Report from the Keys, Part 1: Getting There

It looks like I'm going to have to parcel this story out over a few posts. So much to do, so little time to do it.

We booked a very early flight out of BWI to Miami on Friday (4/14/06). As a result, we left Lewes on Thursday evening after work and stayed in a Holiday Inn near the airport. We were able to leave our car at the hotel and take the hotel shuttle to the airport, but had to be in the lobby, ready to go, at 4:20 a.m. Ugly.

That penance, though, earned us a late morning arrival in Miami. We were able to rent a car and roll onto Duck Key by mid-day. We were able to register at Hawks Cay resort and get in a full afternoon of lazy sunning that day.

Our flight was full, and full of families with kids. The iPod proved its worth. I was able to retreat into music for much of the flight, as were the girls. Karen took refuge in a partial doze.

Miami/Dade, by the way. Wow. Sprawl. Ugly.

Other than a cruise-ship whistle-dock stop last spring at Key West, I hadn't been to the Keys since the early 1970s. I was a kid then, but had some memories of a series of sparsely populated islands. Things have changed.

We only saw the top half of the Keys, but it looked to me just like the Lewes/Rehoboth area, with more tropic weather and flora. Imagine the Midway section of Delaware's Route One corridor, followed by a bridge, followed by Dewey Beach, then a bridge, then a causeway, then Bethany Beach, more bridge, Rehoboth, causeway, bridge, Fenwick Island, etc.

The Hawks Cay resort is part of a seven-island grouping known as Duck Key. Its high-end residential and resort hotel development began in the 1950s and has grown to hotel buildings, pools, tennis courts, marina, villa-style hotel rooms, homes, vacation homes, a spa. The works.

Very nice. Well-landscaped. Established and smooth.

Our room was on a second floor, overlooking a pool and a man-made swimming lagoon. Beyond lay a channel, bridged by part of US Route 1, which winds through the islands from Key Largo to Key West.

We could sit on a small balcony and observe the pool, hot-tubs, and lounging area. There were afternoon steel-drum and guitar players, mostly ignored by the families at the pool. Several of the musicians were quite good.

We had lunch at a cantina next to the pool, and made reservations for a late dinner at a fancy restaurant in the Hotel. Very nice.

A word about kids. At lunch, we were a table away from a group of six, or maybe seven, 8- to 10-year olds, shepherded by two moms paying little or no attention to the little monsters.

It was like lunching next to a mis-tuned jet engine.

These kids went from shrieking, to screaming, to standing on chairs, to chasing each other through the restaurant, to climbing the juvenile palm trees potted in the doorway.

It's telling that the loudest child was sitting at one end of the table, repeatedly yelling "Quiet! Qui-ET! HEY! Be QUUIIEETT!" Endlessly.

We noticed that may of the people at this place were letting their kids run riot. Not all of them; many were quite pleasant. But there were some who made middle-class America look bad.

I was proud of my kids. They stress us at times; but in contrast, they are angels.

Photos from Florida

I've had a chance to go through the several hundred photos I took on our Florida jaunt. I've selected a representative sample and posted them as a photoset on Flickr: "Mahaffies in the Florida Keys, 2006."

I'll try to post a narrative account soon. Don't let me forget to tell you about Chase, the most spoiled of the spoiled rotten rich people's kids we found in Florida. I'll also tell you about some of the very nice people we met. But don't let me forget to tell you about Chase.

Yes, The Weather Was Rather Nice In Florida This Week

In what appears to be a new family tradition, Karen, the girls, and I disappeared for Spring Break for the last several days. We jumped state for a stay at a moderately impressive resort in the Florida Keys.

We slept late, ate well, lazed in the sun, floated in pools, burned odd patches of skin, ate well, slept late, swam, sat about, indulged in spa treatments, paddled kayaks, watched dolphins, slept in, tried new foods, drank Red Stripe beer (me) and virgin daiquiris (the girls), ate great food, slept in beach chairs, ignored the news, met new people, endured other people, and went for a glorious sunset sail on a catamaran.

Our themes for the week? Food, sleep and sun.

Here's a memory.

There will be many more photos on my Flickr site in a day or two. For now, I'm off to bed and into the office tomorrow.

Irony, Thy Name Is (Apparently) "Smyrna"

I got a pre-dawn chuckle out of this story in the News Journal this morning: Smyrna mayor's camera catches thieves.

The security system at Smyrna Mayor Mark Schaeffer's home, which figured in the arrest of his neighbor and Town Council rival last year, has captured photographic evidence of a crime in progress -- the theft of campaign signs from neighbors' lawns.

If you have followed the election follies in Smyrna over the last few years, you're probably laughing now too.

For those of you who have not, suffice it to say that the Mayor's cameras are up, at least in part, because of political foes living next door. Who were among those whose lawn signs were stolen. Signs which supported the man running against the Mayor.

I'd say that this story will have a lively existence among Delaware Bloggers. As for me, it's time to head off to work.

Flowers for Tonni

Our friend Tonni Wijte and her hubby live in California now, but Tonni is from Holland and these orange flowers in Downtown Dover made me think of her.

Mocha

You wonder what she was thinking. She's certainly seen me with a camera often enough.

A Photographic Recipe

Here's a recipe for Butterscotch Oatmeal Cookies that is presented in the form of a set of photos. A cute idea.

Here's a Worthy Event

This next week there will be a "March for the Arts in Education" at Legislative Hall, in Dover. This is an annual event celebrating the importance of the arts in education.

Groups of kids from a variety of schools around Delaware will perform at Legislative Hall, most on Tuesday, though two performances (including one featuring Colleen) will be on Thursday.

If you've been here before, you are probably aware that I am an arts-partisan. Both of our daughters attend the Southern Delaware School of the Arts; Karen teaches there. Colleen is about to graduate eighth grade and I think stands as a great example of what an arts-integrated education can accomplish.

I'm particularly pleased to now be working in an office just across the way from Legislative Mall and Legislative Hall. I can see where I'll try to be at lunch on Tuesday. On Thursday, Colleen will be one of a small group of dancers from SDSA performing at the opening of the State Senate's session for the day.

She has sung in the House Chamber in the past, so this will balance out nicely.

What!?!

What!?!
Originally uploaded by mmahaffie.

He just looked so much like it was his truck, sitting there at the wheel.

Why We Worry About a Dry Spring

A Dry Spring
Originally uploaded by mmahaffie.

It was windy Saturday. We were at Kershaw Acres horse farm, near Milton. This is the neighboring field, in the process of blowing across Route 5.

We could use some steady, day-long rains.