Saturday, February 2nd, presented itself as a typical day for us. To start the day, I went to the Farmer's Market and Publix with Sandy and Ann. I am definitely spoiled having a boat neighbor with a car who takes me shopping every week.
Clark decided that since our family planned to arrive this week, and we had no guarantee that the boat would be taken out for our weekly maintenance run, we took the boat out today. We had a surprise guest on board for our short voyage. John Gunning on "Nuclear Fishin", whom we met while doing our Great Loop voyage, stopped by to say hello and quickly became an extra crew member. I knew he was in town because I saw his wife, Susan, at the Farmer's Market.
On our 45-minute ride, we saw a family of dolphins and John taught us a trick to attract their attention. He started pounding on the side of the boat. Sure enough, five of them - three adults and two babies - came over to play in our wake.
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| Family of Dolphins came to play! |
Later, in the afternoon, I took a walk around the marina and found an iguana staring at me like a puppy in a cage. Fortunately, for me, the iguana was not on our boat but on a neighboring vessel - "Hour Plan".
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| Perhaps he thought the greenery on the boat looked appetizing? |
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| View of iguana from the other side. |
Jim and AC preferred not to have an iguana on their boat thought they did name him "Iggy". Jim gave the iguana the "old heave ho" and helped him off the boat.
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| Here's the iguana swimming away as an unwelcome guest! |
2/3/2019 - Superbowl Sunday
For the last several days, our two sons have been enjoying Disney World with their wives and children. Today is their last day in Orlando and then they plan to drive to see us for 4 days. I spent a good portion of yesterday and all of this morning preparing for their visit. To accommodate a sleepover, I shuffled things around to clean out shelf and closet space, purchased a bunch of food the kids like, and made up all our extra beds.
My family planned to arrive late tonight, so Clark and I took Faith and Jim, "Third Degree", up on their offer to watch the Superbowl together at the Marathon Ale House. This is our third year in a row going together, so now it is a tradition. The game was a disappointment. First I am tired of the New England Patriots being in the game and second, it was the most boring Superbowl game I have ever seen.
To feel connected with our Superbowl friends before we became loopers, I texted them a photo of Clark and me enjoying the game.
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| Ev and Clark at Marathon Ale House |
We thought that we might still be at the game when our family arrived, but that turned out not to be the case. My son, Chris, and his family went straight to their motel. Jeff and his crew did not arrive at our boat until around midnight. With it being so late, we all just said goodnight until tomorrow.
2/4/2019 - Sombrero Beach, Marathon
It took some time in the morning to get us all together and set up an agenda for today and the rest of the time our family is here. We eventually decided on Sombrero Beach here in Marathon for today.
I should have worn a swimsuit, but I had no plans to go swimming. Even so, Lily, my almost three year old granddaughter, devised a way to get me wet. She repeatedly ran to the water and scooped up a bucket full of salty, sandy water and dumped it on my legs. It started out as dumping on my feet and over time got higher and higher until my shorts got drenched.
As she carried her bucket towards me, I would wag my index finger at her and say, "No, No, No"! She would laugh in a maniacal way that she has that reflects pure evil and then throw water on me. One cannot help but laugh themselves when they hear her devilish laughter.
After beach time, and before heading out, we stopped to let the kids enjoy the playground equipment at Sombrero Beach.
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| Swings at Sombrero Beach |
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| Merry-go-round at Sombrero Beach. |
After our fun at the beach, we needed to find a place for dinner. Since we had 10 of us to seat, we decided to make life simple and visit the Key's Fisheries. There we could stand in line to place our order and then find a table to enjoy our fresh cuisine.
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| Sierra testing to see if she meets the height requirement "You must be this tall to eat a Reuben!" |
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| Baby Jack has a long way to go to be tall enough! He's only 8 months old. |
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| Here's Violet - she's two years old. |
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| Ev with Sierra who is almost 5 |
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| Ev with Lily (wearing my shirt because she got cold). Lily is almost 3. |
Once again Lily turned into a little devil and decided to steal my hat.
