Finally found a way to describe Key West
06 December 2009 | Key West
Terry/ Perfect Weather Partly cloudy with a slight chance of showers. Highs in the mid 70s. Variable winds 5 to 10 mph.
This morning while waiting for Jeff, a cruising friend that is helping us with our solar project, early in the morning near downtown Key West I finally figured out how to describe Key West.
First, I have the definition of a local according to the locals in Key West. If you stay here in the off season you are a local. We arrived before the season so we are locals.
In that early morning look at Key West the tourists are still in bed but the streets are full of people going to work on bicycles, mopeds, and on foot. They travel to work that way because they are too poor to own cars not just because they have perfect weather and short trips. Some travel many miles and most have multiple jobs. The people that live in the big mansions or even the 600 square foot conch houses do not live here. The real Key West people live on boats(Sometimes ones that sink every year), furnished closets or share rent with other people or live under bridges.
All of that may sound grim, but in Key West it is not grim. All of these people are ecstatically happy. There faces are covered with giant shit eating grins because they get to bike, walk, or scooter to work in KEY WEST. I say that with a huge big fat shit eating grin on my face. I am so happy here, and I only wish you all could be here.
Tonight all of us poor Key Westers met on the screened in patio of a closed bar to eat pot luck dinners and grill meat on the restaurant provided grill. We mixed our own drinks. Everyone had a HUGE shit eating grin.
Tomorrow I am taking my family to eat at a Cuban Restaurant that does not have a name or even a sign. It is in a partially cinder blocked building open to the elements. You could easily drive by it and not know it was an inhabited building. Inside the tables have checkered table cloths that are spotlessly clean. Nobody knows a word of english. The neighborhood looks scary. You will not find it on any tourist brochure. I bet the food is outstanding.