What to Do in Cedar Key When It Rains

The Town That Rain Made

Seventeen sawmills once cut nearly half a million board feet of cedar a week here. The wood went out to the world as pencil slats, the kind of industry that builds a town and then leaves it. The 1896 hurricane and fire closed the mills. The population never came back. That is not a tragedy; it is a condition. Rain just makes the condition visible.

When the weather pins you indoors, the first move is to stop fighting it. The streets are short. The blocks are shorter. You can walk the whole of 2nd Street under one umbrella and still have time for coffee.

The Dry Spots on 2nd Street

Start at 2nd Street Cafe, rated 4.6 from 901 reviews, at 434 2nd St. It is the kind of place where the rain on the windows becomes background noise rather than a problem. The rating is not an accident; the review count tells you it has been tested by more than just weather.

A few doors down, Steamers holds the same address, 434 2nd St, with a 4.5 from 4362 reviews. That is a serious number of people who have eaten there in the wet and the dry alike. If the cafe is full, and it will be, Steamers is the overflow that does not feel like a compromise.

For something smaller, Cedar Key Pizza And Subs at 598 2nd St and D St carries a 4.5 from 365 reviews. It is not a destination; it is a refuge. The kind of place where you do not check the time.

Island Room Restaurant and Sand Bar at 192 2nd St, rated 4.5 from 234 reviews, sits closer to the water. When it rains here, you can watch the Gulf turn the color of old pewter. The bar does what bars do in weather: it holds the line.

History That Holds Up

The Cedar Key Historical Society at 609 2nd Street, at FL-24, is rated 4.8 from 205 reviews. That is the highest-rated museum in town and one of the highest-rated things in town, period. Inside is the record of a place that was settled because of a tree.

Augustus Steele bought the military structures on Atsena Otie Key in 1843 for $227, along with 167 acres. Atsena Otie means cedar island in the Creek language. That cedar built the town, and the town built the pencils the world wrote with. The Eberhard Faber mill arrived in 1865. By 1886, 17 sawmills were cutting half a million board feet a week. The 1896 hurricane and fire ended most of it. More than thirty-five houses on the high ground of Atsena Otie survived the storm surge that locals still call the tidal wave.

The Historical Society will tell you all of this without the romance. That is why it is worth the visit.

Art and the Odd

The Cedar Key Arts Center and the Cedar Keyhole Artists Co-op & Gallery share the address 457 2nd St. The Arts Center is rated 4.7 from 92 reviews; the Co-op is rated 4.9 from 62 reviews. Two galleries, same building, different energies. When the rain keeps the fishermen off the water, the artists are still working.

For shopping that is not a gallery, Island Trading Post at 450 Dock St has a 3.6 from 124 reviews. The rating is honest; it is a cluttered, opinionated shop. Dilly Dally Gally at 390 Dock St, rated 4.2 from 81 reviews, is the better bet if you want something curated.

Jaybird's Chicken And Dock Street Dips at 491 Dock St, rated 4.9 from 98 reviews, is the highest-rated restaurant in town. Small review count, perfect score. FishBonz on Third at 509 3rd St matches it with a 4.9 from 71 reviews. Both are the kind of places that make you wonder why you ever ate anywhere else.

The Rain Plan

If the rain lets up, even for an hour, the Shell Mound Observation Deck on Co Rd 326, rated 4.7 from 77 reviews, is worth the drive. It is not a beach; it is a remnant. A mound of oyster shells left by people who were here long before the pencil mills, and the view across the marsh is the best in the county when the light breaks through.

And if you are here in October, the Cedar Key Seafood Festival runs on the Lions Club's schedule: more than 100 arts and crafts exhibits, live music, a Saturday parade at 11am. It is also the rare chance to reach Seahorse Key, three miles out, otherwise closed to the public. Rain or shine, the festival happens. The town has been through worse than a little weather.

Cedar Key is 68.4 years old on the median. Half the houses sit vacant, waiting for someone to come back. The rain does not change any of that. It just makes the waiting visible, and gives you a good reason to sit down with a cup of coffee and watch it happen.