Author: searcyf@mac.com

14 October 2019

For the last three days, I’ve been stopping in at Key West Books, a little hole-in-the-wall store on Fleming. The first day, I was browsing to see if they had any more local plant guides that I didn’t already own when I noticed a row of large volumes on the bottom shelf.

It was a 14 volume set of Wildflowers of North America by Ricketts. First, I either didn’t know the New York Botanical Garden published this set or I had forgotten they had. I asked the price and it was $675 for the 14.

I was intrigued but figured I had better things to do with my money. I told Sue, the owner, I would probably be back. When I got to the guest house, I checked Amazon and found Sue was missing volume 15 which is the cumulative index.

There were complete sets available on Amazon for $600 but that did not include tax and more importantly, shipping. The 15 volume set weighs 90 lbs.

I stopped in the next day and thumbed through a few of the volumes. Texas, for instance has two volumes of its very own. The plants are beautifully photographed and described and all the volumes seemed to be in good shape. All had been removed from library shelves and declassified.

Yesterday, while eating lunch at Louie’s Backyard, I told Nancy and Michel I had decided to purchase the set. I figured by the time I paid for shipping 90 lbs. of books, it was just as economical to buy them here, load them in the jeep and have them available to use immediately. Happy Birthday to me!

I stopped in and I’m sure Sue thought me some kind of nut until I told her I wanted to buy the set. She boxed them up (3 boxes) and I told her I had to go get the jeep. She gave me her phone number and said call her when I get close and she’d have them ready on the curb for me.

If you’ve ever been to Key West, you know the parking situation. When I left, there was nothing close to her store available. When I neared Duval, I called and she said she was ready.

Low and behold, there was a vacant parking space right in front of the store. We loaded and I then headed back to the guest house to try to find another parking space. I couldn’t believe it but my old space at the guest house had not been taken! I took that as a sign it was meant to be to buy the books.

I had no sooner gotten back into the room when I got a phone call from Sue. She was cleaning the shelf from where the books had come and discovered a pair of clip-on sunglasses. She asked if they were mine. They were. I had lost them the previous day (day 2 of 3 stops in the the store). Kismet!

I met Nancy and Michel at 6pm at The Saint. A store owner recommended it to them for happy hour. The Saint is a “new” boutique hotel on Eaton.

I got there early and was talking to the bartended and he said it was formerly the Southern Cross hotel. I knew the name – it had an entrance from Duval back then – and it was sleazy as could be. It was mostly a flop house. No more!

He also said prior to being the Southern Cross, it was at one time the oldest hospital in Key West. He said a lot of people had come in to have a drink over the past five years simply because they had been born in the hospital and wanted to see the place they were born.

I highly recommend The Saint and their happy hour. The place is done up right and everyone is extremely friendly.

After one too many martinis, I followed Michel and Nancy to Mallory Square for sunset. We made it exactly on time. However, the square was not very busy and there weren’t as many “acts” as before. Nor was the bagpiper there to play “Amazing Grace” at sunset.

Nancy knew of a place for dinner called Two Friends. Live entertainment and oysters on the half shell. To be honest, I was blown away by the quality of the food. The conch fritters were perfectly done (and better than at Louie’s Back Yard) and the oysters were the small ones I like so well with excellent taste. Too often the big oysters are tasteless to me.

We all decided we were too tired to walk to hour guest houses so we took Uber. I was in bed by 8:30 pm and asleep a few minutes after.

I woke at 3:15 am to make sure the rooster was on the job. He was late this morning. I’ll head home sometime before 11 am. It’s been a great trip!

13 October 2019

For the last three mornings I’ve awakened around 3:45 am. The first morning, I thought I was hearing someone’s alarm in the guest house. I finally got up to pee and then tried to track down the direction of the sound. It wasn’t a guest’s alarm. It was a rooster that sounded like he was missing some rooster parts – a very soprano crow!

Key West used to be famous for Hemingway’s six toed cats. You don’t hear or read much about them these days. What you do see and hear a lot are roosters – very early in the morning. The rooster has become the unofficial mascot of the city.

You can find them on t-shirts, see them in paintings, statuary, ceramics, and mostly underfoot. It’s gotten to where chickens are everywhere and even slowing traffic on Duval – maybe not a bad thing.

Blue Heaven is a restaurant famous for the chickens roaming the courtyard where they serve food. Not particularly sanitary but certainly entertaining. I even took Rocky there once and he was fascinated by chickens running around underfoot of the wait staff.

