The weather this past week has been glorious, sunny all day with highs over 80 degrees (27C) a cool easterly breeze and nights just cool enough for good sleeping (or working depending on who you are). The skies have been classic south Florida, deep dark blue with puffy white clouds scudding across the horizon like sails.
The great white pile that is the Fifth Street Baptist Church (the friendly church) looked very summery reflecting the sunlight like a giant wedding cake. The Bonneville looked good as usual I thought, but I would wouldn't I?
Fifth Street is a major connector between North Roosevelt and Flagler Avenue, it's a little wider than neighboring streets and is marked by traffic lights at each end. On the Boulevard (North Roosevelt) there is the dilapidated Yamaha dealership, specializing in cruisers and more cruisers with the odd crotch rocket and a scattering of scooters. The building is distinctive for it's blue decor and collapsing siding that never seemed to recover from the drubbing Hurricane Wilma dished out. They only do Yamahas here but they have a few accessories for people like me who ride something else:
Across from the Yamaha shop is one the many Cuban delis that dot Key West, and I've heard some people claim that Kim's Kuban makes the best breakfast sandwiches. we used to order bacon egg and cheese on Cuban bread when I worked day shift...and I wanted to do a taste test to check the quality but my wife has forbidden me bread made with lard. So here's a picture instead for anyone lucky enough to have Cuban bread included in their diets:
Fifth Street's saving grace, aside from convenience, are the trees and it has a few big ones casting their shade:
I saw a couple of homes I thought worth photographing, one covered in pink plaster and some distinctive fencing:
And this next one is sitting on little stilts, which would probably have been enough to spare it getting wet in Wilma, the great flood of 2005. New Town got hit particularly badly as did Bahama Village, and neither area is particularly endowed with raised housing. The Federal Government did have a plan to match funds to put houses on stilts but it costs tens of thousands of dollars. This manufactured home looks snug raised just a few feet:
Across the Street I saw a big old home looking large and solid flanked by some of my favorite palms, I've seen them at the botanical garden so I think I know they are Canary Island date palms. Though I don't think a date with them would be that interesting:
And the Baptist Church isn't the only one on Fifth Street. There is this Seventh Day Adventist Temple in Florida 1960's style: 
It was mid afternoon, under the broiling sun when I was out, not a snowflake in sight, and I saw these kids zipping by on a side street. I think its very cool that parents let their kids cycle freely around town. Hopefully they will soon get scooters and the motorcycle bug will never leave them:
And there was also a member of a lightly more mature generation taking his bicycle for a walk down Fifth Street:
Fifth Street is one of those annoying Key West Streets that suffers from two names (14th/ Glynn Archer also springs to mind). Old timers will tell you Truman Avenue used to be Division Street before the Prez started taking vacations in the Southernmost City. Fifth Street got renamed too after British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan paid a visit later. Shown here, from British Government Archives, with President Kennedy during the Cuban missile crisis:
Super Mac, as he was labelled in England was known for his phrase, "You've never had it so good," as he told the British people after World War Two. Now you know. The name, Macmillan Drive is on the street sign but not on people's lips. It's Fifth Street for most residents. And here's the traffic light at Flagler where they meet. Oops there's the Bonneville again.:
An old timer pulled alongside and got a look of intense concentration on his face as he studied the Bonneville. I've seen that look before and pretty soon he started reminiscing about his racing days with a Triumph Trophy and the 500cc Speed Twin he rode on the streets. "Looks just the same as the Bonnevilles from back then," he said unimpressed when I told him it doesn't vibrate and doesn't leak oil and starts every time... I had stopped at the south end of the street to check out another well known landmark in New Town, but the old laundry, Universal Cleaners is gone and all that is left is their business on Elizabeth Street across from the library.
This place always made an impression on me because, thanks to some architectural quirk you walked down a very long very narrow very dark corridor to get to the counter at the back of the building to drop of your wife's work clothes. And now it's for sale. we have to keep reminding ourselves change is good. 
Spring Break has struck Key West, and during the day the hard studying students refresh themselves at Smathers Beach on the south side of the island. Parking is a monstrous problem, but all those lovely meters, and the associated fines help relieve the city's $1.2 million dollar budget shortfall projected for next fiscal year.
I am completely unsuited to the study of young people and their mating, drinking and recreational habits, so for me wandering along South Roosevelt Boulevard this time of year is an alien experience:
One is supposed to find these youthful exuberant teenagers objects of desire, lost youth, innocence, unbridled lust, the capacity to suck down alcohol and remain upright in the burning Florida sun. All attributes lost to a 50 year old man wandering the sidewalk in long pants, a motorcycle jacket and an attitude of bemusement:
Even when I was their age (I was once!) I found no joy in sitting around on a beach getting drunk and obnoxious, you can imagine that these days I'm even less inclined to spend my time in the company of those desperate to be cool. On the other hand even a curmudgeon has to be able to appreciate certain things, and Jack Riepe notwithstanding, I offer these simply as a counterpoint to the gray and overcast and cold they have fled Up North:
Smathers Beach doesn't strike me as the finest beach in the world to relax upon but it is the best Key West has to offer and the youngsters take full advantage of it:
This year it seems like there are more Spring Breakers in town than in recent years past. Perhaps the funky economy works in Key West's favor over further flung, more exotic locations in Central America or Mexico. The fact is, the city is packed with young people chasing around on scooters, and the Overseas Highway is lined with small cars filled with bodies chasing the sun south. 
