As dusk approaches, I’m almost finished settling in for a week or two near Cedar Key. Cedar Key in located 140 miles north of the Tampa Bay – St Petersburg metro area where the Florida coastline makes a sharp 90 degree bend westward. Cedar Key is just south of where the Suwannee River flows into the Gulf of Mexico.
Cedar Key is a city located on Way Key surrounded by a cluster of eleven islands called the Cedar Keys. Cedar Keys are named for the Eastern Red Cedar, once abundant in the area. Human occupation of Cedar Key dates back to 1000 BC. Cedar Key is the second oldest city in Florida. The tiny seaside town is only two square miles with 700 residents. That is approximately half the size of the subdivision I live in.
John Muir, the founder of the Sierra Club, visited Cedar Key on his historic walk from Kentucky to Florida. He wrote, “For nineteen years my vision was bounded by forests, but today, emerging from a multitude of tropical plants, I beheld the Gulf of Mexico stretching away unbounded, except by the sky. What dreams and speculative matter for thought arose as I stood on the strand, gazing out on the burnished, treeless plain!”
I am really looking forward to a quiet and peaceful week away from civilization, relaxing, cycling, and eating fresh seafood in this quaint old fishing village.