I don’t have a real beef with chickens. Both grandfathers raised them and one participated in the sport of chicken fighting – illegal then and now in Mississippi. What I do have a problem with is their inability to tell time.

Three forty-five am is a little early, even for roosters. He’s the only one in the neighborhood that goes off at that time. All the other roosters respectfully wait until an hour before dawn.

What I have noticed is most of the chickens in Key West seem to be bantams. When I first noticed them years ago, they were the full-size version of chickens but they seem to be overtaken by the bantam variety.

There were a few people in my hometown of Morton that had bantam chickens. The one thing I remembered about them is they roosted in trees, not hen houses. That and you would have to eat three of their eggs to make one of a regular hen.

Last night we had dinner at Azur. I think I mentioned Tom Green introduced me to this restaurant a few years back and it continues to deliver on good food.

We shared a grilled octopus appetizer that was tender and spot on. I had a pork tenderloin that was perfectly cooked and served with a veal reduction. I convinced Nancy and Michel to share an espresso panna cotta with me. It’s fast becoming one of my favorite deserts.

I saw them off for the evening in an Uber car and headed the short distance back to the guest house.

Tomorrow we plan to explore and shop more of Key West, have lunch at Louie’s Back Yard, and then take in the sunset at Mallory Square. Too soon Monday will come and we make our way back to the routine of Fort Lauderdale.

I’ve been coming to Key West since the early 80’s. My original trip down was over the old seven mile bridge. I remember gripping the steering wheel very tightly while meeting a semi coming toward me at 10 at night with maybe two inches between as we met on that bridge. That’s one inch between my old truck and the semi and one inch between my truck and the guard rail.

The reason the fit was so tight is the old seven mile bridge (and all the old bridges of the Keys) were modified railroad bridges. They only built them wide enough for a single locomotive. All the highway department did was pave the bridge and add guard rails.

Old Town has certainly changed. It’s become more gentrified and sedate. It makes for better sleeping when the roosters are quiet but it takes away from some of the wildness that made the city fun. You still have some of the local character color and there’s always a drunk staggering out of some bar, but it’s become a town mostly for cruise ship passengers to disembark and walk Duval for the t-shirt shops. Not quite the Key West of The Copa, the Monster, and all the wild night clubs.

My preference is to get off Duval and explore the rest of Old Town. You’ll find the prices in restaurants one block off Duval cheaper and better. The architecture away from Duval gets a little kinkier and individualistic, and the people who live here will often greet you instead of snubbing you on Duval.

No matter how much the town changes, it still has that mystique, that allure, that peculiarity that makes you want to come back again and again.

I think we’ve decided we’re going to make this an annual tradition for us to celebrate our three birthdays. Any excuse to return.

By the by, still no news about the death at the guest house. The Citizen, the local newspaper, hasn’t updated their web site nor has there been any internet news about it.

12 October 2019

The massage was great! Ninety minutes of sheer bliss. Richard was the licensed massage therapist and he had great hands and fingers. I had more knots than I thought and he found them all. I’ll definitely go back there my next trip to the Keys. The spa is very well done and has a full range of spa services.

I apologized to Richard for showing up sweaty and he said no worry – part of the territory of Key West when the temperature is in the high 80’s. He said people have shown up for massages after a day at the beach with sand all over them.

It was a sleepless night. For some reason, I woke at 1 am and couldn’t get back to sleep. Finally, I must have dozed around 4 am and then was awake again at 6 am when I noticed red lights bouncing off the walls in the room.

There was an ambulance and fire truck parked out side. I couldn’t tell but it looked like they were in the guest house somewhere. They left around 7 am and I made coffee in the room, did my internet thing, and then walked down to get some juice.

The morning host was undone. Sometime around 5 am someone discovered the body of a guest near the pool deck. The host was pretty shaken. There was crime scene tape all over the pool area and we couldn’t go out there.

She had to go around and knock on all of the doors of the guest house to see who was in their room and who wasn’t. She only works mornings and didn’t know who the guest was nor which room they were in.

Later, I talked to the day host and he said the person was actually a relatively young guest. I had supposed until he said that it was one of us older types that had died. Nothing has been reported in the press as of yet so I don’t know any details.

Cocktails are here at the guest house tonight and then we walk a block or two down the street to Azur on Fleming. Tom Green turned me on to this restaurant several years ago and I make a point of eating there now every visit to the Keys.

11 October 2019

We started the day by walking to the Truman Annex Park. Michel and Nancy had never been there, and truthfully, most people who visit Key West don’t visit there. It’s at the very end of the Truman Annex and you have to know where it is and how to get there.

