Thar She Blows!

The last few days have been much like a typical London day - dreary, misty, and chilly. The temps continue to drop, with the coldest night coming tonight (Sunday). We got out and about yesterday, knowing that it was just going to keep getting colder, meaning soon we wouldn't be coming out from under our electric blanket or taking showers (go ahead - set your thermostats to 55 and then see if you can dry yourself off fast enough to keep from turning into an ice cube). A family that stinks to together...

RealFeel 49? Whimper.

So what did we do? Well there was a Conchfest going on at a park too cold to moped to, and since (as vegetarians) we don't eat conch, we skipped it. I kind of wanted to see the Dance-A-Thon held for charity, but we were a little slow moving and couldn't have gotten there without a moped ride, which again, was not going to happen. So that left the conch-blowing contest at the Oldest House. The tradition of conch blowing is actually a pretty long one, especially in the Bahamas (usually at sunset), and since Key Westers call themselves "conchs" you could expect them to embrace the idea as well. Surprisingly, even though we spent over 7 months in the Bahamas, we never did try it. We only watched this time too, but had fun doing it. There was a really large turn out for this event. (No I didn't get everyone who participated.)


There were 4 kids who gave it a try, two of whom couldn't get a sound to come out and got a little upset by this. Of course, anyone who gets on a stage and tries something they've never done before in front of a whole lot of people is a winner in my book.

Then we had one teenager who understood showmanship and not only blew a mean conch, but hoola hooped while she did so. You go girl!



How were the women going to do? Pretty darn well. Some came with their own conchs, others had never tried this before, all gave it their best shot. One woman even came up with 2 conchs so she could give us some variety.

Of course, the men had to go over the top, some even had "stage" names. One of the guys made it clear that he was not "blowing the conch," but "sounding a conch horn." Well, excuUUuuse me. Another man brought and "played" not a conch, but a Hawaiian shell; it did sound a little different. Three of the men had some surprisingly long runs (definitely over 20 seconds), and the gentleman all the way from George Town, Bahamas ended up winning the competition (one of his "sets" included the sound of a marching band drum).

I have to say the sounds varied from elk in heat, to tornado warnings, to trumpets, to fog horns, to duck calls. There were times sticking your fingers in your ears was a good idea. Participants were from the Keys to Massachusetts, to New Jersey, to Wisconsin.

When it was all said and done, a bunch of military families, who live in the Boca Chica Marina, performed as a conch band with (choreographed) dancers. They did a surprisingly good job playing to Jimmy Buffet songs.





They even had a salt shaker running around (tequila, get it?).

Before we left, we took a quick look inside the Oldest House in Key West (built in 1829) - it looks a lot like the current houses here.

Zura likes my coat too.

Today's excitement is me finishing up edits for a friend's book (which should be out soon - very exciting!) while remaining under the covers (with Jack who's clinging to me like static cling), and Michael heading to a bar to watch basketball. Life is full.

I'll bet all the "kids" down here for spring break are looking forward to a warm up too.