"These objects were visible..." ~ Jane Eyre

There are over 200 photos of Key West taken between me and my father! I chose 50 I wanted to share on my blog, but placing them all together seemed like it would be too time consuming and too long. Hence, I am dividing the photos up into categories; I shall post a set once a week! I wanted to start with images that struck me during the trip, mainly artistic images. There were so many amazing works of art and amazing designs in Key West. The following images dazzled me the most. The text for each photo is below each frame.

It is no surprise that this statue of a matador and a bull sits in Papa Hemingway's home! It was on his coffee table in the living room. Although I have read many manuscripts and seen many photos of Hemingway as an aficionado of bull fighting, seeing an actual 3-d image of his was awe-inspiring. I would like to think that this is a model of Pedro Romero.

These bathroom tiles are located in Papa Hemingway's master bathroom! I loved them. If you look closely, you can see fish in one set of tiles and birds in another. It seems like the perfect decor for a bathroom in Key West, and even more perfect for a man who wrote about one big fish.

Mario Sanchez is a celebrated artist who is a native of Key West. His work is in the form of painted woodcarvings. We saw a beautiful exhibit in the Custom's House. Sanchez's work mainly consists of carving and painting everyday street scenes in old Key West. This is a study of a piece called "Jack's Crawfish." Yes, I took the photo because it is Jack's name, too! Jack is the best name. Ever.

One of the delicious restaurants we ate at is Alice's. She is an amazing chef with a wonderful breakfast menu. On this particular morning when this photo was taken, my dad and I ate "Baby Bennies," which are half an eggs benedict with fresh fruit! This piece of art was above the entryway to Alice's kitchen. If you look closely, you can see a house in the pan. HOME COOKING! It doesnt take much of a play on words to impress this English teacher.

This wooden crab was part of an exhibit on folk art of Key West, located in the Custom's House. What a beautiful carving. Of course this is not the best image of a crab that I ever saw on a vacation. When J.Sarah and I were in San Fran, I took shots of the hundreds of soft shell crabs lined up in vendor's carts in Fisherman's Wharf. Mmmm. My father and I ate many a crabcake in Key West.

This was the bathroom door in Blue Heaven Restaurant. The entire door was covered in hand painted hearts. I thought it nice that someone took the time to decorate it, as well as the rest of the bathroom. I enjoyed looking at all of the artwork in Blue Heaven (more on that later).

My father took this shot. It highlights his incredible artistry as a photographer. This was a gift store next to the dock we left from on a glass bottom boat ride. I love the colors in this photo. Both my father and I are parrotheads, so this shot is rather apropos.

There was a beautiful home being restored by our hotel. This fountain, which has a Mermaid as its center, was beautifully tiled in white and blue. I thought I did a better job at taking the photo, but there was a fence in the way and it was hard to get the camera lens in. Still, there is some detail visible and you can see a dolphin as well.

This is a *manatee* mailbox that homeowners made! It is pretty much life size, and oh so cute! This naked manatee made me think of...well, the naked manatee and his blog of mirth!