I visited there the last time I was here and was thrilled to get to go aboard the CGC Ingham, commissioned in 1936 and decommissioned in 1988 – the longest serving vessel in the Coast Guard and the only Coast Guard ship to sink a U-boat in WWII.

The ship has become a museum, but even better, the day the last sailor walked off the ship, nothing was changed. It’s like walking through a time warp back to 1988 with clothes still handing in the laundry and the table set in the ward room for the officers.

I wasn’t sure Nancy and Michel would like to tour the ship but they were game. I was surprised they enjoyed it so much. They also were kind enough to let me entertain them with my Coast Guard stories and explain about the parts of the ship I knew. I never served on the Ingham but I did serve on the CGC Reliance out of Corpus Christi, Texas.

After our tour, we sat in the shade in the park and watched kids play in the really nice water fountain in the park. The kids had a ball. Key West has a lot to be proud of in that park.

We walked back to Old Town and had lunch at Kelly’s Landing – previously owned by Kelly McGillis of Top Gun fame. I’ve actually eaten in the restaurant before when she was serving people and greeting tourists. I don’t know who owns it now but it’s still a nice place for lunch or dinner.

I left Nancy and Michel and headed back to the guest house for a nap, a swim, and to get ready for cocktails and dinner.

About the clammy sheets. Apparently, the a/c in the room had been set incorrectly and was not removing the humidity. The staff was very accommodating and came right up and readjusted the a/c. I also requested they change the sheets which they did. Later, after the sheets had been changed, they came back to the room and asked if everything was OK. That’s great staff work for the guest house!

Michel made reservations for us at Bagatelle on Duval for 6:30pm . We met at Chart Room Bar at the Pier House for cocktails at 5:30. The Chart Room is like a dive bar in Fort Lauderdale. Strange because Pier House is an exclusive hotel and spa. Anyway, Jimmy Buffet used to hang out there.

We walked to Bagatelle and had dinner. Michel wanted to head to Mallory Square but it looked like rain and the sun had already set. We plan to do that on Sunday.

Nancy and Michel plan to golf tomorrow and I have a massage scheduled for tomorrow morning at 10:30 am at Ocean Wellness on Simonton St.

10 October 2019

Michel, Nancy and I planned a vacation to Key West to celebrate our three birthdays. Nancy has already had hers and Michel and I are pending. We decided four days in Key West was the appropriate way to celebrate another year older.

I started packing on the 8th and threw the last thing in the suitcase Thursday morning before I left. I stopped for diesel at the local station, at Dunkin’ Donuts for a dozen (maple iced, plain and chocolate iced) and some cash from the ATP at Publix. I was on the turnpike by 11 am.

There were flood advisories for the Keys. Paired with King tides and a lot of rainfall, low lying areas in the Keys are prone to flooding. The trip down Highway 1 was uneventful and I didn’t have to go through any flood waters.

I have noticed that zones that on my last trip were marked 55 mph had been posted at 45 mph. There are now very few areas in the Keys where you can go 55 mph (legally).

I checked in to Alexander’s Guest House on Fleming at 3:30 pm. I was fortunate to find a parking space across the street at Island House. Key West has permit parking for residents. Those areas are plainly marked and you’ll get reported if you try to park in one of those spots. Unmarked spots are fair game – to a point.

After 72 hours, you are subject to towing if you stay in one spot. However, you can move you vehicle and everything resets. A meter maid travels the streets and chalks the tires. That’s how they know how long you’ve been there. So far, no chalk.

Nancy and Michel stopped in Key Largo for lunch so even though they started out before me, I arrived before they did. We made plans to meet for cocktails and then dinner afterwards.

Cocktails was a Martin’s martini bar on Duval. We had previously discovered that place on a previous trip down and it was nostalgic having our first cocktail there.

Afterwards, we headed east on Duval to La-ti-dah (La Terraza de Marti – the Cuban hero Jose Marti once addressed a crowd of people pushing for Cuban independence from the balcony of the hotel) for dinner. I had my first dinner in Key West there somewhere around 1983. I remember the dish – yellowtail snapper. It was amazing. Guess what I had for dinner our first night in Key West this time?

I said good night to Michel and Nancy (they’re staying at the Orchid Key on Duval and Truman) and walked back to Alexanders. This is my second time staying at Alexanders.

When I checked in, the host asked if I had stayed before. I said yes, 150 years ago. Actually it was more like 1986 or 1987. I’m in room one at the head of the stairs which fronts Fleming. I did not sleep well. It felt like the sheets on the bed were clammy.

We are scheduled to walk Key West tomorrow and then more cocktails and more food.