Vacation Inspiration
By Roxanne St. Claire - September 3, 2009
No doubt about it, one of the best summer vacations I've ever had was in the Florida Keys. Just thinking about this extraordinary little comma on the canvas of America can make me smile. There's nowhere quite like the Keys, and that's why the year that we packed up the car and the kids and headed six hours south to spend a week in Marathon Key remains one of the best vacation memories I have. There's something magical about the tropical island air, the transluscent turquoise water, the late afternoon thunderstorms, the flip-flops-and-bathing suit mentality that permeates everything. From the minute you hit the first milemarker in Key Largo to the last margarita at sunset in Key West, it's impossible not to relax.
Unless you have a book due. Every morning, I left the beach house with my laptop and headed to the Marathon library, and worked to meet a deadline -- with plenty of downtime in the afternoon. But the inspiration is all there in the pages of Hunt Her Down, with a nod to dreamy Sombrero Beach, an homage to the thrill that is the Seven Mile Bridge, and a love scene set right on the sands of Bahia Honda. The only landmark that didn't make the book is the library.
Unless you have a book due. Every morning, I left the beach house with my laptop and headed to the Marathon library, and worked to meet a deadline -- with plenty of downtime in the afternoon. But the inspiration is all there in the pages of Hunt Her Down, with a nod to dreamy Sombrero Beach, an homage to the thrill that is the Seven Mile Bridge, and a love scene set right on the sands of Bahia Honda. The only landmark that didn't make the book is the library.
