This is not the place to come to find temperatures over 100 degrees (38C) or sunlight that burns a hole through automobile paint. When first I met snow birds gathering up their stuff to leave the marina where my wife and I planned to spend our summer, I asked what the attraction was. Not the weather apparently because they told me horror stories of long humid summers in unsuitable houses on the various Mid Western prairies they inhabited with their grandchildren during summer vacations. It seemed a summer even on mainland Florida is breezier and fresher than one in the depths of an Iowan cornfield. I have no terms of reference for the comparison but I see the poor dears off the cruise ships dumped into the cauldron of downtown Key West and they seem to suffer even with their fancy paper fans donated by a caring cruise ship line:
They wear broad brimmed hats and baggy unbecoming shorts from which their whitewashed legs poke like picket fences and they gasp as they strut through the city. With the best will in the world I recommend they wear dark clothing. I know it seems counter intuitive in the heat and humidity of a 95 degree (35C) afternoon but many Americans are embarrassed by obvious signs of perspiration, a necessary bodily function like so many swept under the carpet of an overly sanitized culture. Or not; what do you think? 
My wife and I were at a party last weekend and the subject of air conditioning came up in a room filled with seasoned travelers. The question came up about how one acclimates to air conditioning and I made the point that when one travels in less developed countries it's rare to find oneself hopping in and out of frigidly cooled buildings and one gets used to a certain temperature and humidity level and the body adapts. I doubt this artist in front of the Hemingway House would prefer to be in an air conditioned booth...?
Old timers at the Friday night party remembered fondly "the good old days" (sigh) when Key West homes were built to take advantage of the multitudinous sea breezes with jalousied windows and broad shaded shutters. I enjoy sea breezes at my home on stilts out in the suburbs but I stilt enjoy cranking my air conditioning and keeping the inside of my home mold free. Perhaps nowadays we just have more stuff, more electronics,more books more clothes all packed tightly into our closets. People climbing the key West lighthouse in search of a view, and possibly a breeze didn't look that cool up there:
Someone used to living at street level in Old Town prefers pedal power to a car even at this time of year. The trick is to take it easy and suck down iced drinks:
Visitors just seem to get steamed more easily, as they stroll the streets looking for something to do, be it as simple as checking out the menu of the 915 restaurant, a splendid place for an outdoor table, ringside on Duval in winter, perhaps not so much in July:
A shady spot, even that provided by a simple surrey on an electric car could do the trick.
Personally I like air in my car, I cannot conceive of driving a car down here without air conditioning, and even riding the Bonneville gets to be a bit of a trial in the heat of the day, like riding into a hair dryer. 
I feel like a shark on the motorcycle- if I'm not moving I suffocate! So perhaps the best thing to do is just give up and yield oneself to the power of summer:
Or get someone beefy and strong to pull you to where you need to go: 
I wander for a while, overheating myself, while I snapped pictures that i thought might illustrate the heat of summer downtown...
...before I wandered off the Smathers beach for a few pictures of summer in a traditional vacation setting, there to sit in the shade to cool off in the sea breeze before my next appointment.
Luckily for me I was ferrying the recovering wife around so I got to ride in an air conditioned Nissan in the middle of the day. I missed the Bonneville, but it was a sacrifice I had to make. 
It is very wide thoroughfare, more like two one way streets in opposing directions, with what they would call Neutral Ground in New Orleans- a median strip in the middle: 
One might imagine the temptation to attain illegal speeds on this wide street might be irresistible: 
Despite its appearance as that of a broad avenue, 17th Street is actually a neighborhood and peopleit seems take the time to play here: 
And here I found a Harley, yes yet another Harley on the streets of Key West. Zero for originality, though the cover has a certain Bohemian chic: 
The first house shown here, a modest three bed, one bath bungalow with 1240 square feet of space and a swimming pool is on offer for a cool half million dollars. In 2009 no less:
This dog walker was quite the sight; she with a heavily bandaged arm, the dog limping heavily on it's front paw, both out enjoying the sunshine: 
It's not the open ocean but it is a water view. 
The tourist trade still looks busier than you might think in Key West, though there are caveats to the financial well being one might expect from all the traffic there is still in town. The lodging association reports beds are still getting slept[t in though the nightly rates have dropped considerably from the crazy flights of the boom years. Restaurants still put knees under tables but patrons are choosing cheaper and sharing more, and everyone is running specials of one sort or another... These are hard times and I've noticed at night that Duval Street is wrapping it up early because this is family time, kids are out of school and bar flies just aren't there to get in trouble and start drunken fights and all the nastiness associated with winter revelers. In addition to being the times that try men's souls, these are also the times that favor established businesses and well known, reliable providers. 
Hard core BMW riders take their lumps, with a foul weather jacket, a helmet (of course) and bare legs and shoes to limit their exposure to the weather. I suppose this is what he has been waiting for with his go-anywhere GS: 
The rain came down suddenly around lunchtime and by the time we pushed our empty coffee cups away the streets were still being pounded and the storm drains had given up trying to move the water out of the streets. I have sat on my motorcycle in enough downpours to know that sitting and waiting can be the worst part, which was what I imagined this guy was thinking as he waited for cars to move along on Eaton Street:
And when they did move they created more waves such was the depth of the water. This is rainy season, though I haven't seen a decent down pour at Mile Marker 27 in ages. The rain has battered neighboring Summerland Key, and Big Pine Key but my island has been spared these scenes all of which I shot in Key West:
It's actually rather annoying as my vegetable beds, holding on grimly through the heat of summer could use some rain, not to mention the fully grown palm trees and other shrubbery around my house...We drive home from key West in this appalling down pour and found ourselves barely able to see the traffic through the rain we had high hopes that ramrod key would be showered and fresh and wet. No such luck. It was like the gods were making rude faces at us and the rain petered out as we drive through Summerland key, still wet from recent rain. By the time we were on the bridge separating Summerland from Ramrod the rain was gone, the asphalt was dry and our hopes for rain at home were shriveled up.
They tell us this hurricane season should be lighter than usual, whatever that means, but all it takes is one direct hit and that makes for a rotten hurricane season for you. Nevertheless the wild guess/estimate of a light season is curiously heartening. "Phew! No storms this year, for the third year in a row!" I say to myself as though predictions were reality... And then suddenly a yellow shaded area appears in the Caribbean Basin and the reality of hurricane season is upon us, from now till November 30th. And the more immediate reality of summer thunderstorms, summer winds and summer rains. I want the rain, not the hurricanes.