Working Hard

Samson and Delilah are working so hard as demonstarted by these two shots. Samson running the boat from his perch on top of the sofa and Delilah managing things from the the back of the afterdeck chair. At 17 years of age they sleep a lot.

Chet

Friday

1/22/10

4:07PM

Finally warm enough to eat outside

Located on the channel coming into Boot Key Harbor, Burdine's is a perfect example of a "Keysy" restaurant. The food is very good but we had not been there this trip because its entirely open in Tiki Hut style. Its been too cold to eat outside. A beautiful day today; looks like things are returning to normal. A couple of pictures:(1) a shot of the Tiki Hut arrangement with the name on top (2) The outside dining area; that's Dixie at the first table.

Chet

Wednesday

1/20/10

4:19 PM

Key West Seafood Festival

We first stopped to pick up fresh produce from the Saturday morning truck that is run for charity; fresh strawberries were there as well as lots of other really fresh produce. We then attended the fifth annual Key West Seafood Festival. Lots of people there and a lot of good seafood (pink Key West shrimp is the best shrimp). All of the revenue goes to a fisherman's scholorship fund and various local charities.The weather was beautiful finally. It turns out that the cold weather streak was the longest and coldest in recorded history in the Keys. The Turtle Hospital in the three days after we were there took in 162 turtles suffering from the cold; more than they usually move through in a year. It is expected that as the Florida Bay water temp rises back to normal that they can all be returned to the Bay (another new record; the Bay water average temp was 5-6 degrees colder than had ever been recorded). Some pictures (1) The entrance Festival sign at Bayside Park in downtown Key West (2) Lots of people there and more coming all the time (3) A local dance group led a congo line with many participants (4) Keepsake beer mugs (5) A really nice colorful jacket for Dixie (6) An event t- shirt for Chet.

A Cold but Nice Visit

Leslie, Chris and the kids left early this morning to spend some time at the Space Center in Titusville. Even though the weather was within 1 degree of as bad as has ever been recorded we enjoyed their visit.

Strange things happening around here. The dockmaster was fired by the new owners for unknown reasons and the Resort is soon to be renamed to some as yet unrevealed name. A lot needs to be done here to bring the infrastructure up to average.

The weather is supposed to warm up but the process has not started.

Chet
Tuesday
1/12/10
4:33PM

Dolphin Reserch Center

Went to the Dolphin Research Center today. Still cold but better than yesterday. Some pictures (1) The entrance sign for the Center (2) Frolicking dolphin (many of them) (3)Kilo, the resident 8 year old sealion (4) Dixie on Sombrero Beach; the markers in the background mark the entrance to Sisters Creek, the oceanside entrance to Boot Key Harbor (5) Spencer and Kendall playing hard on the plyground at Sombrero Beach (6) Chris and Leslie wearing the 4 layers of clothing required for this cold snap in the Keys Tropical Paradise.

Chet
Monday
1/11/10
4:57 PM

A cold visit to Key West

The cold continues. The Keys are seeing the coldest or near coldest weather ever recorded in the Keys and its lasting longer. Last night snow fell in Homestead (south of Miami) for the first time since 1977. We remember that because we lived in Miami at the time. We visited Key West yesterday and it was cold. As we left in the late afternoon the wind was blowing gale force across the harbor. Some merchants commented that there was NO warm clothing left for sale south of Homestead. The highlight for the day was the kids visit to the City Aquarium. We had our normal excellent late lunch at the Half Shell Grill. Some pictures (1) The entrance to the Aquarium (2) the entrance sign at the landmark Hog's Breath Saloon (3) & (4) Two cruise ships were in. If there had not been thousands of passengers roaming the streets the city would have been almost deserted.

Chet

Monday, 1/11/10

9:10AM

First Visitors of the season

Leslie, Chris and the kids, Spencer and Kendall arrived yesterday afternoon in a caravan of two cars, They brought our car down with them. The weather yesterday was beautiful but the cold front that is sweeping the East Coast arrived here this morning; 25-30 knot winds, cold rain and rapidly falling temperatures. We visited the Turtle Hospital this morning and had planned to go to the Dolphin Research Center this afternoon but the weather is just not right for a visit to the dolphins. Some pictures (1) all of us at lunch today at LazyDays Restaurant at Marathon Marina; very good food (2)The sunset Thursday evening; a really pretty sky.

Current plan is to drive down to Key West tomorrow.

Chet

Saturday

1/10/10

1:13 PM