Are we having fun yet? 
Cousin Ed and Karen waiting for the launch to take us to Little Palm Island
Lunch on the veranda at Little Palm Island.
On Sunday we attended two art shows here in Marathon. The one held at the Community Park was the Pigeon Key Art Festival, a large show made up of the works of 200 invited juried artists from around the country. This show benefited Pigeon Key, the historic island off of the Seven Mile Bridge, which is a museum made up of buildings that served as the workers' campsite during the building of Henry Flagler's railroad to Key West in the early 1900s. The second smaller show, affectionately known as "Pigeon Poop", featured the work of local Keys artists and was held in the Kmart parking lot.
The talent demonstrated at both events in various media was wonderful, and Pat purchased a lovely silver and stone pendant at the larger show. When we returned to the boat, we made preparations for our Super Bowl celebration of various snacks and drinks followed by a pre-game grilled sparerib dinner. George and Ed enjoyed watching the game with an ice cream break at half-time, while Pat and Karen read.
We received an exciting phone call on Monday morning from our friend, Helen Dambroski, to tell us that her daughter and Pat's god-daughter, Lori Lacks, had given birth to a healthy baby boy, Jon Charles Lacks. Thankfully everything went well, and we look forward to meeting this new little sailor soon.
At lunch-time we headed to "Cabana Breezes" in Key Colony Beach. Our meal was delicious and the table side view on the Atlantic Ocean was lovely on this beautiful sunny day. Later on, we took Ed and Karen on a 3 hour tour of the Gulf, Atlantic Ocean shoreline, and Boot Key Harbor here in Marathon aboard "Reflection". In the evening we went to dinner at the "Key Colony Inn" where we feasted on Italian food in their piano bar. The piano player eventually stopped and chatted with us, and we learned that he, too, had been a music educator like Pat, and that he lived aboard his sailboat in the harbor.
The talent demonstrated at both events in various media was wonderful, and Pat purchased a lovely silver and stone pendant at the larger show. When we returned to the boat, we made preparations for our Super Bowl celebration of various snacks and drinks followed by a pre-game grilled sparerib dinner. George and Ed enjoyed watching the game with an ice cream break at half-time, while Pat and Karen read.
We received an exciting phone call on Monday morning from our friend, Helen Dambroski, to tell us that her daughter and Pat's god-daughter, Lori Lacks, had given birth to a healthy baby boy, Jon Charles Lacks. Thankfully everything went well, and we look forward to meeting this new little sailor soon.
At lunch-time we headed to "Cabana Breezes" in Key Colony Beach. Our meal was delicious and the table side view on the Atlantic Ocean was lovely on this beautiful sunny day. Later on, we took Ed and Karen on a 3 hour tour of the Gulf, Atlantic Ocean shoreline, and Boot Key Harbor here in Marathon aboard "Reflection". In the evening we went to dinner at the "Key Colony Inn" where we feasted on Italian food in their piano bar. The piano player eventually stopped and chatted with us, and we learned that he, too, had been a music educator like Pat, and that he lived aboard his sailboat in the harbor.
Little Palm Island was our destination on Tuesday for a lunch celebrating Ed's retirement last Fall from his sales job at MBIA. We had a lovely afternoon there, but we did not see any Key deer as we had on previous occasions, probably because the winds had picked up and the deer couldn't swim there or were hiding. When we returned to the boat, George and Ed started to watch the first episodes from the complete "MASH" T.V. series DVD collection the Pat had given George for Christmas. Dinner that evening was fried chicken, spareribs, and salads on our back deck accompanied by cocktails and lots of jokes, laughs, and stories.
The Weather Channel got a work-out on our T.V. and computer on Wednesday as we tracked the snow-storm that was hitting the Mid-Atlantic States since Ed and Karen were scheduled on a flight from Miami to Newark tomorrow morning.
This storm was predicted to dump a lot more snow on our home in Brick which already had experienced a large storm only a few days before. Ed kept in touch by phone with friends up north between watching the computer and T.V. reports and additional "MASH" episodes with George. Their last dinner here was at "Porky's" for ribs and shrimp accompanied by Keys tunes performed by local musician, "Rocketman".
We all got up at 5 a.m. and were on our way to Miami Airport at 5:45 a.m., but the drive there took us 3 hours because of the heavy morning traffic going into Miami. We said quick good-byes to Ed and Karen when we dropped them off with hopes that their flight would actually go off on time.
Since we had made a 120 mile trip up there, we decided to take advantage of the fact that there was a Costco and a Walmart in the Kendall area. We had breakfast and then did some shopping for items at those stores that are not available in the Keys, since these stores are not located down here at all.
While driving back down to Marathon, we were glad to receive a phone call from Ed saying that they had arrived in Newark safely and on time. Upon our return here in the afternoon we had a late lunch at "Herbie's", followed by a quiet night aboard.
Friday and Saturday found us catching up on laundry, mail, lots of boat chores, locating and filling out tax information, making many phone calls, and working on the details of a American Great Loop Cruisers Association "Sunset Celebration" party that we are hosting here at Banana Bay on Friday, 2/19. We also heard from our down-the-street neighbor from home, Charlie Haws, who was making plans to come to Banana Bay in early March. We'll be delighted to see him and his lovely wife, Pat, as well as Lou and Judy Ianniello, who called to tell us that they will also be returning to see us here later on that month!
The Weather Channel got a work-out on our T.V. and computer on Wednesday as we tracked the snow-storm that was hitting the Mid-Atlantic States since Ed and Karen were scheduled on a flight from Miami to Newark tomorrow morning.
This storm was predicted to dump a lot more snow on our home in Brick which already had experienced a large storm only a few days before. Ed kept in touch by phone with friends up north between watching the computer and T.V. reports and additional "MASH" episodes with George. Their last dinner here was at "Porky's" for ribs and shrimp accompanied by Keys tunes performed by local musician, "Rocketman".
We all got up at 5 a.m. and were on our way to Miami Airport at 5:45 a.m., but the drive there took us 3 hours because of the heavy morning traffic going into Miami. We said quick good-byes to Ed and Karen when we dropped them off with hopes that their flight would actually go off on time.
Since we had made a 120 mile trip up there, we decided to take advantage of the fact that there was a Costco and a Walmart in the Kendall area. We had breakfast and then did some shopping for items at those stores that are not available in the Keys, since these stores are not located down here at all.
While driving back down to Marathon, we were glad to receive a phone call from Ed saying that they had arrived in Newark safely and on time. Upon our return here in the afternoon we had a late lunch at "Herbie's", followed by a quiet night aboard.
Friday and Saturday found us catching up on laundry, mail, lots of boat chores, locating and filling out tax information, making many phone calls, and working on the details of a American Great Loop Cruisers Association "Sunset Celebration" party that we are hosting here at Banana Bay on Friday, 2/19. We also heard from our down-the-street neighbor from home, Charlie Haws, who was making plans to come to Banana Bay in early March. We'll be delighted to see him and his lovely wife, Pat, as well as Lou and Judy Ianniello, who called to tell us that they will also be returning to see us here later on that month!
Life is good!!!
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