Happy New Year (2013)!

Welcome to the new year everyone - I hope you all had a great night. It seems Michael picked up a bug from our travels, so ours was a mix. Early in the evening, not sure if we'd make it to midnight and knowing we couldn't be several places at once, we walked around to all four of the venues we knew would be dropping something to get an idea of what was to come.

Sloppy Joe's was dropping a conch shell.

Sunset Pier was dropping a lime wedge into a margarita glass.





Schooner Wharf was dropping a live pirate wench from a mast. When we were there they were still testing out the lines, but someone posted this photo of a cheerful Evalena so thanks for that (here's a video of the drop itself).



Finally, Bourbon St. Pub was dropping a live drag queen, Sushi, via a red shoe. This was the one we wanted to watch, but when we saw CNN out there we knew that, worst case, we'd be able to watch it from home.

Pyrotechnic team-member sweatshirt

As we made our rounds, Michael started feeling lousier and lousier and we went home to rest up, hoping he'd feel better. He didn't, but we both like fireworks as much as we do Christmas lights, so he rallied enough to check out the show put on by/at the Southernmost Hotel Collection at 10pm. They went on for about 10 minutes and did not disappoint. Thanks Southernmost!

There were two more hours to go before the big countdown and Michael groaned that he couldn't make it. Once back at the house, I did a quick Facebook check to see what we were missing and saw this picture of the crowds already outside Bourbon St. Pub. Holy cow! I'm not surprised really,
when we were wandering around, I thought it was the most crowded I've ever seen Key West - even counting Fantasy Fest. How often do you see an announcement like this about your town?


While Michael zonked out, I decided to skip the in-person version too and watched the countdown on TV. There's Sushi  - ready or not 2013 is here! (If you're on Facebook, here's a video of the drop.)

Photo by: Andy Newman

So there it is. We have one day to recover and then start the 365-day countdown all over again. I don't do resolutions, but I do have high hopes that this is going to be an interesting year. Preferably in a good kind of way.