Happy 2009!!

Happy 2009!!





January 4, 2009



Key West has been ranked in the top 3 or 4 destinations in the United States to ring in the New Year for the past couple of years, right up there with the likes of New York City, Las Vegas and New Orleans. There are a variety of options of things to do here and people seemed to get the message as the island was as crowded as I can recall for the week between Christmas and New Years.

New Year’s Eve Key West

The most popular, due mostly to the live coverage on CNN with Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin is the midnight dropping of resident Drag Queen Sushi in a giant shoe. It attracts thousands of revelers. Of course there was also this year the Conch Shell drop at Sloppy Joe’s, the Pirate Wench drop at The Schooner Wharf Bar, The Conch Booster Club party at the Westin and a new event, New Year’s Eve on Sunset Pier with Key West Burlesque.



Nancy, Terry, Alicia, Mark & Kathy

Which of these wild parties did we attend you may ask? Actually, none of the above, is the answer. We opted instead to celebrate the new year at a party at the home of our friends, Nancy Klingener and Mark Hedden. We had every intention of heading to sunset pier at some point, but we were having such a great time with friends that we never made it downtown to the chaos at all.

Tom

Champagne Spill- Try the ShamWow

Carol, Michael, Nick, Ashley & Haven

Personally I can’t think of a better way to say goodbye to 2008, which in many ways was a very difficult year for many, than to be with friends in the relative calm. Frequent readers of this blog, may get the idea that our life is a constant party, but the difficult economic times have had a huge impact on our lives and the lives of many of our friends. We are hopeful that 2009 will bring relief to those being impacted by the current hard times.

Elena & Michael

The first few days of the New Year saw beautiful weather and we spent a few days just hanging out at the beach at Ft Zachary Taylor State Park with Uncle Al, Aunt Kathy and about a million or so tourists. The crowd did not stop us from having a relaxing and fun time at the beach.



Aunt Kathy

The fun continued the next day as we had yet another party to go to, this time the 50th birthday celebration of our friend Martha Barnes. It was a great party and a wonderful way to start off the year, at another party once again surrounded by friends. Happy Birthday Martha !

Martha

Carol, Jeff, Rosi & Sherry

Michael, Erika, Kurt, Anja, Kathy (Haven, Bill, Mark & Ashley)