Happy Holidays from The Florida Keys

Most of the boaters here at the marina decorated their boat for Christmas. Here are a few photos.

We did a Holiday trip to key West and found these baby bibs and T-shirt in a shop on Duval. Click to enlarge.

Mandy tried on some designer sun glasses.

 I found a T-shirt with my name on it. There are more pets named MAX than people. Go outside your home and yell "MAX" and ten dogs and a gerbil will come running. Here in KW ten gerbils and a dog will come running.

 Mandy meets an inflatable friend on the beach of Key West. Anything goes here
We stopped to visit the church where we were married; St Paul Episcopal Church on Duval Street. If you enlarge the photo, you might see some of the images in the stained glass.

 I met this angry fellow. Thirty years ago he would have been my Christmas dinner. "Roosters roasting on an open fire, your words here dripping from his beak." Nowadays they are protected

back on board

After leaving Dahlonega Georgia we continued south and rolled into Venice Florida where we stayed with our neighbors, Ed and Sally Hurley. We had a great visit telling stories over a huge pizza and an occasional cocktail. Ed gave us a tour of their house and we were privileged to visit his studio and see his latest art projects.

Ed cooked a delicious breakfast the next morning and we were off again, this time to visit our neighbors Jack and Beth Huffner who have a condo near Marco Island, Florida.

We arrived in time to join Jack and Beth in a hop along the local waterside watering spots. We very much enjoyed the excellent view from their third floor condo the next morning as Beth slaved over her new high-tech cooking system. They helped me celebrate my 39th birthday (for the 25th time).

We made it into the Keys on Sunday, December 5th but had to make our usual stops before continuing to marathon where our boat awaited our arrival. We always stop for a beer at mile marker 104 where The Caribbean Club, a dive bar overlooks Florida Bay. The bar was made famous when Boggie and Bacall shot a segment of the 1948 movie, Key Largo there.

We couldn't resist a stop at Lorelie, a waterside restaurant on the Bay side at mile marker 82. Nobody cares about addresses except the US Postal Service. We all use the mile markers that line the Keys from Key Largo at Mile Marker 110 to Key West at mile marker 0.

Lorelie was a great "old Florida" kind of place until hurricane Wilma destroyed it. When the owners rebuilt it they ran off all of the stray cats and drunks then used all shiny new materials to replace the shack and therefore ruined the atmosphere in the process.

One of our favorites is the Safari Lounge at the Caloosa Cove Marina on the ocean side at mile marker 74. Bikers, Bimbos, Boats and Booze is the order of the day at the Safari which is adorned with the heads of big game animals that the owner brought back from several African safaris.

I took two days preparing the boat for launch. But we got it done and on December 7th we motored the old girl out and under the seven mile bridge to her winter home at Banana Bay Marina.

Since then we have been doing repairs and installations. The depth sounder wasn't sounding, the new shower pump needed to be installed, the galley light was full of rain water, the batteries needed service, the sails needed to be installed, etc.

Last Thursday, our friends on Tides In hosted a chocolate party for The Banana Bay Ladies Club. Tides In is an enormous power yacht which probably has more living space than our condo back home. Mandy brought the champagne which everyone greatly appreciated.

We are having a pot luck on Christmas Day. All of the boaters here have some degree of homesickness and these gathering help those of us who miss our friends and families back home.

I hope to have some pictures and videos on my next entry.

Happy Holidays to all.

On the Road Again

We are in Ocala, Florida today, December 2nd, 2010. We will meet up with friends today and tomorrow then buzz down to the Keys to do work on the boat while it rests on jackstands in the boatyard. We hope to be floating again by Monday.

We spent a couple days in Dahloneda, Georgia hepling my daughter-in-law and grandkids with a few chores around the house. We also spent some time wandering the Christmas scene around the small town north of Atlanta at the foothills of the Georgia mountains.

Dahlonega is a native American word meaning gold. It was the site of the first gold rush before the 49er started running to California. A local Dahlonega official tried to stop the exodus proclaiming the famed words, "There's gold in them thar hills."

Gold still remains beneath the soil but too difficult to resume mining because large veins have been exhausted of their element. But when the city built a new baseball diamond, the upturned soil sparkled with gold dust.

Gold is in the walls of the old building too. Turn the lights out in the town hall and shine a flashlight on the bricks. They will glimmer with the gold that was residing in the materials they used to make the brick.

If you get near the area, be sure to visit.