Key West for me was a tropical island paradise. Gloria Swanson

I’m back and today I’m dealing with one of my favorite Fantasy Key West…the pictures are all from my adventures there including some from Fantasy Fest and the writings are from one of my various trip journals that I keep on occasion and hopefully won’t be boring for you….

And as usual we’ll do some rescue verse for all of you (me included) out there suffering from Outlanderwithdrawl Syndrome.

Nibblin’ on sponge cake,
Watchin’ the sun bake;
All of those tourists covered with oil

14″ Three Strand Torquoise Colored Stones on Silver Wires (262592654547) $9.00

No that’s not Claire and Jamie or Cait and Sam

Its Diana and hubby Doug

OK on to ways to get through Outlanderwithdrawl:

Take up cooking and we have just the recipe to start with: http://outlanderkitchen.com/2014/06/30/colums-shortbread-taste-of-outlander-giveaway/

But don’t eat too much of your own cooking you wouldn’t want to welcome Jamie back all fat now would you?

Take a class or home study—hey here’s an anatomy class that might help: http://www.outlanderanatomy.com/hear-here-the-ear/

And join the is Claire Ranchy debate–it starts here: https://adramofoutlander.com/tag/herald-ie/

and if those 3 aren’t enough here’s 10 more from Visit Scotland: https://www.visitscotland.com/blog/scotland/outlander-droughtlander-ideas/

Strummin’ my six string on my front porch swing

Chopin Black 24kt gold Trimmed Bell with Wheeled Cart of … (262592618798) $10.00

I have no idea when this was written but it was at least 12 or 13 year or more ago:

I was up at 4 a.m tired and rushed–checking this, packing those last minute items–checking and double checking for ticket’s, ID’s–on and on.

One thing about early flights is the airport isn’t busy. A bit of Con Leche and we’re on the plane–a smaller jet prop–on our way to Miami. De Plane, de plane is full, over booked infact, but we’re on and flying through clouds as thick as whole milk and as dingy as old snow.

Smell those shrimp-
They’re beginnin’ to boil.

Day II

Too busy to write day 1

Our day yesterday went well. It was pouring in Miami which managed to put us a bit behind our schedule. The small jet prop (we set under the wings_ was loaded with the few people that got off at Miami replaced by new sojourners for Key West.

We arrived in the tiny airport–seeing the islands on the way down was enjoyable and interesting. How long have we transversed that narrow road that is often boarded by the sea rather than a the land like lesser roads. Up here you can see all the other islands large and small that stretch out below us so enticingly. Visibility was not always good but we caught our first sight of sunlight gleaming on the water…a faint hope a we weren’t going to see that orb for awhile.

We landed at 10 am, about half hour late, but not too bad. The Camel Cash guy was at the airport waiting for us and wisked us off to the hotel where we were able to check in immediately and pick up our camel packet which included a camera complete with film and battery.

By the time this had all transpired the heavens had exploded with storms and rain in torrential gusts.

Going across Front Street was like wading a rapidly flowing river which came to calf height. We trugged up Duval–trying to dodge who were attempting to keep the tides from encroaching on their store floors…others more organized had placed wooden or sandbag dame to block the dirty, ugly waters.

We continued on ahead covered by Pier House rain bags. I was in a long dress which I had bunched above flood level but was still subject to the down pour.

Wasted away again in Margaritaville,
Searchin’ for my lost shaker of salt.

We finally made it to I Wanna Iguana (which I don’t think is there any more)I had conch chowder (more veggies, a little conch very little and Large conch fritters. Mike had a BBQ sandwich, which he wasn’t crazy about.

We we ate the rain stopped falling and the street flood began subsiding at super sonic speed.

We ventured out and about looking at shops and ended–where else–The Green Parrot– http://www.greenparrot.com/ Wasn’t able to see VIckie, our favorite bar tender as she’s back north in Maryland, her mother whom she had left to care for had passed way and no one had an idea of how long she’s been gone, but her birthday is August 10th.

A couple of drinks there and we were off again.

More shopping, walking and watching the crowds. Key West has its distinctive classes–but they’re not quite what you see in Kansas anymore.

Tourists come in various classes. There’s people like us who have been here so many times they hit their favorite spots and drift past the rest with an eye out for the different and unusual.

There are the weekenders down from the Miami area. They do the Duval Crawl (Duval is the main drag of Key West and the primary tourist area with a carnival’s loudness and brawdy characters. Brash with people who only have a short time to indulge in its hedonistic brew and are well aware of their time constraints, if not their own bodily ones. Drinking themselves into alcoholic oblivion if the rest of us are lucky, to an obnoxious blow-hard if we’re not. They don’t come out till lade and party till dawn before collapsing in their rooms (or elsewhere), to do it all again Sat. night Then return home Sundays after a few Darvocets for their head.

Some people claim that there’s a woman to blame,
But I know it’s nobody’s fault.

They rarely are seen shopping they’re like vampires, they come out at night to drink and inhabit the darkness with the other children of midnight.

Then there are the day trippers–they arrive on the cruise ships in the AM, when the ships dislodge their loads like ant hills stirred by a child’s stick and the toursts spend the rest of the day bouncing from shop to bar to shop to restaurant in a frantic attempt to see the most shops, drink the most drinsk, not to mention buy the most useless items. They are only here by daylight. Most leave well before sunset (since Key West has a major sunset event at the same docks these ships spend the day at–there is a rule that they must all be gone well before the sun starts to set). They rarely see the weekenders and really don’t see the town/island at all.

then there are the various levels of the on island tourist strada.

The resort dwellers are the rich yuppies–they dress well, they eat at Louie’s http://www.louiesbackyard.com/ and various posh hotel places. They drink at tiki bars and others that meet their standards. They reserve boats for fishing, if they didn’t bring their own. And they may occasionally venture out on Duval to say they have–rather slumming it where the pavement isn’t level and the roadway full of beer cars and cigarette butts.

The middle level stays in the further reaches of the island up on the Roosevelts. Here are the chains that cost less than resorts but more than places like Spanish Garden (which I don’t think is there anymore either). These visitors stays in the border areas. They get their meals at MC D’s and they do themselves proud in a night or so on Duval with a frantic effort to drink themselves to the point where you can’t tell them from the night breeds. And then they go home and wander where all the money went despite their efforts at frugality.

Don’t know the reason,
Stayed here all season