2020: Busy January in the Florida Keys

12 January 2020 --- "Florida Keys Celtic Festival"
No boat travel.

Fellow boaters, Dave and Beverly on "Amalie", invited us to go with them to see the Celtic Festival at the city park today. We walked the mile to the venue as it was a lot easier than driving there and trying to find a place to park. Being a bright sunny day with not much shade made it a hot outing.

Besides vocalists / guitarists who performed, we saw a sheep herding exhibition and Celtic dancers. We sat under a tent in the shade for a while and enjoyed the music of Brendan Nolan and Colin Farrell. Several booths contained venders hocking their Celtic wares. Beverly bought some very nice earrings. Although food and drink was available for purchase, Clark and I passed on that.

Rounding up sheep

Whistle-controlled herding

"Drake Irish Dancers" Performing on Stage

17 January 2020 --- "Key West Home Tour"
No boat travel.

Our boating friends, Kenny and Jeanne on "Daybreak", are staying in Key West for the month of January. We decided to travel into Key West to see them and participate in the annual Key West Home Tour. As we have done in the past to get to Key West, Clark and I walked the short walk to the bus stop in front of the Coast Guard Station for the 1.5 hour trip.

We arrived shortly after noon, as expected, and walked the short distance to their boat to meet them and start our day together. The first home did not open for viewing until 3:00, so we had plenty of time to spare for lunch before getting a lot of walking exercise around town. Kenny and Jeanne recommended a small place on a corner that used to be a gas station - Bien. Clark and I both ordered fish sandwiches (him Mahi Mahi and me Snapper). Both were delectable!

Because we still had a few minutes before 3:00, we strolled through the Key West cemetery on our way to the first place we planned to visit.

Iguana in Cemetery

Cemetery Humor ...

"I told you I was sick"

"I'm just resting my eyes."

We ended up killing some time we had not planned on. On our way to the first home, Jeanne stepped into a flower shop to see what they had for sale. She does Ikebana Japanese flower arrangements. She did not buy any flowers, but the shop owner became so excited by her that I thought he would not ever let us leave. He had one story after another to tell us about his flowers and his shop!

Having finally extricated ourselves from the flower shop, we made our way to stop number 1 - a building built in 1907 that originally contained a fire station and is now a museum. This is the only venue on the tour that allowed photography.

While at the firehouse, we learned that the crew was informed of a fire via ticker tape. Punched holes in the tape gave the number of the fire box where the call to the station was made. For example, one hole followed by two holes meant box #12.

Fire Alarm Box Numbers in Key West

The original fire house had horses and wagons for fire fighting. Their fastest and strongest horse is reconstructed in paper mache.

We saw a number of old vehicles used over the years.

They even had a model of the firehouse on display

and patches collected from firehouses all over the U.S.

Patches from New Jersey

Although we could not take pictures at the houses we visited, there was nothing to stop Clark taking a picture of numerous orchids growing on trees at two houses along the way.

Orchids growing in Key West

We had two reasonable options for the bus trip back to Marathon - 6:00 before dinner or 7:36 after dinner. Since we had such a large lunch and were not particularly hungry, we opted for the 6:00 ride. As we sat waiting for the bus to arrive, we decided we better get a picture to capture the moment. A person passing by heard us and offered to take the picture. He turned out to be the postmaster of the post office where we stood waiting.

We weren't the only ones standing around at the post office. Two roosters were "talking" to each other the whole time we were there. Beautiful creatures, but noisy!

Key West Rooster  - one of many on the streets!

Surprisingly, the bus showed up on the dot of 6:00. We jumped on and it took off.

Finding a seat on the "Lower Keys Shuttle"

No more than 100 feet down the road I heard the driver groan and say, "I did not wait long enough at the post office, I have to go back." So around the block we went. We saw no one at the post office bus stop, but a woman boarded at the next stop on the route.

There seemed to be a communication issue. Her pass did not work on this bus. Then the driver told her the pass was expired, so she threw it away. He told her to take a seat, and we continued on our way. Later, as we passed near the airport, he told her to get off the bus and wait with others who were waiting for the "green" bus. Somehow, he had figured out what she needed and took her to where she could get the appropriate bus. Very nice driver!

I decided to read on the ride home, but Clark was paying attention. When he expected the bus to turn off towards Marathon, it circled back towards Key West. At some point Clark told me we had been driving around Key West for 45 minutes. I looked at my watch and knew there was no way we would get back to our bus stop at the advertised 7:15 time. Eventually, the bus did turn towards Marathon.

Although we had wonderful weather in Key West - sunny and nice cool breeze, it started to rain on the ride back to Marathon. We decided that it was a good thing that we chose the earlier bus. The bus dropped us off at our stop almost 45 minutes later than expected in dripping rain and gusty winds. We had to dodge a bunch of huge puddles to get back to the marina. So glad we had the good weather for the home tour!

As soon as I got on board, I started pulling food out for dinner. Clark suggested watching something on tv and I said, "Not until I get dinner ready!" "Oh", he replied, "I forgot we hadn't eaten." He would probably have figured it out at midnight!


19 January 2020 --- "Curry Hammock State Park"

Even though it is only 6 miles from the marina, I had never heard of Curry Hammock State Park until this year when we received an invitation to attend a birthday party for Cora Cay who just turned one year old.

Colorful, Citrus Fruit Motif for Birthday

Chicken, Shrimp and Corn on the Cob on the Grill

Citrus Fruit Centerpiece

Young guests at the party
Cora, age 1, has the pink flower in her hair

 

Mel (seated) and Dave

Ann and Beverly

Mel and Dave again

Decorated highchair and cake

Fresh squeezed grapefruit and oranges

chopped mushrooms for the risotto dish

Devon (in pink) hostess and Cora's mama

Devon and Cora

Daddy Ryan, Cora, and Mommy Devon

Yum! This cake is good!

Since we had never been to the park before, we walked around and took in a few of the sights.

Water sports ...

Kite for kite surfing

other end of the kite!

Inflatable Kayak for 4!

Sunbathing (and swimming)

Nice grounds ...

Park day-use area

Playground equipment

Party goers enjoying the swings

We heard that a protected anchorage was a short walk away, so we went to take a look.

Palm trees on neighboring beach
(We were told that the owner of Bass Pro Shop owns the grounds.)

Channel entry to anchorage

Huge, hidden anchorage
(Looks like a great place to hide away!)

Access to park from the anchorage!

The party broke up around 2:00, and we came back to the marina stuffed from all the great food including frozen key lime tarts. We spent the rest of the day relaxing - Clark reading newspapers and me updating the blog!