Destination: Key West - Day Of Freedom Day #2

My server at breakfast is from Quebec, and has been here over 10 years. We get to chatting about this and that, and he gives me some suggestions on where there is good food at good prices, and the kinds of places the locals go to hang out. The breakfast wrap is fabulous. I was halfway through it before I thought to take a picture.

Around 1030 I wander across the road to Smather’s Beach. I sit and read for a while, watch idiots on jet skis roaring along the beach front causing god knows how much sonic damage to the sea creatures. A biplane flies over, and a foursome in rented beach chairs ($10 each) sitting in front of me chat about all sorts of things in several different and distinctive American accents.

I sit there until just about noon, until an ant like thing bites my ankle hard enough to hurt. I take this as a sign it’s time to go. I pack up my beach chair, which I brought all the way from home, and my reading gear, and my towel and head back to the relative safety of my balcony. I grab a tall Land Shark can from the fridge. By my estimation it’s 5 o’clock in Athens, and retire to continue some relaxing reading in the sun.

At 2 I retire out of the sun to take care of some e-mail, and to shower off the greasy sunscreen before taking a long nap.

I drive back to town via the long way along Roosevelt Blvd, there’s so much construction that it’s hard to locate the right entrance. I want to find the liquor store at Walgreen's. I need supplies. After making a quick right turn across two lanes (I was expecting it to be on the left) I walk into the coolness of the liquor store. Humidity here is not consistent. One minute it’s tolerable, the next you’ve soaked through your entire wardrobe. I find the Land Sharks but in bottle only, and Magic Hat #9. I buy a 6 pack of each and go in search of the gin. I make a Holy Grail discovery in the gin aisle. Plymouth Gin!! Next to Boodles, which they stopped importing, Travis McGee’s favourite. I have to buy a bottle, even though at $30 for 750 ml it’s twice as much as the Bombay Sapphire gin I have been drinking. Of course it says a lot more that the cheaper gin I buy here is the $30/750ml gin at home. The regular beer is about 30% cheaper. I couldn’t say about the price of the Land Shark at $7.50 a six pack, because we can’t get that at home.

I wander over into the other side of Walgreen's to pick up some bottled water (both spring water and two large bottles of San Pellegrino), a beach towel of my own (forgot the regular one at home and had to borrow one from the hotel), and windshield washer fluid that’s only good down to the freezing mark, meaning I’ll need to use it pretty quick once I get home.

Know what’s hard to find here in convenience stores? Club Soda and Tonic water. Two drinking mix staples and they don’t stock it. That’s why the San Pellegrino.

I drop the supplies back at the hotel to cool in the fridge. I wander to the front desk to enquire about the shuttle to downtown. I want to have a couple of cocktails tonight and don’t want to drive. The clerk says the next one with room on it leaves at 7, and it’s only 5. I decide to drive and park at the Westin lot. Again  it's $4 an hour but it’s out of the sun and off the street.

I wander along Mallory Square and amble along Front Street in search of Alonzo’s Oyster Bar. It’s one of the places my breakfast server suggested. I find it along the dock, and with the humidity the way it is, I ask for an inside, air conditioned table by the window. I wimped out I know, but at least there’s a view.

I order a Key West Ale from my server who looks like he should be either building houses, masquerading as a house, or hauling large crates of seafood onto a boat. He’s a big lad. I search the menu and decide on lobster crab cakes. When they arrive there are two large cakes, some mashed potatoes, and some corn infused thing. The lobster crab cakes are nice and firm with a gently spiced cream sauce, and the corn something is fresh and cold. At first taste the mashed potatoes seem like instant, but they got better.

After dinner I take another walk down Duval Street. I take my time. I want to walk the full length of Duval and to try and catch the 7:15 sunset at the marker for the Southern Most Point in the Continental United States. I stop at the Margaritaville and spend some hard earned cash.

I make the marker after stopping to help a young couple who seem to be lost. I don’t know where they want to go either but I have a spare map that the hotel gave me when they were showing a couple of things. So I give it to them.

I make the marker on time but it's clouded over so the sunset is very weak. I try to take some pictures while working around a bunch of people taking pictures of one, and then the other of themselves. I volunteer to take some pictures of couples so they can be in the shot together. I like to do that for people, so I often ask no matter where I am. I even do it when I'm working. After all if you’re on your honeymoon, or anniversary trip, or your first trip together as a couple, wouldn’t you want to have a picture of the two of you to stare it in your future years? To show the kids, and the grand kids, or to drunkenly cry over when the future doesn’t quite make the grade you thought it would?

Once the tourist couples are out of the way I take a self-portrait to show I was really here (but not for publication), and snap a couple of pictures of this building. It's been here since 1917.

This little piece of brick and stucco was the terminus for the first underwater telephone and telegraph cable between Florida and Cuba. Most people who stand here only see the southern most marker buoy, but on a little plaque I get the history of this street corner.

I wander back up the street and see a lot of plaques and signs. Each one trying to outdo the other in claiming the Southernmost whatever.

What is not in doubt is that the Southern Most Café is the Southern Most Café.

And the office I really want to occupy when I'm done with my current job!

Frankly, I’m tired of walking so I treat myself to a pedicab ride back to the parking garage. The pusher is from Serbia and we chat about America, his experience, and how well he's done here.

The ride from one end of Duval to the other cost’s $27 for about 12 blocks. I think he’s doing quite well don’t you? However the ride was fun and saved me from walking.

I have problems getting the car out of the parking garage. The self-serve parking machines don’t recognise my credit cards, any of them, and I gave the last of my cash to the Pedi cab guy. I re-park the car and go to the front desk of the Westin Hotel. The fellow there apologises, says they have been having problems with the stripe readers. He gives me an overnight guest parking card to get out and refuses to take any money for the parking, though I tell him I don’t mind paying.

Back at the hotel I head for the poolside bar. I’ve decided that tonight is the night to try a Margarita for the first time. Yes, it’s true! I have never had a Margarita. Sad, really, and says a lot about my alcohol adventuresome side, but I don’t care much for fruity rum or tequila drinks. Or even rum or tequila for that matter. But I figure that tonight’s the night to try.

Mary, the bartender is an affable sort from Martha’s Vineyard. She makes my drink. After a few sips, I tell her I can understand why people would drink them but I’m not overly fond. She’s very understanding.

I get a great opportunity to chat with her and the night Host in the restaurant. I learn a lot about how people find reasons to live here, and why they choose to come. The night is warm, and I am very comfortable just sitting at the bar and chatting.

 

Back in my room I have a couple of beers as I watch a huge lightning storm out over the ocean. Three very active storm cells are visible. One right in front of me, one to the right or south, and one to my left, up north. One flashes and the other seems to answer. This goes on for a while. I am reminded of the “put and call” in Jazz structure where one instrument calls and another answers. I am also reminded of the song Duelling Banjos. The storms are magnificent to watch.

I fall into a dead sleep at 10.