12/3/0/2010 KEY WEST MEETS JAN, DEBI AND RICHARD

THURSDAY

TOTAL MILES TRAVELED TODAY: 0 NM

I woke up to find the text message that Jan, Debi and Richard had made it on the plane for the “red-eye” out of LAX to MIA and soon they were landing in Key West. They arrived at the marina in the “Oh so Jan and Debi” pink taxi with poor Richard schlepping the bags. These exhausted travelers never missed a beat and, after a coffee, hit the ground running.

WE'RE HERE, WE'RE HERE!

We wandered the streets, sticking our heads into the cutest establishments for shopping previews, and then stopped for breakfast at Amigos. As I went off to my 1:30 hair and pedicure appointment, the rest of the troops parked themselves at Schooners Wharf to watch Michael McCloud perform. I hear they danced to his funny “She Gotta Butt” but someone didn’t take the camera to capture the scene for prosperity.

WE ARE ON THE PROWL

Here’s another tidbit for the “It’s a small world” category. It seems that Mr. McCloud wrote the music and lyrics (titled Today Is the Day) for A&E documentary on Mel Fisher’s explorations and eventual discovery of the “mother lode”, the 1622 sunken Spanish Galleon. It also seems that he knew our own Jane O’Reilly.

MY FIRST VIDEO UP-LOAD "TODAY IS THE DAY"

By the time I got back to the group they were in rare form and having a great time. We cruised on to Mallory Square for a view of the sunset but it was just too cloudy. We did, however, enjoy some of the entertainment offered up for the crowd. We continued our journey stopping here for a drink, there for a nosh, ever alert for one of those truly unique Key West sights. Guess our friend here with the lit-up bike captures the essences.

DEBI AND JAN DANCING ON MALLORY SQUARE

ALL VARITY OF ENTERTAINERS ON THE SQUARE

OUR HANDY, DANDY LIGHT MAN

------AND HIS LIGHT BIKE

12/29/2010 A TRIP TO THE U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION OFFICE

KEY WEST LOCAL

WEDNESDAY

TOTAL MILES TRAVELED TODAY: 0 NM

First things first, Dan got his TV working and he is a happy guy! It did, however, take several calls to both the TracVision and DIRECTV folks before we were receiving all the stations.

Once the important things were taken care of (TV) we biked to the Key West Airport for a visit to the US Customs and Immigration Office to renew our DTOPS. Somehow, I just was not able to do it online and it was a good excuse for a good bike ride along the shore on this beautiful day.


We found this great little Cuban take-out joint, Sandy's Cafe, on White Street and stopped for Cuban sandwiches for lunch. We will, most likely, be patronizing this establishment again.

SANDY'S CAFE

We finally made it to the Mel Fisher Museum. This visionary and his band of treasure hunters helped shape the world of underwater exploration. Mel and his wife, Delores, spent their early married years in Southern California, opening the first “dive shop” in Redondo Beach. They pulled up the family and moved to Florida in the 1960s and the hunt began. Mel and Delores dreamed and worked towards finding the Spanish galleons Santa Margarita and Antocha that were lost in a huge storm in 1662. Their appetite was only fed when they found the Santa Margarita in 1980. The state and federal governments tried to lay claim to their find but the Supreme Court of the United States confirmed Fisher’s ownership with a caveat that 20% of the recovered artifacts be donated to the state. On July 20, 1985 they hit the “mother lode” when they finally discovered the Antocha. Our own Jane O’Reilly became involved in this quest when she was sent to Key West by Times Magazine to write an article on the innovative tax shelter set up by Jerry Burke for the investors in Fisher’s venture. You can read her 1983 article at http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,923527,00.htm

KEY WEST'S MEL FISHER MUSEUM



THE STORY



Our sunset was fraught with clouds but we managed to catch the day’s last glimmer as we left the museum and headed back to Quest.

THE SUN DIPPING BEHIND THE CLOUDS

WATCHING THE SUN'S EXIT FOR THE DAY

EACH ONE EAGER TO WATCH THE FINAL RAYS OF THE SUN

12/28/20 WORK, WORK, WORK IN KEY WEST

TUESDAY

TOTAL MILES TRAVELED TODAY: 0 NM

Work, work, work! That’s all we did today. The gusty wind finally abated enough for Dan to mount his TracVision receiver for DIRECTV. Now, the mounting was the easy part. The hard part entailed snaking wires through infinitely small crevices. I am happy to report that everything has been successfully installed and we are awaiting the morning for the TracVision guys to unlock the box so DIRECTV can activate our service.

