Night Waterfront

Simonton Street waiting for clean up crews after Fantasy Fest, certainly not the messiest street in Key West that morning:

It was a warm windy night after Fantasy Fest wound down and I went to take a quick tour of the city before I went home. Lower Duval was closed thanks to an ocean of broken bottles in the street so I wandered a little further afield to get some fresh air and take a stroll. I started out at Simonton Beach home to a bunch of bicycles illuminated in the headlights of my car:It rained pretty hard in the days leading up to and following Fantasy Fest and city drains seem to manage to cope better than in the past. There was certainly some flooding but new drainage systems seem to have helped.Key West has different sensory cues compared to most cities in temperate climates. I look out at gray clouds and shiny streets and I see winter because I grew up in a world where cold weather followed on directly from autumnal storms. In Key West, puddles and shiny streets indicate the heat and humidity of summer:After I parked the car on Simonton I took a walk down Front Street towards the Galleon Resort. I found a few people walking, or better yet staggering along the street but it was pretty quiet which surprised me. I guess alcohol had taken it's toll.I find Key West to be an evocative place at night, there are parts of the city that look positively 18th century like the wood structure above, while in the next picture below all I could see was Casablanca in 1941:I am fond of saying that Key West drives me to temperance. Alcohol is abused so much and by so many people and I hear about it so much at work that I find myself getting booze shy. The thing is alcohol knows how to sell itself:Even at three in the morning sitting out in front of Damn Good Food looks tempting...a glass of wine a slice of bread and...my camera:The boardwalk around Key West Bight is a good spot to pause and contemplate the meaning of life, especially in the middle of the night when no-one else is around:And the effects of the rain create their own ambiance as well:I was hurrying back to the car to get out of there and I saw what can only be described as the proper vacation rental:Before you decide to over indulge on your vacation and lose what's left of your dignity throwing up in public places, you should probably be seen riding around in this converted golf cart. It is so absurd it is quite cute. But of course for hard core me a scooter is always the better rental option:Wet it may be, cold it isn't, so its always the right time of year to cruise the city on a scooter. Especially in the middle of the night.