There's no place like home

There's no place like home

Season is upon us and Key West is full of people. The tall ships are here for Race Week and the town is full of your regular run-of-the-mill tourists as well. See photo of one of the tourists to the right...

Those of us who are fortunate enough to live here full time often think that tourists view Key West as if it were Disneyland. Heck, they walk right into traffic to take pics of each other without looking to see if that car really wanted to move.

I found the photo to the right of Duval Street depicting the street as if it were a model. This is a real town despite what tourists think. There are 25,000 odd folks who live here full time. And 12 normal folk.

Finally, there is the pic of Key West International Airport. I love that little airport. Get here before it is rebuilt to look like every other airport in the country. There is nothing finer than returning home to Key West late at night and seeing that old welcome sign. Then you get off the ramshackle plane and smell the Key West air. It does smell different than air in America. (And it's not the ocean. It's just plain old Key West air. Maybe I'll start to bottle it and sell in on Ebay.) Then you grab a cab and go fast down South Roosevelt towards town. The cabbie tells you everything that happened since you went away. Those guys are the repositories of the social history of Key West. Man, there is nothing like coming home.