...from the Home of the Sunset, Key West (and the other Keys).
We flew to Miami on Thanksgiving and spent our first night on Ocean Drive, South Beach (think: The Birdcage with Robin Williams and Nathan Lane). 
The beach was beautiful, but the water was COLD! We stayed in The Beacon Hotel, a gorgeous art-deco building.
We met Santa out on the street that night!
The next day we picked up our rental Harley-Davidson and headed for the Keys. We drove straight to Key West that day, where we had reservations at a resort. Key West is very fun, very glitzy, lots of partying to do and stuff to buy. My favorite part was the Hemingway Home and museum.
Did you know that Ernest and Pauline Hemingway had all these cats in Key West with six toes? Here I am with one of their many descendants, which have the run of the place:
Well, after a few days in Key West with all the zillion other people, we headed back north on Hwy 1 and stopped for a few nights in Marathon. We found a great hotel on a gorgeous quiet beach and relaxed, watched a beach wedding, made more new friends, etc.
Here is Ken with one of them.
The news out of home was that a big, icy storm was coming; so instead of spending our last night in Miami after returning the Harley, we came on back. (Because what fun would it be without the bike, anyway!?)
Boy, were we lucky! Our landing was only delayed for about 30 minutes as the front came through, the wind shifted and temperature dropped by about 20 degrees in 20 minutes...we made it home by 9 p.m., before the freezing rain and snow set in at about midnight. Tonight's predicted to be more of the same and I expect the University will be closed tomorrow. Right now we have 28 degrees but most of the house remains warm, thanks to our wonderful insulation!
More to write...now have to catch up with mail and, um, blog reading!
