Parental observation of the day: You can bring a four-year-old to new and exotic locales, but chances are he (or she) will be more enraptured by the fire truck going down the street than by any historic or natural attractions.
Key West was fun, if blisteringly hot. We took a glass-bottomed boat tour to see some coral reefs and to give our son a chance to be on a boat that feels like a boat. A cruise ship just doesn’t, even though the floor will, at random intervals, sort of . . . shift momentarily and return to normal, a sensation I usually feel only after having one too many of things I shouldn’t be drinking too much of in the first place.
We walked up and down a few streets in town near the dock, but it was mostly tacky tourist stuff and t-shirts inappropriate for wearing around small children. The famed gay life of Key West eluded us—but this was made up for back on the ship, when I spotted three men in grass skirts and coconut bras leading twenty or so kids’ camp attendees to the evening children’s concert. Are LGBT parents blending in with mainstream America, as some have said? Perhaps; but we’re also retaining a sense of our own traditions and in-jokes. This cruise is both celebrating that and helping us gather strength to write the next chapter of our history.