Summerland Wharf

It's been a very long time coming but the old Fishcutters Restaurant has finally returned and is now called The Wharf, on Summerland Key:

Fishcutters was rather rough and ready restaurant in it's original incarnation. Fishing boats came by the canal and sold fish to the ice house that made them available to the public, raw on one side of the room or cooked on the other. There were a few tables and eventually they got a license to sell beer and wine. Then the owner wanted to sell the place so it got tarted up and it languished for a long while as the boom had passed and the place sat empty. After months of rehabilitation the place is back and we've eaten there twice. My wife pronounces it good. She spent the last several years continuing to lament Fishcutters disappearance almost every time we drove by and she has watched the construction work progress slowly. Then one day we got to have dinner there and she finally tasted her favorite BLT sandwich once again. BLT stands for Bacon Lobster and Tomato and it was quite well known in the Lower Keys. She pronounced it as good as ever.The new Wharf is clean bright and cheerful and seems to be supporting some metal artist as fish sculptures are everywhere. Meat is on the menu, which is focused on fish as one might expect. We went for Sunday brunch, a rare treat for us, because we wanted a chance to hang out with Robert and Dolly who live close by. Benedicts seemed to be the thing to order for brunch so we did. I had shrimp:

My wife and Dolly had lobster, complete with body parts:While Robert, the former commercial fisherman who only likes to eat seafood that he catches, contented himself with a ham and cheese omelette. He wasn't exactly sacrificing himself:

The food really was quite good. I am no expert on hollandaise sauce but the one they turn out at the Wharf was excellent spiced up we believed, with some key lime juice. They don't have an espresso machine at the wharf but the coffee suited me just fine, sweet and lots of it in huge mugs. I liked the attention to detail at the Wharf too, from the linen napkins to the full service bar.The owners also seem to be keen to join the 21st century in terms of technology. I found it odd that a two button toilet needed instructions but I guess the rest of the world caught on to this innovation first:The reduce water consumption button: We hung out for some considerable time talking and there was quite an ebb and flow of customers in the cheery restaurant. I expect this place will be popular in winter when the snowbirds and their deep pockets come back to the Keys and discover that this strategically placed restaurant is serving excellent fish right off the Highway on Summerland Key.We spent $58 plus tip for the four of us which seemed reasonable for the high quality meal. We are looking forward to returning, perhaps for some outdoor seating amongst the art work:

I've pulled my bicycle out of the shed as it's getting cool enough to suppose that swimming season will end with the next cold front. The Wharf is only a couple of miles from my house so a ride to sample an organic beer my be in the cards this winter.

I don't think you've lived if you haven't tried bacon lobster and tomato. I know a man who claims bacon is the perfect food, that it will improve the taste of anything. Perhaps he is right. It works for lobster.

Pier Camping

I suppose the street lamps at White Street Pier are as good as a more conventional bed side lamp to read by in the middle of the night. As long as you don't mind members of the great unwashed public walking intrusively past your "bedroom." With a full moon overhead and a gentle breeze blowing across the water the White street Pier is an excellent spot to take a midnight lunch break. For people who don't working the middle of the night it's a good spot to fish:The Pier, which juts out into the Straits of Florida from White Street is open all night for people to take a stroll or attempt to kill a fish, whatever their preference. Sleeping is not though, part of the deal. But there were lots of snoring, restless bundles out there last night.
The end of the Pier is quite well illuminated and lacks benches and dark corners in which to snooze comfortably. The main length of the pier is where the log sawing action takes place. Here, looking north toward White Street in the distance:In the weak light it looks like a bundle of clothes but there are a couple of residentially challenged cyclists dossing down for the night:And another one next to them, this one listening to a baseball game on a radio.
How one sleeps comfortably on a bench with an armrest in the middle is a mystery to me, and I tried it in my well traveled youth and it didn't work. This one appeared fast asleep curled up, like a dog,into a ball. The funny thing (if you can call it that) is the city of Key West, working with the county and social service agencies provides free sleeping accommodations in air conditioned tents next to the Sheriff's headquarters on Stock Island. However many homeless people don't want to live by the strictures of communal living and prefer to take their chances sleeping rough.If I were a cop the business of "moving along" these homeless bundles would not be pleasant. I've seen the weary packing up and silent groans of people awoken from a deep sleep and told sleeping isn't allowed. The shuffling of the destitute seems pointless but there again it is legal because the city does offer them an alternative place to sleep. And let's face it, it is unsightly:One of the things about poverty in the US that has always struck a discordant note for me is the notion that being poor is somehow a moral failing. To be dispossessed is a repudiation of the American Dream and shows a lack of moral fiber in the poor.That sort of attitude has made it easy to ignore the sleepers and made it possible to blame them for their destitution. Madness, illness, divorce, job loss are frequently proximate causes of homelessness and we learn that nowadays there are more and more of "them," the people a colleague of mine is pleased to call the "residentially challenged." Put out more flags- an ironist's delight, Old Glory on a homeless bicycle trailer. Key West is a fine place to be homeless, the weather, the services the tolerance. In winter months the residentially challenged show up in larger numbers, just like their more affluent snowbird colleagues and I expect we will see more little bundles of joy on our night time streets in the weeks to come.

