2026 February: Marathon Happenings

 8 February 2026

Cathy and Franklin's visit came to an end this morning. Clark and I were off to church, and they headed home to Vero Beach. Clark left earlier on his bike for pre-show practice. I left on my bike about the same time Cathy and Franklin left to drive home. The weather was pleasant, and it was a lot less work to ride the bike than to fold it, stow it in car, unstow, unfold, ... It is only a mile to the church. As I waited for the service to begin, I noticed that the band members were having a "powwow"!

With today being Superbowl day, I left Clark at the church after the service and biked across the street to Publix to pick up some food for the potluck dinner being held at the marina pool bar tonight. Clark wants vegetables, so I decided to do garlic green beans. That seemed to go over well with the crowd as I had an empty dish by the end of the event.

We had a good crowd at the game. The game was not riveting and we spent most of the time talking with other boaters - some we knew and others we just met that night. Clark met a woman there who likes to sing and we exchanged contact information. Hopefully they can get together for a singer / guitarist date.

10 February 2026

The only thing of note that happened yesterday was a trip to Publix. Today, however, we had a busy day. 

Being a Tuesday, I was off to the library for art at 9:30. I have to get there on time or earlier if possible because the room fills up. We now have to register ahead of time if we plan to attend and cancel if we change our minds. On the way through the marina, I noticed the iguanas enjoying the pool area - no more hanging out on the window sill like they were last week.

Today's class was more interesting than usual as she gave step-by-step instructions on how to blend watercolor paints to get the right mix. Then she walked us through how to properly measure a person's face to draw it. 

By the time I got back from art, Clark was packing up to leave for band practice at the church. I made him lunch and sent him on his way. He spends an inordinate amount of time organizing the music for the service. Every week he gets the list of songs and has to work with it to be sure he can play the songs in the right order.

Nancy, my friend I met at St. Columba, took me to Publix yesterday. I mentioned to her that an event was going on in Key Colony - music and food trucks in a park there. We arranged that she and her husband, Steve, would bring Clark back to the marina from band practice and then the four of us would go to the park to check out the event. 

It sounded good in theory, but band practice went too late to really take advantage of the event at the park. We set up our folding chairs and went in search of food. 

Several trucks had long lines that did not appear to be moving. Clark and I ordered a pizza from a truck but were surprised that we would have an hour wait for it to be ready. 

The many signs on the truck were interesting. I snapped pictures of a few of them.

As we stood with Nancy and Steve in line, we realized that it would be quite late by the time we got to eat - a restaurant would be faster. The band played their last song and packed up their stuff. 

Band is packing up

We decided to cancel the pizza and leave. The guys in the food truck had no problem canceling the order for us. They said they understood. I thought they might be happy to not have yet another order to cook. They could only cook 3 premade pies at a time.

We opted for the Marathon Grill aka Ale House and had a lovely dinner much earlier than we would have eaten at the park. As we enjoyed our meal, Clark received a text "Your pizza is ready!" Hmmm. Did we get charged? Our credit card company says to check back in 5 days to see if the pending charge became a "real" charge. Oh well!

11 February 2026

When Cathy came to visit for the weekend, she brought me a hyacinth that was just a bunch of green leaves in a glass jar. Over the past few days, it has grown and started to bloom. The growth rate in just 3 days is stunning! I did not think to take a picture on the first day where no portion of the flower appeared above the leaves.

 

Today, I joined my friend Deanne to attend a book club meeting at Boot Key Harbor under the Tiki hut. We had read "the soul of the octopus". We had 8 of us there to discuss the book. This is the second time I attended. Deanne brought seaweed chips and octopus stickers as gifts for the attendees. I met knew people and enjoyed the discussion. My afternoon was spent at the Boaters' Lounge doing my laundry.

Clark, on the other hand, was busy on another boater's boat helping him with getting his solar panels to work properly. One thing has led to another and it has turned into more work than expected. That is typical of boats!

At the end of the day, Clark chased me off the boat to get the night's sunset picture. As I walked up to the viewing area, I heard Roger blowing the conch to indicate the sun had set. I got upt there to grab my picture and found a bunch of boater friends to chat with to end the day.

12 February 2026

Forty-two years ago today I was in the hospital giving birth to my first-born son, Jeffrey! My how the time does fly. Today is extra special because his youngest daughter was born on his birthday, so we have two special people to celebrate! 

As I prepared to spend my day working on blog updates, I got a text from a fellow boater that folks would be meeting for Mahjongg at 10:30. I decided to join the group. Seven of us showed up. I am a novice at the game, but many of us are on the same level which is good for me. 

Mahjongg time

Our table ended at noon time, but the second table folks stayed for another round.

Clark hung around the boat for the holding tank pump-out and then left to work on the solar panel / battery issue on our friend's boat again today. He met me at the boat for lunch and then returned to the "job" afterwards. We hardly saw each other today. With him on guitar and me at art, mahjongg, etc., we are like "two ships passing". 

My afternoon was taken up with blog updates as evidenced by me submitting three entries today!

A manatee was visiting our marina today.

At 6:00 I walked out to check out the sunset and found quite a crowd waiting for the show.

