Chickens, Six-toed Cats, and Enormous Fish

It's exasperating when we travel somewhere and upon hearing where we live somebody says something like, "New York City? You can keep it!" By digging we discover that NYC detractors are more often then not people whose sojourn in the city was limited to midtown/Times Square. We have yet to meet any anti-New Yorkers on this trip, but I am guilty of similar city-prejudice, of judging a town (or a key?) on one garish part of it.

In other words, we woke up this morning and in the more comfortable light of the day discovered that Key West has a lot more charm than I allowed after my first impression. 

We visited the Ernest Hemingway Home and all loved it for various reasons. The Sister, The Dad, and I liked the landscape, the architecture, the tiling, the decorating. I'm convinced that if I had that writing studio (sunshine, taxidermy, bookshelves, and a beautiful chandelier -- my definition of paradise) my drivel would turn pulitzer prize winning. The Boy liked the war artifacts, the penny in the cement by the pool (Hemingway came back from ten months in Spain to a beautiful pool that his second wife had had put in -- the story goes that he held up a penny and told her something to the effect that she might as well take his actual last penny. She had it put into the cement by the pool, and later joked that out of all his wives only she had the proof that she took his last cent), the cat stature that he traded Picasso for when they lived in Paris at the same time -- he traded him a box of hand grenades for it, the urinal-turned-fountain, and the cat cemetery. The Girl of course loved the 45 cats wandering about. We had a great tour-guide and bless his heart when he saw The Girl's keen interest he motioned her over and let her give some treats to one of the cats. He also said that we were welcome to pet the cats. And so we did -- we wandered about and she ran happy fingers along silky heads and down silky backs. She did not discriminate -- they were loved whether they had six-toes or five (the Hemmingway House is famous for the six-toed cats that are reported to be descendants from his polydactyl cat, Snowball). 

After seeing the cat cemetery, we went to the Key West Cemetery. I feel like you can get a good feel on a place by its cemetery(ies). On the sign it mentions that the cemetery reflects the incredible diversity of Key West. I would agree. As with all cemeteries the map highlights the quirky and the heroic, my personal favorite was Sophronia Bradley's stone because of the information to be gleaned from it. Her husband was killed by poachers -- he was a game warden who was trying to protect birds from the slaughter that was going on because of the exotic women's hats that were being sold to the elite and fashionable. It is said that his death was a huge catalyst in the Audubon movement. Good can come from bad. 

We walked around the Truman Annex, which is interesting both for its cute neighborhoodness and American/naval history. Do you ever travel somewhere that you know you'll never live and think: if I lived here, this is the neighborhood I would settle in? I often think of my alternative lives. 

At noon we went to St. Paul's and listened to an organ concert for 30 minutes. 

Key Lime Pie at lunch. That's the third time we've shared a slice -- we are having a taste test. The prevention of scurvy is part of our health curriculum. 

While I concede that Key West has some lovely pockets, a lot of beautiful architecture, a diverse and interesting history, is naturally beautiful, and interesting from a geographical perspective, I'm not convinced that I ever need to go back. The Boy isn't so ready to write it off: chickens wander about free and are as prevalent as stray cats in a fishing village. At lunch he made a Key West rooster out of his wiki sticks. The girl made a model of the basset hound puppy we saw on the sidewalk. The puppy's mother (a DOG) was wearing a small red cowboy hat and some of the beeds that their owner was selling from his stand. 

We added 200 miles of driving on to our trip to see Key West. If we had left early without further exploration I would have considered it a waste, but this morning I caught a whiff of what pulled Hemingway, and I'm grateful that I did. Further, I saw a map of the keys and it actually thrilled me to see how far out in the ocean Key West is -- it feels like an accomplishment simply for having gone. The Sister, who sat in the back with the kids, might not agree that it was worth the extra 200 miles -- she just shared with me that The Boy sits back there and toots and then subtly pulls down his snorkeling mask while she and The Girl are left to suffer the fallout. 

