More Key West Fun!

I am approaching the end of my Key West stay.  It has been a great time and we are already planning next December down here.

Molly & Joey have been to Santiago's Bodega several times for the Tapas meals (small meals).  It serves great meals and great sangria.  Recently we found Overboard for happy hour. Joey and I went there as Molly was resting.  It had a great happy hour menu but since it is located on the second floor, overlooking the street, not as many people find it.  Sweet potato fries with honey on the side was one of our favorites.  Honey just jacks up the flavor!

This is a home-cooked meal of fresh fish and grilled veggies.  These fish were swimming just a few hours ago!  Can't get any fresher!  Note that this vacation seems to center around - FOOD!

When we went to Ft. Zachery Taylor State Park, we watched a pirate battle.  If you click on the picture, you can see more detail.  Two years ago we were here during the Pirate Week and they had Chef Robert from the Food Network filming a meal here.  We got to eat with them after the filming.  Check out my previous Key West blog from a couple of years ago if you missed it.

Our friend from DC had to get her picture with a pirate.

This Kapok tree is huge.  It is located across from mile marker 0 on Highway A1A in the middle of Key West on Whitehead street.  A great photo site.

This was our favorite sailboat.  America 2.0 was designed after the first winner of the America's Cup.  A   105 foot schooner.  So far I have taken the afternoon sail and the Sunset sail.  I got tickets on the local radio auction for $45 for two, regularly sold for $75 each!

Molly and Joey enjoying the walk down Key West Bight.

After happy hour, you have to remember which bike is hour and where you parked it.  We do not use our car very much at all here.  Bicycling is the easiest and fastest way to get around Key West.  I can get anywhere in 15-20 minutes on this small island.

This is my bike ready for a day of fishing off White's Pier.  I can get there in 10 minutes and have a ball with the reef fish.  Every once in a while I find a large fish but still the fun is fishing for whatever bites.  I always meet lots of friendly tourists here.  I talked to several groups of Chinese people from the cruise ship in for the day. 

I helped this man and his son rig up to catch a few small fish beside me.  I like to loan my pole for a few minutes to those watching.....ooops, I guess that is illegal!  I promise I won't do that again, when people are watching.....

Is this a puffer fish?

Most of the time, I am using squid.  Shrimp works very well but the average lifespan for a piece of shrimp in the water is about 10 seconds.  Squid stays on the hook for a longer period.  Plus if you use shrimp or squid and don't catch anything, you can eat your bait..........

This is the Gulfstream IV party boat on the way back into Key West.  Two cruise ships are docked near Mallory Square.  It costs $65 to fish for 6 hours but we got Groupons for $40!   Yes, we like to save our money so we can stay longer here!!

Here is a pile of fish that our boat caught last trip out.



This is the captain and crew hold up the largest fish.  Cobia and mackerel.  We had 20 nice fish to take home to eat.

The pelicans were waiting for our arrival.  They knew exactly when to show up!

Here was our catch for the day!  The crew cleans and charges 50 cents each fish.  It is fast and so much easier to have them do it. We have a fish dinner, then fish tacos, and then fish chowder.  Yummy.....

This is a typical start of the day.  We get up and read the local paper and the NY Times with coffee on the back deck.



Then we ride around the island and then it is off to the beach.

Are you catching the theme.....?   We relax!   We enjoy!    We eat!    We bike!

Days in Key West

I have been way too busy to blog about the  fun and times in Key West.  I arrived just after Thanksgiving and have really enjoyed the 80 degree weather.  As soon as I arrived I got my bike set up.  I mounted a white milk crate with two PVC pipes to the back of the bike.  Now I could carry things and put my two fishing poles upright into the PVC pipes.  Dorky looking but it carried all my beach gear, a hammock, a backpack, tackle box and anything else I needed for my trips around and through KW.

As soon as I arrived I headed down to Mallory Square  for a bike ride and to watch the cruise ship come in.  There are 1-3 ships that dock for the afternoon every day, so downtown Duval Street area gets jammed with tourists.  Actually people watching is a big past-time down here. It is fun to hear all the different languages and watch the people hit the shopping areas downtown.

Mallory Square is where Sunset Celebration takes place every night.  There are many street performers and booths for shopping right along the dock.  Our favorites include the CatMan of Key West (Goggle him!!), the tightrope walker, the escape artist, and the Southermost Bagpiper.  Then it is off to happy hour!

