What Was Found. What Was Lost.

Observations on going away.

Mar 25, 2025

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I kept to my word and, for 12 days, did my best to break from my everyday life by traveling 1,092 miles from Brooklyn to southern Florida. Like many trips taken in the world, it was not everything I wanted or needed, but it was not fruitless.

I broke my promise not to work on the plane home by jotting down these meandering notes. I’ve added a few more since.

What was found

Fauna: Pelicans; parrots and parakeets; limpkins and white, red, sandhill, and great egrets. A bunch more I can’t identify or find on birdwatching sites, especially those who were heard but not seen.

In Key West, Mr. and Mrs. Hemingway’s six-toe cats, two of which were sprawled across their massive bed not bothered at all by tourists “ahhhhhhing” at them while they tramped through the couple’s bedroom. (An aside observation: not everyone knows who Hemingway was but love his house anyway.)

HUGE dragon flies with an impressive iridescent wing span such as this unlucky buddy.

Also: opossums and racoons that didn’t make it across the road. Not as many pet dogs as you’d expect and those being walked are mostly in the medium-size terrier range. All sweet and shampooed, not a single beloved bull terrier among them

Most spectacular: chickens and roosters who woke us up at five a.m., and continued to crow all day long. But it was quite amusing to watch them dodge speeding golf-carts full of tourists as they tried to cross the road.

But, dammit, no alligators.

Flora: Of course, palm trees, magnolias, and elms and others I’m not familiar with. Most bizarre and beautiful were strangler figs. Of bushes and vines there were sweet-scented jasmine, bougainvillea, fiddlewood, firebrush, and hopbush. And curtains of Spanish moss and orchards nestled right in the crooks of trees!

A traffic-medium full of strangler figs.

People: Young girls and women in string bikinis that fascinated my husband. “Aren’t they painful?” he asked. I assured him they probably were, although I don’t have any first-hand knowledge of the subject.

A painfully thin, ailing woman in a more modest black bikini who, though barely able to walk, teetered down to the wild sea’s edge where she sat and let the surf wash over her. Then she teetered back up to her towel and slept in the sun.

A toddler, as well, who kept rushing from her dad’s arms right into the waves to be tumbled about. He scooped her up and two more times she broke free and raced into the ocean before her dad finally brought her screaming back to her mom.

And two fishermen who had been casting their lines since early morning and when I asked them if anything was biting, they said just croakers. They will cook them unadorned so to not harm their sweet, briny flavor.

Food: Didn’t pass one single odd or historical roadside eatery, not even a fruit and vegetable stand along the road! This left us with a string of regular restaurants where we ate ropa vieja, grouper, salmon, and tuna. Of course, there were key lime pies on the menus: two unsatisfying in Key West—one with a tall mound of meringue on top of a sliver of key lime mousse, the other really more like a crème brûlée. Finally a pip of a one at lunch in Palm Beach.

Meringue pie with a touch of key lime flavoring.

Personal: Discovered the stained glass artist and illustrator Harry Clarke in an exhibit at the Wolfsonian Museum then found the backpack I always wanted but never dare buy on sale for 25% off in the Museum’s gift shop.

A renewed appreciation of my husband’s humor, coupled with the ability to let go of his sometimes annoying traits. He’ll tell you I didn’t, but I did.

A somewhat successful effort not to look at email, texts, and the news.

A somewhat less successful effort not to worry about friends and family I worry about.

What Was Lost

General: Three pounds by walking at least five miles a day. Irrational impatience with hot, humid weather. The urge for key lime pie.

Flora and Fauna: Not seeing the first buds on my lilac and cherry tree. Crocus blooming, and daffodils and hyacinthine pushing their way up through the warming soil. My very annoying cat.

Personal: Writing every day even though I kept creating whole scenes and stories in my head. Friends and family, both those I worry about and those I don’t. Sleeping in my good bed with my good pillows. How surprised I was at how badly I packed which led to sore feet and not enough clean clothes even with washing things out in hotel sinks.

Together, now, at home, an appreciation of the found and lost….

As soon as we opened the door, my cat immediately latched onto me with his four sets of very long claws and has yet to let go.

To be clear, until four days ago, he’s never sat in my lap.

I take daily strolls around my small garden to inspect each emerging bud and bulb. Equally as delightful is watching my whole neighborhood break away from such a dismal windy winter.

I have 1,134 emails and a bunch of texts I better respond to.

Everyone we met in Florida expressed their worry about the state of the country and, after catching up on the news, I’ve rejoined them.

My bed and pillows are, as noted, better than any in the hotel/motel/Airbnb universe.

I am checking in with my friends and family, especially those who I worry about.