Tuesday, December 17, 2019

Key West Holiday Parade

December 9, 2019

Yes Santa Claus, there is a Virginia

Farmer Jeanne

Key West Holiday Parade

One of the biggest annual events and certainly the largest of the many parades that are held in Key West each year is the Key West Holiday Parade which is always held on the first Saturday evening of December and is the official kick-off of what is a very busy holiday season in Key West. Thousands of kids, families and Key West Citizens like us line Truman and Duval Streets to watch the festivities in what is always one of the best community events of the year.

Julie and Lisa

Everyone seemingly participates in some manner, either by watching, hosting a watch party or participating directly as one of the myriad of entries of the parade. It seems every church, school group and organization, civic group and many businesses create floats or festive walking entries as this year there were 74 total entries representing just about every aspect of our island community.

Tom and Greta

Sue

Because Key West is so interesting and diverse, you never know what sort of float or group might roll by in front of you, but all are welcome and everyone is in a happy holiday spirit. Not many communities in the US can boast of a holiday parade that includes Drag Queens, Military representatives and the local high school band all joined in the same holiday spirit.

Debbie

The tradition is for those in the parade to toss candy to the kids lining the street and literally thousands of pounds of candy is thrown into the crowd over the route. Kids make out like bandits, even better than at Halloween as they scramble to snatch up the candy that is tossed out. Kathy and I like to stand next to particularly adorable children to catch some of the overflow that is directed their way.

Beth

Hutch

As has been out personal tradition for a number of years, we began parade night at a pre-party at the home of our friends Craig and Holly, they live just a couple of blocks off of the parade route and always host an amazing fun get together at their home leading up to the 7 PM start time when the crowd of friends walk down the block just in time to catch the start of the parade, always led by the motorcycle patrol of the Key West Police Department.

Brandon

Sophia

For years I have been taking photos of many of our friends and their kids each year on Christmas Parade night creating a cool documentation as their families grow up and older. I also love to photograph the parade itself as we always see numerous friends who are in the parade itself as it passes by.

Craig and Cheryl

Steve

At some point during the parade, we always make our way down the street to our primary viewing spot in front of the Conch House. Our friend Sam who owns the Conch House always hosts a wonderful Parade Party as the wonderful guest house has a perfect location on Truman Avenue from which to view the parade. The party is always awesome as well as we see tons of friends, have some great food and drinks and generally enjoy the holiday fun.

Sam and Carol

On our way home, we of course came across yet another fun parade party that was in full swing and had to stop in for a quick hello, which turned into a fantastic extension of what was already an amazing and fun evening. Let the holiday spirit soar as we and most of Key West are now fully immersed in the Christmas season and ready for what is one of the most fun parts of the year on the island.

Martina and Jen

Monday, December 16, 2019

Coast Is Clear 3

December 7, 2019

Rayland Baxter

Sutton Foster

Kathy

Coast Is Clear 3

Three years ago, just after Hurricane Irma devastated large swaths of the Florida Keys, our friends over at Coast organized a benefit concert to raise funds and awareness of the issues that the storm had wrought across our community. While the recovery has been on-going since that time, even though much has been restored and repaired, Coast has continued the tradition and this year hosted their third annual “Coast Is Clear” benefit festival.

Susto

This year the events were held at venues as diverse as the Green Parrot, Andy’s Cabana in Bahama Village and a wonderful and underutilized venue, the grounds of the Key West Lighthouse. I had been recovering from as nasty flu-like thing, but I still made the effort to head out to a late night show that kicked off the festival at the Green Parrot where famed guitarist Tim Reynolds and his band TR3 were the first out of town band to perform as part of the festival. Reynolds serves as lead guitarist for the Dave Matthews Band and was in town as part of his solo/ side project playing to a raucous late night crowd at the Parrot.

Tim Reynolds

He is an amazing guitarist, though his style is not exactly my favorite, you have to appreciate the amazing skill and dexterity that he plays with, it was just another example of the type of talent that Key West has been getting so much better at bringing in these days. The show was a benefit for my once upon a time employers Reef Relief and my friend Dora was working the door collecting donations.

Tim Reynolds

With December upon us, the holiday season in Key West is kicking into high gear. Key West always seems to go a little Christmas crazy, perhaps to make up for the lack of cold, snow and other wintery holiday conditions. After taking a break last year, Kathy was back at it in earnest this year as far as decorating the house for the holidays. This year we discovered some cool new holiday display items, large light-up chickens that are only available at Tractor Supply Stores, meaning Kathy stocked up on her recent trip to Colorado and New Mexico since we have none of those stores in our area.

Kathy's decorations

The house looks amazing once again and this year I went ahead and entered her in the annual holiday lights contest sponsored by Old Town Trolleys and Key West Electric. This year for the first time the winner will be determined by a popular vote, so if you are so inclined, we would really appreciate your helping us out and voting for us (the house with the chickens on the roof), using the link below. You can vote once every 24 hours so vote early and often and help us recognize all the hard work that Kathy put in this year.

Lisa

As part of Key West’s holiday fun, the Key West Bight sponsored a Pet Photos with Santa evening and we took Jack over to get his taken and to explore the wonderful decorations that the Bight Board has added to the Historic Seaport area. It is always one of the best areas of town and they did another fantastic job this year.

Next it was a double whammy of music, first we had the distinct pleasure of seeing current Broadway sensation Sutton Foster perform at the Tennessee Williams Theater as part of their annual entertainment series, she was truly fantastic and now I can’t wait to see her again next year on Broadway where she will star opposite Hugh Jackman in the revival of “The Music Man”. She has won two Tony awards and it is easy to see why.

Sutton and Sussanah

Next up it was to the amazing, intimate venue at the Key West lighthouse to see the second portion of the Coast Is Clear festival with headliners Susto and Rayland Baxter. I had never seen Susto before and he was terrific, fresh off a star turn at this year’s Newport Folk Festival, he delivered a powerhouse performance that for me was the highlight of the festival. The setting at the lighthouse was so fantastic and both performers delivered what was a wonderful evening of music. I sure hope that this is the first of many such shows at the Key West Lighthouse, which was open during the performance and offers amazing views of the island.

Rayland Baxter