Rain Barrel Art Village - Overseas Highway

The proper way to drive down to Key West is to stop along the way and enjoy the bougainvillea and hibiscus. Enjoy the quaint little shops that look like fancy, artsy tourist traps. Enjoy the ads for used book stores and swap shops and flea markets that look like they are there all year round, and are but they are waiting for you always if you just slow down, drive off the highway and enjoy the Florida Keys.

There is no rush. Key West is always there. It has always been there and it doesn't even wake up until around Noon or late in the Afternoon. Unless you plan on watching the sunrise on the east side of Duval with a small Cuban Coffee or eating spicy fries and eggs at the Deli Restaurant on Truman... SLOW DOWN... enjoy the ride, and stop along the highway.

One place to stop is the Rain Barrel Artist Village. A quaint, beautiful collection of shops with expensive (but beautiful) art work with real local flavor and a nice Cafe tucked into the back with a hidden garden and a backdrop that should be used for any movie filming in this area. It is a moment of relaxation, heaven and beauty that could be enhanced if you have enough money to buy one of the little treats.

They have a ladybug nightlamp and tiffany lamps, shiny shellacked fish and sea glass hanging in balls of colorful, tropical colors to buy and take with on your travels further south.

I interviewed the owner of the Cafe about the hurricanes and he said..

You can't worry about a HURRAKAN saying it like he was just back from a trip to Havana. You live here.. they come.. they go... everything grows back. You have to enjoy life and if they come, they come and that is part of living here. You can't worry. Of course, he is closed during the height of the summer season as the tourists are gone and no one is buying his sweet salads and I'm wondering where he goes in the deep, dark, hot months of August. But, I am sure where ever it is .. it is more delightful because he is happy, content and in tune with the world around him.

People at the Rain Barrel (and other similar places along the way) have chased their dream or fine tuned their dream to be doing the things every day that other people only dream of. They may succeed, they may make money, they may fail but they are doing instead of dreaming and living in nature's most beautiful, tropical paradise in the continental United States. No "one day when I retire I would like to paint and have a little studio and..........." nope... they are painting now. Stop and buy something or even tell them how beautiful you think their work is and then meander over to the Garden Cafe, say hi to the Spanish gentleman behind the counter, sample a small coffee flavored chocolate or buy one of their tropical teas.

Sit a spell in the garden, take some pictures of yourself and your friends and then... drive on down the high way to Key West.

You won't miss anything by stopping and you will gain a vision into the world of the people who really live the dream of having a little artist place along the Overseas Highway in the Florida Keys.

You are on island time now.. and that means... go slow and enjoy the frangipani and the ponciannas blooming.

http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=++rain+barrel++keys

Bobbi..
back to the tropics
something is about to go pop at the NHC.