Key West, Part 2

We headed back up to the north side of the island and went by the Commodore's Boathouse and the Conch Republic. We went along the docks and wound up at the Schooner Wharf Bar. 

A country singer sat in a chair in the center of the Schooner Wharf stage and explained that the little white building in front of the bar, was a recording studio. "Once, a famous artist was out there smoking a cigarette," he said, "and heard me playing a song I wrote. The artist liked it so much, he recorded it himself." The song became a hit. The man on stage said, "So I called my lawyer and explained the situation. I won't tell you how much I settled for, but I'll say this: none of my kids will ever have to worry about paying for college, or a car, or a house." The crowd got a real kick out of that. 

We ordered another round of rum runners and sat there, listening to the guy on stage play some more before heading up the walkway toward Green St. 

There was a store called Kermit's Key West Key Lime Shoppe on the corner of Green and Elizabeth. Our shuttle driver had told us about this place. We took his advice and went inside. We asked for a few pieces of pie, frozen, on a stick, some covered in chocolate, some not. 

The server behind the counter asked where we were from. The wife responded, "Lower Michigan." That was a habit that was hard to break. I've often told people this over the years: you know the people who actually come from Detroit--they never own-up to it. It was always the Motor City's unsavory image: impoverished people, that whole "murder capital of the world" thing, and of course, the Detroit Lions. 

"Whereabout in lower Michigan," he asked. Turned out this kid was familiar with the Toledo area, working summers manning the Raptor at Cedar Point. We talked a bit more then went out back to the covered porch. The wife and I sat by the koi pond, with the kids, in silence, eating our snacks, surrounded by bamboo and cascading water. We gave over to the serene mood of the place and tried to press this moment of tranquility into a memory that might survive into the near future. It helped that the pie was good. 

 

Key lime pie is a simple recipe with a short list of ingredients: condensed milk and the juice of Key limes. Some sort of cream is used to counterbalance the lime. Sometimes there's eggs. Sometimes butter. There's a whipped version which is light, airy and doesn't require baking, but this frozen pie-on-a-stick was the rich, full-bodied kind with a consistency more like cheesecake. Whatever Kermit used to make this pie was intense: a stout wedge of creamy, tart pie covered in sweet, dark cocoa. The interior was ivory, not green; no artificial color. It was decadent. It was excellent.