Rookery Bay & Key West

A few days before we left Naples for the Keys, we finished up our excursions with a kayak trip in Rookery Bay.  We have been on kayaks many times in the past, and we have always enjoyed them; this was no exception.  The primary difference was that we were with a group of about 9-10 including our naturalists guides.  They both worked for the Rookery Bay research center.  Two hours out on the water paddling through mangrove tunnels in the estuary was fascinating.  Again, we didn’t see the numbers of birds and other wildlife that we have grown accustomed to here in past years, but it was still a satisfactory adventure.

On New Year’s Day we left Naples for Key West.  The 225-mile trip went quickly because the drive is so interesting.  We took US 41, the old Tamiami Trail, to Miami and then south on US 1, the so called Overseas Highway.  Most of the road follows the original roadbed of the first passage through the Keys, a railroad.  Other parts of the track bed are visible from and parallel to US 1.  Initially, the most striking thing about the Keys is the color of the water.  It would be difficult for a gifted artist to capture that unique blue-green that tints the waters here.  Part of the reason it would be hard to capture is because it is constantly changing.  Photographs catch it a specific time, but then the light shifts and that color no longer exists.  Anyway, we find it interesting.

Key West is as shabby and as glorious as we remember from out last stay down here almost 8 years ago.  At the outset, we are always put off by the seediness of the place along with streets jam-packed with cars, scooters, and pedestrians hell-bent on getting themselves killed by on-coming traffic at all hours of the day.  The juxtaposition of rundown trailers and shacks mixed in with houses the real estate magazines tell you are selling for more than a million dollars is enough to give you a migrane.  Like most high-end resort spots, Key West, and most of the other Keys, suffers from an acute shortage of affordable housing where the service/tourist industry folks can dwell (those are also the bulk of the jobs).  And, typically, they don’t handle it well.  But soon, “conch time” kicks in and we are copacetic with it all.  Our first trip down Duval, the city’s quintessential tourist drag, was a harrowing experience.  It was the day after New Year’s Day, and the place was still crawling with people who haven’t gone back to school or work yet, but that will happen soon and it will quiet down, at least by Key West standards.

We took our bikes out the next day to go to the local botanical gardens, a place we had passed by, but never stopped at previously.  While not up to the standards of Fort Worth or other big city botanical gardens, Key West’s entry into the genre is pretty nice and certainly represents the foliage of the South Florida Keys.  Considering that the spot where the gardens are located was nothing but a retched sand bar in the 1930s, the denizens of KW have certainly grown an impressive, lush topical area where there would certainly be piles of condos otherwise.  Among the most interesting things at the Gardens (in addition to the director pictured below) is an exhibit of Cuban Chugs.  Chugs are the usually home-made refugee boats that Cubans used (still use) to get from Cuba, about 90 miles south of KW, to the USA.  There is an Immigration & Customs Enforcement policy that says that Cuban refugees can stay in the US if they get on dry land, if not they go back to Cuba.  Anyway, this exhibit of Chugs at the Botanic Gardens is fascinating.

Amid the seedy trailers, shacks, and fishing boat marinas on Stock Island we found the Hog Fish Bar & Grill.  This open air affair right on the shrimp boat docks offered up some excellent food, even though one never quite escapes the faint odor of leaking sewer common to areas like this.  However, we were able to have a nice lunch and skip dinner for a change of pace.

“39 Steps” is a play being staged by the Waterfront Playhouse and it looked like the best of several choices for some real culture.  We obtained tickets for Saturday night and made our way to Mallory Square for our big night out.  Parking was a challenge and it wound up costing us $12, but that’s cheaper than a ticket where they treat parking violations like they were felonies.  Well, the play was absolutely hilarious.  It is a farce, but a well done one.  The play has only four cast members, but lots of parts.  All of the cast, save the leading man, play several roles throughout the play.  It was two hours well spent; we recommend it highly.

Having over dosed on NFL football playoffs on Sunday, we decided to do the Duval Crawl in beautiful downtown Key West on Monday.  There were two cruise ships in port to add to the merriment, but much of the Christmas & New Year’s crowd had departed for points north, so all of the oxygen wasn’t being completely sucked out of the air.  Parking is a challenge here, well free parking is a challenge here; there are plenty of opportunities to pay $2-$4  an hour to stash your car while the locals try to separate you from the rest of your cash.  We soon grew weary of seeing the same old merchandise in look-alike shops that had obnoxious music blaring at decibel levels that would be illegal in a Harley dealership.  We did spend some money on souvenirs and a few items of clothing that we couldn’t live without.  We returned to a favorite haunt in the Bahamas Village for lunch.  They’ve changed their menu (well, it’s only been 8 years) and we had to settle for something other than what we were looking forward to having.  However, it was a good lunch and they still had a dozen or so chooks running around in the al fresco dining area, which adds a certain barnyard charm to the place.  We’re pretty sure they aren’t the same chooks, but then they don’t have jerked chicken on the menu any longer, so who knows.