_ post 4th, we sped down I95 through miami, on down into the keys.
_ to key west. we reached mallory square just in time for their sunset celebration.
_ every day, without fail, the town of key west celebrates the end of the day out on the pier.
_ today the disney cruise ship wonder was in town, so the pier was packed with families. everyone was taking pictures, flashes busting without effect.
_ though key west is undoubtedly a touristy place, where the original charm is artificially preserved and 'sweetened', this was a real experience.
_ this was nature's attraction, a real event beyond man's control, occurring nightly since time immemorial.
_ and for the ten or twenty minutes before the sun slipped over the horizon, there was the feeling of a group revelation. we all stood in wonder.
_ and saw it for what it was.
_ a free moment...
_ ...entirely pure...
_ ...available to everyone...
_ ...and pretty damn beautiful.
_ and, after the sun set, we wandered the dock. people milled around, or boarded the wonder, or slipped off the quay, heading to the bars and restaurants of key west.
_ we followed them. to sloppy joe's, hemingway's favorite bar back in the day. everyone said it still looks the same, though we guess that back in the day there were fewer pictures of him hanging all over the place. (for those continuity obsessives among you, this picture was taken at the end of our night, and that laughing couple right there had been greatly amused at the sight of us talking to a camera in the ceiling)
_ the best restaurants ALWAYS have a story about the restaurant printed on the menu, and in sloppy joe's case there was also something about this thing here: the original sloppy joe. well, of course we had to order it, and, by god, it was very good.
_ we discovered the live webcam, and made a call home to the girlfriends.
_ there was an eight minute delay between updates, so we wandered around trying to cause a scene. some lady gaga was playing, drawing the inevitable crowd onto the dance floor, trying to dance without spilling.
_ while others tried to dance without moving.
_ finally, we were up! that's us (royal 'us') in the bottom of the screen, saying something like 'can you see me? what am i doing?'
_ sadly my view was not quite as interesting.
_though it was less grainy.
_ in a new segment of our posts, we're going to show you some of our favorite people.
_ and yes, this is, of course, paul. he loves whatever it was he loves, that he announced on the back of his shirt in that last picture.
_while this man, predictably, introduced himself as 'ernie'. there were lots of guys like this around. sloppy joe's had an entire wall dedicated to men rocking the hemingway look. well, if you're a fishing drunkard past the age of forty, it makes a lot of sense to align yourself with america's favorite fishing drunkard.
_ and, finally, a sidenote: did you know that, in 1982, key west attempted to cecede from the us over a border patrol roadblock? well, it's true. the secestionists called their micronation the 'conch republic', and have used the name on touristy materials ever since. be careful saying this when drunk.