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October 20, 2021

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It is always nice to return home after being away, especially during what is always the start of the busiest time of the year for me. The months between October and February are generally so full of activities and functions that I have often likened it to being on a rollercoaster that doesn’t slow down until early in the new year. Of course, the past 18 months have been quite different with virtually everything that generally makes this time of year so frenetic being canceled.

I must admit that ion many ways taking a break from everything for a year was sort of cool and relaxing. But with Covid cases dropping, events have started happening at mostly full capacity and it is time to board the rollercoaster again and buckle in.

I am not complaining, actually I love having a full social calendar and almost as soon as we returned from our trip, things kicked into gear and we were back out and about. We had a wonderful dinner at Benihana with our friend Meredith and her mother Nadene, while dad Trevor was off picking up their new puppy, Vinny- who we are very much looking forward to meeting.

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We also attended a wonderful production of “Alice in Wonderland” put on by the Key West Dance Collective at the Tennessee Williams Fine Arts Center. The dance group featured dancers aging in range from 3 or 4 years old up through high school. Our friends Dani and Jim’s daughter Ryan starred in the production playing the role of Alice and she was terrific, a really talented dancer. The most fun though was seeing the youngest children in their adorable little costumes dancing and trying so hard to keep up. It was just a fun afternoon out.

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Perhaps the coolest event we have attended in a long time was the 50^th birthday party of our friend Layla. She transformed the West Martello Gardens into a magical setting for her costumed masquerade ball and invited a huge crowd of her eclectic friends to a party that featured an amazing dinner as well as dancing and frivolity late into the evening.

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One of the great things about living in Key West is the people and Layla knows a lot of people from her varied and artistic life here, so there was all manner of fun, creative and interesting people at the party. Many who we already knew but also some great people who we met for the first time. The party was one of the most unique and cool parties that we have ever attended, and we had a great time.

This month also features what has traditionally been the largest and most popular event held annually in Key West, Fantasy Fest. The ten-day celebration of creativity and craziness was canceled altogether last year, and this year the plan is to scale the festivities way back due to Covid. All of the events that require a city permit have been canceled.

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That means that most of my most favorite events including the Zombie Bike Ride, Masquerade March, Goombay Festival, Street Fair, Pet Masquerade and the main Saturday night parade are not happening, basically only events held at private locations will go on as scheduled. So, a much scaled back Fantasy Fest week is upcoming. In the meantime, I have been asked to take photos of all the entries in the annual Façade contest, which is going on as usual, so I have been busy going out and taking photos of the close to thirty entries.

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