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| 'South Street' signage in Key West , Florida - directly opposite our hotel |
Walking back
to our hotel this afternoon I realised it was located on South Street
here in Key West – it's a very different road to the one the church
is on back in Yeovil!
We are in our second week holidaying in the sun drenched State of Florida and this week we have driven 240 miles south to the Florida Keys ending up here in bohemian Key West – probably not at all the kind of place a Baptist Minister ought to take his family to!
Key West became the adopted home of Ernest Hemingway – we passed his house this morning. It has a huge Cuban population and that might explain why there is a cigar shop on every block and why every other voice we hear is speaking Spanish! This is a place surrounded by a coral sea, the southern most point of the United States and a mecca for holiday makers and street theatre performers – Jonty thinks it is wonderful and wouldn't mind doing a gap year here!
This year's trip to the United States couldn't feel more different to cosmopolitan Washington last year. Every day we have woken to sunshine and the temperature rarely falls below 28 degrees celsius even at night – I needn't have packed a sweater!
Watching the closing ceremony of the Olympics was fun because we saw it through American eyes – that said the NBC coverage was extremely positive about the success of us Brits and devoted a full segment of Sunday night to showing some of our successes and playing God Save The Queen!
One of the highlights so far was Sunday morning worship at Living Waters Lutheran Church. The liturgy was straightforward low church Anglican in style – all projected onto the wall which was really helpful. The interim pastor (who is leading the church during Dell's Sabbatical) is The Revd Dr Carl Hanson, and we had lunch with him and Betty, his wife, the day before. Carl led the service with such grace and preached with such integrity – I loved it and it was a real privilege to share fellowship with such a wonderfully friendly bunch of people.
So we're half-way through – the sun is out and the air-con is on – and even after travelling over three thousand miles – we're still in South Street!
With best wishes,
We are in our second week holidaying in the sun drenched State of Florida and this week we have driven 240 miles south to the Florida Keys ending up here in bohemian Key West – probably not at all the kind of place a Baptist Minister ought to take his family to!
Key West became the adopted home of Ernest Hemingway – we passed his house this morning. It has a huge Cuban population and that might explain why there is a cigar shop on every block and why every other voice we hear is speaking Spanish! This is a place surrounded by a coral sea, the southern most point of the United States and a mecca for holiday makers and street theatre performers – Jonty thinks it is wonderful and wouldn't mind doing a gap year here!
This year's trip to the United States couldn't feel more different to cosmopolitan Washington last year. Every day we have woken to sunshine and the temperature rarely falls below 28 degrees celsius even at night – I needn't have packed a sweater!
Watching the closing ceremony of the Olympics was fun because we saw it through American eyes – that said the NBC coverage was extremely positive about the success of us Brits and devoted a full segment of Sunday night to showing some of our successes and playing God Save The Queen!
One of the highlights so far was Sunday morning worship at Living Waters Lutheran Church. The liturgy was straightforward low church Anglican in style – all projected onto the wall which was really helpful. The interim pastor (who is leading the church during Dell's Sabbatical) is The Revd Dr Carl Hanson, and we had lunch with him and Betty, his wife, the day before. Carl led the service with such grace and preached with such integrity – I loved it and it was a real privilege to share fellowship with such a wonderfully friendly bunch of people.
So we're half-way through – the sun is out and the air-con is on – and even after travelling over three thousand miles – we're still in South Street!
With best wishes,
Ian
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