January 1, 2015 Day of chores

Thursday, January 1, 2015

HAPPY 2015 EVERYONE


Lazy day..... Christina and Brandon left at 445 am after saying our good byes Mike and I went back to bed for a few more hours.

After breakfast we had to close up the RV and empty our gray and black tanks, (REALLY full with 4 people in coach for 5 days) and refill fresh water.  I picked up a little bit and Mike setup the outside for dinner.  I then made blackeye peas for dinner.  Amy and Jeff showed up around 4 and we went down to the pier at Truman Annex to see the sunset.  We didn't have much of one but the sidewalk art was a pleasant surprise.  Came back and the boys grilled the pork chops.  The rest of the meal consisted of blackeye peas, green beans, cornbread and applesauce.  We all are going to start this year out right!!!!!

Jeff and Amy hung out till about 830 and returned to their campground.  They are heading up to Long Key State Park for 1 day and we will meet up with them on Saturday at John Pennekamp State Park for the following 3 days before we leave the Keys.

Weather has still been great and we are all glad that we are not up North.  We may not go back to Virginia!!!!  LOL

Tomorrow is a day on our own so Mike and I are going to go out to the reef in a glass bottom boat.

Stay tuned......................pat

Jeff and Amy sitting in a 3D chalk art boat

Us doing the same

More Chalk Art

New Years Day sunset was a bust because of the clouds

New Years Dinner

And our Blackeye Peas

December 31, 2014 New Years Eve

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Today is the last day of the year and we really didn't have any major plans except to get up with Jeff and Amy for dinner tonight and to hang out at their KOA campsite on Sugarloaf Key.

We ventured out in town today to see the Key West Lighthouse, to go by Brandon's school to be as they are transferring down here for 3 years. We also stopped by the post office to mail out some postcards and as an after thought stopped by the Key West Key Lime Pie Co.  Picked up a pie for dinner tonight. But on the way out to town we found some of the chickens I was telling you about and finally got some photos.

We headed out for Jeff and Amy's around 3:30 and arrived at Jeff and Amy's a little after 4. Jeff had fished in the morning and caught a nice Amber Jack and a couple of Grunt fish. He served those to us for dinner and the Amber Jack was very tasty and was a little like Tuna. We had Rice, Black beans and peas to round out the meal. Brandon provided some spices from the Spice and Tea shop we visited the other day and he mixed those with olive oil and we dipped bread in it as a before meal treat.

After dinner Brandon sat in Jeff and Amy' couch and watched a movie while we moved over to the pool area to listen to the band and have a few drinks and we broke out the Key Lime Pie. The pie was the best either Pat or I have ever had. We knew we wouldn't last until midnight so we packed it in around 9:30 and headed back to our RV.

Christina and Brandon started packing up their truck for an early morning departure and then we all went to bed. Brandon and I watched a little TV until just after the ball dropped then shut off the lights.

Wandering chickens in housing

He is a handsome one

Look closely one rooster in the street

Banyan trees

Mike, Pat, Chris and Brandon at top of lighthouse

Zinga a portuguese water dog

View from the KOA beach

New mode of transportation--seems dangerous to me-he is holding onto his buddy

Sunset at KOA

Sunset at KOA

Dinner caught by Jeff

December 30, 2014 Visiting Ernest Hemingway's House, Bars and shopping

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Weather has been wonderful in the low 80's during the day and 70's at night.

Our day started out with Christina making all of us egg sandwiches for breakfast.  Then we were off.

Before meeting up with Jeff and Amy we decided to ride our bikes down to Mallory Square to visit The Spice & Tea Exchange.  Brandon and I  were in heaven.  There was so many spices, salts, sugars and teas it was so hard to choose.  I came away with about 6 new spices and Brandon came away with his own choices of 1 spice and 1 tea.  Lady at the shop offered us ladies a job!!!! LOL  We then returned to the base, dropped off the bikes and had lunch.

After lunch we went to tour Ernest Hemingway's house and to see the famous 6 toes cats cats.  At this time there are 51 cats all descendents of the original ones.  Most of these cats do have the 6 toes. They all seemed to be laid back and quite calm with all of the tourists that visit each day.  The house had island charm to it.
We left the house to meet up with Jeff and Amy who had already started on Jeff's wish list of visiting certain bars.  Mike wanted to go to Sloppy Joe's as this is the bar that Hemingway hung out in.We ran into 3 couples from Indian Cove who we knew were coming to Key West too.  Before sunset we went back to Mallory Square.  This is were the cruise ships come in.  It is a big Square with many vendors.  There were jugglers, a pig doing tricks, acrobats and a musician with his dog collecting tips.  Then the sunset, wow, they are right the sunsets are beautiful.  As it was getting dark Jeff had a few more places left on his list.  Brandon did some shopping on his own and came up with some Harry Potter jelly beans. He passed some to Paw Paw and Nana. Nana thinks that she got the worse one.  It was labeled earthworms....disgusting!!!!!  Everyone had a really good laugh.  We ate at Schooner Wharf which I thought was very good.  It was about 8:30 and we said goodnight to Jeff and Amy and walked back to the base totally exhausted.  Here are some of the names of the bars we visited:  Fat Tuesday's, Irish Kevin's, Sloppy Joes's, Hog's Breath Saloon and Schooner Wharf.  Jeff and Amy had started at Margaritaville. Not too bad for 1 day.  We will see how our heads feel in the morning.  I know that I was in bed by 9:30 and the rest of the gang followed shortly after.

Until tomorrow............................pat

These are cats that have passed away...recognize anyone

Hemingway's master bedroom

View of lighthouse across street taken from balcony

Beautiful landscape

Meeting with friends on street Jerry & Mark...Ladies were in the bar

Jameson Irish Whiskey

Decorated for Christmas

Schooner's

Awful jelly beans

Only way I am going to afford truffles

Brandon and Snorkel the pig

Beautiful  sunset from Mallory Square

December 29, 2014 A walking tour of Key West

We finally got to tour Key West. We are staying at the Trumbo Point Annex of the Key West Naval Air Station and the Key West Coast Guard Station is attached. We can walk or ride our bikes out of the Coast Guard pedestrian gate, which is opened from 5am to 11pm. From there it is just a few blocks from downtown Key West.

We took our bikes out to see how far it really was to town and everyone was correct. It was 4 blocks to the docks and stores and then a few more to the end of Duval Street. We visited a few of the shops and also saw some giant Tarpon along the pier. We started to hit the tourist areas and parked our bikes in front of The Hard Rock Cafe. We left the bikes there and walked around town for the rest of the afternoon. It decided to rain a little but we weathered through it being glad it wasn't the frozen type of precipitation.

We met up with Jeff and Amy and walked to the Southernmost Point Buoy and took pictures. We visited Wyland's Gallery and Pat dreamed of owning some of his sculptures. After our walk around town we headed back to the campground and had hamburgers and drank a little. Jeff and Amy headed back to Bahia Honda and we closed up for the evening and awaited our 3:30 am wake up call from the local roosters.

More tomorrow......Mike

Jeff and Amy at Southernmost Point