Everglades National Park
Off the grid in the Everglades for a few days. Y’all behave yourselves!
Grizzlies in Key West
Fifty percent of the men biking and trundling around Key West look like old Ernest Hemingways.
Twenty-five percent look like old Jimmy Buffetts.
Twenty-five percent look like Ben Mendelsohn’s Sam Rayburn character from Bloodlines.
It’s hard to tell the ages of these old bears…anywhere from 40 to 100.
Calms & Linguini
Whenever I’m feeling a little anxious, I go to my favorite restaurant and order calms.
Books Galore
The captain told me our ship was too small to bring my hardback books, but this sailor smuggled them aboard. After I read each one I will pass it along to lighten our cargo. If you see any you want, text or email me and I’ll mail it to you when I’m done. Mom, I know you have first dibs on Springsteen!
CATS! (and Ernest Hemingway’s Home)
Our tour of Hemingway’s home was one of the best house tours I’ve ever had, thanks to our terrific guide, Doug.
There are 54 cats on the property, all descended from Snow White, Hemingway’s own polydactyl cat. Most of the cats have the polydactyl gene, and thus have 6 toes. They are carefully cared for, in fact three volunteers’ sole job is cat-caretaking.
The kitties are all named after movie stars. Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire are currently in charge of carrying on Snow White’s legacy. I assume the other cats were “tutored,” (a nod to that old Far Side comic). They live a great life, these cats.
Hemingway was truly one of those larger-than-life humans. How many of us can say we’ve had four wives? (not me!) How many of us can say we’ve been awarded a Bronze Star, a Pulitzer and a Nobel? Or survived 2 plane crashes, shrapnel from war wounds, multiple concussions? Not to mention his body of literature…
The tragedy is that Hemingway could not outwit his own genetic legacy ~ bipolar disorder ~ and alcoholism. He lost his father, brothers, sister and grand-daughter to suicide. He took his own life in 1961.
Although I knew the story, when our guide told the story of Hemingway’s suicide at the end of the tour, it made me very emotional. Hemingway suffered from chronic physical pain from his many injuries and chronic emotional pain from his mental illness. It all brought up many thoughts of my dear sister Lucy, as you might expect.
I’ll remember this tour fondly. A beautiful home in a tropical setting. An American literary legacy. Thoughts of my beloved Lucy. And the cats. If you knew Lucy, you know she would have LOVED those cats too.
Do you remember when Diana Nyad swam from Havana to Key West? I was riveted, and so I made it a mission to find this plaque on Smathers Beach. “Never. Ever. Give Up.”
Blue Heaven
Thank you sister-in-law Robin for suggesting Blue Heaven! We had a lobster, avocado, bacon, tomato eggs benedict, then played ping-pong under the banyan trees.
Chasing Sunrises
Since I was a little girl, I’ve been a morning person. I love the secret quality of feeling like I’m up before the world. I have always loved running at dawn, watching the sun come up.
In Bend we have the most lovely mountain sunset view. We treasure it. But I’ve been missing sunrises and last summer I told Ross I want to start watch the sun come up…as many times as possible. It’s a little treasure, a moment appreciate the grace of another day of life.
Today was a gift.
We drove our little RV to Smathers Beach before dawn, parked and made pour-over coffee inside on our gas stove. Then we walked onto the beach at 7AM and waited for the 7:12 scheduled arrival of the sun. She did not disappoint.
Fast is Done, Fun has Begun
Broke the fast with carrot ginger soup and yogurt. Then a smoothie. Then (dinner) conch ceviche and freshly caught yellowtail snapper at Hurricane Hole.
Rode our bikes the five lovely miles downtown. I got the grey washed out of my roots, Ross ran errands, and we biked back to Hurricane Hole to dinner.
Notes on Key West:
chickens (and roosters) are sacred creatures here and they run free through the streets. If you accidentally kill one there’s a $500 fine. If you kill one on purpose, it’ll cost you $5000.
driving and cycling is a little like playing a video game. You need to have eyes going in every direction. There are bikes, pedestrians, roosters/chickens (don’t hit ‘em!), electric golf carts, scooters, tourist trolleys, three wheeled cars (driven by teenagers, mostly), the Conch Tour trains. A little mayhem, probably a little alcohol-fueled. But very, very chill.
Pelicans galore, although we’ve heard their population decreased since the hurricane.
the ready access to seafood is awesome.
the vibe is New Orleans, but as one local told me, “New Orleans without the crime.”