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| Ev under "hat attack" by Lily! Sierra joined in as well (pink sleeve). Son Chris in the background. |
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| Sunset as seen from Key's Fisheries. Faro Blanco Lighthouse in the distance. |
Anyone who follows our blog should know how Clark feels about ice cream. After dinner, we piled into our two cars and drove to Sweet Savannah's for a cold treat.
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| Sierra eating multi-colored sherbet that turned her lips brown! |
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| Lily enjoying "birthday cake" ice cream. Super Sweet! |
2/5/2019 - Bahia Honda State Park
So today, we decided to take the boat to Bahia Honda State Park. This would allow everyone to enjoy a boat ride and end up at yet another beach to have more fun in sand and sun. The weather while the family was here could not have been better. Well, perhaps there was a little more sun than baby Jack needed. Chris made a tent from a beach towel to give him some shade.
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| Sierra and Lily decided to take cover under Jack's makeshift tent too. |
We quickly discovered that Sombrero Beach is much nicer than Bahia Honda in terms of enjoying the water. Here, we had to walk through dried sea grass to reach the water and then wade over a bed of rocks to get out to an area for swimming.
At 4 o'clock Clark said we had to pack up to leave to make it back with the boat to Faro Blanco before dark. We got back before the sun went down, and everyone except me ran off to jump in the swimming pool at the marina. I stayed on the boat trying to straighten up the boat and get things ready to have dinner on board.
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| Jack - poolside, playing with a shoe |
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| Chris with Lily enjoying the water |
I have plastic, weighted sticks that can be thrown in the pool to be retrieved by someone willing to dive for them. Sierra is an excellent swimmer and had fun chasing the sticks. A girl on another boat here could not get in the water so she stood at the pool's edge and threw the sticks into the water for my granddaughters to chase. They loved it!
For dinner tonight, we decided to get New York Style pizza from the 7-mile Pizza restaurant. We also made hot dogs. Pizza was way more popular than hot dogs and we barely had enough to feed us all. We made up for it by having apple pie for dessert!
2/6/2019 - Key West Road Trip
Today is our last full day with the family. We decided to make it a road trip to Key West to see the Southernmost Point in the U.S.A. While we waited for Chris and his crew to join us for the day, Jeff and I tried to teach Sierra the rudiments of chess on the giant chess set at the marina. I have not played chess in over 20 years. I got us started but Jeff had to step in to get the board laid out correctly and explain some of the finer details of piece movement.
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| Ev and Sierra setting up the board. |
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| Ev telling Sierra about the various pieces and how they can move. |
When we started to play, I quickly realized that whatever minimal skill I had as a chess player is totally gone. I had no idea of any strategy whatsoever. Fortunately, for me, Sierra lost interest in the game after about 4 moves.
Late morning, we all piled into our cars for the drive to Key West.
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| Route 1, 7-mile bridge, on way to Key West |
After fighting some slow-moving traffic and eventually finding parking, we managed to reconnect the two parties and begin our search for a restaurant that Heather heard was good. Following the instructions on Google Maps, however, did not yield the expected results. When it said, "You have arrived!", we could not see the place we were looking for.
Little did I know that "Garbo's Grill" was a food truck hiding behind two other eating establishments. I decided that the only way to find this place was to ask someone, and I got real lucky on that. The first person I asked was not only a local but a friend of the band playing at one of the nearby restaurants. Instead of directing us there, he walked us there as a personal tour guide. Granted it was only a few feet from where we stood, but I doubt we would have found it without asking an expert!
We decided that the best way to get on overview of Key West with four small children in tow was via the Conch Train. After lunch, we made our way to the ticket office to go for a ride. We wanted to see the Southernmost Point. Unfortunately, the Conch Train stopped a few blocks from there so we had quite a long walk to get there and lots to look at along the way.
