We ventured back into Key West today because I realized
quite late in the game that I had not subjected my children to the following
See the Nation by Graduation criteria:
A.) A
historical home tour of some sort
B.) A
museum/location of Presidential History
C.)
A dude so
pickled that he fell asleep in the middle of the sidewalk in front of the liquor
store
Okay, “C” isn’t a necessity, but more of an added
bonus/cautionary tale.
Mr. Bullington was at the helm of our Minivan Chariot as it shuttled us south down the 7-mile bridge to
Key West. We secured our golden parking spot (parking is at a premium in
Key West, y’all). You’d think that the parking situation would smell less like
urine and have one or three functioning lightbulbs, but you’d be wrong. We
strolled down the sweet little streets lined with lovingly preserved historic
homes, beautiful trees, flowers, and wrinkly people on Lil’ Rascals.
Our
first destination was Ernest Hemingway’s Key West home. We learned all sorts of
sordid details about Mr. Hemingway from our Docent KJ. She delivered the story
of his life with much detail and little inflection. “…then Ernest ended his life
with a shotgun to the head, please join me across the hall in the study”. We
saw the resident 6-toed cats and exited through the gift shop.
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| I implore you to count my toes. There are six. That makes me better than cats of the five-toed variety. |
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| In Marietta, our docents wear hoop skirts (Root House) or Christmas Sweaters (Pilgrimage) In Key West, Pink Floyd t-shirts, flip-flops, and 6-toed cat tats are haute couture. This has been brought to you by Sarah's Regional Docent Comparative Analysis 'R Us, LLC |
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| This is my new friend, Abe tat guy. We chatted each other up for a few minutes with some Abe trivia. I totally stumped him. |
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| He is my kinda guy on so many levels. Really just one level. And, can some favorite friend buy me this shirt? With sleeves, as I have no Abe tat for display. Yet. |
Next stop! Harry Truman’s Little White House! We walked several blocks in the heat and by the time we
reached the Little White house it was almost closing time. We checked out a few
exhibits but missed the home tour, my kids were crestfallen as I’m sure you can
imagine. After a long walk back to the car we set our sights north and then hit the pool.
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| When Harry wasn't busy forming Nato, de-segregating the military, or drafting The Marshall Plan (You are welcome, Western Europe) He liked to wear this party shirt. Be like Truman, wear a party shirt. |
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| After this pic was taken, Wes tweaked his neck and became Sad Wes who had to rotate his whole body to look at you. |
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| #Kiwi or #Lime or some such. |
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| I just want to note that friend Angie can cook ANYTHING. I mean like, leave the head on, rip out the inner-parts and give it to Angie and she will return to you a glorious gift to your taste buds. I am going to nominate her for the James Beard Award. |
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| Nom. Nom. Nom. |
We woke before the sun to move out of the beach house.
Headed north on Hwy 1 listening to The Sun Also Rises as an homage to our new
friend/foe Hemingway. A couple of hours later we arrived at Coopertown, Florida. Population
8. We were scheduled for an airboat ride through the Everglades. Our tour guide
was very nice and I am sure he was very knowledgeable, but it was hard to
decode what he was saying over the roar of the airboat as he spoke in a very
thick accent mumbled through his lips that were puffing away on a Pall Mall.
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| Look kids, It's Big Ben! |
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| It appears that Big Ben is existing on a steady diet of toddlers and Paula's Dean's Banana Pudding |
Our boat ride through Everglades National Park was breath-taking and we happened
upon some pretty large gators and lots of beautiful birds. The kids got to hold
a baby gator (cute) and touch a python (ick!). We didn’t have time to have
lunch before our next stop so we ducked into the gift shop and helped ourselves
to some Klondike Bars and Alligator Jerky. That covers a few food groups,
right?
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| Hey look, Mom was on this trip! |
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| Oh hey, you with the teeth and a case of the grumps. |
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| No need for the show of force against our humble air boat. We get it. We out. |
We were booked on a 2:00 tour through Shark Valley (another part of the
Everglades). Thomas was disappointed that the name is quite deceiving as there
are no sharks, nor much of a Valley. As usual, our National Park System does
not disappoint. We had the prettiest little park ranger who was ever-passionate
about her park. “STOP THE TRAM!” She’d exclaim. We’d lurch forward as she
thrill-whispered…”I can’t believe it, it’s an adolescent Roseate Spoonbill in
it’s natural habitat.” She encouraged the group to sit quietly and appreciate the
sounds of the marsh. A nice request but sometimes hard to manage with a cart
full of toddlers, hard-of-hearing retirees and this German dude who was
translating everything she said at full volume for his friend. But, it was an amazing experience and in my next life I will be Park Ranger Kimberly!
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| Mama Soft Shell wishing for a little privacy as she digs a hole in which to lay her babies |
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| Why did the Alligator Cross the Road? Caption This! |
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| These funny little turtles had their little legs out in sync with each other. |
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| Heron lies the flasher. Look away kids. |
I was blown away by the diversity of the wild life. I became
quite adept at spotting gators and saw them all along the road side en route to
Sanibel Island.
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| We chose The Sanibel Fish House because of their affinity for fine art |
We stopped briefly for dinner and then finished the day in a
hotel close to the airport. I am giving John a few moments to himself as his neck
veins were getting a little “poppy” in the car today amide the backseat melee of 3 loving siblings. We must be approaching Day 10…So, the two little ones swam, I wrote, and Miss
XC ran on the treadmill. Mae and Thomas found a gross float that was
already in the pool and adopted the monikers, DJ and Veronica. Names better
suited for the Ft. Myers Airport Residence Inn…
I can hear the crowd at the bar next door hooting and hollering, there
is a cow bell, and I swear someone just
fired a celebratory shot in the air…#afloridaman….Marietta is gonna feel nice
tomorrow.
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| "DJ" Living his best life on the Residence Inn Herpes Float |
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| I may need an intervention. He's like, one low-rider and a pair of jorts away from Jacksonville. |
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