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January 3, 2011







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Happy New Year 2011! In the past few years, Key West has developed into one of the top five New Year’s Eve destinations in the US, just behind such obvious destinations like Times Square in New York, New Orleans, Las Vegas and Orlando. Thousands of tourists flock to the island to take in the usually warm and sunny weather and the variety of celebrations that mark the coming of the New Year.

Beth, Melissa & Greta

Alicia & Sheila

Fiona & Jim

With Kathy out of town, visiting family in Massachusetts, I was solo for New Year’s Eve for the first time in ages. Thankfully rather than rue my solitude, I had a myriad of holiday options available and managed to squeeze almost all of them in due to some creative scheduling and hustle.



Tom

I started the evening at the annual New Year’s party at the home of our friends Jim & Fiona. They have hosted a holiday shindig at their home for a number of years and the location of their home on Key Haven offers a wonderful, intimate setting that is away from the madness downtown. They had a huge spread of food and drinks and a great crowd of many of our good friends, making it a fun evening. I could easily have stayed into the new year there, but had already made a couple of other commitments which made me have to depart rather early and miss out on much of the fun.

Nancy & Mark

Eric & Betsy

Elena, Erin & Ashley



My next stop was at another New Year’s Eve tradition, another party, this time at the home of our friends Nan & Mark. This celebration too featured wonderful food, drinks and friends. It was packed and festive and once again, I would have been happy to stay, but for the first time in years I had decided to brave the masses on Duval Street and see what all the fuss was about.



Sushi



Of the three focal points for midnight (The Wench drop at Schooner Wharf, the Conch Shell drop at Sloppy Joe’s and the Drag Queen drop at Bourbon Street), I opted for the drag queen. It strikes me as the most uniquely Key West and is after all covered live for the World to see on CNN. I barely made it down in time to catch the lowering of the large red shoe containing the drag queen known as Sushi as the clock struck midnight and the New Year got underway.





CNN's John Zarrella



There were literally thousands packing the street to watch the festivities and they went understandably berserk as 2010 passed into 2011. It was fun to be part of the massive celebration, though as an event the dropping of the shoe seemed rather pedestrian. Or perhaps it was just the lack of emotion from the star attraction, Sushi, who seemed at times bored by the entire thing. Maybe it is time to find a new star attraction to take over the role.



Julie & Kim

Johnny Sketch

After the crowd parted a little, I was able to make my way over to the Green Parrot to meet up with friends from work and to see the party band from New Orleans, Johnny Sketch & the Dirty Notes. The parrot was crowded, though still manageable, certainly less packed than most of Duval Street. I spent the first few hours of 2011 enjoying the music, a few libations and my friends before riding my bike home.

Lauren & George

Walking in a Wiener Wonderland

January 1, 2011







Dan & Ruth

Walking in a Wiener Wonderland

One of the wackiest, most interesting and fun of the many events that surround the New Year’s Eve celebration in Key West is the annual Dachshund Walk that marked its sixth year this year on New Year’s eve day at noon. The event is loosely organized by my friends Ruth & Dan each year as a way to bring together owners and their pet wiener dogs.



Bert & Clare





Each year the event has grown in size and scope both with participants and their pets as well as ever larger crowds that line the route to watch the parade of pooches. Participants and their dogs gathered on the grounds of the courthouse on Whitehead Street then somehow manage to pose briefly for the ubiquitous group shot photo before heading off on the short walking route.







The route this year was the same as always, down Fleming Street to Duval, turning right and heading down Duval 1 block, crossing the street and heading back down the other side of the street and returning down Fleming to the starting location. Sounds simple enough.





Najada, Howard, MK & Kris

Ruth & Dan have been ultra conscious about keeping the event fun and low-key as well as safe and enjoyable for both participants and those who turn out to watch the festivities. Pretty much right away, I could tell this year was going to be somewhat different than past years.






The crowd was already large 30 minutes prior to the scheduled start and it was obvious that an all-time record number of wiener dogs and owners were participating. In fact there were 198 dachshunds in the walk and that does not count the large number of wiener wanna-bes (other pets, dogs, cats and even a bird) that were there but not actual dachshunds.







By the time the group photo was set-up the crowds had swelled even more and the walk itself was unlike any previously held. First off the crowds were huge, spilling out into Fleming Street and into Duval, the procession was constantly slowed by the large crowds blocking the path. It was especially chaotic at the corner of Fleming & Duval where the event experienced the first mishap in its history when a spectator had a foot run over and was injured.





That sort of cast a pall over the event and the large number of police suddenly on scene took the focus off the dogs and on to the crowd. The event, like many Key West events is in the process of becoming a victim of its own success. It is still a remarkable thing to see the large assemblage of wiener dogs, many in costumes and out to enjoy the day, but something may need to be done to ratchet back the intensity a little in future years. I hope a happy medium between the event becoming too large and organized and somehow it can retain the funky silliness that Ruth & Dan have created.