Hello Key West

First tip when traveling to Key West: Buy gas on the mainland. It's as much as 40 cents per gallon more expensive here than back home.

Second tip: Don't take the parking space under the tree at the Southernmost Hotel thinking that it will give you some shade. It will do that. But most of what blocks the sun is the layer of bird poop that covers your car the next day.

More tips to come as the wisdom becomes available. In the meantime, here are some pictures I took my first morning here. I got out of bed before sunrise. Hey when your alarm has gone off before 3:30 a.m. every Monday since mid-August, you're not going to sleep til noon. Especially if you fell asleep before 8:30 the night before.

The idea was to try to catch the sunrise. But I hadn't scouted where I could go to see it beforehand. So I walked up and down empty Duval Street, the main tourist drag in town, trying to capture whatever caught my eye.

The moon was full. The Denny's here serves beer and wine. The lights stay on even after daylight dawns. "Bottoms up" has a different meaning at 7 a.m. than it does at 2 a.m. The cats are on guard.