4/1 - 4/12/10 - Marathon, Florida

On Thursday afternoon we met Ken Farthing and his wife, Diane, who had just flown down from Atlanta, for a late lunch at the "Hurricane" Restaurant, and then we walked over to their marina at Blackfin Resort next door to Banana Bay. There we got to meet Bob, their beautiful Great Dane, who is indeed formidable in size, but mild in temperament. He is Ken's boating companion, and when he stands up they meet eye to eye!

We attended a Cruisers' Meeting at the Marathon Yacht Club on Good Friday evening, and met several member couples who were seated at our table for dinner afterwards. The Commodore introduced us to all the attendees, and some suggested that Pat have the job of leading the singing of the National Anthem at the monthly outdoor Flag ceremony on a regular basis after hearing her sing it earlier in the evening.

On Saturday morning we headed north to Naples, to visit with our friends and next-door neighbors, Ernie and Kay, for Easter week-end. We always have a great time with them, and their hospitality is outstanding. We had dinner at "Su's Restaurant" with them and our other neighbors, Tony and Evelyn, who were still in the Naples area at their winter rental. After dinner we went back to Tony and Ev's for a game and dessert.

Easter Sunday was warm and beautiful, and again the Mass at St. Agnes Church was a most moving service. The music ministry at this church is far above the norm, and the talent of both the choir and the soloists is breath-taking. Father Bob, the pastor and Mass celebrant, was assisted by a Deacon who was 95 years old! Florida living certainly agrees with him!! We had dinner that afternoon at a country club with Larry and Joyce Santangelo, who are our former neighbors, along with another couple, the Gallaghers. After dinner we all headed back to Ernie and Kay's house where we were introduced to the game of " Train Dominoes", which we played for several hours. We were definitely the novices at this game, which seems to be widely popular in Florida currently, and luckily the group had pity on us, so we did not place bets as is usually the case. Kay gave us a game to take with us to practice on, and by the time we get home we expect to be ready for some great games on our back decks this summer.
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The three great explorers; Tony, Ernie, and George landing on Marco Island

A pod of Dolphins surrounding a school of fish - it is lunch time.

The great white hunter with his catch of the day.

On Monday morning Ernie and Kay took Tony and Evelyn and us out on their boat. It was a beautiful day, and Ernie beached the boat on a lovely island spot off of Marco Inlet. We brought our beach chairs, umbrellas, drinks, and sandwiches, and even Casper, their dog came! We had a lovely afternoon with dolphin swimming along the beach, and Tony, the avid fisherman, found a conch in the water right next to the boat. Later that evening Kay had a wonderful sparerib dinner for everyone, but after this weekend of sun and fun no one's body could accommodate any more desserts!

We headed back to Marathon on Tuesday, and spent the next several days doing boat chores, cleaning, paying bills, etc. On Friday afternoon we had phone call from our long-time friends, Charlie and Helen. When we asked where they were, they said that they had spent several days in Key West, and were at Bahia Honda State Park, not very far from here. They asked if they could stop by, and since we had not seen them since they traveled with us on the boat from Chicago to St. Louis in September we were delighted to be able to see them! It turned out that they had been trying to reach us on our boat phone (which we had not been using here) instead of our cell phone. When they arrived we invited them to stay aboard for the night and to have dinner with us at the Marathon Yacht Club that evening. They happily agreed to do so! We were also going to meet our friends, Werner and Grace, for dinner along with other friends, Tom and Diane Kellers, who had driven down from northwest Florida to stay with the Lohmanns, and to visit with us for the week-end. All eight of us had been members of the Bristol Sailing Club some 30 + years ago, so it was a great surprise reunion!
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Charlie and Helen

Tom

Werner

On Saturday we took all of them out for a ride on the Gulf and through Boot Key Harbor with lunch on "Reflection". It was probably our warmest day on the water, and we were grateful for the light breeze which came up later. After we returned to the dock, Charlie and Helen decided that they would return to their winter condo in Fort Lauderdale after our great "spur of the moment" 24 hour visit together, and the other two couples headed back to the Lohmanns' house to relax before our dinner together scheduled there for later that evening. We had a great time sharing stories and catching up with each others' lives over cocktails, a delicious dinner, wines, and dessert. We even talked by speaker- phone to Judy Hagerstrom, a very special person to all of us who lives in Lancaster, Virginia. It was terrific being together again!
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Opening of the Southernmost Air Spectacular

Blue Angels at the ready.

Team RV Airshow planes - they are all home built.

C17 Globemaster

F18 Hornet

101st Airborne "Screaming Eagles"

"Fat Albert", The Blue Angels support aircraft

The Blue Angels flight leader heading for the runway.

Diamond formation.