At work we've been busy with good old fashioned drunkenness on Duval street late at night, but there aren't the law enforcement support of years past, the special court at Old City Hall, roving patrols of State Alcohol enforcement types and such. I spotted a stretch of Smathers beach sidewalk that looked like it does much of the rest of the year, not crowded, and it was reminder of the rapid approach of summer:
Summer, is my favorite time of year, hot but not as hot as Arizona, humid but not too humid ( for me) and quiet. But not completely quiet. One has to hope Europeans will continue to visit despite the weakness of the Euro, last year 1:65 to the dollar, this year 1:25. But we have palm trees and a modicum of sand:
And lots of pictures, of which more tomorrow.
Naturally I arrived early and with time on my hands pulled out the camera. The Bonneville was looking good in the sun:
Hum-de-dum-de-dum,I thought, a bit like Pooh Bear as i stumped around wondering if there might not be honey lurking behind that weird looking porch. And by gum, there it was, a huge undiscovered hunny pot:
Across the walkway I found a business center I had not previously known existed. It was almost a houseboat stuck out on the water on pilings:
Across the lagoon I recognized a couple of landmarks. Behind the palm tree I could just barely see the Checkers fast food sign on the Boulevard:
And a little further away I could see the dilapidated gate that used to lead to the dolphin aquarium exhibit thing that used to face onto the Boulevard but has been long gone lo these many years:
This was all I could find to identify the building:
So the street address suddenly popped out at me, but I'd never heard of The Heron before. So I tried to ignore the rather unfriendly No Trespassing sign and snapped a few pictures of a maritime flavor:
And me being me I had to wonder who designed a fire sprinkler to be located over open water:
All in all, mysteries left intact it was a most instructive seven minutes. My wife soon called and I had to trot off to amuse myself watching my wife's nodule get sonogrammed and pierced with a large syringe. While we waited for the doctor I found this brazen hussy in the waiting room:
All naked and everything she was, which put me in mind of a story that has done the rounds recently in the newspaper. It seems someone had called out the emergency services following the discovery of a corpse in a wreck off Archer key, to the west of Key West. closer investigation showed it was a skeleton wired to the seat of a sunken power boat tat closely resembled the display model I found at the doctor's office. It was speculated to have been an early April Fool joke.
We had had a busy night Saturday in Dispatch with lots of calls for service as one would expect on a weekend during Spring Break. Sunday night started out quietly enough until we hit ten o'clock and we got word of smoke and flames seen on the 500 block of Duval. The best known landmark there is Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville Cafe and a few doors down is the magnificent San Carlos Theater.
It appears the fire was centered between them at the crepe shop and two art galleries between them and has caused a lot of damage to those businesses but spared Margaritaville and the San Carlos. I went down to check it out after my shift was over.
Police closed several blocks of Duval and evacuated neighboring restaurants and let the firefighters do their thing. It wasn't just city fire, there were military firefighters and officers from the airport to help out as well and apparently it was quite spectacular with smoke all over downtown. 
I wonder if we will get our Breton Crepes back? Especially in an economic environment like this one. One firefighter got checked by rescue on scene but no one else was hurt, and by one a.m. things seemed to be levelling off at the scene.
It is an unfortunate fact of life in a town with narrow streets and well seasoned wood buildings one needs a well organized fire department. The last big fire on Duval was when the old Copa Club burned down in August 1995. Tonight was a really strong reminder of how much we depend on our firefighters in this town. 
Budget cuts be damned.
Mallory Square in the 19th and early 20th centuries was a working waterfront with proper docks and warehouses and all the accouterments of maritime trade. Nowadays its a brick plaza set up to accommodate tourist hordes who usually show up just before the sun goes down. The rest of the time it tends to be quieter but the arrival of a cruise ship at the nearby Westin Pier B will increase the flow of traffic across the plaza. It's a big enough space that it can handle larger crowds than this:
Back on Earth, one punter was trying to sort out a phone call in the bright sunlight, with Sunset Key over his shoulder:
Across the way another visitor was wrapping up lunch on one of the planters:
On my way out of the square I saw one early bird trying to make a living before the sunset celebrations began later in the day:
And as usual in Key West if you look around you'll see interesting roof lines,in this case the one in the back is the red Customs House Museum, a Federal design built steep to shrug off snow:
Soon enough they will all have to go home and we shall be left to poverty and peace and quiet. But first we have Spring Break to get through.