Urban Sunset

Ocean Key sits on the north end of Duval Street, a fortress hotel that manages to keep at bay the noise and confusion of the hard drinking bars that litter this end of the most famous street in Key West. However they have a pier with a tiki bar on it.

A place to sit and think about what a sunset means to you. Not everyone has to go to Mallory Square to see the end of the day.

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Dog Shadows

Crazy isn't it, here's my dog wondering why can't I just get a move on? Because I am taking her picture, that's why.

She doesn't need me, even here on the sidewalk unprotected from the traffic except by her good sense and the hours of training I have given her.

We hang out a lot together and of all the people in my life Cheyenne actually pays attention to me. So when I say "Wait," she waits for me at intersections. When I say "Stop!" she stops. It's brilliant and thus very low stress to walk her off leash.

It turned out the shoulder of Highway One wasn't that interesting so we got back in the car and left.

It was pretty though.


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Bridge Walk

A hazy sunny morning alongside the Overseas Highway.

A dog chasing left over fish bait.



Back off, it's mine.



If not commuting, exercising.

I read the paper, Cheyenne breakfasted. A fine start to the day.



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Useless Crocs

A hot summer afternoon in Key West with Duval Street littered with pedestrians enjoying a street fair. On my stroll I noticed a shop not previously seen by me, unsurprisingly, so in defiance of my not-a-shopper attitude I went in to see the Croc Store.

I recently got my newest pair of size 12 pink Crocs and a spare pair for 50% off, $15 each pair...at the Birkenstock store in the middle of Duval. The clerk told me she can't sell 'em so I am welcome to as many pairs as they have half off...I went into the Croc store to see if they had a more secure supply of my favorite footwear which lasts me about six months.

These two pictures I shot in the men's department and judging by the earth tones most men must plan to go hunting in their Crocs. I certainly don't. Imagine my disappointment when I looked around at all the new and improved styles of rubber footwear in fashionable molds and my basic pink pink clunkers were nowhere to be seen.



I found the pink ones eventually in the unisex department (?) and to my horror the largest size is men's size nine. My size 12 dinner plates were nowhere to be seen. Fat load of good a whole specialized Croc store is!

I do get comments about my choice of pink footwear but my theory is anyone scared of me and my sexual proclivities because I wear pink Crocs is probably too boring to be worth talking to anyway. Besides if straight men are too scared of them and gay men find them too ugly I am in the perfect position to take advantage of half priced footwear - if I can find them! That is how I hunt in Crocs, for pink footwear.

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Mangrove Mama's

The newspaper reported last week that the restaurant at Mile Marker 20 has new owners. Which on the face of it seemed like good news. The retardant was purchased by out of town owners a few years ago and things did not go well at this formerly renowned eatery.

Long time staff left and things bimbled along, more or less okay as seen from the outside. Then the enthusiastic new owners got column inches in the paper with the new owner quoted as saying he was tired of shoveling snow. That comment gained a certain level of unintended irony when the Key West Citizen followed up with a story that the new owner had to go "home" to Wisconsin to serve a 45 day sentence for possession of and dealing cocaine. Shoveling snow indeed.

Rick Ramsey for Sheriff proclaims the election billboard still up at the restaurant. I don't suppose the legal contretemps necessarily bodes ill for the restaurant that I would like to see restored to it's former cheerful glory, but it's well known that addictive personalities don't necessarily do well in the Keys where the culture of excess is carefully cultivated as eccentricity.

I hope Mangrove Mama's becomes a nice place to hang out, especially since Parrotdise is gone, but drink and drugs do not mix well with the hard graft needed to make an eatery work in these trying islands. A successful fresh start for all would be great. Fingers crossed and I hope they get Smithwicks on tap

as well.



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Dead Parrot

It has occurred to me I miss the former Parrotdise Restaurant.

This place filled a gap that has started to gape once again now it is gone, for good apparently.

News of the closure came as a surprise and the asking price for the waterside property came as even more of a surprise when the listing revealed a request for $3.2 million.

It's all as it was when the place was open which made the nostalgia even worse. Why nostalgia you ask? Good question.

Here's the thing: I think the Lower Keys, more specifically Cudjoe Key is home to the best restaurant in the islands, bar none. The Square Grouper never disappoints in food, wine service and decor. I think it is the best, most reliable value for money over any place to eat in Key West.

Parrotdise was no competition, indeed the night they closed my wife and I were tucking in to grouper and smoked pork at the Square Grouper. What worked brilliantly here was the concept of simple decent food without pretensions but with cheerful staff and nice views. They mixed a stiff drink and served draft Smithwick's even at happy hour. Can't fault that.

A nice view of Big Pine Channel made a simple meal delightful.

There are other eateries in the Lower Keys, bars with greasy food, diners with okay food and some less than okay. For the kind of impromptu not elaborate meal on a spur of the moment decision to eat out, nowhere brings the same elements together that Parrotdise had. The breakfast burger - a hamburger with egg- and a Smithwick's and bob was my uncle. No more.

Eating out involves paying for elaborate food with lots of calories as a break from being at home and it's a popular activity in the Keys, especially in winter when the old foges who have retired from cooking for their extended families demand out eating facilities. Sometimes I think they could be more discerning and expect more because too often I come away feeling like that meal was not good value for money.

The pace of change in these islands gets to be wearing especially if you come from a place where families and businesses hardy chance with the passage of generations. Here today gone tomorrow is the way of life so enjoy it while you can. And to lose a place that actually offered value for money is a drag.

The fact is change is inevitable and on that hoary worn out old chestnut I shall end this meditation on change not for the better.

Some other hopeful will come along and give it a go. May be it will be an improvement over Parrotdise.




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