Some things that we picked up about the key: the Seven MIle Bridge and the other causeways take you over/past the most beautiful blue and green and aqua water. We learned that the Key Deer walked over during an ice age and now range 60 miles from Duck Key to Key West, but have been mostly isolated on Big Pine Key because their numbers are low from aggressive hunting; they are in fact, on the endangered species list. I saw a spotted fawn against the protective fencing, but sadly nobody else (i.e. The Girl) did. 

Parallel to the causeways and bridges you can see the remains of the bridge-system that carried trains. In 1905 the Key West extension of the Florida East Coast Railway was begun -- 128 miles beyond the end of the Florida.  It was in use from 1912 to 1935 carrying freight and passengers. Henry Flagler was an interested builder/developer in hotels/railroads and he backed it, in part because of the time he and his ailing first wife spent in Key West. It sounds like it was ill-fated from the beginning as first there was a hurricane a year into construction that about wiped it out, plus labor issues and insect issues. In 1909 and 1910 additional hurricanes damaged it. It was finally finished in 1912, and dubbed the 8th Wonder of the World. You could take a sleeper from NYC to Key West (I would have vastly prefered that). In 1935 a Labor Day hurricane washed away 40 miles of the middle section. The rescue train was also destroyed. With Flagler gone nobody was willing to pay for the repair of a line that never covered the cost of its construction. 

Long Key State Park. We stopped for some canoeing in a lagoon. We swerving and slid between mangrove clusters (and were crazy grateful that we didn't see the "Extreme Caution Venomous Snakes" sign until we were out of our boats and back in the car). We were the only canoes out, whether that was because it's a school day in the middle of the winter, or because it was the hour right before closing I don't know, but it was cool. The water was properly silver with the setting sun, and shallow enough to see interesting things on the bottom (and not be too worried about tipping over when we all leaned at the same time to check something out on the bottom). 

At Mile 78 Is Robbies Marina. The Dad had read about this cool opportunity to feed some prehistoric fish called tarpon. The kids were excited. We pulled up about 20 minutes before closing and we paid for the very nice lady to give each kid a bucket... of fish. Red flag #1 -- I was thinking pellets. Red flag #2 -- the dead fish in the bucket were about the size of the fish that I thought they would be feeding. Red flag #3 -- she told us to be sure to shoo away the pelicans because they get aggressive and bite. Red flag #4 -- she motioned us to the end of the dock (I had envisioned some sort of nice touch tank). The experience was shocking. I found this video on YouTube for a good reference. My concern was actually less about the fish coming up and about swallowing my kids' arms, and more about my kids leaning way over into the edge of the ocean and then having the beans-and-cheese scared out of them and tumbling down into a feeding frenzy. That having been said, I was like: let's get 'er done. The Boy went for it. He finished off his bucket in quick order and saw that The Girl was still sitting there with her bucket full and her face uneasy. He put his hand on her back (to which I screamed: GET THAT DEAD FISH HAND OFF HER BACK), and tried to explain to her how to do it. After a few aborted attempts I was like, for-crying-out-loud and held her hand firmly where it needed to be. The BIGGEST tarpon in the world jumped up right in my face and closed his enormous mouth around the entire fish and my baby's fingers. She was like: I have the slobber from the inside of his mouth all over my hand. And we were done. 

We got to Key Largo and had a late dinner -- finishing it off with Key Lime Pie number four. I might go through withdraws when we leave the keys. 

We Are Spoiled by Kindness

The Dad got up early and went running back in Everglades Park. We asked if he saw an alligator, and then teased him that that's WHY he was running. The rest of us slept in, showered, watched The Crocodile Hunter and the Gator Boys and then had a nice breakfast out on the patio of the hotel. And then on to Biscayne National Park. We watched a movie with underwater footage -- for 95% of this park is under water and we knew that we wouldn't be exploring it on this trip. It is home of some of the only living reef along U.S. shoreline. We walked along a boardwalk and saw a teensy hermit crab, some very cool lizards that jump around in the trees, and the mangrove tree roots. We are soaking up nature. The kids completed the entire Junior Ranger program. The ranger was cute and during the pledge added in that they should eat all their vegetables and keep their room clean. 

