Residence on Caroline St.; Key West

Wed, 12/26/07

Sugarloaf Key: Went for a walk this morning. Came back and made smoothies for breakfast. Relaxed and read my book—“Alaska” by Michener. A great read. Another beautiful day. 80s. Left-overs for dinner.

Brown Pelican--Historic Seaport, Key West

Tue, 12/25/07

Sugarloaf Key: Christmas day. Baked cranberry/orange bread to take over to the Christmas dinner today. Frosted the chocolate cake. Cleaned. At 3:00 we headed over. Sat with our friends Floyd and Betty from California and Marty and Donna from Michigan. They are both full-timers now. Had a great meal and then after cleaning up a bunch of us played Jokers. We were on the third game and the power went off. Guess it was out in the entire Keys. At least that’s what one of the guys said. Of course everyone was three sheets to the wind by then. Then someone started the rumor that the seven-mile bridge collapsed. That would be great because we’d be stuck here for a few years. When the power didn’t show signs of coming back on soon, we went over to Floyd and Betty’s campsite and played Spades for a while. Another beautiful day—in the 80s. A great Christmas. Late night.

Tall Ship Liberty Clipper--Historic Seaport, Key West

Mon, 12/24/07

Sugarloaf Key: Made a chocolate cake today to take to the Christmas dinner at the club house. Relaxed around the campsite after that. Talked to our friends David and Steven on the phone. Haven’t talked to them since we left St. Louis. Had baked chicken breasts for dinner.

Tarpon -- Wharf area in Key West

(about 6 ft. long!)

Drinks at B.O.'s Fish Shack

Pepe's Cafe--Oldest eating establishment in Key West

Sugarloaf Key: Decided to go into Key West this afternoon—to the historic seaport area. Walked around the wharf area for a while. A guy from one of the wharf-side restaurants was feeding the tarpon. These things are huge—6 ft. long. After walking around for a while we stopped at B.O.’s Fish Shack and had a drink. Then walked over to Pepe’s Café for dinner. We both had mahi mahi. Really good. Then we drove around Duval to check out the Christmas decorations. Pretty impressive. A beautiful night with a full moon. Still in the 70s at 8:00. Love it.

Iguana in our campsite

Sugarloaf Key: Another beautiful day. We went out to breakfast at Captain Crossbones and then headed to the flea market on Big Pine Key. Bought some more books, a cheese knife, some tomatoes, and I got some tees and a cute knit top. Came back and relaxed the rest of the day. Mike watched the Missouri/Illinois basketball game (yawn) and I watched a movie in the bedroom.

Our campsite

Sugarloaf Key: Didn’t do much today. Went for a walk this morning. Couldn’t sleep last night and I ended up taking a couple of Tylenol PM which always leaves me wasted the next day. So we just hung out. We were going to go to the pig roast at Boondocks but it started raining in the afternoon. Did some computer stuff. Played Jokers over at the clubhouse with a bunch of people.

Only in the Keys...

Sugarloaf Key: Went for a walk this morning. Then drove to Summerlin Key and bought a pretty bougainvillea for our site. Hung out and read for a while. An iguana came by. Hope he doesn’t eat my new plant. I took a picture last night of our favorite Christmas decoration in the Keys. It’s on Harris Channel and these three houses each have about a 15 foot “HO” on their house. So, as you come near and cross Harris Channel you see this “HO HO HO”. The picture didn’t come out that great. But, only in the Keys.