Breaking Key West

Consensus in my neck of the woods is that Spring Break is busy this year. Which is surprising considering you'll be hard pressed to find a room for less than $400 in town. But students are resourceful of course and they tend to pack the over priced rooms the way previous generations packed Volkswagens for a stunt.

 Everywhere you go in and around Key West are packs of young people, and the local bums spot them coming. This guy got a cup of coffee and a cigarette from the kind or fearful young woman he cornered in the passenger seat of the car:

Friday was St Patrick's Day which combined with Florida itself being on break meant Key West was extra busy. I am not a great fan of this weird New England holiday but there agian Hallmark holidays as a whole tend to leave me cold. Especially as I was answering 911 calls Friday night.

Like I said Spring Breakers are everywhere, where you least expect them. At least this one knew how to ride her bike and avoided killing me or my dog.

Daily life plugs on, boaters included, seen here at the dinghy docks getting ready for the chilly ride out to their boat in the windswept anchorage:

Locals have been wearing jackets boots and scarves this past week thanks to strong north winds and temperatures near 60 degrees. Visitors remark on the pleasant weather and show off their short sleeves, not otherwise put to use since Thanksgiving in the unforgiving climates they inhabit.

Schooner Wharf Bar only looked desolate as it was breakfast time and not yet fully populated by people not used to eating breakfast in a bar. The temperatures left me slightly surprised the vegetation hadn't withered.

 Local subject in jacket:

 And another one.

 Visitors in shirt sleeves:

 Cool it may have been but the rain was long gone and the sun was shining on Lazy Way Lane:

 Breakfast al fresco for the future leaders of America:

 And they have another generation already breathing down their necks:

 Rusty is learning to read. I think:

He is a very smart dog. I know because he didn't put his butt in the hammock.

Spring Break Lunch Break

Every year the brutal schedule and endless overtime of the endless month that is Spring a Break catches me by surprise. I never went to a four year college but this annual migration of students to beaches and drinking holes is a North American tradition. Living in a prime destination, doing a job impacted all night long by the effects of alcohol and a collective determination to "have fun" at all costs, leads me to wish this migration of Future Leaders of America were abolished.

What a killjoy, I know. But you'd be amazed by how far the effects of alcohol seem to ripple through town. Lunch breaks have been my salvation, a short tide in the cool night air and a walk with my camera, rejoicing that I work taking 911 calls where such minor pleasures are there for me.

Taken around Angela and Ashe Streets, not far from my 911 desk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the end it's worth remembering we are mere specks in a universe of endless darkness.

That, or eternal hellfire. Great, what a prospect.

Posted with Blogsy

Key West Spring Break

I thought this poster at Smathers Beach pretty much sums up this weird tradition of college students getting a week off and spending it drinking in the sun. A Vespa, a babe, and a bottle of wine.

This year they are here in force though by all accounts they are remarkably well behaved. Spring Break court was initially set up to handle minor infractions by dishing out community service punishment to alcohol and public nuisance offenders but it proved unnecessary and they canceled the court.

It hasn't been especially hot but aside from some slight cloudiness and rain it has been quite lovely for the most part and the ocean is supposed to be around 77 degrees which is warm enough for heathen northerners to swim in. I'll wait till it's actually eighty eight degrees, thanks.

I am slightly allergic to crowds so my idea of a perfect day at the beach is more like this:

Of course she can't come on the beach so Smathers is less than perfect in any event:

I wandered down the beach trying not to feel like a dirty old man. As I pointed out to a friend I have reached the age where their mothers look more interesting to me. I never did like children.

A colleague pointed out a new sight on the beach: a stripper's pole. There were no performances in progress while I was there.

Not everyone was in a state of undress. I have no clue what these well dressed people were doing in the mayhem:

Later driving through downtown I stopped at Yebo Island Grill for a delicious couple of Bunny Chow dinners I took home to the wife. They were bread bowls filled with curried chicken topped with slices of banana and were entirely delicious washed down with a bottle of rosé collected on our last trip to the North Carolina wine country. Steve cooking up a storm:

At the corner of Angela and Simonton, my car filled with the fragrance of South African curry, I saw a group of pretty young things charming the pants off the firemen at Station Two, laughing and taking pictures. It looked delightfully small town.

I am really tired from working all the time and I am fed up with the long interminable lines of traffic on Highway One, caused I am told by the lack of hotel rooms this year forcing the well heeled young things to rent space to stay in Marathon. The overtime is nice for the money but I am exhausted from endless nights of work. It's just the way it is this time of year. I'm glad they are all being so well behaved, even as I can't wait for it all to end, the snowbirds to go back North and summer torpor to descend on the Keys, at least until schools get out and families start their invasion.

Key West on Dwellable

Posted with Blogsy

Smathers Beach

I don't know what the intent was in flying a giant Benjamin Franklin but symbolically it was a perfect flag for Spring Break.


Smathers Beach is the daytime epicenter of Spring Break activity despite all the prohibitions.


This time of year seems to have slipped back to the happy family mode which is more relaxing for the whole town.


If less profitable.


The keys don't have great beaches but Smathers isn't terrible even though the waters are shallow offshore.


The lines at the vendor trucks have shrunk and the beach is starting to look it's usual sleepy self.


Though there were a fair few bicycles in the rack as you can see.


I like hanging out sometimes at the beach on my way home at the end of my shift. Those are the times I like best at Smathers Beach.


Some people live for their days at the beach.


And some people in Key West miss the sights of Spring Break.


Not me. I was getting fair worn out from all the people in town. Never mind how much money they bring.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad