It certainly is convenient having a car to get around in yet there really aren't that many places to go to other than the usual watering holes. I did nevertheless venture out to the Boot Key Harbor Dockside Bar on the other side of the harbor a week or so for a change of pace and for old times sake as well.
Yes for real.... the same dockside bar is still where it was some twenty-two years ago which my then wife and I frequented for a week or so while cruising aboard S/V BratCat. The DockSide Bar was practically the only establishment on the harbor back then that was accessible by water.
The place was but a simple open-aired Tiki Hut of sorts at the far end of the harbor and catered almost exclusively to liveaboard cruisers. The same characters could be seen day in and day out while seated in the same bar stool both mornings and evenings.
My ex and I would motor ashore in the dinghy in the mornings for coffee and breakfast and later in the evenings for a cold beverage. Seated at that bar were the same old fuddy-duddies purporting to know everything there was to know about sailing. It seemed as if they were all glued to their respective bar stools both day and night.
It occurs to me that perhaps the fuddy-duddies would never leave the bar to go aboard their boats lest they lose their spot at that bar... which begs the question, How did they all ever develop such exceptional seamanship skills in the first place when all they ever seemed to do was talk about sailing while glued to their bar stools? Goodness... I can only hope that I don't ever find my rear-end perpetually planted on a bar stool.
Anyway... the Dockside Bar has expanded quite a bit from what it was back then. There are now quite a few patio tables and chairs outside the bar as well as a covered stage of sorts for the band in the evenings. The place has a fun look about it.
The only problem is that there are few patrons willing to pay for the overly priced beverages and word has it that it's been financially run into the ground and will soon go belly-up. Oh well, not my problem.
I had but two Billy-Bud domestic beers and gasped when I got my tab. Needless to say, I haven't been back since.
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