I really do not want to leave Key West and go back to the cold and snow tomorrow. We’ve had fantastic Caribbean weather this whole week. It’s been gorgeous – day and night.
On the bright side, I get to see my granddaughter this weekend.
That makes going back easier.
Related posts:
The main attraction in Ernest Hemingway’s Key West home (now a museum) is the cats. 59 of them! About half have six or more toes (polydactyls).
The story goes that a Massachusetts boat captain sailed into Key West with a white six-toed cat named Snowball. Hemingway became enamored with the cat, so when she had kittens, Captain Dexter of Massachusetts gave one to Hemingway for his sons. They named the kitten Snow White.
Hemingways is quoted as saying, “One cat just leads to another.”
The museum staff includes many world class cat ladies (and gentlemen) who love taking care of them and even sleep over in the museum with them during hurricanes.
I’m not even going to pretend to be a big Hemingway fan. I vaguely remember being forced to read “Old Man and the Sea.” I’m sure he was a great writer and all, but he did have four different wives (he divorced three of them). He also collected antique birthing and midwife chairs, which seems odd (and a bit creepy) for a man.
Related posts:
During the American Civil War, Key West remained under Union control despite Florida joining the Confederacy. Its strategic deep-water port and existing naval base made it a crucial Union stronghold for blockading Confederate shipping in the Gulf of Mexico. Apparently some Key West residents didn’t like that and left the island permanently. (Good riddance assholes!)
Today, there is a big and thriving LGBTQ 🏳️🌈 community here. Along with all the artists, this makes for little to no open MAGA support. I have not seen one Trump hat or shirt on anyone. It’s great. There are also no Trump lawn signs or boats flying the obnoxious flag.
There is just one seedy store on Duval street, that carries the offensive paraphernalia. And because I am a leftist Boston MASShole, I had to stop and Flip the Bird to this particular retailer.
Other than this one tacky store, the coast is clear for MAGA haters to come to Key West.
Not so much for Kansas City fans though…I’ve only seen Eagles shirts. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say Key West is rooting strongly for Philly in the Superbowl.
Go birds 🦅
Related posts:
A few photos from my bucket list trip to Key West.
It started out as many winter trips from Boston to Florida do:
But things quickly got better
We have an amazing balcony here.
I’m settling into the vibe here. I know I was worried about getting bored on such a small island for a whole week, but Key West is actually a very lively town with many good restaurants and lots of live music. There’s definitely a lot of Yacht Rock here (I’ve heard multiple renditions of Steve Miller Band’s The Joker), but there’s also a lot of real talent playing in the bars.
The town feels safe, but colorful. There are some beautiful buildings and lots of cute houses, but none of the highrise condo buildings that are in virtually every other city in Florida.
The roosters are real and they are everywhere. Apparently they were originally brought here by Cubans for cockfighting, but then cockfighting got banned, so the Cubans retaliated by letting the birds go free. They are now a protected species here.
Despite my understanding that recreational weed wasn’t going to be available here, a very close hemp substitute is sold everywhere. This enhances the vibes, especially for those of us who aren’t big drinkers.
The food has been really good.
And the legendary sunsets are truly spectacular.
To enhance the vibes, I’m reading Florida, short stories by Lauren Groff. They’re fantastic so far. She’s an amazing writer.
Before I left, I read The Last Train to Key West by Chanel Cleeton, historical fiction set in The Florida Keys in 1935, when the “Labor Day Hurricane” demolished Flagler’s wondrous railroad.
See? I got to the end of this post and haven’t mentioned Jimmy Buffett once.
🦜
It’s that time of year when Bostonians who don’t ski set their sights on the Sunshine State.
These are some of the rituals:
Get a pedicure
Pack sandals in your carryon so you can change shoes on the plane
Pray your flight won’t be canceled due to incoming snow
Leave your winter coat in the car and dash into the terminal coatless and freezing
Sit on the plane and nervously watch the wings get de-iced
Pray this bird gets airborne
Lift off – ah
Watch dirty, grey old Boston recede from view and mind
Touchdown in the Land of the Mouse.
