Well it's that time of year again, the Jimmy Buffett fans Annual "Meeting of The Minds" where Jimmy Buffett fans descend on Key West to 'Phloc'!   In case you didn't know Last Mango In Paris is the song that Jimmy wrote about Daddy...Jimmy used to play in the bar when he was first starting out.  And the song begins...
I went down to Captain Tony's...

I actually took some time off to play with my Parrothead friends last year.  This is my "Sista" Charley - She is being a very good sport and wearing a "Fins" hats while posing with me... She actually let me pass some out  last year, and it was so much fun having people recognize me for having Landshark hats rather than being "Capt Tony's Daughter"! 

The tattoo above is worn proudly by Don "Tiny" Smith, a dear friend that I have known forever..He was an "infamous" bouncer in Key West for years, and now lives further up in  Florida as a "Gentleman Farmer". But like so many people, his heart is still here. And to add to all of the Buffett songs he is wearing on his arm  he added the year of Daddy's birth, and the year that we lost him with the "Last Mango In Paris" tattoo.  Now if that's not love, well I don't know what is....I am sure that Daddy is proud..he loved Don too!

Jimmy was actually able to make it to the annual Street Fair last year, the crowd went wild!  Every year the rumours are rampant, everyone hoping that HE will show up, and so he did!  I was lucky enough to have a seat on the balcony of the La Concha, and loved how he "introduced" himself before the hour or so of songs he and the band performed....He started out by saying just how "cool" it was to be on Duval, and then he said "I heard I was in town"  I just loved that. 

There were happy Parrotheads as far as the eye could see, tho'  I must confess as great as it  was to see everyone so excited, I definitely got choked up when Jimmy sang "Last Mango"

So Welcome Back Parrotheads!  If you happen to bump into any of them  be sure and give them a smile. The lanyards they wear are a dead giveaway.  By living up to thier motto "Party With A Purpose" MOTM does an incredible job of supporthing Local charities in Key West, in which all monies raised in Key West stay in Key West!  We appreciate you, and a Big Thank You to Boo Tarracino - above - for modeling last years lanyard!


XO
Smiles,
Toni

This is my Sister Coral, or as we all call her...COR COR!  The above photograph was styled by Mommy, who made it clear she considered this Baby to be a Princess to reign over all of the bounty that my parents harvested from the Sea....the child is bedecked in Shrimp Net, and surrounded by Saws from Sawfish, Conch Shellls and Turtles, and of course the Coral her name came from. 

Could not resist this one too!  Baby Turtle Soup anyone?  Isn't she just adorable?  And she is just loving it!  Can you just imagine giving a child a TURTLE shell to play with nowadays????

And so Mommy would promote the business and Coral would keep her company. Note the Angel on the sign, for angelfish...wow, that would be one heck of a fine nowadays!

Coral grew up along the docks, playing with her pet pelicans.  She had the finest of everything, Her clothing from New York...

Puppies replaced the Pelicans...but then....

I came along......A little sister for the princess!  Cor Cor and Daddy look...very Happy!  Yes Very Very Happy!

But that's OK, they just put me to work!  No fancy dresses for me!  I still love red, and sneakers....I was always the tomboy of the two of us, they called me "Little Toni" for good reason...

Sometimes we all worked together

But then Cor Cor grew up and did big things on her own...she started a baton twirling group called the 'Conch Town Twirlers' that at one point would include 60 girls. 

These were just a few of her "Conch Town Twirlers" getting ready for a parade to be held on Duval. This is Greene St. The building on the left would be the old Key West Citizen building..

Another parade

Yet another, this one a Christmas Parade!

Then she went on to open the Body Shop.  The Body Shop was a fitness center located at the Key Wester Hotel, which is where the Hyatt is now on South Roosevelt.  I love the signs above thier heads!

Then, with many other adventures behind her, including marriage - Cor Cor joined me working in the bar. Here she is posing with Padelia, the skeleton that Daddy always called his 'first wife', till the day I saw his REAL first wife scold him for it....

Then she became 'Coral MGR' and created her own frozen drink...the Coral Reef!

