In the spirit of the Keys, posting will now become lazy and unreliable.
Yesterday was adjustment day, when I tried to shift from 'go' mode to 'you don't have to go anywhere' mode. It wasn't easy. I found myself charging from one tourist site to another, scheduling as I went. It's not that I have to see everything here, it's just that I've been moving for so long that I've almost forgotten how to stop. I did manage to calm down eventually, though. Key West is good for that.
Breakfast was much better than I have been having, with fresh fruit, homemade quiche, and some nice croissants (plus other things, like bread and cereal, that I haven't tried yet). All the tables were occupied, so I ended up sitting with some of the other guests, a lesbian couple from Kentucky. (On a side note- since I've been here, I have yet to eat a meal inside. I see no reason to reverse this trend.)
As far as tourist sites go, I did see some interesting ones yesterday. I stood in the informal line to take my picture in front of the marker for the 'Southernmost Point in the Continental USA' (not technically true, but close enough). After that I wandered around some of the side streets in the old town area. It's funny, but for such an over-touristed area, once you get about a block away from the main drag, it just turns into a small Caribbean town. It isn't really, of course, but it's nice to pretend for a couple of blocks.
The only museum I came in really wanting to see was the 'Mel Fisher Shipwreck Museum'. It's dedicated to this guy, nuts by any measure, who spent decades searching for the wreck of this Spanish treasure ship, and he actually found it. Four million dollars worth of gold and silver and jewelry from the bottom of the sea. It's almost enough to make you think those optimists might be on to something.
I had lunch at a restaurant so casual that the tables didn't match and chickens ruled the dirt floor of the outdoor courtyard. They made a mean tuna salad sandwich, though. I forget exactly what I did after lunch. I think I wandered around for a while, and then I came back to the hotel, where I sat out by the pool and reread the copy of Lucky that Mom brought me.
Today was more of the same, only the museum I went to was the Audobon house (never actually owned or lived in by John James Audobon, but it looks better on the sign than 'some random guy you've never heard of house'). You'd like it, Mom, nice old house, pretty gardens, lots of Audobon prints. There was hardly anybody else there, and the tour was by walkman, so it was like I had the place to myself. I had another good lunch, at an even more casual restaurant (this time the chickens had babies), did some shopping and went back to hang out by the pool. The Kentucky lesbians came by and gave me a hard time for just sitting around reading and not being out at the bars partying, but the thing is, I like reading by a pool. The innkeepers have a whole bunch of lovebirds (they breed them, apparently not for sale, because they still have them all), so it sounded just like home. Today was hotter and more humid than it has been, so when I got too hot I went for a swim. Later on I managed to rouse myself enough to go out and eat dinner out on a pier, watching the sun set.
I hear it's raining back at home so I'll stop now, before I get in trouble.
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