We arrived in Key West - again!

After leaving Titusville FL and spending a night on a parking lot of a Wal-Mart in Florida-City, we arrived in the Florida Keys.
And this is now the breathtaking, turquoise color of the Gulf of Mexico in the Keys! Every time I see it it's more overwhelming for me - it is so beautiful and the colors are real my friends and no Photoshop at all! It IS that beautiful!!!

Driving over the Seven-Mile-Bridge is always very impressiv,
to the left the is the deep blue Atlantic and on the other site the turqouise blue
Gulf of Mexico.
To the right you can see some of the old Seven-Mile-Bridge.

After a 150 miles drive from the mainland you'll arrive in Key West and you will see this welcome sign entering the island.

And of course, our first stop was on Memorial Beach to "suck in" the beauty of this carribean island! :)

The next morning we got up early again to see the stunning sunrise in Key West. And we were not the only one there. As you can see it in the picture, there were some "love birds" already enjoying each other in the rising sunlight. :)

I know now how beautiful sunrises are!

Morning has broken.... what a beautiful morning!

And there were also "other birds" enjoying the warm sunbeams.

We are now visiting good old friends here in Key West, that's why I'm able to post some pictures again to share with you all the beauty. Thank you Susan (my best friend in Key West!) for your great hospitality!!

I will show you later maybe more photos about this little crazy island Key West - I did a lot of them....LOL... they will be good picture material for my next book. :)

The New Bridge in Charleston

The Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge,
also known as the Cooper River Bridge,

is a cable-stayed bridge over the Cooper River in South Carolina, connecting downtown Charleston to Mount Pleasant. The eight lane bridge satisfied the capacity of U.S. Highway 17 when it opened in 2005 to replace two obsolete cantilever truss bridges. The bridge has a main span of 1,546 feet (471 m), the longest among cable-stayed bridges in the Western Hemisphere. It was built using the design-build method and was designed by Parsons Brinckerhoff.



Read more about here

The Old 7 Miles Bridge - Pigeon Key

Pigeon Key - Cayo Paloma

On old Spanish charts, Pigeon Key was known as Cayo Paloma (dove or white pigeon). Many believe this 5.31-acre island located beneath the Old Seven Mile Bridge, just west of Marathon, was named after the white-crowned pigeon of the Florida Keys.

Nobody had much use for Pigeon Key until Henry Flagler needed it to complete the Seven Mile Bridge, which was part of the Florida East Coast Railroad . At that time, the bridge was known as "Knights Key-Pigeon Key-Moser Channel-Pacet Channel Bridge".

Work began on the island in the spring of 1909, and by the beginning of 1912, it held four bunkhouses, each designed to hold 64 men; an engineering/office building, which also held sleeping quarters for the men who worked there; and numerous tents set up over wooden floors on stilts for the laborers. Food was good and plentiful and strict cleanliness was the law.

Originally, the design for the portion of the Seven Mile Bridge in the Pigeon Key area called for it to be a rock-filled causeway, as the water in the area was shallow enough to build it that way. Of course, the final decision was to make the entire span a bridge.

When the railroad was completed all the way to Key West in 1912, Pigeon Key was transformed from a construction camp into a bridge tender maintenance camp. Some of the original buildings were replaced with more permanent structures, some of them homes. In an attempt to attract and keep more married personnel, a school was opened in 1923. A post office was established the same year and remained open for 10 years. After the Labor Day hurricane of 1935, Pigeon Key became the southern base for rescue, relief, and evacuation operations.

As a result of the damage to the Overseas Railroad caused by the 1935 hurricane, the railroad bridges were transformed to the roadbed for part of the new Overseas Highway . Pigeon Key was headquarters for the construction of this roadway, which was a toll road until 1954. After the tollbooths were dismantled, land title for Pigeon Key was transferred to Monroe County.

In 1960, Hurricane Donna damaged two of the buildings so much that it was decided to burn them down. A few years later, the University of Miami leased the land for a marine biology project. This lease was cancelled in 1987.

In 1992, the Pigeon Key Foundation was formed as a joint venture between the Monroe County Environmental Education Task Force and the Mote Marine Laboratory of Sarasota, Florida, and a 30-year lease was granted. Today, seven historic structures remain alongside a few more structures added over the years.

A multi-use educational and meeting facility is housed in the restored Section Gang's Quarters. PKF offices are located in the Assistant Paint Foreman's House. The Assistant Bridge Tender's House now serves as a museum dedicated to the railway and early highway history. The Bridge Worker's Dorm and Negro Quarters have been restored and are used as sleeping quarters. The rest of the historic buildings and the additional structures have all been restored.

The Pigeon Key Foundation, a non-profit organization, has transformed this island and its buildings into a world-class educational center; a place to teach visitors about the splendor of the cultural and natural resources of the Florida Keys, and a nationally recognized concert and event location.

Read more about Pigeon Key here: http://www.floridakeys.com/marathon/pigeonkey.htm

A short Trip up to Marathon

Yesterday we took a short trip up to Marathon and stopped here and there on the way. This picture shows a inviting privat beach scene at Geiger Key.


Gestern haben wir einen kleinen Ausflug gemacht, die Keys hinauf bis nach Marathon. Wir hielten an diversen netten Orten, wie an diesem kleinen, sehr einladenden Beach auf Geiger Key.




Most everybody dreams of having a little island like this for their own privat getaway. Do you? It's right here in the Keys, come and get it.


Soviele traeumen von einer eigenen Insel wie diese hier. Gehoerst auch Du dazu? Sie ist hier in den Key's, die Insel deiner Traeume!

This is a view out from the car of the 7-Mile-Bridge who is connecting Big Pine Key and Marathon together. Between is nothing than water, water, water.... to the left the emerald green water of the Gulf of Mexico on the other side the deep blue of the Atlantic Ocean.

Dies ist die 7-Meilen-Bruecke, welche Big Pine Key verbindet mit Marathon. Dazwischen liegt zur linken Seite das jadegruene Wasser vom Golf von Mexico und auf der andern Seite das tiefblaue Meer des Atlantischen Ozeans.

Almost there..... Marathon is just some miles away and visible already.

Bald sind wir dort, nur noch ein paar Meilen zu fahren, Marathon ist bereits in Sichtweite.

This is the view on the way back home to Key West: the old 7 Mile-bridge on the right and the new bridge to the left in the sparkling late afternoon sunshine.

Auf der Heimfahrt wieder nach Key West sieht man rechts die alte, nicht mehr befahrene 7-Meilen-Bruecke und links die neue Strasse im glitzernden Abendsonnenschein.

If you would like to buy one or all of these pictures please drop me an email about prices and sizes to

susanne49@yahoo.com