So many interrelationships between plants, animals, water routes, water quantities… Hopefully the children are getting a sense of how they have an important place in all this. Knowing that your life can be meaningful is powerful.

While at the visitor's center we also found an interesting CD. We also found an answer to a question. We had found some of these tube things on the beach on Sunday and wondered what they are. They are egg sacks for the welks. The welks are in those shells that are kind of conch like. They are a carny-like animal, having  a strong foot that comes out and pries open clams while its long tongue-thing snakes in and eats what's inside. It is fun and satisfying to find the answer to things without the help of Google. 

Keys-bound. On the way there we had to pull over to check out this mutant lobster. 

The causeways are awesome… to drive over the sea.

Delicious key lime pie after lunch.

To the Dolphin Research Center. This manifested because the grandparents all sent money this year for Christmas. The facility itself is charming -- you stand right over happy looking rolling dolphins. We stood and mused and chatted with three male dolphins for quite a while and when The Girl ceased to pay attention to one of them for a moment to watch instead the program going on across from us he turned on his side and waved a flipper at her. 

There are cats and chickens that wander as well as enormous iguanas that live in some mangroves that pop out suddenly onto the boardwalk and stroll along fully confident with those long crazy toes. The place has a sweet history (a man decided to live on the ocean and train a dolphin, then a few more, then Hollywood heard about it and decided to make a movie -- film on location and use his trained dolphins. It was called... Flipper). And it feels sweet when you're there. Perhaps we were lucky, but there were no crowds, just a few families milling about, some families participating in the meet-the-dolphin programs. Judd the Red Chicken and The Girl's collective grandparent gift was more low-key, instead of getting in the water they kneeled on a dock and held out a t-shirt while a trainer signaled and whistled and the chosen dolphin spun around under the t-shirts with a paintbrush in her mouth. I'll admit that I was VERY cynical about this. Even said some snarky things about how spoiled-y and touristy this whole thing sounded, but somehow it was sweet. Their appointment was for 3:45 and we were pretty much the only visitors still there. In most of the areas trainers were kissing and chatting and supporting dolphins -- private little lessons that were backlit by the setting sun on the ocean. The Dad went down on the dock with the kids and the trainer, and I stood and watched and felt full. Seeing the excited looks on my kids' faces just felt good, not gluttonous. Obviously their interaction with the animals was not natural -- from an adult perspective (obviously wild animals do not take paint brushes and make t-shirts) -- but for my kids creating together is usually the natural way for friendships to begin, so I think for them it felt not just fun, but also right. 

They sat on a dock on their knees with their bare feet tucked under them, poised on the edge, and made contact with a creature from their deepest dreams. They came back to me glowing and kept saying thankyouthankyouthankyou. Perhaps sometimes you're just lucky instead of spoiled. 

Other than the sun-gilded moments of them on the dock, the other major take-away came from one of the trainers. She explained that as soon as the dolphin does what he/she is supposed to, and is feeling proud that's usually when they end the lesson. This is one reason why dolphin trainers are so successful. She said that more important than forcing them to learn specific tricks, is reinforcing their natural curiosity and desire to learn. You do that, and you sustain a healthy trusting relationship and the dolphin will keep participating and learning.

Over the Seven Mile Bridge.

