Key West Day One

Not quite 24 hours on the island and as Divine said in Lust In The Dust, my ass is on its last legs. Steve Smith, our host from the Key West Business Guild picked up our group (myself, Father Tony, EDGE's Michael K. Lavers, freelance journalist Rod McCullom, LOGO's Mike Diamond, SiriusXM's Frank DeCaro, and filmmakers Josh Koll and Josh Helmin) at the airport. Less than an hour after arrival we were whisked off to an absolutely riotous street party and Coronation Ball for the King and Queen of Fantasy Fest. The winners earned their crowns by raising the most money for AIDS Help.

Then came a fancy dinner, then Steve gave Father Tony and me a private tour of some packed and shenanigans-laden bars on Duval Street (more about that later.) At 2am, we finally crawled back to our guesthouse, Island House. (More about that later.) Up with the rooster's call (literally), we breakfasted this morning at Big Ruby's Guesthouse, then took the LGBT Historic Trolley Tour, then had lunch poolside at Casa Marina Resort. I've got just enough downtime to get this post up, then we're off to a sunset dinner cruise. I'm wiped! I'll get a slideshow of the first day up as soon as I get photo approvals from our fussy colleagues. And watch out Key West, we are now on mopeds.

UPDATE: Here's the slidehow for Day One. Some photos possibly NSFW, mostly due to one young entrepreneur who was working the sidewalk outside a Duval Street gay bar.

UPDATE II: Father Tony's first post is up, where he titled the below photo "Curmudgeon By The Sea."