And along with them we will get tart remarks in the anonymous newspaper comment column called the Citizen's Voice complaining loudly about them. Might as well complain about the first winter snows, or the coming of the swallows at San Juan Capistrano.

A couple of "regular people" were on the pier enjoying the night, talking, and they eyed me a bit old fashioned as I walked around silently taking pictures after I finished my restorative con leche from Sandy's up the street. They strolled off in front me, still chatting and avoided eye contact with the strange man and his camera.Ironically enough two more candidates for sleeping accommodation pedaled their bicycles onto the pier as I left to go back to work. Funny that, they get to sleep for free, while I sit up all night to pay the mortgage. A bargain with the devil I dare say, either for them or for me.

Betwixt And Between

It was gray flat morning, sunshine obscured by heavy cloud cover, a poor day for photography, so I wandered out of the house with the camera and thought to go wander out over the waters between Cudjoe (pronounced as spelled: Kud-joe) Key and Summerland on the old Flagler bridge. Cormorants I am told lack oil in their feathers and they tend to absorb water so from time to time, in between fishing expeditions, they have to hang their wings out to dry. They are said to be able to dive to 70 feet (20 meters) in pursuit of fish, and as absurd as they may look at rest they are quite capable birds in their habitat:The Flagler bridges have survived nicely since they were built, solidly, in 1912 or thereabouts and these days they are used as fishing piers. Fishing is an activity that casts mono filament line to the wind, where it occasionally gets caught of power lines running alongside the bridges:

But not everyone fishes from bridges: The paradox of weather in the Keys is that a day like this that looks cold and damp and even snow laden is actually a hot muggy morning, still air warmed to 80 degrees (27C), laying flat over everything:The authorities cut a slice out of the center of the bridges, if they are lower than the 1982 Highway replacement, to allow tall boats to fit through. I cannot help but wonder why they could not have put in a small arch and made these bridges part of the bicycle path that connects a few of these islands together. The notion of a bike trail all the way through has been on the books for years and makes no progress in a world dominated by automobiles. A wild eyed radical like me thinks the Keys would be ideal for light electric rail single cars running silently every fifteen minutes carrying commuters quietly and easily to and from Marathon and Key West. But a bike path is beyond speculation, never mind a return to rail.Looking east toward Summerland Key, the metropolis of post office and shops between Big Pine and Key West huddled round Mile Marker 25:

The round blue barrels are trash cans. My buddy Robert on his own imitative placed these industrial by-products on Boca Chica Beach for use as trash receptacles years ago. The county seems to have noticed and now they are everywhere, and emptied by public works to help keep the Keys clean. Or, almost: It wouldn't be so hard to actually use the trash cans, you'd think:

Perhaps the hot muggy fall air confuses the brain.

Little Pines

It isn't really wintry weather just yet, but strong winds last week and reduced humidity made the current 85 degree (30C) afternoons seem eminently suitable for a brief outdoor ramble. The Key Deer Refuge off ... Key deer Boulevard on Big Pine Key was the general target last week. I stopped at the first likely spot which offered a trail into the wilderness and a small area off street to park the Bonneville. I turned my back on civilization, and the evening sun, and took off on foot.
This area was once set aside for development until our government intervened and set it aside as wilderness for future generations to enjoy. It seems likely that before the arrival of settlers Big Pine Key looked something like this though a naturalist I heard speak on the subject (Roland Fisch of FKCC) suggested human intervention on the island is bound to have altered the habitat in ways we cannot completely understand. Perhaps the first growth pines were larger? Perhaps the flora was more diverse. Who knows, I'm no scientist so I'll take it as I find it today. These trees are not very big and in an effort to show their relative size I grabbed a middling sized pine by the trunk:Walking the proposed and undeveloped street through the trees one can catch a glimpse from time to time that land wilderness in the Keys is relative. One need never feel too far from civilization: Even though the undergrowth is thick and would be awkward to penetrate:Were that even permitted:

I doubt I strolled half a mile from the Bonneville to the west, Google Maps suggests 0.4 miles:

Before I came upon Wilder Road at the end of this side street. Wilder is the other great artery crossing Big Pine from North to South.

A construction yard barely visible through the trees:

Yes indeed, a quick circuit around the other warning sign and then I headed west again toward my motorcycle:

Little Pines on Big Pine on a summery Fall afternoon.