So you live in the Keys and your oldest friend has just got engaged. You have no choice but to get on your magic carpet and fly off to Never Never Land known locally as Little Palm Island:
Little Palm island is a lump of sand halfway between Key West and Marathon, a barrier island at the mouth of Newfound Harbor. It is known as one of the most exclusive and expensive resorts in the Keys and a night here will cost you I'm told somewhere north of $1500. However if you really want privacy you can rent the entire island for yourself and your entourage and people do do that. Frequently they arrive by boat and park their motorboats at the island's docks and do what we locals get to do every day, paddle in the water:
check out the horizon:
and stuff their faces on some really excellent cooking:
For the rest of us mere mortals Little Palm is an oasis we get to enjoy for a meal and some contemplation before returning to the drudgery of daily life on our own self-serve slivers of paradise. Locals get a break so for somewhere less than $100 US each ($150 for you I think), we plebs get a ten minute boat ride to and from the island (private boats are not allowed to dock for anything less than an overnight stay), a fabulous brunch (gratuity included) and a pause in the stress of daily life in the shade of the magnificent lounging area next to the docks:
Robert and Dolly came by our house and we drove them a mile up the highway to the Little Torch Key marina where the launch is docked:
Down the canal, and out into the open waters of Newfound Harbor on a magnificent sunny day:
We took the comfortable seats inside the cabin allowing the visitors to toast outside in the heat of the day. Dolly doesn't really hang on every pearl of wisdom that drops from Robert's lips but she did tell us she is learning something new every day from hanging out with him:
Down the canal, and out into the open waters of Newfound Harbor on a magnificent sunny day:We took the comfortable seats inside the cabin allowing the visitors to toast outside in the heat of the day. Dolly doesn't really hang on every pearl of wisdom that drops from Robert's lips but she did tell us she is learning something new every day from hanging out with him:Robert moved to the Keys in 1976 ("The Bicentennial"he points out) and has never looked back. He's worked all sorts of jobs including as a lobster fisherman and a business manager but these days he operates the Marine Sanctuary boat out of the Eco-Discovery center at the Truman Waterfront. It's his dream job and it was with some shyness he told us he'd got engaged, news that completely floored me. So naturally I viewed this as an opportunity to waste some cash and be decadent. What a glorious waste!
Little Palm has 28 cottages, a spa, a pool some beaches and a restaurant packed onto its five acres. The island has electricity and one phone in a shed-like booth for those desperate to call home. There is also a TV room for those unable to abandon the habit, however cell phones are banned in public places and television is not provided in the rooms. It is a real retreat and everything is quite beautifully appointed:
It's kind of rustic but not really... and service is impeccable, which must be a mighty strain for a Keys lodging and, I really don't want to sound like an advertisement but Little Palm is really great fun and highly enjoyable.
I say this despite my reservations about such appalling decadence in the middle of a world that has enormous difficulty sharing the most modest of necessities. For instance alongside the numerous cold food buffets we got a menu of hot dishes which are more like samplers, pork loin and fried yucca seen here:
Or tuna on crispy rice:
Doesn't look like much does it? But you can order as many of each dish as you want, in addition to the seafood, cold pasta, vegetable and fruit and pastry buffets from which you help yourself. We tasted French toast, pancakes, soup, eggs Benedict but skipped the scallops and some other thing I can't remember. They also have a do-it-yourself vodka and champagne bar as well as a $13-a-shot cocktail menu. Really this place puts you in mind of Marie Antoinette. I think Robert and Dolly enjoyed it as much as we did, despite briefly suffering the same pangs of bourgeois guilt:
The waters of the Straits of Florida were sparkling in the sunshine and there was a cool fresh breeze (it seemed so to us!) blowing in off the water. Oh and then there was the desert tray, with a special message for them:
My wife and I enjoyed our tray every bit as much as we watched Robert scrape the chocolate lettering off theirs...rum raisin ice cream, miniature éclairs and Key Lime pie. Oh dear and I had quite a caffeine buzz on after our third pot of coffee. Or was it four? I lost count, as Julio kept whipping up a constant stream of stuff for our table.
