Taste of Key West

May 2, 2007

Crowd

Popa Chubby

A Taste of Key West

Each year, Key West’s finest restaurants come together to offer a selection of culinary delights to benefit AIDS Help Inc. Held at the Truman Annex waterfront, the event draws over 65 of the best Key West eateries as well as wines from over 75 wineries and a similar number of various beers as well. It makes for a wonderful and extremely popular event as each restaurant puts its best foot forward in an effort to showcase their delicious food. The participating restaurants donate all the proceeds to AIDS Help which raises close to $100,000 during the three hour event. All the money is used to provide health care, food, counseling, and referral and support services for HIV infected residents of Monroe County.

Kate, Kathy, Nadene & Rob





There is nothing like a good party for a good cause to turn people in Key West out. As always, the crowd was huge and we saw all sorts of friends and acquaintances, many of whom we see only at events such as this. The waterfront location is perfect, you have plenty of room to move and the perfect sunset view adds a magical element to the festivities.

Kathy, Patty, Alicia & Hannah


We ended up staying till they started packing up the place before heading over to the Green Parrot to see blues/rock virtuoso Popa Chubby perform. If you have never seen or heard of Popa Chubby, he is well worth checking out. He is a masterful guitarist and his band puts on an amazingly good, high energy show. Emerging from the 70s New York punk scene, Popa once was a member of the legendary band Richard Hell & the Voidoids, he has progressed into one of the most cutting edge blues musicians alive. He played a bunch of songs from his latest 3 CD release of Jimi Hendrix covers, “Electric Chubbyland” and it was really impressive. Many bands try to cover Hendrix with varying results, but this guy really pulled it off.

Popa Chubby Band

Next on our agenda is an entirely different type of musical experience as The Key West Songwriter’s Fest kicks off this evening. A gathering of over 80 of the finest working songwriters, the fest is organized by our good friend Nadene and promises to be another stellar success.

http://www.keywestsongwritersfestival.com/

http://www.aidshelp.cc/

http://www.popachubby.com/

http://www.greenparrot.com/

Happy Birthday Anne!!

May 1, 2007



Gae, Terry, Reggie, Anne, Kathy, Kate, Ali, Michael, Michael & Nadene

Happy Birthday Anne!!

Bahia Honda

We had an amazing weekend celebrating our friend Anne’s big birthday. We spent the day on Saturday lounging out at the pool at the Grand Key Resort, the weather could not have been any more perfect and we swam, relaxed and enjoyed lunch at the poolside bar. It’s a great place to hang out. After a quick break, we gathered again, this time joined by a large group of friends at Zero Duval Street where our friend Nadene & Kathy had organized a group outing aboard the Catamaran Fury for a wonderful sunset sail complete with live music.

Cammy, Kate, Anne, Nadene & Gae



Reggie & Terry



Joining us were friends Anne & Michael, Kate, Nadene, Cammy, Reggie, Terry, Gae & Ali. The sail included free wine, beer and food in addition to the amusing company and a beautiful sunset. It was really a perfect evening. After returning to shore, we all headed over to La Trattoria restaurant, where we had reservations for dinner. After a short wait at Virgilio’s we had a nice Italian dinner in the relaxed ambiance of one of the island’s most enjoyable dining establishments. They even brought Anne a piece of cake with a huge sparkler on it that seemed more like a full-fledged firework, I was surprised the fire alarm did not sound. We always enjoy meshing our friends, bringing friends from the different aspects of our lives and bringing them together. That was the case here as many of those present had not met the others. Thankfully the majority of our friends are fairly accessible and it always seems to work out.

Cammy & Nadene



After dinner, some of the group headed home while Kathy, Anne, Michael and Kate all hit the town, heading first to Club Aqua to watch the drag show before going down Duval Street to The Bull & Whistle to watch Dora sing.





Sunday we spent the entire day at Bahia Honda State Park, we once again enjoyed perfect beautiful weather, with bright sunshine and a light ocean breeze. We set up our trusty Kelty sunshade and lounged about. We’d packed a delicious lunch from the Waterfront Market deli and enjoyed the day. Of course the hi-light had to be our discussion of Anne’s impeccable driving record despite her frequent brushes with authorities.

http://www.grandkeyresort.com/

http://furycat.com/

http://www.latrattoria.us/

Spring

April 30, 2007

Megan, Emily, Kathy & Kristin

Spring

Michael, Ann, Kate, Kathy & Alison at Dante's

Henrietta



Spring in Key West is the short season where we go from the wind and heat of winter to the calm and heat of summer. It is also a time when all our snow bird friends head back north and the traffic is slightly more manageable and the amount of tourists declines. It is actually a great time to visit because the weather is generally wonderful, warm with a light breeze and sunny skies. It has proven to be a good time to receive visitors as well as we have had friends here each of the past two weeks.

Kristin & Kathy

First up were Kathy’s friend Kristin Neff and her daughters Megan and Emily, who came down from Massachusetts for a nice getaway. Kristin & Kathy have been friends since childhood and it was great to have them here. The girls loved the latest addition to the household, our chicken, “Henrietta”. Chickee arrived out of the blue, small and alone a couple of weeks ago and immediately imprinted on Kathy. Since then, the chick has made itself at home in our home, even having its own private roost in the bathroom. Of late, thankfully, it (we have no idea what sex it is yet) has been spending more time outside with the older roosters in the yard. But it still flocks to Kathy whenever she is around.

Emily & Henrietta

This week, we have a new group of visitors, Kathy’s friends from her days at Washington College, Kate Falconer and Ann Holmes along with Ann’s boyfriend Michael Pfeiffer. Kate came all the way from Santa Cruz, California, while Ann & Michael came from Narberth, near Philadelphia. The occasion was Ann’s 40th birthday celebration. It made for a long weekend full of celebrating. You can read another perspective by checking out Kate’s blog via the link below. There is also a link to a couple of other blogs. The first is from Solares Hill, the weekly Key West newspaper; the other details the journey of our friends Ian & Jason Rowan as they trek across Central America on motorcycles. These blogs are far more interesting than this one, so mosey on over and check em out.

Henrietta & Michael

http://katefalconer.blogspot.com/

http://solareshill.typepad.com/

http://www.notthemotorcyclediaries.com/