DAN'S NEW DIRECTV RECEIVER

I worked on reclaiming the front berth for our guests arriving on Thursday morning. It had been used as a major storage area and needed some loving attention. There was a shower and bathroom to clean, wood to be oiled, beds to be made and a tiny floor to be vacuumed. Jan, it’s ready for you now!!

The mirrors have now been installed in the guest berth and look fantastic. Guess it’s time to get that room ready for Debi and Richard. We are so excited to have them all here for New Years Eve in Key West. Can you even imagine what a blast that will be?

SUNSET OVER THE MARINA

12/27/2010 ENJOYING KEY WEST WHILE THE NORTHEAST DIGS OUT FROM THE BLIZZARD

MONDAY

TOTAL MILES TRAVELED TODAY: 0 NM

We may be a bit cool and windy here but the northeast is being hammered right now. Many of the airports are just beginning to reopen from their overnight shutdowns. Steven’s flights all went smoothly as he traveled from Key West to Charlotte, NC and then onto Bradley in Connecticut. All he had to do then was dig his car out and drive to VT. He made it safe and sound but maybe a little cold.

STEVEN ALL PACKED UP AND LEAVING THE QUEST

ONLY IN KEY WEST WILL YOU FIND PINK AIRPORT TAXIS

The guys came to remove the broken mirrors in the guest salon and will be back tomorrow to install the new ones. Finally!

"MIRROR GUYS" TAKING MEASUREMENT'S AND PREPPING FOR TOMORROW'S INSTALLATION

Dan and I really put our bikes to use today when we made the ride off Key West and over to drop off the old water pump and pick up the new one. I think we rode for about 1 ½ hours but it sure felt good. The new pump is now installed with only a few expletives and lots of dirty rags.

For those of you that remember my raving about the beautiful Flagler College in St. Augustine, here is a little more Flagler history. This powerful, railroad magistrate is largely responsible for the development of Florida. With the wealth amassed through his partnership with John D. Rockefeller in Standard Oil Co., he was able to pursue his dream to connect the beauties of Florida with the rest of the world. He and his ailing first wife first traveled to St. Augustine for her health. Later Flagler purchased land and built the beautiful Ponce de Leon Hotel (now the college campus) and the Alcazar. Since travel to Florida was so difficult, Flagler bought up the existing but inadequate railway system, combined them and gave them new life. The link to Florida travel had now been opened and with Flagler’s help it began to flourish. He established Palm Beach, dredged Biscayne Bay to make Miami a deep seaport and laid out the city of Ft. Lauderdale. His most challenging engineering feat proved to be the railroad from Miami to Key West. This was completed just in 1912, the year before Flagler died at the age 73 years old. The below statue was erected at the sight of the old Key West Overseas Railway Depot. The tracks were destroyed during the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane and never rebuilt but the State of Florida used much of the remaining infrastructure to construct the Overseas Highway that connects Key West to mainland Florida. All us gray-haired folks have Mr. Flagler to thank for our warm escape from the cold north.

THE OLD KEY WEST RAILWAY STATION

BUST OF HENRY FLAGLER

After dinner on the Quest we made our way to Sloppy Joe’s to again watch the Doerfel family perform their magical music. Check out their web page at  www.thedoerfels.com. They are filled with talent and a jest for life.

12/26/2010 CHRISTMAS IS DONE IN KEY WEST

SUNDAY
TOTAL MILES TRAVELED TODAY:  0 NM


Dan had a rough night, waking up half way through with a sore throat and fever. He crept up to the salon and was kept company by the gusting wind and a several hours of pelting rain. Thankfully, he woke up feeling better.

Tree is gone and the lights are down. It’s done! Christmas is officially over on the Quest. Now we shall be in training for New Years Eve.

Dan installed the inverter and completed some of the necessary wiring. He also removed the water pump from the starboard engine (yes the same one he replaced this summer in New Haven with a rebuilt pump) and will install the new one when we pick it up tomorrow. I worked on oiling much of the wood, a never unending job.

DAN WORKING ON THE PUMP CHANGE OUT

All our chores done for the day, we all set out to find some good afternoon music. First stop was the famous Sloppy Joe's on Duval Street. The piano player did not strike our fancy, so we quickly moved on. Next we ducked into Captain Tony's of Jimmy Buffett fame and took photos of the personal bar stools of some well known patrons.

Image by dstemple via Flickr

SLOPPY JOE'S BAR

Image by milan.boers via Flickr

CAPTAIN TONY'S

BUSINESS CARDS WALLPAPER CAPTAIN TONY'S

Moving on to the pier for some sunset music, we were discouraged by the cold, gusting winds and clouded in sky. Forget it! This blow here in Key West is starting to wear into my “sunny-warm” time! We opted to head back to the Schooner Wharf and found a lively and entertaining group just setting up.