1/2 price drinks (buy one, get one free; two for one; or 50 % off for  youall Northerners!) :-)  Then it is 1/2 price off on the whole appetizer page at many of the restaurants along  the eastern end of Front Street.  Oysters for 50 cents, great soups for $2-3, shrimp for $5-6, believe me that you can get enough "happy hour" food for a meal.  Some happy hours are from 4-7 pm, some are 5-6:30 pm, always check.

After we walk the Historic Seaport walkway we enjoy our night ride back up Duval to our house.  You have to have a white front light and a red back light on your bike at night.  A horn or bell also helps.


We usually ride all around the island in the morning.  The island is 2 miles wide and 4 miles long.  Some days we even get up for a sunrise ride.

After breakfast and our ride we do like to go to Ft. Zachery Taylor State Park beach for the afternoon.  It is $2.50 @ to get in.  The beach is right at the tip of where the Gulf and Atlantic meets.  Nice beach and a great place to snorkel dive.

I like to go out to the end of this stone jetty and fish.  I get small reef fish but did land a nice 36" mackerel.




We took a day sailboat cruise one day.  It was a great ride and view of KW from the water.

The black sailboat is the America 2.0.  It is 105 foot schooner that has only been in the water for 3 months.

There were free drinks, and a fruit bowl and a veggie bowl. The two white coolers hold the free wine, beer, champagne, or soft drinks.

My daughter, Molly, and Joey enjoying the sail.

This was the sail out towards the reef and sun.

Smoked fish and crackers before we head to our favorite place to eat.   El Siboney!

Two people can split a plate of Cuban food at this place.

Soft roasted, juicy pork with lightly grilled onions, yellow rice and black beans, and fried plantain.  I once ate supper here and ordered the same meal for lunch the next day, it was so good.



Now that I got this started, I'll post another story in a couple days!  Who wants to come down to Key West?  I know I am already making plans for next December here!

Key West Bound!

I finally got packed and headed out to my sister's house for Thanksgiving.  Two days later I was headed for Key West.  My car was packed.  I had two bikes, my fishing gear, clothes, items from home, bead making supplies, books, and kitchen stuff that I wanted to bring.  Only the driver's seat was open.  Off for a 1600 mile trip or 24 hours of driving.  Leaving Michigan behind I made it just north of Atlanta the first day.  Then I stopped by the GA/FL border to visit with my cousin, Mary Jo.  Then the second night I detoured to
Englewood to visit with Gary & Carol, friends from the Traverse City area.

I was on the road early the third morning and headed down 41 towards Miami.  It is a nice drive over on the top edge of the Everglades.  Not much traffic and then I turned south on 997 to Highway 1.  I actually enjoy the drive down.  Starting down the Keys, the many bridges are always nice to view.

This picture is just as I started the Keys section.  I stopped in Marathon to get my FL fishing license and a few odds and ends (4 #s of squid).  Soon the A1A mile markers were in double digits and counting off as I headed south.  This is my 8th winter of heading out to Key West.
Stock Island and headed down Flager Avenue.  Just as I got close to Duval, "WHAM", I got hit on my right side of my car.  It was a loud thud and I got out to see the damage.  All I could see was a few feather on my antenna.  Some pigeon took off a little too slow and he got thunked by the antenna.  He survived and my car was undamaged.  The feathers are still on the antenna after 2 weeks!

Here the car is parked in front of our Duval and Catherine home, a 1928 "Shotgun" style Conch Cottage.  My daughter, Molly, & Joey rent the back and I have the front.  It is a small house but divided into two complete living areas.

You walk down the side of the house and you can see my doormat for my door.  No yard but it does have a patio in back with a grill, table/chairs, hot tub, and solar outside shower.

This is the view as you enter the side door. The downstairs has a large, red tile floor. The kitchen is small but fine for me. If you turn left, the bathroom and full title shower is there.

This is the view to you right as you enter the door.  The large, overstuffed couch against the front wall is where we like to read.  You can see the ladder going up to the loft bedroom.  Molly and Joey have a large downstairs bedroom in the back unit and a loft bedroom.

 This is the loft bedroom in my unit.  You have be careful of the low ceilings.  Note the air conditioner vent to the right of the bed.  Just remember to turn the AC down before going to sleep or you will feel a draft in the night.  Quaint, small, but "just the way I like it".



