The Curious Case of Max Tivoli

I usually don't read a lot of books, but as of late I have come across many great stories and have become quite a book worm.



Thanks to an interesting article from 7x7 magazine about the local author Andrew Sean Greer, I picked up the book The Confessions of Max Tivoli. This book was the premise for the movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and was 100% fascinating.

Unlike the movie, the book is set in San Francisco and it was interesting to learn more about the city as it changed during the late 1800's and into the early 1900's. The story originates from the written confessions of an individual who was born as an old man, has aged backwards, and is now writing his life's story to his loved ones before he inevitably passes away. Max Tivoli has been in love with Alice since he first met her as a little girl when she and her mother were living as tenants in the Tivoli building. He loved her independence, strength, and beauty. Max's mother had one rule for him, "be what they think you are" and Max only broke that rule three times. First, when as a child he was playing with his best friend Hughie. Hughie believed him and stuck by him through thick and thin, and proved to be his one true accomplice in life. Second, when he wanted to tell Alice he truly loved her. She, on the other hand, did not believe Max and escaped the city with her mother to Seattle. Finally, he began to write his confessions as the last testament of his life as he has found Alice for the third and last time.

The movie was great in that Benjamin was able to see the world and experience life as a "regular" human being, but I really liked that the book followed Max in a more intimate way, and that the author really developed the characters of those closest to Max. I would recommend this book to anyone. Andrew Sean Greer did an amazing job building a captivating story line and did an even better job infusing plot twists and turns that unveiled more and more secrets about Max's life all the way until the end.

Max learned a lot from life as he saw it through a different lens, but he came to understand that in the end we all go through the same emotions and have the same desires. "Grow old and wise, my love....do not be alone. It does no good to be alone."

If you like Pina Coladas......

Every year Michelle and I try to get away for a small anniversary vacation. This year we ventured to the Virgin Islands in pursuit of some sun (not so much of that in SF). We had never really thought about a trip to the Caribbean, so we were greatly surprised at how much fun we had!
The Virgin Islands consist of 3 US Islands and 3 British Islands. They were first discovered by Columbus during his journey to the Americas and were later inhabited by Europeans (mostly Danish). The US Virgin Islands were sold to the United States by Denmark in 1917 for $25 million and are now considered US Territories.
We stayed on the island of St. Thomas which is the most populated of all the Virgin Islands. We also did some island hopping to St. John, Virgin Gorda, and Buck Island. Because the islands are so small, very little can be produced within the territories. This in turn causes everything to be quite expensive, especially for tourists who are charged a premium for everything (the $20 taxi rides were the most head-scratching). Good thing our hotel ended up having all inclusive dining (a nice surprise to us), so we took full advantage...Michelle had a Pina Colada in hand virtually the whole trip!

Day 1: A visit to downtown Charlotte Amalie and Island Tour.


Our little ferry boat from the hotel to downtown.


Fort Christian is the oldest standing building in the Virgin Islands and served as a town center, a government building, and even a jail at one point.

After venturing around the downtown district chock full of jewelry shops, we hopped aboard an island tour to see more of the views, sites, and loosely coined "world-famous" drinks, tacos, BBQ, and anything else that might be sold to tourists.


A view of Charlotte Amalie from the hillside.


British Virgin Islands off in the distance.


A view of Magen's Bay.


Magen's Bay...voted one of the top 10 beaches in the world by National Geographic.


Voted scariest beach by Chris Skinner thanks to all the pelicans doing their Kamikazee dives for anchovies.

Day 2: British Virgin Gorda and The Baths

This is the sad story from our trip. We had been looking at pictures on the camera from the night before, and I forgot to power it off before going to bed. Once we arrived at The Baths, we were so excited to take a zillion pictures, but were saddened to find out we had no battery left. We tried to use our underwater camera, but it doesn't do this place justice. I would go back to the Virgin Islands for this place alone...it was one of the most amazing places I've ever been.


The best our camera could do...see more pictures here

Day 3: St. John

This is another of the US Islands and is located just east of St. Thomas. We enjoyed St. John much more than St. Thomas because there were less people, the beaches were better, and it just felt a little more relaxed, plus Michelle found her highly sought after fedora hat in one of the shops! If done differently, we would have stayed on this island instead.


Trunk Bay


These kept us busy for a while.


St. John's Bay

Day 4: Buck Island snorkeling

Our last adventure took us to Buck Island for some snorkeling. After an hour sail boat ride, we were primed to swim with the aquatic wildlife. Too bad we ran out of underwater camera film just as we got really close to some of the bigger endangered sea turtles as they were coming up for air.


The closest thing we have to a picture of the sea turtles. This was another unique experience that will stand out from our trip.

Day 5: Relax and take advantage of the "all-inclusive food and drinks" one last day.


Morning Star Beach...this was the beach for our hotel where we often spent parts of each day sun bathing, swimming, and pigging out.


No trip of ours is complete without a gripping game of Boggle. Good thing this 4-letter word was on both of our lists!!!