty typical life for those who grew up in the 50’s – grew up in middle America with a middle American way of life. We basically had it pretty easy, never really wanting for much, had loving parents and grew up in big Catholic families. Our biggest claim to fame is we grew up in Detroit. So, when we meet new people, we love to hear other people stories – that is why we liked the Anthem Gourmet Club, not so much for the meals but for the stories that people brought to the table of their lives, their adventures. And our stay with John and Sylvia Hernandez has been 3 wonderful days of listening to their story, which is a story of love, hard work, starting new roots, and loving America.
How we met: John and Sylvia are the parents of John Paul Hernandez (wife Jess) and Scotty Nichols (Amy’s husband) are best of friends. John Paul has been telling us for years that we would love his parents and when he heard of our great adventure, he arranged that we should meet up at Christmas which we did. Leaving Melbourne and starting our way to the Keys I called Sylvia and she invited us to stay with them while we explored this area. And that is where this story begins…
John and Sylvia are both Cuban immigrants during the Cuban Exodus when Castro willingly let those who wanted to leave Cuba go uninhibited and the US under Jimmy Carter took them in. Thousands of Cubans took advantage and fled with the clothes on their backs and not much else. While John and Sylvia did not know each other at the time, both of their parents were able to flee and eventually land in Miami. For both of the parents, the remaking of their lives with their children was difficult but they are true survivors and it is this event that has made John and Sylvia the wonderful people with a true grit story. Both of them have their own story of growing up in a new land. And both of them readily admit to their love for the US is unimaginable. I could go on about all the stories they told – think I will do that another time. We had a great talk about “accents”.
Thank you, John and Sylvia, for opening your beautiful most comfortable home to us while we toured the Keys and for the great meals and stories.
Key West is much more than a party town as it is rich with history of the “Wreckers” who preyed on ship wrecks rescuing those on the ships but took the cargo. There is also plenty of pirate stories, arrrr mates. Key West is home to “The Little White House” where Harry S Truman came for 175 days (not consecutively) while he was President. Side Note: Truman middle name is just a S. Other Presidents have visited, but it was Truman who was the most frequent visitor. Then went to the Mel Fisher museum, the most famous of treasure hunters, whose 15 years of searching for the Atocha, a Spanish ship that went down in the Key area in 1622 with thousands and thousands of dollars in gold, jewelry, gems, etc. paid off. Quaint colorful town with chickens and roosters everywhere. We didn’t make it to the Hemingway house, I understand there are still a lot of cats also roaming around.
While the weather hasn’t been all that great (least it is not snowing!) John and Sylvia live on Duck Key and they took us around the key in their boat. Duck Key is the only key that had canals dredged in the 50’s so people could have boats docked by their homes and be accessible to the ocean. The making of canals on any of the keys is now prohibited. For lunch we went to Marathon Key at a Jamaican Food Truck – fish tacos to die for and Ty had the pork ribs. This food truck was located in the back of a very colorful fresh fruit market which even had papaya laded trees all around. Off to the local fish market to buy some fresh fish for dinner – I had better go take a run.
BEAST IN PARADISE
Anthem has bunnies that are a nuisance and Duck Key has these monster lizards that eat everything in sight. They are BIG, can get up to 2-3 feet long and weigh in at 15lbs, are fast on their short squat limbs and they can climb up on things. We saw 2 sitting on a fence while we were boating. Last night I woke up in the middle of the night with one in our bedroom scurrying around dragging his belly on the floor. I woke up Ty and said “Did you hear that?” Response: “Huh, no, its the bed” I said “No Ty that, did you hear it? It’s one of those lizards!!” I push Ty out of bed as a sacrifice to the beast and what does Ty do? He closes the door leading out to the porch. Turns out it was only wind rocking a chair on the porch – hence the scrapping noise. Ty’s my hero – it was all a dream.
Off Bike Shopping Again
Time for us to depart on Saturday, have to go back to Miami to find a bike for Ty so we can ride in the Everglades then onto Naples for fun with brother Will and sis-n-law Pam for the next week or so.