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| Rooster - typical sight in Key West |
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| Lighthouse |
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| Ev carrying Lily in Key West with Chris up ahead. |
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| Those without kids got to carry backpacks! Devon in front, Heather with Jack, Chris, and then me bringing up the rear! (Clark took the picture, and Jeff with Violet managed to avoid the camera.) |
When we arrived at the southernmost point, we were pleasantly surprised to see a relatively short line to get pictures taken.
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| The Southernmost Point in the Continental U.S.A. |
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| The rocky coastline near the southernmost point. |
After we left the southernmost point, we walked to South Beach and strolled out on the very windy pier before heading back to the Conch Train station.
We could not all sit together on the Conch Train. In fact we were scattered over several cars on the train. For the longest segment of the tour, Lily ended up sitting next to me and falling asleep lying on my arm. She got a good, uninterrupted, 45-minute nap out of the ride and was raring to go when we got to the last stop where we got to check out Mallory Square at sunset.
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| Lily saying, "Goodbye and thank you, Dominic" to our excellent tour guide! The kids each got souvenir wooden coins as part of the ride. |
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| Mallory Square - packed near sunset |
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| Kermits has the reputation of having "the best Key Lime Pie in Key West" |
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| Cousin talk ... Lily and Sierra having a serious conversation with Violet on the sidelines! |
After the Key Lime Pie stop, we headed back to our cars for the drive back to Marathon. We decided ahead of time that we would eat at the Bucktooth Rooster in Big Pine Key on the way back. When we were there a week or so ago, the waitress told us that we should have no trouble getting a table after 7 o'clock, so that is when we arrived. We got seated right away!
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| Jack decided the menus made good toys! |
By the time we had eaten and got back to Marathon, it was quite late and "lights out" for the kids.
2/8/2019
Chris and his crew had to leave around 11:30 to make their flight home. Jeff and family could stay a bit longer. While we waited for Chris to arrive, the rest of us (except Devon who spent the time packing) went for a swim in the marina pool.
The one thing that Sierra really wanted to do that others had little to no interest in was visiting the Turtle Hospital. Reservations are recommended, and Devon and Sierra got a spot on the 11:00 o'clock tour. That meant they would not get to say goodbye to Chris and crew and would have to hustle to get away on time to make their flight.
After everyone departed for their flights, I spent the rest of the day putting away toys, washing sheets and towels, and putting the boat back to its normal state.
Clark got back to the normal business of capturing sunset photos.
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| Faro Blanco Sunset |
2/9/2019 - Turtle Release
I heard from another boater here that the Turtle Hospital planned on a turtle release at Sombrero Beach today at 1 o'clock. Finally, at 11- something o'clock, we decided that we would ride our bikes there to see the event.
I checked later - the ride was 4 miles each way to get there and back. We got there at 12:40 and found a huge crowd had gathered for the splash.
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| 150+ pound turtle - ready for release |
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| Camera crews and even the Florida governor was here somewhere in the crowd |
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| The turtle dove fast and showed nothing but a wake as he swam away. |
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| This is pretty much the view I had of the event - people and cameras and water. |
On the bike ride back to the marina, we stopped at the post office to mail some items and the tax office to renew our Florida boater's sojourner's permit. It broke the trip up a bit to have some stops to make along the way. As we biked on the sidewalk along Route 1, we heard and saw first a police car and then a fire engine as they went roaring by. We later saw the cause of their emergency as we saw a mangled motorcycle in the middle of route 1 near a car with its front end dented in. We saw no injured people as he/she had already been removed from the scene, but it looked pretty nasty.
Today was a busy day with the final act of the day being a staff-appreciation, pot-luck dinner put on by the boaters to show our appreciation of the crew here at Faro Blanco Marina. It has been an annual event for the four years we have been coming here.
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| By special request ... Clark's pancake station (he's taking the picture or he would be here) |
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| After pancake duty, Clark had ice cream duty Mia helped serve |
Even though he had pancake and ice cream duty, Clark still managed to watch the sky for sunsets and such.
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| Clark liked this tree-shaped cloud formation. |
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| Sunset at Faro Blanco Marina |
