Last days in Banana Bay

Last evening there was a spectacular sky at sunset here @ Banana Bay.  The sun will not set over Florida Bay until the end of March as it moves a bit more to the North, so we will miss an actual sun set on the water at our marina, but the orange and pink hues in the sky were truly beautiful. We should be in a perfect position at the next marina in Islamorada to view the sun dipping into the water.

On Monday we will leave all the wonderful people we have met here @ Banana Bay in Marathon, and move up to Islamorada.  It is only about 38 miles north of here, we will stay at Plantation Yacht Harbor, another great marina.  Some of our friends that we have traveled with in the past are  there, and it will be fun to catch up.  Our schedule should allow us to stay there for the month of March.  Still wondering where the warm weather is. High today was 65, with off and on rain.

The happy hour is breaking up, it's dusk and getting colder.

Visit to Key West

Key West is about an hour ride from Marathon where we are staying. Our friends Ed & Diane came down for a  visit, and the 4 of us went to see the sites in the most southern key in the U.S.  What can I say about Key West, maybe I'll just post some pictures.

 This guy played his banjo as his dog "Cleo" would walk around and take dollar bills from the crowd with his mouth and put them in the bucket.  The dog was a big hit.  At one point a toddler in a stroller was holding a dollar in one hand and  a cracker in the other, the dog ate the cracker, walked away without the dollar, went back and checked for more food before he took the dollar. Cute act!

These are street performers in Key West on Mallory Square.  It was a beautiful day, sunny and about 82, the sea fog rolled in about an hour before sunset and swallowed the sun. We will probably return when our son Dan comes down, so maybe there will be a sunset picture opportunity then.

The Stuffed Pig is a popular breakfast/lunch spot, and rightfully so. Good food, out door restaurant, great service and sunshine. Can't get better than that.  Thanks for coming down Diane & Ed.

Miami Boat Show & Friends

The Miami boat show was an interesting visit, much larger than any show we have been to.  Lots of vendors selling anything you can imagine for boats. Here's a picture of Jim's next boat, in another life of course. This is a boat Ken can appreciate, Pam it was good to hear from you.

Getting around Miami was an adventure in itself, I never realized just how much water there is down here, seems like almost every road you turn down has a bridge to get over the water.  Beautiful turquoise water everywhere you look.  Now I'm not complaining, but it has been cold here, low 60's with a stiff 30 mph wind is a bit nippy, I don't care who you are. 

This week also brought us a surprise visit from some friends from Macedonia. Thanks George and Louise Post for coming to visit  us while on your trip to Florida.  It was so nice to see both of you down here,  wish we had more time to visit, but just glad you fitted us in.  Thanks for the wine, my favorite!  Our apologies for not taking pictures, I even had the camera out!

After George and Louise left, Jim's sister Sue, her husband Ed, and 3 children came to spend a few days with us.  We had a great time, visited the beach, even though it was chilly, went to eat at various places and visited the pool and hot tub. A good time was had by all, thanks Nick, Katie & Kristin for visiting with us.  Maybe next time it will be warmer.

This picture was taken at the looper get together, there were over 60 "loopers" that attended this event.  All of these people are here in the various marinas in Marathon.

Marathon Florida

It's been a very relaxing week, we had planned to head down to Key West on Monday via the local bus.  We woke to the sound of rain, and as luck would have it, it rained all day, so the bus trip to Key West will have to be rescheduled.  One day of rain is not bad, the rest of the week was sunny with temps in the high 70's.  There was a music festival held over the past weekend, it was the 1st annual Florida Keys Traditional Music Festival, it was fun even though we were not familiar with any of the musicians.  Pat Daily who plays at the round house in Put in Bay will be in Key West this weekend.  The rest of our time has been spent doing little maintenance jobs on the boat and hangin out at the pool. Not much to report, oh yeah, Jim was carded, can you believe it. Here's the story, we went to the local IHOP for breakfast and Jim decided to order off the "55 and older" section of the menu, also known as the "senior section". The waitress did not believe he was old enough, he had to show her his drivers license. It was the hi light of his day!

