Boca Grande

Between jobs, in July, I drove to Boca Grande to visit Aunt Chris and my cousin Diana and her husband Rick. It was a great visit. They are wonderful -- kind, generous, and incredibly talented and interesting. Here is their house. Diana has some great photos of what it looked like when they bought it, then the various stages of remodeling, including a cistern that Richard rebuilt, and various wonderful old pieces like doors and cabinets, that Diana and Rick collected and incorporated into the new interior.

And here is Aunt Chris. She's the sharpest, best-read person, most interesting person I know.  The first photograph was taken outside, off the deck behind the house, at cocktail hour. The second is at the dining table.  

And here is the lovely Di. 

Diana and I had a great time fixing dinner, including Aunt Chris' ratatouille recipe and crab cakes overseen by telephone by David, for her friends from the bike shop, Windy and her beau. The night before, after dinner, Diana, Rick and I bicycled to feed scraps to the island pot-bellied pigs, then out to the pier to chat up the fishermen. It was so much fun. The next morning Diana and Rick got up early to play tennis, and I bicycled to the beach for a swim.  


And this is Rick. 

Rick is very quiet, but so interesting. I asked about the metal detector I noticed on the front porch and Rick started telling me about all this very cool Civil War stuff, like belt buckles and buttons, that he found using a metal detector when they were living in Virginia. I had no idea about any of this. It was wonderful to hear him telling these stories, and we were able to look up some examples on the internet -- really a great way to learn about history, and my cousin. 


When I think of this visit to Boca Grande, the soundtrack is the Punch Brothers' new album, Antifogmatic, particularly their rendition of the Brandenburg Concerto. It's amazing. 


I wish that everyone could have been there -- Sarah, and David, and Robert, and Richard -- but I was lucky to have a chance to visit and I look forward to returning soon.