038: Marathon Part 3: Reunions and the Dog Days of Winter, or 100 Things to Do in the Keys

 What does one do in the Keys in January with unseasonable cold and wet weather?  Well, make do as best you can, knowing at least it isn’t really cold and snowing like up north.    The first thing you do is buy this book:

  

This book has been our guide to sites to see and things to do.   I’ll “tell the story” through pictures but first the really important things.   Our friends from The Willie Dawes and Sol Maria joined up with us for a nice reunion.   Willie Dawes came in for a few weeks and we took a nice snorkel trip with them, Sol Maria was only able to come by for one night as their daughter Shay had flown in from New Zealand for a visit, but we made the most of it with a potluck dinner.  

We had a lovely time catching up, hearing of Sol Maria's "experience from hell" with getting their mast put back on the boat, etc. etc.

Had a nice but short visit with April Wheeler who I know from high school years, as she stopped by with friends on their way to Key West:

My favorite new thing is Sunday breakfast at the American Legion Hall, $10 gets you steak and eggs (and all the grits you can eat):

Snorkeling at Sombrero Reef:

A trip to see "Fat Albert" a Department of Homeland Security blimp that is used to spy on the Cubans and look out for drug runners:

Speaking of Cubans, there are run-down boats scattered about that Cuban refugees have used to escape to the U.S.  Imagine crossing ninety miles of open ocean in this:

The Aquarium beat expectations and hopefully this is as close to a shark as we get on this trip:

We headed down to the Key Deer Wild Life Refuge: we were only able to get glimpses of live deer, but we did get this shot in the visitor center of stuffed deer, they are smaller than the White Tail versions of North as evolution did not require them to "build the body mass necessary to survive winter months" of sparse food supply.  They were almost wiped out in by the 1930's but were saved by early conservation efforts and a writing campaign to Presidents Truman and Eisenhower by school aged children in Florida to finally get the Refuge established:

We did spot the laziest alligator in all of Florida.  In fifteen minutes of viewing it, I don't think I saw as much as one blinked eyelid.  Not sure why they don't know that they need to put on a show for us tourists, must not have gotten the memo:

Nancy, Patty and Kathy (from Willie Dawes) "mooched around" and got some saw some "lobster art:"

Lunch at the No Name Pub was tasty:

Patty enjoying the scene at Bahia Honda State park:

A return trip to Crane Point Hammock always offers something new to see:

But I guess our favorite thing is hanging out at the pool and enjoying "Happy Hour" priced drinks to see the local Manatee and her calf, and to watch the sunsets:

Never get tired of the sunsets:

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This takes us to January 14th.   From this point on we are watching the weather window for our trip to the Bahamas.   Weather is not looking that promising however, so we may extend our stay here for another week or so.

Dave