Key West. Hmmmm. I need to create an addendum to what I wrote previously about my love for kitsch. I like the quirky kitsch. I don't like seedy kitsch. The unfortunate thing about Key West is that it has the potential to be enchanting -- if I may do a city mashup -- Charleston and Carmel. Instead, it seems to gone on a long, hard drinking binge and it's more like a mashup of the undesirable parts of Berkeley, New Orleans, and Venice Beach. We hustled to get to Mallory Square for sunset when they have street performers right there on the waterfront. Ehhh. Again, I think the disappointment comes not so much what it is (a lot of shops with raunchy t-shirts), but what it could be/once was. It certainly is a beautiful setting.

We checked into our hotel and did a bit of swimming before getting ready for bed. Swimming at night is a guaranteed forever-memory.

One last follow-up: in my inbox today was an email and several pictures from the couple that we met on the manatee tour. Wasn't that nice? Here's the fellow that rested right next to us -- the couple was standing a foot away from us when they took this (and yet The Girl never felt him... grrrr...).

Eating, but Not Eaten

To the island of Sanibel for beach combing before going to church. Mixing the two created a classic fashion cocktail reminiscent of the early 80's and 90's when you would see professional women traveling to and from the office in similar combos. Now ballet flats have mostly taken away this fashion move akin to the mullet (business in front, party in the back). 

The lesson of the day was about how being precious is directly linked (perhaps not rightfully) to being rare. On most beaches a little beauty like this:

would be a find, but when you have this:

here it is tossed aside. When they say that Sanibel is THE place to go for beach-combing, they weren't kidding. The Girl was very focused and intent on finding a sand dollar. While we found many pieces, we were apparently there too late in the morning to find any whole ones (she was also focused on seeing a manatee as we crossed little bridges to get to the beach). 

The Boy found three enormous still-attached somethings. He wants to use them to do his animal research paper -- he named them Gill, Mill, and Jill. 

It really was a lovely morning on the beach. 

The church building was surrounded with flowering trees. It will be hard to go back to the city's dormancy. 

Lunch was a dismal affair. On the map Everglade City seemed like a good place to find somewhere. It's a fine balance sometimes between not being a snob and protecting your life. 

After the napkin issue we probably should have left, after what was found in the chips we definitely should have left. Instead we ate and then paid over $60. The only good thing was this poster by the restrooms…

The children started their Junior Ranger program for South Florida's National Parks. It's a packet with three parts: Big Cypress National Preserve, Everglades National Park, and Biscayne National Park. They had to do programs, hikes, movies, and activity sheets and have things passed off at each visitor's center. After completing all three they earn their patch. 

Big Cypress. We walked out on the boardwalk to see some manatees. Which we saw, and we also got our first glimpses of gators. It's quite thrilling. They were just gliding along. We watched our manatees very protectively, but the alligators didn't seem one bit interested.

We drove to an overlook at H P Williams Roadside Park where we met with Educator Kim. Standing across the canal from a 10-foot alligator sunning himself/digesting she taught us a lot about gators. They have an additional eyelid that works like a windshield wiper, they have blood that kills bacteria, they have sound slits so their hearing is as acute at their sight and sense of smell. They can see above and under water, they can hear above and under water. They see well at night, and the color of their eye reflection is orange. She recommended we watch a YouTube video on the mating ritual when the bellows and the vibrations make the water drops dance. We also learned that some can go a month between feedings. I found the fact that they weren't constantly hunting somewhat comforting. We asked her our question about manatees -- do the alligators ever bother them? Never, not even the babies. Sharks also don't ever bother them or the calfs. Our faces were question marks under the broiling sun. She said, "It needs to be studied, doesn't it?" And then she looked into my kids' squinty eyes and sweaty faces and said, "Will you do that maybe? Perhaps one or both of you will grow up and study manatees for us." My kids smiled. 

Winter time is the top birding season. We are stunned at the quantity of huge, beautiful, interesting birds. My favorites are: the Wood Storks -- with beautiful bodies and ugly prehistoric heads -- and enormous, the Anhinga's cool way of sitting in the tree with its wings extended, the herons -- always elegant in form, if somewhat raspy in voice, the pelicans that seem like they should be in a movie or a zoo, and on and on… It is fun to see these huge birds sitting up on branches that don't seem capable of supporting the weight. 

