When Jesse's brother was little,

He developed a fascination with Florida. At first, he wanted to go to the Everglades to hunt for alligators (crocs being in short supply), but learned he was more likely to be mosquito prey. (Somehow this became my fault.) In our exodus we discovered the state park in Key Largo, and learned to snorkel on our own, near a picnic spot there.

Then on a later trip we decided to do the drive to Key West. He had told me earlier in the trip, that a teacher had asked the class if they wanted to be astronomers or astronauts (you know, thinkers or doers...), and asked me the same. Both, I said. We stopped pretty much anywhere you could get to water, now that we'd bought our cheap masks and snorkels, and poked around, arriving at the 7-mile bridge around six pm, when the sun starts to turn the water from turquoise to silver. I could tell he was feeling the same awe and excitement I did as we sped toward sunset and the unknown, and I looked at him and smiled and said, "Today, we're astronauts."