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Just finished my second day of work after returning from Key West. Our trip there was very nice and the weather was beautiful. A slight breeze and the temperature hovered around 27 celcius. It was our fourth trip down (our other trips were: Memorial Day Weekend 2001, Martin Luther King, Jr. Weekend 2002, and Thanksgiving 2002. We stayed at our usual place, the Key West Youth Hostel. The price is right ($25.00 a night per person) and accomodations are spartan. But the location is excellent (close to Old Key West) and it has cheap rates for renting bikes ($7.00 a day). We hung out at Darcy's favorite coffee place, Croissants de France, We relaxed at Key West's best beach at Fort Zachary Taylor State Park. It's right beside where the cruise ships dock and there were several ships coming and going that weekend. We noticed how quickly they move out! At one point there were three ships docked. We also remembered to visit the Monroe County Public Library. The Key West branch is small but seemed lively with the staff we talked with and patron traffic.

Darcy and I also visited the Shipwreck Museum at Mallory Square. It was interesting and it focused on the sinking of the a ship in 1856 and how wreckers tried to find its cargo. At one point Key West was the wealthiest city, per capita, in the U.S. Wreckers would gaze out at sea looking for ships in trouble and exclaim, "wreck ashore!" when a ship was in trouble. The keys were notorious for it treacherous currents and shallow waters.

Another day we visited the city's lighthouse museum. It was an integral part of the city's history and was finally decommissioned in 1969 and was almost torn down for being an eye sore. Luckily saner heads prevailed and the lighthouse and Keepers Quarters were restored and re-opened to the public in 1990. It was interesting climbing to the top of the lighthouse and seeing water almost surround the entire island.

Sadly the Banana Cafe was no long open for dinner, only breakfast and lunch. We arguably had our best tasting dinner there in 2002. Darcy drove roundtrip and the car performed well. The trip got off to a rocky start when I noticed the right rear tire very low as we were packing up. I saw a screw in the tire so we had to take the car to the mechanic by my place where I had just got mine repaired. The trip back was very windy and it took just over 3.5 hours to get back to my place. So Darcy and I are both refreshed from the trip and look forward to visiting Edmonton for Christmas in six weeks!

Today is Remembrance Day in Canada so I brought out the poem In Flanders Field and taped it to my office door.

posted by Michael at 7:05 PM