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| Finally a good day for the beach |
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| Bob and Mike enjoying the day |
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| MTOA Gathering at the beach |
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Granddaddy iguana and his
girlfriend
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| Fuel truck - over 3000 gallons delivered in all |
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| Super Bowl Sunday - yes a little cool on the dock |
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| Key Colony Beach |
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| Warm nice day |
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| Girls Day out - lunch and shopping |
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| Mike enjoying his bacon! |
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| Beautiful evening |
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| Great sunset |
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| Poker Run 2016! |
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| Choosing our cards |
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| Plenty of contenders for the Chili Cook Off! |
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| Gathering around the food! |
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| Judges hard at work |
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The winners!
Mike and Carolyn tied for first place!
Ricky came in a close second!
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| End to a beautiful day on the dock |
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| Hey Ricky - it's not a race! |
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| Bob and Katie taking it easy |
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| the two Poker Hand winners! |
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| Ray, Linda and Kellee trying to relax.... |
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| Storm a brewing |
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| Full moon over the harbor |
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| Doesn't get any better |
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| Party on the dock! |
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| Not sure but this could be our next adventure! |
While the weather hasn’t been the best this season (thanks to El Nino), we’ve still managed to enjoy ourselves. The month of January was pretty much rain, wind and cold temperatures. At least cold by Florida Keys standards. We had to pull out our jeans and sweatshirts! In fact, the dock parties were rather scarce because most of us were trying to stay dry and warm on our boats! Okay, I’m not really complaining because I know it’s worse up north; it’s just that most everything we do down here is conducive to good weather and we’ve just haven’t had what we have had in the past.
BUT like I said, we’ve still managed to enjoy ourselves. Here are a few highpoints of our time in the Keys so far. MTOA had a picnic on the beach one Sunday. It turned out to be a beautiful day - just a little windy. Too cool to get in the water although we saw several people attempting it. It was a good meal and a nice way to meet other boaters.
Several of us ladies have managed to do our weekly shopping and lunch outing. We also went to the Flea Market ( we call it the dirt mall) that is every weekend in Big Pine Key. There are always bargains to find there! Some of us also go to Line Dancing twice a week in Big Pine. I’m learning slowly! When the weather is nice enough Mike and I have walked the beach. I also have been going to Zumba. Of course, there’s docktails on the dock every night weather permitting. See there’s plenty here to keep us busy! Ha!
Mike took me out to dinner to LazyDays for my birthday. It’s a nice restaurant on the water. Although it was too chilly to enjoy the view. We made the best of it! The best key lime pie ever!
Our Super Bowl Party was on the dock again this year. Lots of food and lots of fun! The weather cooperated until the sun went down. Then most of us headed to our boats to watch the game. We had planned to have a TV outside to watch the game but it was just too cold and windy.
The weather does seem to be turning around a bit since January has passed and the manatee saw it’s shadow! Mike and I decided it was time to go to Key West. We’ve been here a few months now and we hadn’t been there yet. So off we went. We had a great day for it. Since it was a little cool, the crowd was not too bad. We had lunch at the Half Shell Bar on the water. Stopped in for a few beers and hit a few T-shirt shops. For Happy Hour we headed to the 2 Cent Bar. During Happy Hour this place sets out bacon on your table instead of peanuts, etc! You also throw the die (dice) for the cost of your drink. If you throw a one – you pay a dollar, two – you pay two dollars, three – you pay half price, four or up – you pay Happy Hour price. Pretty cool, huh! I threw ones, Mike threw fours – I guess it pretty much evened out. We’re coming back here again soon for lunch or dinner. The food looked really good!
On the way home from Key West we were just about to the 10 MM when we saw on the electronic highway sign that there was a major crash at MM 25. We knew that meant a long delay trying to get back to Marathon. Remember, there’s only one road in and one road out…. US 1 That’s it! SO we made a quick decision to turn into Bobalu’s Southern Cafe and wait out the traffic. We sat at the bar for a couple of hours. We were near the kitchen and kept seeing the food coming out. It looked so GOOD! Unfortunately we weren’t in the least bit hungry after chowing down on bacon. We are definitely coming back to this place. Most of the crowd was local and that’s always a good sign. Finally we could see the traffic was starting to move again so we headed back. We had timed it just right. We had no trouble getting back to Marathon. Hope everyone involved in the accident was okay.
Finally we had a good Saturday weatherwise and we were able to hold our Third Annual Dinghy Poker Run! What fun it is! Mike and I are the ones that got it started and now it seems that everyone really looks forward to it. We didn’t have quite the crowd that we had last year - probably because of the weather and the word just didn’t get out like last year. That’s okay we had about 20 dinghies! That’s plenty! Richard McGee won the pot for the best hand – 3 Queens - and I won the pot for the worst hand. Hey the biggest loser! But I was in the money! We all gathered back at the dock and enjoyed the great evening…. Probably a little too much for some of us. Ha!
Last night we had a Chili Cook Off on the dock. There were about a dozen contenders. Mike made his chili and tied for FIRST PLACE with Carolyn. Ricky came in a close second. Wow, there are many different styles of chili based on what regions they come from . I think I tried them all! All were very good! Thanks to our "judges" who had to make those difficult decisions. Ha!
Now we're looking to Friday when Bill and Patty (Conched Out Too) are cooking there world reknown Jambalaya! We do like to eat!
Till next time!
Admiral "C"
