Lazy Lakes RV Park, Sugarloaf, FL:  Merry Christmas!  A nice warm day today.  We had our Christmas dinner over at the clubhouse today.  Captain Bill deep fried 4 turkeys and Donna and Marty cooked up a ham.  Everyone brought a dish.  We had some really good food and desserts.  Our French Canadian friends brought a meat pie which is a specialty in their area.  That was really good!  No drinking or dancing today, since I danced my brains out and drank too much last night. 

My candle burns at both ends, it will not last the night; But ah my foes and oh my friends, it gives a lovely light.

Lazy Lakes RV Park, Sugarloaf, FL:  Another beautiful, sunny day today.  As long as you were in the sun anyway.  Went to the Galley Grill for breakfast.  Got talking to a guy there who works at the Blimp Base.  I’d heard stories about the blimp getting loose.  Once they had to scramble some jets and shoot it down.  They had tried to recover it with a 94-foot Coast Guard cutter, but it actually started lifting the cutter out of the water.  So they shot it down and then recovered it.  Interesting guy.  He told us about a hike to check out.  Left there and went to Winn Dixie to pick up some stuff for tonight’s cocktail party and tomorrow’s Christmas dinner.  Got a big tray of shrimp for the cocktail party and a pumpkin pie and this interesting looking lemon/cranberry/walnut cream cake.  It looks like a circle of Christmas trees.  Hope it tastes as good as it looks.  On the way home from the grocery store we found the trail that the blimp guy, Dennis, told us about.  It’s way at the end of a road on Summerland Key on the bay side.  You walk this trail for a short time and come to an old bridge over to another island that used to be a fish camp.  The approach to the bridge is gone, so you have to climb up this thing—walking through the water a little to get to it.  I didn’t want to get my boots wet, so we didn’t go over there, but we’ll go back.  We just sat and enjoyed the pretty vista.  There are several really nice homes on this road lost in all the vegetation.  The only glimpse you get is going by the gated driveways.  Back home and were sitting outside reading and Dale, one of the maintenance guys, and Dave, the park manager, came over and told us to park in the site across the road from our site. This came direct from the owner, Joe!  We had been parking in front of our kingpin but had a hard time getting totally off the road.  And there was some guy who put his truck in there and then left on a trip or something.  So, somehow Dale got the truck going and put it over in the guy’s site.  They even made a sign and put it on the site saying that it’s reserved parking for Craig and Mike.  How special is that?  70 today.

At the trail head--a great place to put in a kayak

Nice view along the trail

Mike contemplating the old bridge

You have to wade out to the rocks and then climb up the right piling via the spikes--yikes!

The water is crystal clear.

Our parking digs

Gotta love the sign!

Lazy Lakes RV Park, Sugarloaf, FL:  A beautiful, sunny day today.  After finishing up my “to do” list, I sat outside for a while in shorts.  Ray and Jo stopped by with their dog, Munch.  Sat around talking with them for a while and the wind picked up and I had to go in and change into sweats and a sweatshirt.  After they left we sat outside a little longer but were driven inside by the chill wind. Charlie and Johanne stopped by later with a Christmas prize—home-made cookies and donuts.  Really good!  The huge fish we saw in the lake the other day we found out was a barracuda.  Haven’t seen the grouper yet—or the shark.  Think it was in the high 60s today. 

A fuzzy picture, but the people with the parrots across the lake from us--all decked out

Wed, 12/22/10:

Lazy Lakes RV Park, Sugarloaf, FL:  A nice sunny day.  Drove to Big Pine to do the laundry and grocery shopping.  After that was done we stopped at Pizza Works for a couple of slices of pizza.  When we got back and were pulling in to Lazy Lakes there was a huge Alegro Bay motor home just coming in.  They’re across the lake from us.  Put everything away and then walked around the lake.  Stopped at Charlie and Johanne’s, our Canadian friends.  Only meant to stay a minute but ended up staying a couple of hours.  Their site is beautiful and all decorated for Christmas.  They even put up a REAL, fully-decorated tree inside their screen room.  Back home and watched our latest Netflix, “Infamous”—an interesting movie about Truman Capote and the effects that writing “In Cold Blood” had on him and his life. 73 today.  The next two weeks looks pretty grim though (sigh).

