magic island

The five of us drove up in my parents' Chevy Suburban to the house where we were to stay for the next three nights.  Little did we know that our "relaxation scale" was going to be tipped farther to the "adventure" side than the "vacation" side.  We immediately burst out laughing as the house fell drastically short of our expectations.  We walked up to the front door, past the resident buddha-like statue, up 5 creaky steps, and through the unlocked purple door into a small entry way.  We weren't sure if this was actually the house that we were supposed to stay at until we walked further in and faintly recognized the house from the pictures that we had seen on the website.  It had that distinct musty, smoky, summer cabin smell.  The interior was more promising than the exterior, but I'm not sure how much that is saying.  We were instructed to keep the bottom cupboards closed to ensure that the mice did not "breach".  The water smelled like rotten eggs and had a strange texture that seemed to leave a slightly slimy residue on anything it touched.  The drawers and cabinets were stuffed full with assorted papers and other personal items like chapstick, eyeglasses, etc.  The counters had crumbs and a few mouse droppings on them.  There was only one dish towel for us to use, but we thought it may be safer to air dry our dishes anyway.  

But, it had a real fireplace which obviously necessitated our making of s'mores in a variety of different ways including with chocolate covered digestive cookies, chocolate chip cookies, and peanut butter.  Yum.  What else could matter?  Even if we weren't sleeping at night because of the large bay windows which surrounded the one room kitchen-bedroom-living area (and disconcertingly lacked curtains so as to make it impossible to see out when it was dark outside, but which made it easy for any one outside to see in), we had s'mores to look forward to!  Not only that, but I got to wear my winter boot liners as slippers to protect my feet from a slightly unclean floor, we found the actual shack from the well-known book, I learned which side of the parking lot to wait on for small ferry terminals (not the one on the left - that's the lane that those on the ferry use to get off), we took Pride and Prejudice-esque pictures at beautiful coastal cliffs, and we learned that no matter which lane you hear the ferry attendant at the big ferry terminal tell you to wait in, follow what your ticket says...enough said.

All this to say that when spring semester reading break rolls around next year, my advice to you is to use the internet to find the cheapest accomodation possible at any given location - you won't be dissapointed! At the very least, you certainly won't be bored.