I spent yesterday morning wandering around the waterfront of Big Midwestern City with the Baseball Team that Always Loses. Little stores on the pier were just opening, but already I could smell fried dough and sausages as I walked by. A group of school kids in matching t-shirts were gathered for a training session: they were about to go out on the four-masted schooner tied to the dock. I was tempted to start talking to the guy in charge of the group, to see if I could join, but I couldn’t bring myself to chat with a grown man wearing a pirate hat.
I’m here in the city with my husband, who is attending a conference. I had planned to spend part of each day getting some writing done in a quiet hotel room, but so far the weather has been so glorious that instead I’ve been wandering about the city. And as I watched boats coming and going from the pier, I began thinking that maybe I should be out on the water instead of inside with a computer.
