Florida: Marathon - Looper Sunset Celebration

Day 225
2/21/2016

The long-awaited 7th Annual Looper's "Sunset Celebration" at Banana Bay Marina happened today! Some folks walked, some drove, and some even came by dinghy to the well-attended event. Clark and I walked the almost two miles carrying our appetizer to share and our two chairs plus jackets for the cool evening we anticipated after the sun went down.

We have biked past Banana Bay multiple times, but walking there today made it seem much further than when we bike the distance. One advantage to walking, however, was that I convinced Clark to capture photos of some murals I have been admiring as we whizzed by on bike. It was never convenient to stop for a photo shoot as we pedaled by. Clark tells me that the building with the murals is an abandoned Irish liquor store. Besides the murals we saw lots of leprechaun's and Irish flags on the sides of the building.

Mural showing the Overseas Railroad

Mural on building
- street performers

Another building mural
- poker game with a very nervous octopus, a card-sharp shark, and
a pelican server wearing a bow tie in the background

The walk to the picnic took us just under a half hour. Since some folks arrived as early as 3:00 to listen to a couple of boat-broker presentations, the party was in "full swing" when we arrived.

Banana Bay 7th Annual Looper's "Sunset Celebration"

Live Keys Band "4 Sheets to the Wind"

Beautiful Sunset for the "Sunset Celebration"

Even the moon decided to join the fun

and put on a great show for our viewing pleasure!

We took turns with Denise and Mark from Island Office taking photos with the sunset as the backdrop.

Island Office - Denise and Mark

Ev and Clark at the "Sunset Celebration" at Sunset

The party was scheduled from 4:00 to 7:00; however, a number of folks left around 6:30 - ourselves included. The appetizers were plentiful but did not quite make a meal for a few of us. Some folks headed out for pizza. Clark and I went back to our boat for a spaghetti dinner.

Jammin Jane and Knot Sew Easy

making their getaway after the party ended

Luckily we caught Phyllis and Sonny (Corkscrew) just as they were leaving. They had a van that could hold six and had room to give us, and our lawn chairs, a ride back to the marina. Yay!! We appreciated that ride very much and even more so about 15 minutes after we got back to our boat when we had a brief rain storm that we surely would have been caught in had we not gotten that ride!

Video of Keys Band: