Southernmost Point

When you live in Key West there are certain landmarks that don't really resonate much and the point as it is known has to be one of those memorable places easily ignored. The fact is I made it a point (yes yes pun intended) to walk over to the big cement buoy and see what was what.

Winter residents are starting to trickle back and snow Up North will increase the flow but there is almost never a time in the year, at least during daylight, when some few people aren't milling around. I kind of expected a  crowd and that was what I got.

I like to disguise myself as a tourist when I wander around Key West wearing an innocuous colorful shirt with a camera around my neck. Even those times I am with, or as in this case without Rusty, but I don't generally stand in line for stuff, so I walked away after getting the picture od the crowd lined up for selfies. Of course no sooner had I stepped away than more eager people shuffled forward to take my place in line. What a procession!

While we were waiting for Hurricane Irma to arrive in 2017 I rode my Vespa around the city when I was off duty and for some reason I was prompted by a voice in my head to get pictures at landmarks as there was no one in town and it was an excellent opportunity not to have to share.

Of course a few days later the Category Four storm landed exactly on top of my home in Cudjoe Key and laid waste to my neighborhood though my house survived intact oddly enough. The buoy itself took a  beating from the wind and spray.

But it's all back to normal now, happily.

Incidentally it is widely reported these days that this isn't the actual most southerly physical spot in the continental United States. That honor belongs to a spit of land beyond the fence inside the Navy base and thus not open to the public. And when I first showed up in Key West on another Vespa in 1981 I of course went to see the famous spot and there wasn't even a buoy in 1981:

In 2014 it looked pretty much as it does now:

Flowers And Bikes

I was driving downtown and stopped opposite this five bedroom six bath mansion relatively speaking on Truman Avenue.I was surprised to see  a price reduced sign next to a for rent request on the same building. On looking it up we will find the price is around two point six million dollars for 3800 square feet. But in town where houses sell instantly this one isn't doing it. I wonder why.

I saw this mirror hanging on a  gate on Margaret Street and I managed to get a street view without myself in it peering into the viewfinder. Well done me!

A lone bicycle at the bike shop on Eaton Street...

And a newly saddled renter taking to the streets of Key West  from the rear of the same establishment. Imagine that, free to roam all day with no one to answer to...

The frangipani are so perfect they look fake.

Conch cottage with bicycles:

And without bicycles:

Key West always photogenic. 

Simonton Street

I really have been enjoying black and white shadows and light.

And some color slipped in among the flowers in front of Sarabeth's Restaurant.

I was strolling down Eaton Street allowing my glance to fall where it may. 1976  was a banner year apparently:

I titled this picture below as a walk on the wild side on my Instagram among the foliage surrounding the Methodist Church at Eaton and Simonton Streets.

Feet dragging scooter riders, a good way to limp the rest of your life if you damage any small bone in your foot:

This cyclist caught my attention when he was riding down the street with an arm held out rigidly at right angles to his body signifying an imminent left turn. It's the exact right thing to do but no one does it in Key West. Ducking and weaving is the cyclist way. His arm made him unusual:

Shadows and light everywhere!

Me, reflected:

The Federal Building whence will come my Social Security check one day!

Good riding weather on Simonton Street:

Good telephoning weather too:

Somehow I caught his blue shorts the blue door etc...etc...in one picture.

A shady rooster on Rose Lane:

Duval Pocket Park

It has been noted that the rather crass pedestrian only sign planted in the middle of the new pocket park at the end of Duval Street does detract somewhat from the generally pleasing urban garden atmosphere of the place. 

It was not always so. I took a couple of screenshots of Google Street View, nothing high resolution but on the history slider you can go back as far as 2011 though the street scene doesn't change much. 

 As you can see if you aren't familiar with the way the south end of Duval Street used to peter out it was a block of parking, no urban planning and a lot of dead seaweed pushed over the seawall by the prevailing wind direction. Not exactly a delight.

Naturally there was so grumping about the loss of parking spaces. Parking is always an issue in Key West whether it's at a tourist site or in residential zones. There is to hear people talk, never enough car parking. Sometimes though seating can be a nice replacement. I took advantage to put my feet up myself!

 The original plans called for a public private partnership to create an outdoor cafe associated with teh Southernmost House hotel visible behind the trees to the left:

However it seems now to be a simple and rather attractive bricked walkway with raised flowerbeds and plants that will soon no doubt arch up and give lots of shade.  

 It is combined with a public cement pier that sticks well out over the water and is quite popular: 

You can get some nice views here if you feel like avoiding Mallory Square crowds and performers at sunset. 

My rules, self imposed, about ocean swimming call for a first attempt when we start daylight savings time in the Spring though it is generally a bit too cool for comfort with all swimming wrapped up by the end of summer time and a return for standard time in the Fall. Tourists and hardier people from Up North ignore my feelings about cold ocean waters.

I heard it said many many years ago that an acquaintance of mine viewed himself as an 80/80/80 kind of tropical human being. 80 degrees air temperature, 80 percent humidity and 80 percent water temperature.  Sounds good to me!

 It was mildly windy when I was there which produced modest waves. The reef surrounding the southern and eastern sides of Key West are very useful barriers to building seas especially in hurricane season. The result is poor surfing conditions and not spectacular wave action photography. Oh, and limited effects from massive ocean waves crashing into people's lives during massive storms.

The pocket park does actually have an entrance to the Southernmost House so who knows what might develop. A scenic gate perhaps.

 Blue on blue. I've been seeing a lot of this in one form or another:

And still you see the local architecture looking over the new garden park. It must be better for them too, the new landscaping.