Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/375259
24 w e s t w o r l d | f a l l 2 0 1 4 burns off the calories but gives my somewhat hedonistic exploration of the Keys a much- needed sense of integrity. Please Feed the Fishes The dollar bill décor is also in effect at The Hungry Tarpon in Islamorada, an hour east of Big Pine Key next to Robbie's Marina. In addition to dockside dining, fi shing and an arts and crafts market, where anything with a drinking joke is a big seller, the marina off ers one of the more unusual fi sh-feeding experi- ences. For a few bucks, I am led to the end of the dock, past mooching pelicans, fi shing boats and pirate paraphernalia, and given a bucket of bait. As I hold a tiny fish over the water, a school of silvery, prehistoric-looking creatures called tarpons begins to gather below the sur- face. In a fl ash, the ocean opens up as one of the fi ve-foot-long, gummy-mouthed sea beasts swallows my arm up to my elbow until I drop the bait down its slimy gullet. "Just don't forget to let go of the bait," one of Robbie's tarpon wranglers reiterates. No problem. I thought about this oddly intimate marine moment an hour later as I stared wistfully towards the mangroves from the waterfront patio of Zane Grey's Long Key Lounge, also in Islamorada. Located above a pro fi shing shop containing a full-scale replica of Hemingway's 38-foot wooden fishing boat the Pilar, the second-fl oor lounge pays tribute to the famed western author and avid outdoorsman who also called the Keys home for a time. e rod- and-gun-themed bar boasts walls of mounted fi sh, a stuff ed leopard, an antelope head, a col- lection of Grey's fi shing rods and reels, shelves of books and grainy black-and-white photos of Grey standing next to some of the largest, fi ercest-looking fi sh I've ever seen, including an 800-pound (362 kilograms) White Death Shark caught off the coast of Sidney in 1939 only months after Grey had suff ered a stroke. My tangle with a toothless tarpon suddenly doesn't seem so heroic. Bridge Over Placid Waters My wistful mood continues into the night as I kick back at the Sunset Grille in Marathon to enjoy one last margarita and watch the sunset from my perch at the foot of the his- toric Seven Mile Bridge. e aging structure, or what's left of it, was built between 1909 and 1912 as part of oil tycoon Henry Flagler's Overseas Railroad, which came to an infa- mous end on Labour Day in 1935 when a Category 5 hurricane destroyed a portion of the line and swept a railcar into the ocean, killing hundreds. The line was then refur- bished and used for automobile traffi c until the current Seven Mile Bridge was completed in the 1980s. Running parallel to its predecessor – and a tad shorter at almost 11 kilometres – the new bridge is already iconic and has been featured in a number of fi lms including License to Kill, True Lies and Mission Impossible II, along with numerous car commercials and episodes of Miami Vice. From the bar's patio, I take it all in: the sun slipping behind the horizon, the shimmering water lapping against the shore, a green iguana staring me down from the beach trail below. "Would you like another, sir?" asks the waitress in an accent I can't quite place. I feel the warm breeze off the ocean. Is that "Margaritaville" playing on the sound system? It has never sounded so good. Keys Disease is beginning to kick in. "Better not. I have a flight to catch tomor- row." W fl a-keys.com