Key West First Day

We saw a lot of Key West last year, so this year is a follow up visit to one of Florida's most interesting, eclectic, wild and crazy cities...you can see just about anything here as far as personalities and dress go...or no dress, in some cases, depending on the restaurants and bars you might visit. Apparently, Key West has a clothing optional bar, but we didn't check that out today....We were content to read the sign for it downtown, and reviews on Yelp.  It's called The Garden of Eden. Apparently, it has very good dancing entertainment, depending on whether you are dancing to the good music they seem to have, or watching other people dance. And that's all Sparky is going to say about that! If you want to read a variety of reviews, read what patrons had to say on Yelp for the Garden of Eden in Key West. Some of it's pretty funny!

We walked the streets, we walked the harbor docks.....

We visited Sloppy Joe's, a famous bar with lots of Hemingway memorabilia in downtown Key West...We had their fantastic fish dip with crackers, it was fabulous! Sloppy Joe's has a webcam, so Sparky called her sister to check out the bar webcam on the internet. Sparky goofed around on camera for eight seconds, the length of time on the webcam till it resets. She saw me! Technology can be fun!

There was a great band playing. It seems Sloppy Joe's always has good dance music going, but it was too early. Nobody was dancing just yet.....

There are LOTS of tours you can take in Key West...You can take the conch train, which "conch" is actually pronounced "conk", to get a tour of the town, we did that last year and it was great! You could take this tour below, which is tempting......But I think it would be more fun around Halloween!

As we were walking around town, we stumbled upon this memorial garden....full of famous Key Westians......

There's a wonderful Episcopal Church, St. Paul's, in the middle of town that is being renovated. The inside reminded me a great deal of my little church I grew up with back in Kenilworth, IL, the Holy Comforter. The sky was so blue, and the church so white, St. Paul's was beautiful!

The roosters were out in full force all over town...for some reason, maybe the weather was a lot cooler the last time we were here, we didn't see them last year.

I like roosters, but don't know why...It's part of that weird process of growing older where your tastes in food change, your tastes in decor change, and all things vintage start to trigger all kinds of childhood memories for you. Things that you had absolutely no interest in and could care less when you were younger, now intrigue and fascinate. Roosters fascinate me, I just love their colors!

We saw several different street vendors....These people are so talented! Anything to do with crafts captures Sparky's interest immediately! (I've noticed! says E.) He'll be walking down the street, she stops to look at something, and pretty soon, Eldy is WA-A-A-Y ahead of Sparky....He has to keep looking back to make sure she doesn't get waylaid by a street vendor! This guy had made some cool jewelry....

Another guy was making wire figurines and portraits of people....in minutes! He was working one of President Obama, but we didn't check back with him to see how it turned out. We checked out lots of different places, at least looking at the menus and in other cases, reading about them. Eldy is standing next to the location for the Whistle Bar on the first floor, and the Garden of Eden (clothing optional bar) is on the third floor. Wipe that grin off your face, Eldo! :-) (I'm just happy to be in Key West, don'tcha know? says E.)

As we were walking around, the entertainers who were singing in the bars could easily see the passersby, it's all open air dining pretty much...One called out to Eldy, "Hey, c'mon in, Panama Jack!" referring to Eldy's hat. Eldy says maybe the guy could smell the Panama Jack suntan lotion he had on today. NOT! But I think Eldy has a new name---"Panama Jack"!

Of course, you can't walk around Key West and not be tempted by all the wonderful smells of restaurants galore....It was time to eat again!  At the Conch Republic Restaurant---Eldy had a terrific burger (10 oz.!) and Sparky had chicken tenders...nothing frozen here...fresh and delicious food!

It was the perfect day in paradise! See you somewhere in the Keys again tomorrow......