Guest services provide excellent attention and dining is a pleasurable experience al fresco near the tiny Key West style center pool, around which guest rooms can be found, no two alike. Rooms are elegant and furniture is dark wood and regal. What a grand place.

The Cabaret at La Te Da is locally famous, and has been around for a long time. Local celebrities have performed here for years, on and off, and it is considered a source of pride to have performed at the Sunday afternoon Tea Dance each week.

The name La Te Da has nothing to to with the Cabaret acts, however, for which the hotel and bar are famous. According to literature available at the front desk, the name stands for “La Terraza de Marti”. Jose Marti was a Cuban revolutionary in the late 1800s. He gave speeches from the balcony of 1125 Duval Street, which is the present location and same building as the hotel and bar we know as La Te Da.

Then suddenly around 4pm with just about an hour and a half of daylight left, the sky to the north changed from the blue color it had been all day, to a pearl-grey.   There was a clear horizontal line low in the sky, which kept moving closer.  At first I thought it was a rainstorm moving in, and the line was the bottom of the rain cloud.  You could see a color line on the water too, just below the line of pearl gray color.

At this time, we were at the Western Dry Rocks, which has a stick.  The stick became difficult to see as the lines came closer, and I realized it wasn’t rain but fog.  Within minutes the stick was no longer visible and, afraid the snorkelers would soon also disappear, I got everyone in the boat and we all headed home.  It was foggy all the way home, and not until we were very close to Key West could we make out the beach at Fort Zachary State Park.

There was a wedding at the State Park, taking wedding photos, I guess.  And the sunset celebration, which should have been in full swing, looked sparsely attended.  The sunset cruise boats were drifting really slowly around the harbor, staying close in with their sweatshirt-clad passengers.  Bummer sunset!

2010 Super Boat Parade

Every year in November, the Super Boats come to town to race, show their boats, and generally have a powerfully good time.  To kick off the week long roster of events, there was a Super Boat parade on Sunday afternoon.  This is a great way to see the boats up close, and to see the accompanying owners, navigators and friends.

The parade was promptly at four pm, and lasted ten or fifteen minutes.  Owners has to pay a few hundred bucks to be in the parade, so not all boats were represented.  It was a low key parade with thin crowds, with everyone in a mellow good mood, some throwing leftover beads from Fantasy Fest.  One boat in particular stood out, almost literally:  it was an orange boat so wide it had to be placed on its side to fit on the trailor and to be able to fit into traffic.  But the angle of the tipped boat actually allowed us to see it better, and appreciate the scale of these monstrous machines.

It’s kind of like a monster truck rally, only with boats.  Some of the Super Boat engines have I think upwards of 3000 hp in their combined engines!   The Super Boat in the picture, CMS, actually lost function of one of its engines during the race.  That was especially unfortunate for them, since they were favored to possibly win the event.  The winner, by the way, was a boat called Twisted Metal.

One thing we noticed this year, different from previous years, was the absence of helicopters.  At least we didn’t see any the whole week, and usually it’s hard not to notice them.  We think they are for taking pictures and video.

Fantasy Fest 2010 is in session, some photos from the Pet Masquerade held at Casa Marina

This past weekend the first Lionfish Derby was held in Key Largo.  There were prizes for the most, the largest and the smallest lionfish brought in.  Over 500 were caught and killed, hopefully helping to rid the area of this toxic and invasive fish.  The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary has recently blossomed with lionfish, so more derbies are expected in the following months.

Lionfish are found all over the Caribbean and Bahamas now, where they are also invasive.  Unlike most tropical fish, Lionfish are resistant to cold temperatures.  They eat important baby reef fish, like grouper and snapper.  Of course they also compete with native fish for food.   They also have long spines which are toxic to humans if touched. Spearfishers and anglers are encouraged to kill them whenever they can.

Here’s one that was caught via Hawaiian sling in Key West waters on the reef.

Located on the south side of the island of Key West, Higgs Beach begins around the White Street Pier, winds along the edge to the West Martello Tower then opens up again to Higgs Beach part two, ending at Casa Marina.  At this point, the beach is closed off, and becomes Casa Marina resort’s private area.  After that is some military beach, then Fort Zachary Taylor State Park.

Higgs Beach includes Salute!, a restaurant serving Italian food al fresco facing the beach.  Nice.  There’s a raised platform for morning yoga fans, picnic tables shaded by palm trees, and yes worth mentioning again, free parking right next to the sand.  Not much, but some spots for beach-goers who choose this over Smathers beach.

There’s a second pier, not as large as the one at the end of White Street, that’s fun to walk out onto.  You can look back at the beach or over to West Martello Tower.  One of the pictures below shows that view.

The chickens of Key West have personalities, which can easily be observed in how nervous they are.  The chickens in Old Town are less nervous around people.  They have apparently adapted to cruise ship tourists who try to photograph them or feed them.  You can tell the chickens who don’t live in Old Town are more wary of people, since they probably come into contact with more locals than tourists.

Locals are more likely to hate the chickens, since they have to live around them.  Chickens can be rude and wake you up at any time of night, contrary to popular belief.  The roosters will cock-a-doodle-doo at any time of night, like 3 or 4 am.  If you live next to a chicken, you will come to hate them for this reason.

But not everyone lives next to them, and many locals love them.  This can be seen in the may forms of art dedicated to the Key West chicken.  There used to be a Chicken Lady who had a chicken store in Old Town, but she relocated to the mainland with her chickens.  There are several art galleries on and around Duval that feature chicken oil paintings, wine glasses, etc.  Joy Gallery on Duval has some gorgeous oil paintings of the Key West Chicken.

Capturing the Key West chicken on film can be challenging.  Depending on the personality of the chicken you’re trying to photograph, the chickens can be nervous and flighty.   Photographing a chicken in New Town or say the parking lot of Home Depot where some of these shots were taken, requires bait.  Throw some rice or bread crumbs down and you have a captive subject for a few minutes while the bird pecks away.  He’s still in constant motion, however, so your challenges aren’t over.  Here are a Key West chickens, plus some baby chickens on Duval Street for your enjoyment.