The Doerfel family, with 10 kids, originates from Buffalo, NY. Five guys and the one daughter make up the standard group, 2 younger ones sang a couple of cute songs too.  They travel the US in a huge motor home with their parents, home school and entertain at a variety of venues. They were fabulous! The youngest of the standard 6 was the 12 year old, rocking drummer. The oldest was 22, married, father of one and his fingers danced on the electric banjo. One boy played an electric mandolin; another strummed the acoustic guitar, and Brother Joe made the stand-up bass come alive. The lone sister had a dynamic voice and played the electric fiddle like it was on fire! These kids were awesome musicians and entertainers! Dan and I bailed before their final set but Steven hung out until the bitter-cold end.

THE DOERFELS

12/25/2010 CHRISTMAS DAY IN KEY WEST

SATURDAY

TOTAL MILES TRAVELED TODAY: 0 NM

We spent a leisurely morning opening our Christmas Stockings and breakfasting on our traditional strata. It was a startling contrast to most of our near past Christmas mornings with the absence of freezing temperatures and snow on the ground. We missed having Robert with us but this is a tough time to take off when you work in the airlines industry. Christmas night without the Porters was also strange.

HO, HO, HO.  MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The day progressed into one of the warmest we have had since way up in Pensacola. We all road bikes around busy Key West, finding a cruise ship in and the businesses all open. Our afternoon was spent basking in the music at Schooners and watching the constantly revolving crowd of spectators. We succumbed to the lure of Michael McCloud’s marketing and purchased a T-shirt for Steven and CDs for ourselves. We also bought the book Immortal Logic written by Carl Peachey who played the electric guitar in the group. We, of course, had to sample a few of Schooner’s oysters as we enjoyed the music.

MICHAEL McCLOUD AND CARL PEACHY THE SCHOONER WHARF

THE PERFECT T-SHIRT FOR STEVEN TO TAKE BACK TO THE FROZEN VERMONT

It was a quiet evening back on Quest with Dan reading his Christmas book, The Old Man and the Sea, Steven playing with his iPad and me reading on my beloved Kindle.

Cover of The Old Man and The Sea

Image via Wikipedia

The cook from the neighboring Antilles, a lovely 80’ Burger, popped in with some yummy Viennese Strudel to cap off our evening. Thanks!

THE BEAUTIFUL ANTILLES

We hope all our family and friends had a wonderful Christmas Day!

12/24/2010 CHRISTMAS EVE IN KEY WEST

FRIDAY
TOTAL MILES TRAVELED TODAY:  0 NM


Whoa, windy night here on the dock in Key West. We were happy to have been at the dock and not anchored. I did, however, wake to find the boat ladder kind of going the "other way" due to the rising tide and fixed dock.  The day proved to be another stunning example of perfect Florida Key weather.

LADDER WAS MORE OF A RAMP AND INCLINING TO THE DOCK

We again hit the Cuban Coffee Queen for a Cordito (a large Cuban espresso, sweet with steamed milk) and a Cuban breakfast sandwich.

THE CUBAN COFFEE QUEEN

Dan and I took off to see more of the island on our bikes. We made it to the marker denoting the Southernmost Point in the Continental US and snapped photos of that and the Southernmost Menorah. Go figure! Our next stop was the recommended little dive on White Street for smoked king fish.

SOUTHERNMOST POINT IN THE CONTINENTAL U.S.A.

SOUTHERNMOST MENORAH

CLASSY JOINT FOR SMOKED KING FISH

There is live music everywhere on the key. Every other stop seems to have someone strumming and singing for the appreciative tourists. We headed back to Schooners to catch Michael McCloud finishing up his set. His last song, She Got a Butt, had us all laughing hysterically. Unfortunate for this patron but his bad “rug” screamed out “blog photo, blog photo”. The epitome of why not to wear a hair piece!

MICHAEL McCLOUD

A GOOD REASON TO "JUST GO NATURAL"

With the sun dropping, Dan and I made our way to Sunset Pier for more great live music and a most spectacular Christmas Eve sunset. Philippe and Marylou LaCruix , sailors from Switzerland, graciously invited us to join them at their perfect vantage point. Thanks!

SUNSET PIER

K

MARYLOU AND PHILIPPE LACROIX

KEY WEST SUNSET

Wandering back to Quest for our Christmas Eve dinner, we stumbled onto a crowd hooting and hollering with gusto. It seems that the Turtle Kraal was going hot and heavy and the crowd was really into cheering on their pick. Where else but in Key West?

KEY WEST TURTLE KRAAL

AND THE CROWD ROARS!!

OUR CHRISTMAS EVE DINNER