Passing review

Flying just a few feet apart

Up and over, down and around

Fleur de Lis

At attention after the performance.
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On Sunday we attended the Air Show at the Naval Air Station in Boca Cheeca, where the Navy's Blue Angels were the special guests. The show was very-well programmed and we saw a constant flow of air-craft of all types from many different eras from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. We had great seats right in front, and from our pictures you can see that we were close to the action, and that we really needed the ear-plugs they gave to us as we entered!

Monday was "Packing Day" as we are heading home tomorrow after almost 4 months away to check on Pat's mother and our house, to keep some doctor/dentist appointments, and to see Pat's brother, our nephew, Ken and his wife, Nancy, and any friends we can connect with on this short stay. On our drive north we will also visit George's sister, Pat, and our brother-in-law, Al, and nephew, Chris, and his wife, Angela, with their children who all live in Richmond, Virginia. We will be flying back to Marathon on 4/25 to continue the last part of our "Loop" journey up the east coast. Though we have absolutely loved our sojourn here in the Keys, it is time for "Reflection" to be on the move again, and for our wonderful adventure to continue!

3/22 - 3/31/10 - Marathon, Florida

Our new neighbor.

Lou and Judy, at sea again.

Evelyn and Tony go for a boat ride.

Pat and George at Cheeca Lodge

Snorkeling at Sombrero Light. Look at the bottom of the photo, those ghostly images are Yellow Tail Snapper.

Karen as a mermaid!

George, Jamie, and Karen

Pat's cousin, Karen, and her husband, Jamie.

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Our friends and neighbors, Tony and Evelyn, joined us and Lou and Judy here at Banana Bay on Monday. They drove down here from the Naples area where they have been renting a condo for the past few months and they booked a room at the hotel at the resort. After they checked in, we all had lunch aboard "Reflection". Later in the afternoon, we had a stone crab and steamed shrimp "Happy Hour" at a picnic table underneath one of the tiki huts, and we were also joined there by Lou and Judy's friends, Terry and Caroline also from New Jersey, who were staying at lovely Cheeca Lodge in Islamorada. We still all managed to have room for dinner that evening at "Cabana Breezes" over-looking the ocean in Key Colony Beach.

After a light breakfast aboard, we took our friends out on the boat for a 4 hour tour of the Gulf and Boot Key Harbor. We all had an enjoyable ride and returned to the slip early enough that we could take naps before going out for the evening. Both couples were our guests for cocktails and dinner at the Marathon Yacht Club, and Lou and Judy even purchased club shirts and a burgee in anticipation of joining us at some point here in Marathon aboard their own boat!

Tony and Evelyn had to return to Naples early on Wednesday morning, so Lou and Judy relaxed at the beach and fielded work phone calls, while George took care of solving some boat toilet issues, which he and Lou eventually conferred about in our aft cabin with clean-up assistance provided by Pat. We joined Terry and Caroline later that evening at Cheeca Lodge for cocktails in their beautiful bar/restaurant on the beach overlooking the Atlantic, and then we all went to the "Islamorada Fish Company" for a wonderful seafood dinner on the Gulf. The food was delicious, and the company delightful!

The next morning Lou and Judy left us after a tour of "Blue Chip", a beautiful, pristine 55' Novatec, which is for sale and is located in the slip next to us. Lou is holding out hope that they will find a boat to put in a slip here in Banana Bay next winter, and this vessel would certainly be a wonderful candidate. Pat spent a busy morning washing bed linens and towels so the guest cabin would be ready for her cousin, Karen, and her husband, Jamie, who were joining us aboard today for a few days. They flew down from Maryland to Fort Lauderdale, and arrived around 4 p.m. We had stone crabs, shrimp, and other appetizers to welcome their arrival, and then had Chinese take-out for dinner so that they could relax after their long day of flying and driving.

Jamie and Karen are fitness buffs, and Jamie and their two sons, are members of a running club in their area, where they participate in races of various sorts. Jamie is in training for a triathalon, so he and Karen took the opportunity to run on a pedestrian section of the old Seven Mile Bridge here in Marathon. Later in the day they relaxed at the pool, and we had a lovely dinner at the "Key Colony Inn", accompanied by tunes played by Peter, the piano bar pianist.

On Saturday morning Jamie and Karen headed to the local dive shop to rent snorkel equipment, since the conditions were good for us to take "Reflection" out to Sombrero Reef for snorkeling. There are permanent moorings installed at the reef to which vessels can safely tie their lines rather than anchoring and possibly damaging the coral. When we got out there, George, Jamie, and Karen put on their wetsuits, fins, masks, and snorkels and jumped in, while Pat stood watch with binoculars to make sure that no Portuguese Man of Wars were near them. We saw two as we approached the area, and from a previous personal painful experience, George didn't want anyone to get stung.