Passing a Skunk Ape surveillance headquarters The Boy convinced us to pull over, but after getting out and looking around he determined that there wasn't much to see. The Dad commented that the man running the show has perhaps run into the Skunk Ape a few times too many. 

We went to Kirby Storter Roadside Park and saw the cypress trees and worked on some Junior Rangers activity pages under the shade of a thatched roof tiki-hut.

On to the Oasis Visitor's Center where the kids passed off the first part of the Junior Ranger program. It's cute to see how the different rangers handle it. In this case everybody in the visitor's center clapped for them. My kids hate that, but they understand that everybody is just being nice. I would like to point out that in awkward moments like that they did the shifty eye-contact and shrinking in on themselves BEFORE they were homeschooled.

In car we found some free samples that we got at the Peep's store. 

"They taste like feet." The Sister

"With a kick." I added with a burning throat and watering eyes.

Feet with a kick? Buh-dah-ba.

We then went to Shark Valley Visitor's Center in Everglades and saw a billion alligators. They just drape around along the side of the road and main path. I kind of liked it, but also felt a bit vulnerable. We went on the Bobcat Trail and the kids signed off the second part of the Junior Ranger program. This ranger was big into setting and requested that we all go outside for the swearing in. 

It was time for dinner. Robert is Here is crazy cool. Really it's a glorified fruit stand with farm animals in the back to look at (guess who liked that part?) and amazing fresh fruit milkshakes. The Girl ordered mango pineapple and the rest of us got key lime. We also got some chips, salsa and guacamole and some fresh banana bread. We ate outside by the man playing his guitar and singing Beatles songs and other classics like, "I Can't Help Falling in Love With You." It was a content, golden moment. 

Back into the park system to the Anhinga Trail where we met up with a ranger-led "starlight" tour. The Ranger was so, so nice. An older gentleman that could probably be retired, but continues on as a ranger. He was thrilled that we were raising children in NYC. He lives in Yellowstone during the summer and in Florida during the winter. He told us how he takes his motorhome to Liberty RV park in NJ, walks 8 blocks to the PATH and is in NYC -- all for $65/night. He was a character. The Boy mentioned that we are homeschooling and the ranger couldn't tell us enough how great he thought that was. He saw the patches on their sweatshirts and chatted about the other parks. All this while we strolled along under the moonlight along the water. 

The flashlights that we brought weren't bright enough to contribute much, but our group saw the tell-tale orange reflections of gators patrolling the water and we saw quite a few along the edges "resting." A man who had crazy powerful flashlights that could see everything came up and offered them to my kids. We used them for a while -- it was amazing. We tried several times to return his flashlights, so that he could participate, but he told me that he had seen enough and he was enjoying watching my kids being able to use them. He told me that he overhead that we are homeschooling and wanted to let me know that his family home schools. They have six children ranging from 4-20-years old. He is so confident with the people that his older kids have become that he has no doubt that they've missed out on nothing and will continue with their younger children. He mentioned how people always ask him about proper socializing, but he hasn't noticed that his kids are any less socially aware. I thought about this man who came up to us in the dark and handed my children tools to illuminate the darkness. I think I can trust that he knows what it means to have good social skills. 

It's one thing to see orange eyes reflecting from a distance, but it feels different to stand above on the bridge and shine the light down and see them right below. It was impressive how fast The Dad backed up (and clattered his flip-flops and stumbled about in a most dramatic fashion) when a gator directly below us suddenly thrashed. When they say that their movements are startling in their quickness they aren't kidding. It really got my heart rate up. In fact, walking back, when we saw a large one on level with us I envisioned how it would be if this guy made a sudden movement like the one we had seen below us in the water… I felt very vulnerable. Some mosquitoes were buzzing around; surprisingly we didn't get eaten.