And after many years of bartending, Cor Cor is now semi-retired....Here we are celebrating her birthday.  It's rare that my only FULL sister and I get together, but I can't wait to see what wonderful adventures in business she comes up with next. I promise to keep you posted,  but I just had to show off the wonderful pictures that sum up her years so far, We Love You Cor Cor!

P.S. And Coral, Thank You for always forcing me to have our pictures taken through the years, I think this one was around 1978.  And I'm really, really glad that my looks couldn't kill. 

XO
Smiles,

I went off the rock to Tennessee a couple of weeks ago to visit some of my friends, this was hanging in the Key West International Airport...for $44.95 no less!!  Guess who will be getting her paints out?

Friends were teasing me about the seats falling over on American Airline flights.  I am proud to say I was on a different airline -  and as you can see in the picture above  they had used the latest and most sophisticated technological engineering to ensure that nothing like that would occur...

I saw a covered bridge, with ducks in the foreground!  I always get excited when I see new creatures besides roosters, iguanas and cats...

Of course, when Island Girls leave the Island, we always HAVE to take a pilgrimage to Wally World.....

To see all the strange and fascinating...STUFF...I had to ask what this was, and of course was horrified when I found out

I got to see mountains, so beautiful, so...not...FLAT! This looks like a screensaver to me.

And my lovely hostess Miss Charley took me to Biltmore, which is in North Carolina, so I went to 2 states (!)

This place was amazingly beautiful, and it was one of those perfect crisp cool fall days.....

You know, the ones where the gargoyles stand out in perfect contrast to the blue sky..

And we got to eat in the converted stables, these were stables people, can you imagine? I would live there in a minute, this could be wonderful if converted into apartments, move over horsies - we NEED affordable housing down here...

And of course they had Cuban on the menu...Smoked Pulled Pork and Fried Bologna?  Any Cuban I know would laugh very hard if you tried to serve them this and pass it off as Cuban!  But our delicious Key West cuisine certainly infuences alot of people. I was in a restaurant in Seattle once that had "Authentic Key West Key Lime Pie", but I did not ask the poor waiter where they got the Key Limes,  nor did I tell him where I was from...

Beautiful bridges

Waterfalls.......

And look how majestic these big boys are!

Well, till they showed me thier as..es.....  No kidding, this cracked me up to no end... Have any of you been on vacation to new and different places lately?  It does not take much for an Island Girl to be amazed over a new view...a..es and all. It's always good to get away...

XO
Smiles,
Toni

This is a (very) old picture of Daddy holding a good sized blowfish.  And look at the tiny "Greyhound" Charter Boat  in the background!  I think this picture is so cool, because blowfish were one of my toys growing up...   You see, whenever someone caught one, Daddy would let us tickle thier bellies, and they would blow up to look like....

This....

And this....It may seem kind of scary looking to someone thats not used to them, but we thought they were really funny looking. And then Daddy would throw them back into the water and the blowfish would bobble around on the surface for a while till he deflated enough to submerge and swim off.  No hand held computer games for us, just nice, slimy, FUN fish!  This never ceased to amaze and amuse the kids he took on the boat...we never tired of this game, although I sure the blowfish themselves weren't thrilled!  What did you play with when you were little?

XO
Smiles,
Toni

This is my newest winter neighbor, he's kind of shy, and he didn't answer me when I asked him his name, so I just may have to name him myself.

He was pretty rude actually, but then again I can be a little OVERfriendly at times, or so I'm told...but he was checking out my office so.....

This little guy was staying at a resort across the street., doing yoga I think...he must be on vacation, and got too much sun...he seems to be peeling on his back...I told him to try aloe, but he wasn't very friendly either.

This poor child was lost, so my co-worker took it upon himself to chase him down, and bring him INSIDE so that we could try and find his parents..........( I think he really just wanted to scare the girls!) (The human girls)

And lo and behold....

Who do I see from the 3rd floor, anxiously searching for his little relative?  Out on a limb while eating ALL of the seeds?

BIG DADDY!  Or....BIG MAMA!   Really, look at it, I don't know whether to be awed by it's colorful beauty, or freaked out by it's alien, sharp dry scary looking skin (scales?), claws and teeth.  Either way, they are pretty cool to look at......!  In any case they are everywhere, we don't only have chickens crossing the road.  Seems everyone and everything just loves Key West.
 
XO
Smiles,
Toni