Tiki bar in Charlie and Johanne's site

Comfy digs in their screen room.  Now there's a fully decorated Christmas tree in there.  There's also a TV in there.

Tue, 12/21/10:


Lazy Lakes RV Park, Sugarloaf, FL:  A beautiful day today.  Could have been a little warmer, but I was outside in shorts.  Mike slept in this morning since he was up half the night with the lunar eclipse.  In the evening we went to see The Nutcracker Ballet at the Tennessee Williams Theater.  It was done “Key West style”.  Instead of a German couple’s house, it takes place in Key West in 1861 at the home of Mayor Patterson.  Some of the visitors were the Curry’s and Rear Admiral Stribbling and his wife.  It took place in the garden of this home.  There were palms and mangroves, and one scene took place in the salt ponds.  Instead of the battle with the mice, it was the battle with baby Key West chickens.  And the costumes on these kids were wonderful.  The chicks were these little white fluffy feathery things.  And this whole production really showcased the talents of the Key West children.  In the second act, instead of taking place in a forest wonderland, it takes place on a reef beneath the turquoise waters of Key West.  Clara and her Prince go down in a diving bell.  And then they have a bunch of angel fish (the little kids again in these really cute costumes) being chased by a barracuda.  Oh, and in one of the first scenes with the Prince he has a conch shell on his head instead of a crown.  It was a really professionally done production with its own Key West flavor.  The little kids did such a good job.  They must work on it all year.  Some of the kids were only like 3 or 4.   In all the years we’ve been coming down here, this was the first time we had seen it. Stopped by the clubhouse to see if anyone was around.  All quiet, so we went home. 

The Rooster Kings

The dance of the snowy egrets

Mon, 12/20/10:


Lazy Lakes RV Park, Sugarloaf, FL:  Cloudy and cool most of the day.  We headed to Key West around noon.  We couldn’t park in the lot near the Eco Center because a bunch of rides are being set up for some festival this weekend.  But we were able to park in a lot near there.  Walked through Truman Annex and at the corner of Eaton and Whitehead we parted ways—me going to the Tropic to see “Black Swan” and Mike off to the Key West Speedway to do some racing.  I thought Black Swan was going to be about ballet—well it was, but it was also a psycho slasher movie.  I had to keep looking away.  And a guy sitting behind me somewhere kept exclaiming “…oh my god”.  Was glad when it was over.  Left the movie and walked outside into brilliant sunshine.  Started walking down Whitehead to meet up with Mike.  A lot of people around because there were two cruise ships in.  And a lot of them were very scantily dressed-- looking longingly at my Polartec jacket.  Got down to the Speedway and Mike was really happy because he came in first on four races and got a free race for each win.  He was a very busy guy.  After his last race we walked back to where we parked and headed back.  Instead of going home we drove over to the KOA for our first happy hour.  Floyd and Terry had gotten in earlier, so it was good to see them.  Had one drink and then we all headed to Boondocks for wings.  Well, they had wings—I had chili.  Chili in a sour dough bread boat.  Really good!   We were all talking about the lunar eclipse that was going to happen in the early hours of Tuesday morning.  I took two Benedryl and went to bed when we got back  Mike stayed up though and went out at 1:30 and stayed for the whole event.  Sandy and John were out there also.  Think it only made it to the upper 60s today.

Former Admiral's House--Truman Annex, Key West

The Banyon--Whitehead St., Key West

Lazy Lakes RV Park, Sugarloaf, FL:  Started out nice this morning.  Charlie stopped over with his dog, Maple.  Talked with him for a while.  Mike went off to get a paper and I did all the cleaning.  Sat outside reading for a while.  Saw a huge fish in our lake.  It wasn’t the grouper.  Not sure what it was.  And Fat Albert was really low again for the second day in a row.  Not sure what’s going on there.  Cooled off later on and we moved inside.  Had an eye of the round roast, mashed potatoes, and a vegetable for dinner.  Maybe 70 today. 

Fat Albert, the spy blimp