Quirks

The Strange Saga of the Bat Tower

Until a few years ago, the Lower Keys were home to a peculiar landmark: a shingled tower rising behind the Sugarloaf Lodge, located at mile marker 17 on the Florida Keys Overseas Highway. Tall and weather-beaten, looming over its surroundings, it was a strange monument to an innovative idea hatched in bygone days.

By |2020-11-11T21:47:44-05:00November 11, 2020|

Chickens Rule the Roost in Key West

In Key West’s historic Old Town, free-roaming chickens and roosters are a colorful part of daily life. Traffic stops to let hens and their babies cross the road, visitors coo and cluck as they snap photos of the meandering fowl, and the crowing of roosters provides a raucous soundtrack to everyday activities.

By |2020-11-04T18:07:05-05:00November 4, 2020|

The Sea Monster of Carysford Reef

In the 1800s, the wrecking industry made Key West the richest city per capita in the United States. The Florida Keys wreckers were famed for their courage in salvaging crews and cargoes from sinking ships. Yet few people know they once salvaged a sea monster off Key Largo’s Carysford (today called Carysfort) Reef.

By |2023-01-10T11:21:19-05:00September 9, 2020|

Winning the ‘Conch Honk’ Crown in Key West

Fans of the fluted, pink-lined conch shell displayed their pucker power Saturday, March 7, during Key West's quirky annual Conch Shell Blowing Contest. Participants ranging from kids to seniors to groups attempted to coax the most impressive sounds from their “instruments” — with one woman even tootling parts of melodies including Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody."

By |2020-03-11T17:03:04-04:00March 11, 2020|

Key West Treats (and Cuban Bread ‘To Go’)

Savoring the taste of fresh-baked Cuban bread, watching pooches play at Dog Beach, strolling along palm-lined streets past Victorian gems in historic Old Town, sipping late-afternoon cocktails on the waterfront deck at Louie’s Backyard ... all these are pleasures Key Westers can enjoy every day, but that aren’t easily experienced in other places.

By |2019-11-20T20:45:02-05:00November 20, 2019|

Zombies on Wheels (!) to Prowl Key West

The eerie yet lighthearted Zombie Bike Ride will bring thousands of “the bicycling dead” to prowl Key West's Atlantic Ocean shoreline and streets Sunday, Oct. 20. Since it began in 2010, the pre-Halloween ride has become a tradition for visiting and local adults, kids and even some bewildered pets — all in spooky zombie garb.

By |2021-05-13T16:07:50-04:00October 2, 2019|

Underwater Pumpkin Carving and Other ‘Wrinkles’ on Upper Keys Fun

Key Largo is called the dive capital of the world — with good reason, since it draws underwater enthusiasts from around the globe to experience its diverse, fascinating coral reef ecosystem alive with sea life. Plus Key Largo, and the Upper Keys overall, are home to a weird and wonderful array of lighthearted underwater events.

By |2021-05-13T16:07:42-04:00September 18, 2019|

A New ‘Papa’ Joins the Famed Bearded Brotherhood

Joe Maxey looks a lot like Ernest Hemingway. That fact was amply proved when the 68-year-old white-bearded retired banker won Key West's annual Hemingway Look-Alike Contest at Sloppy Joe's Bar. More than 140 aspiring Ernests competed, vying to be named "Papa" on the island where Hemingway lived and wrote during the 1930s.

By |2019-07-24T22:27:16-04:00July 24, 2019|

Six Reasons Key West is Stranger Than Fiction

With its funky charm, quirky characters, end-of-the-road mindset and reputation as a bastion of the bizarre, Key West might seem more like a fictional setting than a real locale. But while the continental United States’ southernmost city is real enough, it definitely proves the old proverb that reality can be stranger than fiction.

By |2021-05-13T16:07:25-04:00April 17, 2019|
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