Key West Florida Celebrates The Nation's Birthday With The Key Lime Festival

Online, July 2, 2014 (Newswire.com) - Certain foods help to identify a destination and just wouldn't taste the same anywhere else. For Key West, Florida, some of those foods include conch fritters, hogfish and key lime…well, Key Lime everything! Every self-respecting Key West restaurant (and even some of the restaurants that aren't) has Key Lime Pie on their menu, each bar offers up its own version of key lime martinis and shooters, and you can even get soap and bath products that smell like key limes. This Fourth of July weekend, Key West celebrates all things Key Limey with the 2nd Annual Key Lime Festival, and it looks like it will truly be even bigger than last year.

"I'd never, in a million years, think I would become famous for making an eight foot pie in the middle of the street, but that seems to have become my calling," says David Sloane, founder and director of the Key Lime Festival. If there is anyone who should know what makes Key Limes such a special part of everyone's island vacations, it is Mr. Sloane. A longtime resident known both for his knowledge of all things Key West, as well as his mischievous sense of humor, he has literally written the book about all the fun things a person should do while on vacation there. Naturally, it fell to him to come up with a festival that celebrates the Conch Republic's number one produce export.

"I was having dinner at the Roof Top Cafe, having a slice of their fantastic key lime pie last spring, when the idea struck me. Why not create a party, for tourists and locals alike, to see all the different things we can do with key limes?"

Not that Key West, Florida, already a major tourist destination and a number one choice for island weddings, needed another reason to have fun, but last year's party was a smashing success. This year, they have added even more events, including a pub crawl to taste various different key lime martinis, a key lime pie bake-off to see who makes the best one, the crowning of Miss Key Lime 2014, and, of course, an attempt to make an even bigger key lime pie than last year.

They say nothing is more American than apple pie, but for Independence Day in Key West, it looks like it's all about the key lime pie.

For more information on the Key Lime Festival, visit their website: http://www.keylimefestival.com/

For more information about the Roof Top Cafe, please visit their website: http://www.rooftopcafekeywest.com/

Jack Terry is a travel and lifestyle writer who lived in Key West for several years.