😎
Related:
Fun times in Quebec, 2008. Je me souviens.
And gorgeous Tulum, 2011.
I’ve been digitizing old photos over the past few weeks. I have a ton of them. There’s no way I could save all of them in the event of a fire. I wouldn’t even want to. There are too many.
Walt Whitman’s lines “I am large, I contain multitudes” keep popping into my head. I’ve gone through so many phases in my nearly 60 years. I contain multitudes. We all do.
One theme I’m finding is that we (like everyone) mostly took photos on vacations and holidays. And there’s one vacation destination in Massachusetts that everyone knows: Cape Cod. It’s known simply as “the Cape.” (There’s another popular cape in Massachusetts, but that one gets referred to by its full name: Cape Ann.)
Cape Cod is where the Kennedys summered and it’s just one of those places that everyone in Massachusetts has memories of. If you didn’t have a friend with a house “down the Cape,” then you probably rented one or stayed in a Cape hotel at least a few times in your life.
My earliest memories of the Cape include barfing after eating scallops at Thompson’s Clam Bar, having my grandmother tell me that they thought I’d drowned when I went missing at the beach one day, and waiting for the sun to come out.
I’ve been lucky to visits “The Islands” many times too. (If you’re from Massachusetts, you know that The Islands are Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.) But the Cape is where my earliest vacation memories happened.
I’m realizing that the places where our memories were made—where our lives have played out—are quite meaningful. They’re the settings for our stories.
I’m locked out of WordPress Daily Prompts (because I’ve already responded to all of them) and I don’t usually look back at my old responses, but in this case, I’m happy to report that I did something I said I would do!
My husband and I visited the newly renovated Concord Museum in December and it was impressive.
This year, 2025, is the 250th anniversary of the start of the American Revolution, specifically the Battles of Lexington and Concord (April 19, 1775).
Along with the Old North Bridge Visitor Center, the Concord Museum is the place to learn about the American Revolution. If you don’t know the story of the lantern warning (“one if by land, two if by sea”) and Paul Revere’s famous ride from Boston to warn the colonists (“the British are coming!”), you’ll learn it here.
There’s also a ton of cultural information about Concord’s many famous intellectuals and writers like Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau. Many unsung leaders of both the abolitionist and suffrage movements also lived in Concord.
Something new I learned is that a lot of “privileged” white Concord ladies used their influence for good, mainly by talking some sense into the white men. For example, did you know that Ralph Waldo Emerson had to be convinced that slavery was bad? Seriously, Ralph?? And guess who convinced him. Women. Especially Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, a close friend and vocal abolitionist, and his aunt, Mary Moody Emerson.
Do you have a favorite place you have visited? Where is it?
A year ago this week we were wrapping up a bucket list trip to Paris. I loved it and posted many times about it, with lots of photos.
Below are four iconic works of art we saw there.
Just for fun:
Can you name the artist or title of each work without the help of Google or ChatGPT?
If you took Art History 101 and 102, you really should get 100%. If you weren’t a scarf-wearing liberal arts major in the 80s (like me), I think you should still be able to get a 50 or 75.
Good luck.
Are you more of a night or morning person?
If the title of this post makes you immediately start humming Fiddler on the Roof (original Broadway cast album starring Zero Mostel), then you are my people.
I searched my photo drive, for “sunrise” photos and found just ONE (and I have thousands and thousands of photos).
Whereas I’ve got sunset photos up the wazoo (in America, that means more than I could ever use). I could make sunset photo calendars every year for the rest of my life and still not use them all.
So, I’m going to use this hard evidence to conclude that I am not a morning person.
![A logo for "50 Happens," [a site dedicated to Gen X women with children and grandchildren] [who embrace life's challenges with humor and resilience], [featuring a modern and uplifting design] [that embodies strength and positivity] [with an elegant and playful style] [and a harmonious blend of colors like pink, fuchsia, purple, and blue].](https://50happens.blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/img-5uorrxvwartomopcpuhjfjd0.png?w=300)
50 Happens 