Summer of Chill and Our New Happy Place
"Chillin' With Steve" is playing easy listening and yacht rock through Labor Day and Steve and Mary found their new happy place in Florida.
1967 was known as the “Summer of Love”, and Subligna Valley Productions officially declares the Summer of 2023 to be the first annual “Summer of Chill”.
From now through Labor Day, “Chillin’ With Steve” will be playing nothing but easy listening and yacht rock 24/7 in celebration of summer and our newest happy place… Cedar Key, Florida (a.k.a. “Chilltown USA”).
Last week, my wife and I celebrated 20 years of wedded bliss by spending the entire week in a rented condo with a great view of the water.
Cedar Key, located on Florida’s Gulf coast just 50 miles (80 km) southwest of Gainesville and 3 miles (5 km) into the Gulf of Mexico, is a rare “Old Florida” gem totally devoid of the commercial development that has taken over much of the state. There are no big-box stores or chain restaruants of any kind on the island itself. The closest big-box you’ll find will be a Dollar General on Florida SR 24 about 8 miles (13 km) inland. If you do need some groceries, there’s a really nice mom-and-pop grocery store that we visited a couple of times.
While there, we took an awesome island boat tour through Tidewater Tours. The 90 minute tour took us around the Cedar Keys, gave us a great history lesson, and featured great views of the flora and fauna. The cost was $35.00 per person, it was easy to book our tour online, and thanks to the captain and first mate of the Megan June, it was worth every penny.
If you like nature, we recommend that you check out the Cedar Key Railroad Trestle Nature Trail and the Shell Mound trail at the Lower Suwanee National Wildlife Refuge.
To learn more about the rich history of Cedar Key, we recommend you visit the Cedar Key Historical Society Museum and Cedar Key Museum State Park (NOTE: The state park’s museum is closed for maintenance, but you can still tour the historic Whitman house that is on the property.)
Last, but not least, if you love seafood, then Cedar Key is your place, as it is known for the fresh clams, oysters, and shrimp that are sustainably farmed and harvested by local fishermen.
Every restaurant we ate at was great, but here are the two that we really loved and highly recommend to you…
Tony’s Seafood Restaurant. We both had the seafood po’ boys that were delicious, but what really impressed us was their award-winning clam chowder (3 consecutive first-place awards at the Great Chowder Cook-off in Newport, Rhode Island). It was so good, we ordered an additional pint that we kept in the refrigerator and had for lunch a couple of days later.
Robinson Seafood. On our last evening in Cedar Key, we made the short drive up SR 24 to Robinson’s for dinner. All their seafood is fresh-caught and we had the grouper and fried shrimp along with their grouper chowder. Like Tony’s, Robinson’s grouper chowder was freakin’ delicious and deserves an award of its own. Our servers were awesome as we got to chat with them and some locals during our visit. Great food and friendly people!
During my time, I even recorded some video. Here are a couple of them…
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If you’re looking for that “happy place” and enjoy chillin’, then Cedar Key, Florida (a.k.a. “Chilltown USA”) is the place to feed your inner Jimmy Buffett.
It’s always 5 o’clock in Cedar Key!
Enjoy the “Summer of Chill” on “Chillin’ With Steve”, have a great summer, and until next time…