Have you ever heard of a friend describe a place as a Vortex? A Vortex being as a calming place, one that you go to when you need to re-energize or recoup. There are many of these places around our earth and each person might have a different reason for why that place is that way for them. You might have your calming place be in the mountains, your friend might have theirs be in the city park, but when an entire town or an entire area acts as that calming place, you take notice.

Working in the hospitality business in Cedar Key, my entire day is spent listening to people tell me why they picked this place for their vacation, their annual once a year trip or their weekend get-away. I get to hear all sorts of reasons and 99% of the people say something about the fact that “Cedar Key holds some sort of calming spell over them.” They all talk of a feeling they get when they’re here that they can’t quite describe. A relaxed feeling, something like a complete unplug from reality. They say they think about this place the entire time they’re not here and can not wait to return. Once they feel it, it holds some spell over them, I know it did for Cindy and I. We happened upon this tiny town, thought we’d spend the night here, ended up spending multiple nights here and talked of it non-stop till we returned. It held some lure over us that we could not describe, but we both felt it then as we still do today.

Now if I only heard this described a few times in the 8+ years I’ve lived here I probably wouldn’t have thought enough about it to type this out. I actually hear it day after day and It’s got me thinking, is Cedar Key situated in some place on Earth that it holds some power over your mental well-being? Is there some electrical magnetic field that aligns your inner-gravitational pull? Is it simply that because you have next to zero phone signal, you stop checking it every few minutes? Is it the fact that you’re surrounded by water? Is it the pull of the tides?

I cant really explain it, but I know that there is something there/here, because so many people tell me they feel it too.

For many of us, we call it the “#4 Ahh-Ha Moment” It’s that feeling that washes over you when you’ve driven down the long, empty road that’ll get you here, for most people, HWY24, which is 28 miles of NOTHING once you pass Hershel’s Quick Stop up at HWY19/98 in Otter Creek. If it’s your first visit, you had more than likely second guessed that turn because of the fact that there was nothing to look at. Nothing but an empty road to wash away the stress of where ever you left to get here. Then you come around that bend in the road, see the marsh grass all around you, the wind, the salt air, you roll the window down as you cross over the #4 Bridge and smell the mud, yes that glorious Cedar Key mud. You breath in deeply and have this feeling you cant describe. Some say they have tears well-up when they first cross the bridge and they have no idea why. Many say they have tears well-up when they leave, and that’s explainable, but why tears of joy when you get here?

I cant really explain any of this, but I know a few things to be true about living here. I used to suffer from severe Migraine Headaches when I lived in Michigan. Living here in Cedar Key, I’ve never suffered one. I didn’t change my diet, my drinking habits or anything major, just changed the location. I also know when we leave the island, we both can not wait to get back. We’ve even cut great vacations short to get back home and go back to work. It’s not like we’re retired and we just sit on our boat 7 days a week. We both work full time and still love living here.

We know it’s not for everyone, and we understand that. Many visit and say they see no reason to come back…..so obviously not everyone feels the same thing that so many of us do and I’m very glad about that. We know that ancient civilizations have been living here for thousands of years. There was a busy port here, a railroad bringing people in and out and a thriving fishing industry at one point. So it’s not something new, its not like you let the cat out of the bag blogging about it or posting a few pictures on your Social Media page. Its not like you know about it and no one else does, and luckily there is very little room for more development, so there is no worry of this becoming the next Miami Beach. What it does offer is something not too many places in Florida offers. A place to unplug, unwind, forget about the stresses of big city life, heavy traffic or big city crime. When the average speed is a Golf Cart pace, you know it’s going to be good. When the town is literally shut down most nights by 10pm, you know you’re not coming here for the nightlife, unless your nightlife means enjoying the Milky Way with zero light pollution.

If it works for you, come share it with us, if it doesn’t, then let us know where your magic spot is so we can go check that out and see if it works for us too.

This is as stressful as it gets