Garrison Bight By Night

My wife stopped by work and because she has gotten so much grief previously for not bearing gifts when she comes by the Police Station she had the great good sense to call ahead and asked what we needed/wanted. It was not a stimulating evening in police dispatch, after two weeks of riotous spending, Spring Break appears to have fizzled out, so I was very grateful for the large con leche. The side effect was that at two am I was hardly in the mood to compose myself for a nap, the coffee combined with eighteen hours sleep on my night off...so I went out and took pictures.When in doubt photograph the Bonneville. I decided to walk around Garrison Bight Marina and see what I could see. (If you want daytime pictures check March 23rd 2008 or use the search function because there are lots of entries for this body of water). The Palm Avenue Bridge is a convenient high point on a flat island. Crossing it though, means taking your life into your own hands as thirty miles per hour (50km/h) is just a suggestion at two in the morning:The view from the top makes New Town look quite delightful at this ungodly hour:The view underneath the bridge is a bit more eerie. Without flash:Worse yet, with flash!The navigation light designed to keep boats off the bridge supports was dark and leaped out at me in the reflection from the flash. I dislike flash lighting, perhaps because mine is a basic integral flash unit and I'd rather use the gorilla pod to allow for a slo-o-o-w shutter speed.Around Key West it's known for obvious reasons as the "Fly Navy" building but it's official title is the Bachelor Officers Quarters. It's an enormous pile clearly visible across the city from the upper decks of a cruise ship docked at the Westin pier. Garrison bight is home to the relatively new dinghy docks that are where people who live on the city moorings on the flats to the north make their connection to land. A new shower block is being installed and splendid floating docks provide secure dockage for dinghies ( if they are properly locked):Curt and I had a few escapades around here in the good old days long before the city offered moorings and docks for our dinghies. Harrr, in them days (the late eighties) we made our own moorings and snuck the dinghies in where we could (the bushes across from Burger King were a good spot) and we talked like pirates. Not really but it was fun for a while to live on the fly in Key West. Nowadays there is city sanctioned parking for scooters and bicycles:
And even this ghastly contraption, a Chinese attempt at catching the brief craze for covered scooters. It actually runs and I've seen it around town, but whether it keeps the rain off I couldn't say. I hope it does because in the aesthetics department it is decidedly lacking:Back to the water, a quick shot of the boats on the seawall:A splash of color in the night (I kind of assumed they were empty, but anyway I'd just filled the Triumph at the all night gas station):And back to work where I discovered to my annoyance that all hell had broken loose briefly while I was out at lunch. I was glad I had a pleasant hour taking some random pictures to make up for missing the excitement.