A lot of dogs were roaming around among the sunset watchers.

"Keezy"

Clark stood apart from the crowd spending time with his young boater friend - Tessa.

2026 February: Key West Outing

 7 February 2026

Today was Cathy's birthday, and to celebrate this special event, we went to Key West for the day. Cathy and Franklin did research beforehand, chose a restaurant, and made a reservation for lunch. Free street parking was available near the restaurant, so we headed there to start our day. 

Before walking around Key West, we walked by and checked out the place where we would have lunch later. The reservation was for 1:30, so we had about 90 minutes to stroll around town.

Although I had never heard of the place, "Louie's Backyard", is apparently quite famous for its location and cuisine.

The restaurant is located next to a dog park in Key West. Beside the restaurant, we saw people enjoying the beach and lying in a hammock under the palm trees.

The bar at the restaurant is accessible from this beach.

The restaurant is "off the beaten track", so it was a good thing we had our walking shoes on! After checking out the restaurant location, we walked into town. 

I kept my camera (phone) handy as we walked and snapped pictures of things that struck my fancy.

Cathy, Franklin, and Clark admiring the view

Cathy and Franklin

Key West homes have a special look to them like the one below.

I pointed out to Clark the sign below. I thought it was funny but he said he "didn't get it".

So where are they hiding the guests??

Bicycles and golf carts are favorite forms of transportation in Key West. The rental companies do a great business here.

Golf carts seating up to 8 people
6 facing forwards and 2 facing the rear!

Cathy insisted we visit one of her favorite spots - "The Hemingway House". I asked her why she wants to go there on every visit to Key West. It makes her happy!

When we got there, we were not even able to enter the property without buying a ticket. Clark headed for the park benches just inside the gate and was told to buy a ticket or leave. Having fully explored this property on a prior visit, we left. Our entire view of the house is shown below!

Hemingway House - 
pay or leave!

What trip would be to Key West would be complete without roosters. We got a "special treat" today. We got to watch a real cock fight for free. Two cocks decided to go at it as we were walking by. One of them slipped under a fence to get away, but the other just followed and continued to attack. 

Franklin and Cathy got into the act and tried to break up the fight. Five times they kicked them apart, and each time the roosters just went right back to attacking each other. Franklin says they fight to the death.

Interesting decorations appear on the various houses in Key West. I liked the frogs one person's porch.

Many houses are brightly colored and quite beautiful. 

We walked by one that had a lovely garden.

Orchids

Waterfall

Weather gauge 

We walked to the "Southern Most Point". They moved it! We walked past where it was in the past and the area was all torn up with signs pointing down the street.

(picture from Google)

We walked past the southernmost southernmost house and around the corner to find the new "southernmost" spot.

The new southernmost point is located in the Duval Pocket Park.

We decided to sit on a park bench there for a while to watch the tourists lining up for their picture with the Statue of the Buoy. A rooster perched near us also watching the crowd!

Across the street from the park, we saw a statue made out of sand. Guitar says "Taylor Swift" on it.

Ev & Clark

Cathy & Franklin

"I had the best days with you"

Question: "What happens when it rains?!"

I had one place to visit on my Key West wish list. Fortunately, Cathy was interested as well. My friend, Heidi, who works at the Marlin Bay marina is part of a guild in Key West. She displays her one-of-a-kind handmade jewelry here. I had to check it out. Earlier in the day we were very near the gallery; however, it was close to our luncheon reservation time. We had to backtrack to come back to see the jewelry!

Before going into the Guild Hall Gallery, I checked the signs outside to find Heidi's name. 

I found it! Yay!

Most of the gallery has paintings. Heidi's jewelry is a unique addition.

I enjoyed many of the pictures on the walls. The gallery has two floors of displays, and each artist has a different style.

This artist does "soft" art in that the items on sale are sewn like the turtle sewn below. 

On our way back to the car, we passed a mother hen and her 7 baby chicks. They were adorable. All of them matched in color except one. As we walked by we watched the hen kicking up dirt and shooting it straight into the faces of the baby chicks. 

Mother Hen with 7 newborn chicks

By the time we climbed back into Franklin's car to drive back to Marathon, we had walked just over 5 miles. It's a good thing we had on good walking shoes! When we dressed in the morning, not knowing what to expect in terms of temperature in Key West, Clark and I put on layers. We needed the layers early in the day. By the end of the day, all but one layer of clothing was in a bag I had brought to carry it just in case! 

It is about a 90 minute drive back to Marathon from Key West. On the way there, we noticed that where there used to be one blimp in the air near the Big Pine area, we saw two flying objects. The internet shows that Fat Albert was sent "across the pond" for sprucing up. So who are these two that appear to have taken his place while he is gone!? Clark was on the "blimp side" of the car and took some pictures out the window as we sped by.

On the way to Key West, Clark said I was seeing double when I said I counted 2 blimps. He made me believe that my eyes were playing tricks on me,

and then, everyone else in the car admitted they were seeing double as well!! The internet shared nothing about Fat Albert having a friend or two.

Two??

We got back to Marlin Bay in time to see the sunset. It never gets old!