I unpacked my bike and put away my things so now for my first bike ride in Key West this year.  We didn't come down last year so this was going to take a little time to re-adjust.

I decided to head down to Mallory Square for the Sunset Celebration. 

There are usually two cruise ships that park for the day at least 4 days a week.  Every night, Sunset Celebration takes place with street performers and different booths selling wares.  You can always find the "Catman of Key West" (Google this guy!!) performing with his trained street cats.  He is a hoot.

Molly always tells me to do random acts of kindness every day.  I noticed this couple from the cruise ship and popped a picture.

I gave the couple my e-mail and just send them pictures of "getting engaged" in KW.  She was happy to get the memories of their unique Sunset Celebration.


So much for the start of my KW vacation.  If you have any requests of visits or photos, just let me know.  I plan to go fishing, sailing, snorkeling and "happy hour"ing Key West Style.

New Boat....for us!

I am a member of the South Fox Island Lighthouse Assocation (FILA)   www.southfox.org
and our boat has reached it's useful service life.  It was a 26', twin engine, fiberglass boat that was expensive to run.  It did it's job but wasn't reliable.  Finally, we decided not to put it in the water.  After a summer of relying upon friends to volunteer their boats (we paid for the gas) it was too hard to coordinate the boat availability with the weather, and the volunteer's schedules.  We needed a boat.

Our Captain of the Sea, Phil, had in mind a smaller, lightweight and more economical boat.  I received an e-mail from Phil about a boat near my home.  Would I mind going over to look at it?  No problem!

This was much larger than my fishing boat.  Gee, it sure looked in great shape.  It was a boat that the owner loved to take out in Lake Michigan for summer salmon.  You can see it was rigged for big water trolling.  It was an older 1987 Starcraft Islander with only 1246 hours on the engine.  Not bad for the age of the boat. The owner recently died and his wife was selling it.

I decided that I better take pictures to send to Phil to see if he wanted to come down to look at it.

This was rigged to have 8 fishing poles in use.  Down riggers, flat lines, out riggers, and a huge fish cooler on the back.  The white storage cover was in great shape.  Now to see the inside.

This was smaller than our present boat, but it was closer to what we were looking for.  

The engine was a 3 Liter four cylinder , OMC - Cobra inboard.  The engine oil on the dipstick was clean and the engine looked well cared for.  The twin engines on the old boat were down in the hull and you had to climb down inside to work on them.

How did they keep the cushions so clean on a fishing boat?  This is looking better all the time.  I wonder who would use the port-a-potty on a boat at sea?  I guess ....   someone desperate!

A fish finder and GPS deph finder could be very useful in navigating the shoals around South Fox Island.  The dashboard needs a new covering.  I think that can be replaced.

Compass, that is good.   Whoa, there are a lot of guages and switches on that dashboard.  I wonder why there are 3 drain plugs on the dash?  Guess, I'll find out.

Eight people, 1200 pounds....that is less than the other boat but we are done with the small projects and will be using this boat to just transport people out to the island to work.  The contractors will carry the heavy supplies in their boat.

I overloaded Phil's computer by sending all these pictures, so I burned them on a disc and sent it out.  Two days later Phil called and wanted to see the boat.

We came, we saw, we bought.  Phil and I decided to become partners on the boat as we still had to sell our old boat.  This will give us time to see if the Starcraft does what we need it to do. 

The outfit weighs 4800 pounds and my Explorer is rated for 3500 pounds.  Phil asked me to tow it to Northport.  The owner towed it with a Jimmy so I knew I could tow it, but could I stop it?  I never went over 50 mph and was very, very careful.  It was a relief to end up at Phil's pole barn.  We made a deal on the boat to just buy the boat and strip off the fishing gear.  That was alright with me.  I would rather drift and/or do 2 rod trolling.  We have spent several days getting it cleaned up to winterize it.  We drained the water and got it ready for the new outdoor cover. 

The back cooler rack will be used to partially hold up our dingy.

Next summer, we will run it out to the island.  As part owner, I will take it out in Grand Traverse Bay for a few fishing trips to make sure the boat is operating correctly.  A boat needs to be exercised so the trailer tires don't go flat.  I'll do my part.  I will be 1st mate,  in-training to become the alternate driver of this vessel.  I am sure I'll have a few adventures to post next summer.