Tuesday there is a looper get together at one of the other marinas, there will be 60 loopers attending.  Marathon is a popular spot to winter in for people doing the great loop.  It should be fun catching up with friends we have met along the way. Most of us are spread out amongst the many marinas down here, and get around either on the dinghy or bikes.

Next weekend we are having our first visitors from home on the boat.  Ed, Sue & crew will be coming down.  We are excited to see them and have them spend some time with us. There is a standing invite to who ever would like to come down and see us, we have an extra bedroom and then there is always the couch. 

Here's Jim & Ted clowning around at Key Fisheries, where we had a great lunch one afternoon.

Have a great weekend, hopefully the snow won't get too deep, as always, stay warm and safe.

Banana Bay in Marathon

It is almost a week that we are here in Banana Bay, we have been to the pool and hot tub only once, because..........you guessed it, the weather turned cool. I know you feel real bad for us, not to worry, we have allot of maintenance items to take care of, so the cooler temps are just fine. I also have a correction, I was told our view is of Florida Bay, in the Gulf. Not called the Gulf right here. 

 Our friends Ted & Nancy on "Aloha Friday"  drove up from Key West on Tuesday, it was great to see them again. They have spent allot of winters in Key West, so we are planning on taking the bus from Marathon to KW on Monday for a personal tour.  The bus ride should be a real adventure, just another thing to experience on this trip.

On Wed. another looper boat came into the marina, Fred & Linda on "Young America" they finished their loop trip as they came into Banana Bay.  So of course there was a "celebration" party on the dock today at 5:00.  They have been living aboard for 2 years,  and will stay here until March.

Just a few pictures of our marina, stay warm and keep smiling.

Everglades City to Marathon

Everglades City was interesting, we stayed at a luxury motor coach resort and marina.  They just opened last year and only had about 5 RVs there.  There were only  4 boats in the marina, a bit strange, but it was a nice place.  We went on a air boat ride through the everglades and mangroves, too cold to see any alligators.

We left the Everglades on Saturday to head to our winter destination, Banana Bay in Marathon.  Our ride over was perfect, the Gulf was as flat as can be, the temps were in the 70's and it was partly sunny.  It took about 5 hours, which brought us into the marina around 2:45 on Saturday. Plenty of time to get settled and meet some people.

The pictures show the Gulf as we were crossing on Saturday, the water seems to run into the clouds.  The other two pictures show the marina, Banana Bay,  our home for the next 5 weeks, and the view we will be looking at. There is also a in ground pool and hot tub here.  It should be a very relaxing 5 weeks.

Cape Coral to Naples

The gulf was beautiful on our trip from Cape Coral to Naples, the dolphins were out in full force and I am getting better at my timing with the camera. Here are a few of my better shots.

This one was quite the performer.  I did miss a shot of him jumping pretty high out of the water. Next time!

We had great weather this past week in Cape Coral.  It finally warmed up to the high 60's, low 70's.  The sun was out, along with many people.  It was so nice to be out of hibernation, and talking to everyone. While in Cape Coral we got together with Andy & Terry Horrick, they came to the Marina and took us out to dinner, Thanks Terry & Andy! Then they twisted our arm to go to the wine store so we could replenish our stock. We had a great evening with them.  Cape Coral is a pretty nice place, we stayed at Tarpon Point marina.  Next to the marina they just completed a hotel with restaurant this past November.  There are numerous shops in the process of opening, it should be a pretty busy place once everything opens.  The pictures show the hotel & restaurant, and the captain walking down the dock.

We headed to Naples on Monday morning, another gorgeous day for travelling in the Gulf.

The water just gets clearer an clearer and aqua in color. We broke the bikes out of storage and went for a ride for the first time in months.  On Monday evening we got together with some friends that use to live in Ohio, Jerry and Carol Papesh.  They came up to the marina and we had dinner at the restaurant by the marina.  Their treat, Thank you Carol & Jerry, we had a great time.  I shot some pictures of some houses along the inlet to Naples City Docks, unbelievably huge. 

The weather is suppose to turn windy, so we may stay in Naples for a few more days. I think our next stop will be an anchorage in "Little shark river" then we will head to Marathon Key, where we will stay for the next month or so.