Key West - Day 2

Today I'll share some highlights from our second day in Key West which included a morning talk about our 33rd president, Harry S. Truman.  I know I passed the American history courses I had to take the last two years of high school.  History was something I enjoyed - at least until we reached American history in the 1850's.  Then my interest began to wane as we learned about the Civil War, resurfaced off and on until the World Wars, and then went to sleep from the Korean Conflict on.  So I guess it isn't really a surprise that I've forgotten what I memorized to pass the exams.  Anyway, I was fascinated with this lecture (yes, it's really me writing this!) most of which was new to me.  I tried to keep in mind that I was listening to someone whose job it was to show Truman as a model president, but the speaker did make a good case in the little time he had.  

After the lecture, we were taken on a walk down to the harbor for a cruise on the schooner Appledore II.  Unfortunately, I don't have a good photo of the ship because I couldn't get far enough away from it to take a photo without falling in the water.  I didn't feel like doing that even though the temperature was such that it might have felt good.

These are the pictures from the cruise started with proof that I was at least on the schooner:

View off the starboard bow.

 

These next photos are only two of many, many pictures I took of the sails.  They were so beautiful against the blue sky.

The coils of rope - we watched as the crew wrapped these very carefully.  They started over several times until they were satisfied they'd done it correctly.  Makes me think of the spools of my embroidery thread; wish the crew would wrap them neatly for me!

Parasailers in the distance - 

 and a shrimp trawler.

A sailboat and a channel marker:

This second set of photos you see here are from the harbor as we wandered around starting with a sail boat.

The Coast Guard -

The harbor -

D loitering.

Love the reflections:

All of these are wonderful reminders of our trip, but none of these make me want to paint as is.  I mean, think about it, a watercolor painting with all these white boats?  And the boats are so pretty and clean and . . . . not my style.  

I found some that I would definitely paint, but you won't see those photos for a few days.