Pat didn't mind staying up on the fly-bridge, since conditions have to be as calm as a bath-tub for her to participate in swimming activities. After an hour in the ocean spent snorkeling on the reef and feeding bread to the multitude of fish, the swimmers got on board and we got "Reflection" underway for a ride through Boot Key Harbor and the Gulf.

We arrived back at the marina about 4 p.m. after over 6 hours of "sun and fun". That evening Jamie and Karen wanted to see a Keys sunset, which is very special, and we drove to the ramp area of the 7 Mile Bridge to see it, but in the end a cloud obscured the final view! We then went to the "Sunset Grille" which is a new restaurant directly on the Atlantic side of the bridge. The ambiance was great there, but unfortunately, our waitress' service was not. She seemed over-whelmed and quite disorganized, so the food and drinks were not delivered smoothly. We had a lot of fun anyway, and we'd still give the restaurant another chance at another time.

After an early breakfast we said a fond "good-bye" to the "cousins" after their too short visit. We then had a lunch date to meet our friend, Richard, and Sallyann and Andrew at "Lazy Dayz South". Richard and his wife, Carol, will be leaving in a week to spend some time in the Bahamas before he makes his way back up Florida's west coast, across the Panhandle, and up the rivers back to Tennessee. This was our last get-together with him before we hopefully all meet here again in Marathon next December. We had a fun lunch together, and got in our last hugs for a while.

On Monday evening we were invited to Werner and Grace Lohmann's lovely home here in the Sombrero area of town. There we met their friends, George and Jeannie, who also belong to the Marathon Yacht Club, and the Lohmanns' beautiful grand-daughters and two friends who were all spending their Spring Break here. We've known Werner and Grace since 1974, when we were all members of the Bristol Sailing Club, and we watched their children, Victor and Ingrid grow up. We had a great evening with the girls and the adults, and after a phone call was made to other old friends from the Bristol Sailing Club, Tom and Diane Kellers, who live in Northern Florida, we found out that they will be able to visit us here late next week!

On Wednesday night we hosted Andrew and Sallyann, and Ken Farthing from "Savannah II" here for cocktails and appetizers followed by pizza. We had a wonderful time sharing "Loop" stories, and planned to get together tomorrow when Ken's wife, Diane, will join him here from Atlanta. Ken is a great story-teller, and we look forward to meeting his Great Dane, Bob, who is his 170 lb. traveling companion!

3/15 - 3/21/10 - Marathon, Florida

Not all our visitors are human.

This lone manatee exploring the docks at Banana Bay must have been 6 to 7 feet long.

With a little imagination you can see a cloud plane flying by - and no, we weren't drunk when we took the picture.

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Our days here continued to fly by amid daily chores, shopping, meeting friends, and interesting marina happenings. On Monday Banana Bay was visited by a lone, large manatee who lingered here for several hours swimming between our boats and the docks. Everyone was thrilled to get a close-up view of this huge, gentle creature whose facial features really do make it look like a "sea-cow".

On Tuesday evening we took Sallyann and Andrew out to dinner at the Marathon Yacht Club for their respective birthdays along with our friend, Richard, the "guardian angel" who led us all safely down the Tenn-Tombigbee Waterway during the floods last November. Richard is a great story-teller and a true Southern gentleman, and we all had a delicious celebratory dinner while being regaled by his travel stories.

Thursday was our "dinner and theater" night. While not as glamorous as this might imply, we truly had a lot of fun! We had dinner at the bar of the "Hurricane" where it was "Wing Night". George happily consumed 20 hot chicken wings by himself, while Pat had a burger. Following this feast, we headed to the Marathon Community Theater for their production of "Guys and Dolls", one of Pat's favorite Broadway shows. The cast, to her delight, included some youngsters who performed as gamblers along with their fathers. They all did a fine job, and we went home humming some of the great tunes of the show.

All the boaters at the marina held a Pot-Luck Dinner at the picnic area of Banana Bay on Friday evening. There was an abundance of food, and lots of Planter's Punch to go around for everyone. After dinner, we all walked over to the resort's beach area for sunset, and "Lo and Behold", we got to observe our first sighting of the elusive "Green Flash", which we have been hoping to see for many years! Weather and atmospheric conditions have to be perfect in order to see this phenomenon, and we both got to see this pinpoint of green light together at the same moment, finally proving to George that Pat's effort to spot it while viewing a multitude of sunsets was not in vain!

Our friends, Lou and Judy, arrived late Sunday afternoon for their second visit to Banana Bay this season, and we were delighted to see them. The weather was perfect for them, and we enjoyed cocktails and dinner aboard on our outside deck that evening.