Key West, the local way

For 99.99% of visitors to Key West, this tiny island means consuming sugary  alcoholic beverages on Duval Street until your body begs for mercy. For them, it is a place to listen to Jimmy Buffett, buy some of his licensed merchandise, and "live the dream" while actually just doing super touristy commercial activities.

These people don't get to see the real Key West, where real people actually ARE living the dream. The real Key West is still romantic and funky and relaxed and authentic and nautical.

The real Key West isn't in the guidebooks because it is practically impossible to experience without staying with a local.

I've known Jesse Anderson since 1997, when he showed up at Babson tan, smiling, and feeling wayyyy out of place, just like I did a year earlier. We quickly became inseparable. Over the past 16 years, we've lived together, surfed Fiji together, played on Maui together, and have recently traveled in France together. Cam and I love Jesse and Angela. Seeing the two of them on Key West was one of the highlights of the whole trip.

Jesse is sort of the undercover mayor of Key West. Actually, that's not true. His dad, Jack, is the undercover mayor of Key West. The family sailed from France when Jesse and his older sister Sandra were just toddlers. They sailed across the

Atlantic in their 45 foot ketch and cruised the Caribbean for about 5 years. When Jesse was about 8 years old, they landed on Key West and haven't left. They showed up with about $100 in cash. Jesse and Sandra would paint watercolors on Mallory Square and sell them. Jack and Liliane would make artisanal  leather goods and jewelry. They now have three great clothing and jewelry shops on the island and have recently opened tasty Mexican restaurant. They are the most entrepreneurial family I have ever met. It is inspiring to spend time with them.

From the time he landed on Key West until his senior year in high school, Jesse lived on the sailboat docked in the harbor below. This is our first sunset in Key West, the kind of sunset Jesse grew up with:

Jack and Liliane's home is a historic building known as the "Red Doors." They have spent hundreds of hours and countless buckets of paint (don't even try and calculate the number of pieces of sandpaper) restoring the place to its current, beautiful state. It has been a brothel, a grocery store, and a bar that was called The Bucket of Blood. We stayed in the apartment on the top lefthand side of the deck:

Pretty much the coolest building in Key West:

Reading on these seats in the afternoon is delightful. I could spend hours out there. It is world class people-watching off this balcony:

Jesse and Angela on the balcony:

Planning the day's activities in our Red Doors apartment:

The speargun arsenal at the Anderson household:

Jesse, skippering the "Honky Conch." We took this seaworthy skiff out spearfishing our first day and kiting our next two days:

The "Nividic." This is the boat they sailed from France and lived on for over 10 years. Growing up on a boat made Jesse resourceful, respectful of the ocean, and comfortable in tight quarters. The man also knows his knots. I love this boat:

It is stone crab season. Jesse is trying his luck as a crabber. You have to spend a full day just making the traps. Then another day setting the traps. Then getting the pigs feet to bait the traps. Then you check the traps and clean them and re-bait them. Lots of work. As luck would have it, when we went out, we got nothing. Angela was the trap checker. I was the baiter. I wasn't that good at it so don't even try and call me the master:

We did get ONE crab. It was just a little shy of legal size:

After a full afternoon of crab trap checking, we cruised the marina area in front of Mallory Square to check the sunset. This time of day is magical in Key West:

About 30 minutes later, this is the sunset:

Jesse and Angela live in Old Town. Their place is one of the gems of the neighborhood, with about 15 different types of palm trees and dozens of orchids in the yard. It is like a botanical garden. Here is Jesse giving us a tour of the yard:

Home cooked meals with the Anderson family are always good. This dinner was broiled lobster (Jesse and Cam got 5 while I napped on the boat), stone crab, a zucchini gratiné, lionfish filets, and a killer dessert. The fresh lobster was off the hook:

The stone crab claw meat melts in the mouth:

It comes with its own special condiment:

Lionfish filets are beautiful:

The finished product. Lionfish are a major pest (invasive species) so you are doing a public service when you eat them. They also happen to be delicious:

Liliane is amazing. So sweet, so positive, incredibly smart, and an amazing cook. Her French recipes are family treasures:

One of the highlights of the night is "story time with Jack." The man has an encyclopedic memory, a witty sense of humor, and deadpan delivery. I laughed hard all night. Angela is just trying to stop smiling long enough so she can take a bite of food:

To cap off a great meal, Jesse introduced us to "miracle fruit." He has a little bush on his porch, and he went and picked a few little berries off. He said that after you eat it, sour things taste sweet. I was skeptical. But I ate the berry, which didn't taste like anything really:

Then Jesse sliced up a sour lemon. I took a nibble of the lemon. Oh my god. It tasted like lemon candy:

2 seconds later my lemon slice looked like this. We are going to do this at home in LA:

Key West was great. I can't wait to go back.