shell shock

A Conch (pronounced KONK) is a marine mollusk that used to be common in the Keys but after decades of commercial harvesting their population plummeted to the point that it is now against the law to grab one.

Conchs are good eatin' and most restaurants here turn the critters into fritters or a mighty rad gumbo. But because they can't be harvested locally, the Conchs, and these shells they used to live in, are imported from the Bahamas.

The Conch shells are a great souvenir if you've got a nine year old nephew (or four young grandchildren for that matter) up north because they're pretty big and easy on the eyes.
But the best part is, if you nip off a bit of the pointed end, you can blow a Conch shell like a bugle. Noise too!
How cool is that?

sea king

I stopped in at one of my favorite old haunts on my way home from work this afternoon.
B.O.'s Fishwagon is such a laid back seafood restaurant that you wouldn't recognize it as a seafood restaurant unless you already knew it was a seafood restaurant.
For me it's a great place in the shade for a handful of conch fritters, a grouper sandwich on Cuban bread and a couple of cold ones on hot summer afternoons with my sketchbook.
B.O.'s is a ramshackle, tiki lookin' place on the corner of Caroline and William Streets, decorated inside and out with still lifes of "found objects".
There's a rusted out old bike here, a bunch of used-up marker buoys there and a naked lady mannequin waves a welcome to all the world from the front seat of an old junkyard pick-up truck parked in front of the place.
The rafters are tiled with expired license plates from some of the thousands of folks who escaped from the "real world" and found sane and safe refuge in paradise.
My old plates are up there too.