I admit I went to Fort Zachary specifically to check out the Civil War Heritage camp out and it was great fun. But there again I am very fond of history as it helps me understand where we are as a civilization. Luckily I had no clue where the reenactors hung out so I made a beeline for the beach and parked in the handicapped parking (I have a temporary placard through April though I'm hoping I will ditch it before then) and stumped off with camera around my neck and walking stick in hand.
It was a glorious day, edging up t 80 degrees, but not humid and slightly breezy. I got a hankering to go for a swim but I am quite well aware the water would be freezing by my elevated standards.
This is a state park one of almost two hundred in Florida and they are all worth a visit. This flat state has more stuff to see than most critics have any idea of but if you check out the state parks you'll be off to a great start.
I was hardly alone in taking joy in the day.
Danger Will Robinson!
This beach has rock break waters that give a photography something to focus on and provide foreground for a picture looking south toward the Straits of Florida.
I'm not sure he cared about the break waters but I think they serve a couple of purposes and mainly to help break up wave action and keep the sandy beach intact but they also provide a safe boat-free swimming area.
This photograph made me want to throw aside my cane like Lazarus abandoning his funeral garb and walk unhindered into the water.
I think you can argue this is hands down the nicest beach in Key West. There's lots of sand, there are no bums thanks to the entrance fee, there are fresh water showers, a concession stand, park workers cleaning and rangers patrolling. It's about the most peaceful beach experience you can have and it cost me $4:50 to come in alone in my car.
Then there are a multitude of picnic tables, and I mean lots of them scattered under the pine trees. Bring a picnic and no alcohol of course as it is forbidden, but you can have a nice day here drinking whatever from a thermos flask and snoozing in the shade in between swims.
I couldn't move around like in days past before my accident and sometime sit does wear on me my inability to crouch or lean or swivel or dodge to get a better angle. Every limited change in posture takes me ages and even then I am not at all sure I can get a good angle. So I found a spot and swiveled around as best I could shooting in a rather peculiar static sort of way and glad to have a big telephoto lense on my Lumix.
The state has a policy, reasonable enough on its face of requiring non native vegetation to be removed from state lands. These so called pine trees are actually casuarina tees or Australian pines an they are very acidic so when they drop their needles nothing grows under them. They spread by projecting their roots and they are rampant. Also they don't dig deep and strong winds tend to topple them. All of which is very bad, right?
The thing is the pines of Fort Zachary have been here since long before the anti-invasive policy put about by the state parks and in a town like Key West with limited land for picnics and family beach gatherings no one wanted to see this shade stand cut down and replaced by scrubby little bushes as planted elsewhere in the park.
Boy did people get riled up! Half the city turned out and threatened mayhem and I tell you honestly I didn't give them a chance when you lined them up against state law. I was wrong. They sent the state packing and the pines have been allowed to stay. It was an uneasy truce and I dare say the subject won't come back up for a while but I don' think the state has given up on he idea of getting rid of the shade trees.
The new plantings are behind the parked cars and vans in the picture below:
My buddy Robert, an eco-warrior of impeccable credentials opposes the presence of the pines but it's not a subject we bring up between us. I like the way the pines look and I like the clear ground underneath and I have happy memories of fun picnics here like everyone else. Call me sentimental. I'd like tow watch my wife eat a few more helpings of bright green Fausto's seaweed at a picnic table before the place changes too much. There again why anyone likes seaweed baffles me.
This picture seemed like the perfect foil for all those people Up North under snow. They always get annoyed when I seem to enjoy perpetual summer in the Keys. Sorry about that but I do. I live here because I like summer year round. I don't ski, I don't like seeing my breath, I like turquoise water, impossibly high rents and ridiculously small amounts of land to live on. What can I say?
This is the meadow. Dogs are allowed anywhere in the park outside buildings which means no walks in the fort and not on the beach as no one wants a surprise in the sand and not enough people pick up after their animals unfortunately. Even I who walks like a drunken sailor can pick up after Rusty, with difficulty but I can do it.
The fort when it was built was an island with a long causeway back to land. Then they dredged the harbor and threw up the dirt from the bottom and built up the land around the fort which was supposed to guard the entrance to Key West. Nowadays it's a low brick shadow on the horizon.
Rest Beach is one of my preferred spots for a quick break because it's right there, it's got parking next to Atlantic Boulevard, it has beachfront seating in the form of rather insalubrious tiki huts and from the comfort of the hard wooden benches one can sit and ponder the meaning of life:
The nice thing is that there is also stuff to see out on the water, in winter sailboats are traveling Hawk Channel to and from Marathon, cyclists and walkers are enjoying the White Street Pier and the sun sparkles on the water giving it a festive tinsel-like sheen.
I feel the need to remind people who don't know, that magnificent beaches are not part of what makes the Keys attractive. Unlike mainland Florida which is a gigantic sandpit that produces incredible arcs of beach, the Keys are more like the Bahamas, lumps of hard limestone rock that don't produce much in the way of sandy beaches. But what there is people do try to enjoy:
My wife and I very much enjoy spending our summer afternoons,when she gets home from work and before I leave for my night job, going swimming. Because I live 25 miles out of town I get to keep our little 14 foot skiff on the canal behind our house and its a matter of no effort at all to get out into Newfound Harbor, a wide expanse of protected water, drop the anchor and go for a refreshing swim. However I have to admit I am not fond of swimming in waters cooler than 80 degrees (27C), so the boat comes out of the water in late October usually and goes back in around mid April. Visitors to the islands are less fussy and they go swimming even in February, and some of them manage to get some sunburn on their delicate northern epidermis:
Not everyone is so informal. I spotted one gent, nattily dressed, out for an afternoon constitutional, quietly resting at the tiki hut nearest the condos by the beach:
That's the great pleasure of the beach, and Key West in general, the whole philosophy of come as you are. I am not really a great fan of beach vacations, all that suntan oiled indolence, the uncomfortable posture for reading, the sand in the crevices, the immobility. However the beach is the place where you can wear a cardigan, or a diaper; the beach is the great leveller:
And one has to reflect that I took these pictures on an average afternoon in February, amidst reports of snow ice rain and cold almost everywhere north of here. I can sense winter is crawling towards a gradual close, but in conditions like these winter is no real hardship, even if it is too cold for a swim.
I like having the opportunity to ride to work the "long way" round the island, taking South Roosevelt, stopping at Rest Beach on Atlantic Boulevard, and perhaps getting a cafe con leche at Sandys on White Street before reporting for work at the Police Station. It's good to take the time to enjoy the sun, smell the sea air and watch the water for a while.
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