And now we are six. Alex, Dan, Mark, and I arrived in Key West around 5:00 yesterday afternoon without killing each other, so that’s a plus. We checked in at the rental office and made our way a block or so to what has turned out to be a surprisingly lovely condo. The first floor consists of a living room, small dining area, kitchen—all open concept—and a powder room. A small private deck with a small heated pool sits off the kitchen.
The second floor is pretty much just the master bedroom with an en suite bathroom and access to two private decks. The third floor is a bath room and two bedrooms, one of which is ours. It’s just the right size with just the right amount of furniture. The condo is part of a dense community. The homes that surround ours are only six to eight feet away, so ours is in shadow almost all day. This makes it easier to sleep, but it also makes it hard to get up in the morning. Not such a bad thing, though.
We ate at Mangia Mangia last night. Everyone loves the food at Mangia Mangia, but I do have to say that Key West, in general, is not my favorite city for restaurants. I come here for the company, first and foremost, and for the sun and breeze and peace.
Dan and I returned to the condo after dinner. We were both just tired after a long day of travel. The other four boys went out for a drink. I read a little more of my book, then turned in.
Mark and I went to see Life of Pi a week ago, and I was reminded how much I enjoy shipwreck stories. (I continue to think that I must have drowned in a shipwreck in a previous life.) Moby Dick and is among my favorite novels, and I loved The Old Man and the Sea and The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor. Seeing Life of Pi prompted me to troll my library for some sea stories I had not yet read; I found there a book of three Conrad novellas that are all about the sea, so I’m working my way through them. The first one, which I’m still on, is called Typhoon and is the fictionalized account of a late-nineteenth-century event in which a steamship off the coast of China sails into a typhoon with more than 200 aboard.
Dan, Matt, and I are all up now, and each of us has made a separate trip to the nearby CVS to pick up things we forgot to bring. It’s like a parade. Mark seems to be stirring, so when he comes down, I think the four of us will head off to breakfast. Alex and Rob both work nights, so they won’t be up for a couple hours yet and won’t miss us.
Dan says he turned in shortly after I did.