Key West Vacation and Inspiration

I had made this bead quite a while ago and named it, "Vacation Wishes". As I was going through my vacation photos, I realized that this bead must have been lucky, because mine had come true.

My friend's husband had won a house for a week in Key West with with a $25 raffle ticket and they generously invited us and another couple to join them in their bounty.

The weather was gorgeous, the tropical plants were plentiful and you couldn't beat all the fresh fish right from the day's catch. I can see why people go down there and return often. There were a lot of characters living down there and they seemed to pride themselves in it.


We stayed in Jimmy Buffet's previous home and the most recent guest had just been Hulk Hogan. That sure made us laugh.

It was a very nice, but definitely not over the top place with three bedrooms and two baths, but the best part, was that it was right on the canal, so a boat could motor right up to the back. I spent a lot of my time on that back dock near the water. A resident blue crab, lots of little brown and white jelly fish and other fish seemed to be the major inhabitants among the coral. I really enjoyed watching them, checking out how the current was and that red kayak that you see in the photo got plenty of use too. We'd kayak around the neighborhood and get a great view of what houses and boats were nearby.

For those of you familiar with Key West, it's not all lazy days. The nightlife is quite active too. We did our share, but tended to gravitate to the outdoor local hangouts in the harbors where people and sunset watching is at its best. There are plenty of characters down there for sure. We did a bit of the tourist stuff and I noticed they could use a few lampworkers down there. The cruise ships come in and the town is packed.

But for me, I'm okay returning home. Yes, my friends continued sending me photos of their fun filled days as they stayed for the entire week and I was sorry to miss the rest of the explorations. But I'm anxious now to incorporate some of my photos and sketches that I made down there into some tropical beads. Our International Society of Glass Beadmakers' annual Gathering will be in Miami this summer, so I'd like to have a small line of beads that are in tune with the locale. This short vacation was perfect for the inspiration and photos to get me started.