Florida: Marathon - new baby

Day 224
Saturday 2/20/2016

We received very exciting news today that we had been waiting for, me rather less patiently than Clark ... we have a new granddaughter. She was due on the 17th and arrived today at 1:13 p.m. Late afternoon, my son Chris called to tell me that Heather (the new mommy) and Lillian (a beautiful 6 lb 9 oz and 19" baby girl) are all doing well.

My son Chris, his wife Heather, and their new baby girl
Lillian Martha Woodworth

I have a planned trip to fly to Connecticut to meet my new granddaughter mid-March. I can hardly wait!!

Amazingly, Lillian was born on her cousin's (my other granddaughter's) birthday! Today Sierra turned 2! I was told in advance that she loves Mickey & Minnie Mouse, so I accommodated her interests with a trio of Minnie Mouse t-shirts and a Mickey Mouse puzzle . I understand she tried on all three shirts and decided to wear the pink one!

Sierra Modeling Her New Birthday T-shirt
(I can't believe she is 2!)

Earlier in the day, before the exciting news of a new baby and a phone call to wish Sierra happy birthday, we attended the Islamorada Boater's Flea Market.

Boater's Flea Market in Islamorada, Florida

Two cars of attendees left from Faro Blanco just after 10:00 to make the 50 or so minutes ride down Route 1. I was the only female in the group. We got there somewhere around 11:00 and stayed until almost 3:00. I had not planned on buying anything, but I ended up buying myself two quick-dry, UPF shirts. Clark bought an assortment of items for the boat plus some much-needed boat shoes for himself. We both enjoyed the flea market and the company for the car ride both ways. Ralph from Mazel Tug drove us there in his daughter's car. Ken from Friar Tuck went with us in Ralph's car.

The weather seemed perfect as we wandered the flea market. However, during the hour-long trip back to Faro Blanco, a chilly wind kicked up. By the time we got back to our marina, it was downright chilly! When he dropped us off, Ralph gave us a chunk of fire hose to walk over to Sum Escape for chafe guard material. If we had not taken on that simple task, we probably would have missed out on a lot of excitement at the docks by the lighthouse.

Numerous fast boats were getting ready to depart the marina while another set was coming in. With all the tossing and catching of lines going on, it was a pretty wild scene. Of course the high wind gusts added to the tension as the expensive boats prepared to depart or come in to dock.

Fast Boat entering the marina

Rafted Fast Boat coming in

A special fuel truck sat in the middle of the marina for the bulk of the fast boat visit. The truck had five chambers with varying degrees of octane. The racing-level fuel, somewhere around 110 octane, must have been very popular since it ran to empty first. 

The other excitement at the docks, which did not help matters, involved a manatee hanging around the fast boats as they prepared to leave. I was concerned, as I believe others were also, about the safety of the manatee as the fast boats got their engines going and proceeded to pull away from the docks. Clark took several pictures, but none showed the manatee clearly enough to know one is even included in the photo.

After such a long day with so much going on, I was in no mood to cook and convinced Clark to go out for pizza. As we walked back to our boat to change to warmer clothes, i.e. long pants, before walking to the shop, we found Nancy and Carey from LeeLoo just heading out from their boat to go find food. We decided to go together. We found a pizza place called Upper Crust and enjoyed a meal there together. We have not seen LeeLoo for many weeks, so we had a lot of catching up to do.