This was Robert's first visit to the island but on a previous trip my wife and I got a tour of the island thanks to our friendship with an employee, so we knew of the charming alleyways, the upstairs spa, whose recollection gave Dolly an ecstatic look as she remembered immersing herself in a hot tub overlooking the open waters below.
It's kind of rustic but not really... and service is impeccable, which must be a mighty strain for a Keys lodging and, I really don't want to sound like an advertisement but Little Palm is really great fun and highly enjoyable. I say this despite my reservations about such appalling decadence in the middle of a world that has enormous difficulty sharing the most modest of necessities. For instance alongside the numerous cold food buffets we got a menu of hot dishes which are more like samplers, pork loin and fried yucca seen here:Or tuna on crispy rice:Doesn't look like much does it? But you can order as many of each dish as you want, in addition to the seafood, cold pasta, vegetable and fruit and pastry buffets from which you help yourself. We tasted French toast, pancakes, soup, eggs Benedict but skipped the scallops and some other thing I can't remember. They also have a do-it-yourself vodka and champagne bar as well as a $13-a-shot cocktail menu. Really this place puts you in mind of Marie Antoinette. I think Robert and Dolly enjoyed it as much as we did, despite briefly suffering the same pangs of bourgeois guilt:The waters of the Straits of Florida were sparkling in the sunshine and there was a cool fresh breeze (it seemed so to us!) blowing in off the water. Oh and then there was the desert tray, with a special message for them:My wife and I enjoyed our tray every bit as much as we watched Robert scrape the chocolate lettering off theirs...rum raisin ice cream, miniature éclairs and Key Lime pie. Oh dear and I had quite a caffeine buzz on after our third pot of coffee. Or was it four? I lost count, as Julio kept whipping up a constant stream of stuff for our table.This was Robert's first visit to the island but on a previous trip my wife and I got a tour of the island thanks to our friendship with an employee, so we knew of the charming alleyways, the upstairs spa, whose recollection gave Dolly an ecstatic look as she remembered immersing herself in a hot tub overlooking the open waters below.
We took the first brunch ferry of the day at 10:30 and after some lounging we caught the 2:00pm ferry back, though no one pushed us to leave. We arrived at the dock as The Truman was pulling in:
And disgorged a number of twittering visitors, a wedding party it seemed facing a bill whose proportions I find it hard to imagine:
And their abundant luggage:
Which was loaded into a hotel dolly, equipped not with the usual casters but with substantial rubber tires, suitable for a little off-roading necessary to get to the rooms on the island:
Everyone noticed the heron standing in the shallows near the dock, and for a moment it seemed hard to differentiate between the bird and people behind it. The big difference became apparent when Phil the piano player (whose wife is a a teacher alongside my wife) pointed out the humans were mere guests while the heron has been living full time at Little Palm for 15 years:
We should all be so lucky.
Which was loaded into a hotel dolly, equipped not with the usual casters but with substantial rubber tires, suitable for a little off-roading necessary to get to the rooms on the island:Everyone noticed the heron standing in the shallows near the dock, and for a moment it seemed hard to differentiate between the bird and people behind it. The big difference became apparent when Phil the piano player (whose wife is a a teacher alongside my wife) pointed out the humans were mere guests while the heron has been living full time at Little Palm for 15 years:We should all be so lucky. 
Duval Street exerts it's fascination, it's the heart of the city of Key West. It's where visitors want to be, and it's frequently where residents don't want to be. It's the street that garners lots of attention from the city commission, it's the street that needs to be cleaned up- the problem child with it's obscene t-shirts, panhandlers, garbage, public intoxication and human weirdness. It's the street that if it didn't exist, as the saying goes, they'd have to invent it. Take away Duval and you end up with any old small town America. Duval Street is the heart of the contradictions that exemplify modern Key West.
The weather lately has been ruffled, lots of breezes cooling what is usually the hottest and stickiest of months and it was a delight to the skin to be out on Duval at two thirty in the morning. I was not alone. 
