The Last Hurrah of Summer

by Donna MacMeans

By the time you read this, I'll be stretched out on a beach in Key West. The Golden Rooster told me it was the best place to go to celebrate the last days of summer. Actually GR has relatives there. I'm told feral chickens and roosters roam the island and roost in the trees at night. Not sure how that's going to work for a night owl like me. Sounds like we'll be hitting the beach pretty early!

I'm planning on taking a haunted ghost tour that covers the several Victorian houses and historic cemetaries. Several ghosts make their home on Key West. While I've never seen a ghost, I know several people who have. A writer friend I know experienced a ghostly intervention in the hotel at Lora Leigh's reader event. I'm told some people are more

suspectable to such incidents. I wish I was one, but alas, I'm afraid my accountant sensibilities have a way to explain such visions away. Still I plan to do the tour. One never knows when a spector will appear in my Victorian romances.

Of course, the most famous resident of Key West was Ernest Hemingway. We'll visit his house which is now a museum in homage to the great writer.

I understand the house is also home to sixty rather unusual cats. While most cats have five front toes and four back toes, these cats are polydactyl which means they have extra toes on their front or back paws - the famous six toed cats. The maintenance and care of the cats is part of the museum's normal expenses. The cat to the left is named Sophia Loren. Sounds like the unusual cats have it better than the chickens and roosters.

This trip is something of a "spur-of-the-moment" trip. We're heading down to Florida for my niece's wedding, but decided to stay an extra week to explore parts of Florida that we hadn't visited before.

So while I'm not sure I'll have internet access to respond to comments, I have a nice prize to give to those that leave a comment (and I'll try my best to respond).

Tell me if you could have a spur-of-the-moment trip, where would you go? I'm always looking for new places to explore. Have you had any close encounters with ghosts or things that go bump in the night? Do you think I'm crazy for hoping I do? I have a tote bag autographed by some of the authors present at Lora Leigh's reader event - complete with some promo material and a couple of books. It's all yours for the best quick destination or best ghost story.