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.
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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!
