Make reservations to secure an outdoor table. On the southwest side of Whitehead is Bahama Village, where Blue Heaven resides in a one-time bordello and site of boxing matches refereed by Hemingway himself. From there, glide by Casa Antigua at 314 Simonton Street, the former Ford dealership where Hemingway and his wife, Pauline, once awaited a car, then head south on Whitehead and you can’t miss Hemingway’s Spanish colonial villa, where “To Have and Have Not” was written. A writer’s compound at 713 Windsor Lane has a plaque boasting yet another Pulitzer Prize-winning poet laureate, Richard Wilbur, and the “Invisible Man” author Ralph Ellison, among others, and the poet-illustrator Shel Silverstein lived nearby at 620 William. Head next to 624 White, the former home of Elizabeth Bishop, poet laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner, and take Southard to 709 Baker’s Lane, where James Leo Herlihy of “Midnight Cowboy” held court. From there, follow White Street to 1431 Duncan Street, the house of Tennessee Williams. Call WeCycle, for example, and they’ll deliver a rental cruiser or tandem bike ($10 to $17) to the Casa Marina resort, where the Pulitzer-winning poets Stevens and Robert Frost debated poetics over conch chowder. Hemingway wasn’t the only writer drawn to the island, prompting the poet Wallace Stevens to state in the 1930s, “Key West, unfortunately, is becoming rather literary and artistic.” Arlo Haskell, executive director of the Key West Literary Seminar, suggests a self-guided bicycle tour of author abodes, though out of respect for current owners, please don’t knock. You may also find that, in Key West, everyone feels like a kid. Dip beneath the surface in the Conch Republic, and you’ll find something for everyone in the family. This historic allure persists in the decades of memorabilia on saloon walls, “conch-style” homes inhabited by famous writers and the never-ending diversion of the omnipresent pale-blue sea. The writer’s favorite pastimes in the 1930s - catching big fish, eating well and drinking hard - still define the island’s appeal today. … Got tight last night on absinthe and did knife tricks.” Now as then, Florida’s southernmost key offers the delights of a tropical paradise matched by spectacular night life. “Flowers, tamarind trees, guava trees, coconut palms. Seriously, Key West is not a day trip…but what a day trip! We fly many charters there just for the day.“It’s the best place I’ve ever been any time, anywhere,” Ernest Hemingway wrote of Key West. Visitors can’t get enough of Ernest Hemingway’s house (home of the five-toed cats), Dry Tortugas National Park (probably the prettiest water in all of the United States), and Mel Fisher’s Treasure Museum (a golden experience). Of course, there are also jet ski outings, parasailing, kayaking and all that fun outdoor stuff, but there’s so much more on Key West. Key West is definitely a party town, and the partying starts on their main drag, Duval Street, which is dotted with quaint shops and island-inspired B & Bs. There are also more unique bars here with their own history than just about anywhere else in the country, from Captain Tony’s (immortalized by Jimmy Buffett in “Last Mango in Paris”) to Sloppy Joe’s to Margaritaville. Sunrises and sunsets are both amazing on this little island.