Celebrity sightseeing has never been a regular part of our vacations. I have never waited outside a Hollywood restaurant hoping someone famous would walk past, and I have never paid to ride a bus through a neighborhood while a tour guide pointed toward tall hedges and explained who lived behind them.
But during our recent trip to the Florida Keys, I learned that actress Sydney Sweeney owns a $13.5 million home on Summerland Key, about 25 miles from Key West. Since we were staying nearby, finding the house seemed like a perfectly reasonable vacation activity.
At least it seemed reasonable to me.
Before we set out, my wife, Kathy, made a confession: She had no idea who Sydney Sweeney was.
For Kathy and anyone else unfamiliar with her, Sweeney is a 28-year-old actress and producer from Spokane, Washington. She is best known for playing Cassie Howard in the HBO series “Euphoria” and Olivia Mossbacher in the first season of “The White Lotus.” She received Emmy nominations for both roles in 2022.
Sweeney has also appeared in movies including “Anyone but You,” “Reality,” “Immaculate,” “Madame Web,” “Christy” and “The Housemaid.” She has become one of Hollywood’s most recognizable young actresses, even if that recognition has yet to reach everyone in our house.
Kathy was willing to go along anyway, so I climbed into the vehicle with her, our son Christopher and our daughter-in-law Audrey, and we began our search.
We weren’t wearing disguises, and nobody was hiding behind a newspaper with eyeholes cut into it. We were simply four curious tourists armed with a vehicle, a little information and time to kill.
Eventually, we found the road leading to Sweeney’s property. We followed it until the pavement gave way to gravel and the gravel led us to a large gate.
That was as far as we were going.
The gate left little doubt that Sweeney values her privacy. There would be no driving up to the house, no knocking on the door and no asking whether she had a few minutes to visit with four people from Minnesota.
That was probably for the best. I’m not sure what I would have said if she had answered.
“Hello, Sydney. I’m Jeff. This is Kathy, Christopher and Audrey. Kathy doesn’t know who you are, but the rest of us wanted to see your house.”
I don’t think that would have gotten us through the door.
Published reports describe the property as a nearly 8,000-square-foot waterfront compound with six bedrooms and eight bathrooms. The house reportedly includes a 330-gallon aquarium, which seems unnecessary when there is a much larger aquarium just outside the door called the Atlantic Ocean.
Unable to see much from the road, we drove west of the property and found a spot along a canal adjoining the compound. From there, we had a better view of the grounds and could understand why someone looking for sunshine, water and privacy would choose that particular corner of the Keys.
We did not see Sweeney, but we found something better.
A manatee was swimming in the water off her property.
There is something about seeing a manatee that can bring nearly everything else to a stop. They move through the water without any sense of urgency, occasionally rising to the surface before disappearing again. They are large, gentle and not exactly streamlined, yet they seem perfectly at home in the water.
We watched as the manatee surfaced and then slipped beneath the water again. We had gone there hoping to see a celebrity’s home, but the manatee quickly became the highlight of the trip.
Sweeney may be famous, but the manatee had better timing. It also did not have a gate, security system or any apparent concern about four Minnesotans watching from nearby.
The encounter was another reminder that vacations rarely go exactly as planned. You can choose a destination, map the route and decide what you want to see, but the moments you remember often are the ones you never expected.
We will remember finding Sweeney’s home, or at least getting as close as the gate allowed. We’ll remember following the canal and looking across at a place where $13.5 million buys nearly 8,000 square feet, a 330-gallon aquarium and enough privacy to keep curious visitors from Minnesota at a comfortable distance.
Mostly, though, we will remember the manatee.
As we wrapped up our adventure, I asked Kathy whether she now knew who Sydney Sweeney was.
“No,” she said. “I still don’t know who Sydney Sweeney is.”
Apparently, we had traveled 1,800 miles from Minnesota, found the actress’s Florida Keys home and viewed it from two directions without Kathy learning anything about its owner.
We went looking for a Hollywood celebrity. Kathy came home knowing exactly as much about her as she did when we started.
But we all knew a manatee when we saw one.