And this viewed from across the street seemed a companionable moment though they rather seemed to be letting the side down with their slovenly manner of dress. I mean I dress a bit like that and I expect better from my gay neighbors:
It might be Havana or Prague or Dijon but certainly not Florida in 2008. Actually that is exactly what it is. Or this:
This is classic Key West architecture and its yours for the asking, judging by the realtor's sign:
It takes a fair bit of luck to operate a long lasting business in Key West. Martin's German Restaurant used to be on Appelrouth Lane, a little hole in the alley place but it has since grown to this on Duval, all blue and exotic:
When I see a "For Rent" sign in an empty shop window I tend to get gloomy and mutter to myself about these weird economic times and financial melt down and the like:
Of course stores come and go in the natural order of commerce these days but it is a bit unnerving nevertheless to see empty windows on the main commercial tourism street. The convenience store on Olivia appeared to be doing land sale business among the young adults, mere shadows really, hovering in front:
People ask me sometimes if there are dangerous neighborhoods or places where one shouldn't walk at night in Key West. I am not the best person to ask about stuff like that as I tend to wander at will at home and abroad and so far I have never come to any harm. I find Key West a totally nonthreatening environment to wander around in, night or day. Young people for the most part are polite and civil in a way that strikes me as very old fashioned. They step aside for an old gray beard like me shuffling along the sidewalks and they never behave in a way that might be construed as threatening. I walk, I take pictures and no one bothers me. That's city living as far as I am concerned.
An hour seems too short for a lunch break some nights and I had to make like a leaf and blow. Like these guys all energized by the sight of a transvestite ambling along the darker part of the sidewalk across the street talking with a friend.
I found it rather touching that somebody still lives in Key West who is moved to pull a sharp U turn in the middle of Duval to check out the blond wig and endless masculine legs tottering down the sidewalk. 
It's good to get downtown every now and again and see innocent amazement in all it's glory.
The bridge is clearly marked on Google maps, in the middle of Niles Road on the northern edge of Summerland Key, but riding up the road past the few houses hidden in the mangroves, shows no sign of a bridge, and the road dead ends after a few sinuous curves perhaps a mile from the hustle and bustle of Summerland Key's businesses lining Highway One. Niles road is smooth and empty:
At the turn out there is a barrier with a trail leading off into the bushes:
And the pathway itself is pretty much standard issue among these islands in the Lower Keys, a meandering track:
The odd thing was that behind the barrier, which is padlocked I found this:
Just sitting in the grass, presumably no longer of use so they put the old trailer out to pasture. Neither reused nor recycled; just dumped. 
Geologically the Keys are more like the Bahamas than the rest of Florida, but the limestone rock is frequently covered in a thin layer of marl, the clay dries to a rock-like gray consistency, which can produce surprises:
In other words if you walk as I do, little-Johnny-head-in-air looking around at clouds and sky and in the branches of the mangroves you stand an excellent chance of taking a header. However the moisture has brought the bushes to life with a lot of sudden scuttling as I was walking along, probably a mixture of crabs, geckos and bogey men, but I could see nothing. Bleached bones perhaps? Not a bit of it, there aren't any cows down here:
A common landscape feature that doesn't exist in the Keys, aside from hills, is a river. Yet I could distinctly hear a little brook a-gurgling, and not very far away either. The mystery was soon resolved as this trail is rather short. I rounded the last corner and came upon the object of my search:
And the road leading up to it was built up as well judging by the timbers outlining a plank road, and the whole thing looked like it should have been left for curious people like myself to stroll along for the experience and the pleasure:
Instead, in order to keep us safe from ourselves they have disassembled the access end. Grrr. I should like to come back at a suitable tide and take a hike to the other end. The desire to peek beyond the horizon is still with me after all these years... However I am older and more prudent and it was clear the cooling north wind was bringing weather with it:
I had plenty of time to slip slide my way back to the Bonneville and get all fired up:
Some people think these islands all look the same, but call me perverse if you will, somehow I still manage to put on, if not the mantle, then at least the neckerchief of an explorer in these small pieces of more-or-less dry land. And if it wasn't for the camera I'm sure I might not even have bothered. And if it weren't for the Web you'd never have known I was out exploring Summerland Key's north shore. From wooden bridges to electrons, that's the modern digital world for you.