Islamorada And The Keys

It has been great being down in the Keys again this winter.  A lot of the same people are at the marina that were here last year and also a few new ones.  Lot of great people.

We went to the restaurant Hog Heaven and they have a small bay in front of the outdoor dining area.  Boats come in and dock and have something to eat and leave.  In the evening they have underwater lights and it makes it real easy to see the fish swimming around.  People will toss in French fries and chicken wings and the fish make a mad dash for the food.  I am not sure how good it is for them but they keep eating it.

Daughter Donna and her husband Jon were down right after New Years for a long weekend.  It was great to have them and we all went to the Dolphin Research Center on Grassy Key north of Marathon for the shows.  They demonstrate their communication skills with the Dolphins and have the dolphins do various routines.  We did not go for Swimming with the Dolphins but there was a fairly large group of ladies that were right next to where we were sitting that went in the water and had the dolphins pull them around.  They also do animal rescues in the Keys for manatees and sea lions that get into trouble.  A good show on protecting the animals in the keys.

After the Dolphin Research Center we went to Marathon for lunch on the patio of the Key Fisheries Restaurant.  Great view of Florida Bay and the weather was clear and bright.  Got some good pictures of the pelicans there.

I also have pictures of what I called the Ghost Ship. It is a large wooden yacht that is originally from Michigan.  They needed to fumigate it to get rid of termites.  You might be able to see Orkin on the red tarps.  Sure was a strange site to see a boat covered in tarps floating.

This last Sunday the park had a Bluegrass Festival.  Quite a show that was pretty well attended.  They also had vendor booths where you could by food and souvenirs.  Not necessarily my kind of music but kind of fun to listen to when Candy and I were out walking.  You can see some of the festivities in the pictures.  They were supposed to end at 6:00 but they were still playing at 8:30 when Candy and I went out for her last walk of the day.

Beautiful day today and we took a road trip to Marathon to see if we could track down Pete and Carolyn from the boat Humbug.  Well we did find them and spent some time just catching up on things as we had not seen them for about 6 weeks while they were going home and an assortment of other visiting.  They are doing well and it was good to see them again.