Diversity in Key West

 

 

 

We are frequent visitors of Key West, Florida.  Every evening there is a Sun Down Celebration by the ocean front.  This celebration is greatly a favorite of traveler, visitor, and home invited guest.  There are mimes, artists with their paintings, jewelry makers, and jugglers.  Several vendors offer food, drink and tasty snacks.  For years, the Cat Man can be seen performing his  tricks with his cats while he speaks in some mix of human-cat whine.  Fire eaters, musicians, and psychics are all in inquisitive forms.  It is extremely eclectic entertainment, and one feels like a child again wandering with strangers, as the sun is slowly swallowed by the horizon.

 

Diversity is the word for I associate with  Key West.  Duvall Street is filled with musicians, tricksters, and mimes.  It is not unusual to see a peg leg pirate in full regalia including a patch on his eye and a parrot on his shoulder.  Then there are the museums, gardens, house tours, and festivals that appear every year: Jimmy Buffet Parrot Heads; Fantasy Fest; Hemingway Look-a-Like Contest, and Dog Parades.  The area is a very animal friendly atmosphere.  While dining, most restaurants offer out door seating through out the day and evening. 

 

Clothing is sometimes optional, but generally very casual.  To add to the mix, there is the opposite side to the coin, down by the cruise ships.  A spectator can  sit on benches watching streams of people get off the huge cruise ships.  They are of differing nationalities, speaking foreign languages, and dripping with gold jewelry.  If this doesn't appeal to the watcher, he or she can wander over to the harbor and watch yachts and magnificent sail boats dock or gently be on their way.  Scheduling a day of sailing or fishing or the party cruises can easily be secured.  And still, if this is not of interest, one can go a little farther along to the wharf.  Here you will see the 'regular' coming and going in little dinghies bringing laundry in or retrieving food to be brought back out to the houseboat.  They are fishermen selling to the restaurants, wait staff, or shop employees.  They wear the most wonderful well worn tee shirts with hysterical sayings.  Although they may appear to be hippies, one can watch them hop onto their skiffs and hand motor back out to a waiting sizable yacht.

 

If a person flies in and spends their time at a fancy hotel, they may never experience the full offerings of Key West.  If a traveler leaves a cruise ship, he or she will never wander into the unique restaurants housed in old neighborhoods.  Then if one is of  the drinking sort hitting all of the well known drinking establishments, attendance is not likely at the exceptional Butterfly Garden.

 

Here at my computer, living in the Midwest indeed feels very bland.  The streets lack the sounds of random musicians, unique shops galore, endless out door eating establishments, and privacy at a sandy beach.  Fresh fish, fruits, veggies and private owned bakeries are only memories.  All of this and even more continues to call me to people watch at the shore.