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Jan. 26 – Marathon, FL

By on January 27, 2016 in The Pearl
Sombrero Resort & Marina
“Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.” ― Dalai Lama XIV
Although the weather hasn’t been the greatest (pretty much the wettest and coolest on record) this year we are trying our best to stay busy. We’ve had more than several days that I haven’t left the cabin or even changed out of my jammies…good days to watch moving on Netflix, made possible by the generosity of our neighbors for letting us sign into their unlimited wifi. Other days have been cold, windy and cloudy but no rain so we try to get out and do something…mostly visiting with friends, enjoying happy hours and sharing meals. Being in Marathon really is about spending time with friends and we are truly enjoying that.
Besides social gatherings I’ve filled my time with basket weaving, Mexican train dominos, a little shopping, DVD exchanges (remember everyone has been spending a lot of time on their boats), reading, cooking and on occasion a little cleaning. One day seems to run into the next.
Today we woke up to a normal Key’s morning with plenty of sunshine and warmer temperatures, so we had a chance to enjoy Marathon for the reasons we are here…the sun and the water. We started our day by sitting on the flybridge and enjoying our coffee, the first time we’ve been able to do that in two and half weeks. But the best part of the day was actually getting out on the water. Our friends on Exuberant invited us to go for a sail. What an amazing way to spend a winter day.
It wasn’t a trawler type day, the wind and waves were a little too high to make a comfortable ride on our boat, but on their 44′ Hylas sailboat we had a great ride. We flew across the water at 7-8 knots and enjoyed the spray of the sea and the breeze and the sun in our faces. It felt wonderful to be on the water. Thanks Burt and Prue for the invitation.

A few of the basket weavers at the City Marina

My new basket…it’s coming a long, but it still needs a little work.

Dinner and game night on Amici 

Dinner and game night on The Pearl…are you seeing a pattern here. When there’s bad weather you have to find inside things to do.

Sailing on Exuberant.

Look at that water…amazing!
Thanks for reading our blog and spending part of your day with us. The Pearl is also on Facebook – stop by and say hi or follow us on Google+.

Silent Sunday

By on January 24, 2016 in The Pearl

Thanks for reading our blog and spending part of your day with us. The Pearl is also on Facebook – stop by and say hi or follow us on Google+.

Jan. 20 – Key West

By on January 21, 2016 in The Pearl
“In the end, we only regret the chances we didn’t take.” —Unknown
Our oldest son and his family gave us a gift certificate for a biplane tour of Key West for Christmas. We’ve been watching the weather, trying to plan a good day for the tour and day in Key West…a day that didn’t have too much wind and no rain. That’s been a little difficult this month, but it finally happened today. Getting to the bus stop this morning was a little chilly but the sun was out and we were excited to be heading to Key West for the day.

Marathon is about 50 miles from Key West…an hour by car or about two hours on a bus that stops every few miles. The Lower Key Shuttle is a bargain at $1.50, watching and visiting with people on the bus is just a bonus. Our timing for our tour was perfect, we arrived at the airport and found the Conch Republic Air Force about 20 minutes before our flight. Giving us just enough time to settle in and look at some of the other planes the company own.
Our tour of the island was in a 1942 WACO UPF-7 bi-Plane. The open cockpit gave us a great view of the beautiful blue water and the island. The pilot narrated the tour pointing out landmarks, shipwrecks and even a few dolphins and sharks. It was a unique and amazing experience. Now we’ve seen one our favorite towns from the land, sea and air. It was a great way to spend the morning. The people at Conch Republic Air Force were wonderful; they were professional, friendly and accommodating. The owner even gave us a ride to the Historic Seaport after our tour.
Ted and Sally from Amici came down on a later bus and we met them for lunch at DJ’s Clam Shack on Duval Street. We spent the afternoon wandering around town shopping a little and watching people, although people watching was a little slow today…cooler than normal and no cruise ships in town. The most interesting people watching starts after dark. We had a chance to check out of a few happy hours before we caught our bus home, but missed out on the Sunset Celebration trip. It’s hard to fit everything into one day when the bus is your transportation home.

Our plane

A few of the other planes belonging to Conch Republic Air Force

Ready for take off

Pictures taken from the video we bought of the flight

Pictures I took during the flight

Looking down on Malloy Square and towards Duval Street

Views from the cockpit 

Our plane and pilot 

Cuban Coffee Queen – One of the best places to get coffee in Key West

The Porch – a great place to relax, have a drink and watch the world go by

The view from The Porch

Enjoying our friends at The Porch

Waiting for the bus to take us home

Having fun on the bus

Thanks for reading our blog and spending part of your day with us. The Pearl is also on Facebook – stop by and say hi or follow us on Google+.

Jan. 18 – Marathon, FL

By on January 18, 2016 in The Pearl
Sombrero Resort & Marina

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” —John Quincy Adams

This past week (and most of the month) has been cloudy, rainy, windy and a little chilly. Very gloomy. I know it’s January, but we’re in the Sunshine State and in the Keys…you’d think we’d get a few more warm sunny days.

We woke up to a bright sunny day on Saturday (our eyes had to adjust) and we knew we needed to enjoy it. We took the bus to Big Pine Key to wander through their regular flea market and the annual Nautical Flea Market. We didn’t find anything special but we did have fun bumming around, watching people and enjoying the sun. Just riding the Lower Keys Shuttle on a Saturday can be entertaining, but mostly it’s a test of patience. Traffic moves very slowly in the Keys on a holiday weekend and bus schedules tend to be off, but the live feed of the buses helps you feel more confident that they’ll finally show up.

Sunday morning we woke to a strange looking sky and knew we were in for a windy wet day as a strong cold front moved through. Just after sunrise the winds picked up and we had winds 30 MPH+ all day. We were glad we were tied to a dock and not anchored in Sister’s Creek or swinging on a mooring in Boot Key Harbor. It was a good day to watch old movies, work on my pine needle basket and surf the internet while stew cooked slowly in the crock-pot.



The morning sky before the storm blow in. This picture was taken in Boot Key Harbor by Maresa Casey.

White cabs on the creek…not your normal view

Can you tell the wind is a little crazy?

Another picture of Boot Key Harbor by my friend Prue on Exuberant.

The beginning of this years first pine needle basket

Thanks for reading our blog and spending part of your day with us. The Pearl is also on Facebook – stop by and say hi or follow us on Google+.

Jan. 9 – Marathon, FL

By on January 11, 2016 in The Pearl
Sombrero Resort & Marina
“Life has become immeasurably better since I have been forced to stop taking it seriously.” ―Hunter S. Thompson
Saturday was a beautiful day…a great day to get out in the dinghy. We loaded the dinghy up with our snorkeling gear, fishing rod and tackle and a picnic lunch and headed out through Boot Key Harbor for a fun day on the water. We stopped at Burdines for some bait and then headed around Boot Key towards Sombrero Beach. The water was smoothed and we went several miles out in the Atlantic looking for fish. The water was an amazing color and so clear, but nowhere near as beautiful as the water in the Abacos…still incredible though. Stan caught quite a few small fish…no keepers, no fish for dinner, but we did spot a sand shark, a stingray, a turtle and several starfish.
We stopped at Sombrero Beach for a picnic lunch. We sat under a palm tree with a view of Sister’s Creek…not a bad place to spend the afternoon visiting with people and watching boats going by.

Burdines…they have a little of everything for the boater & fisherman

Look at that beautiful water…I just love the color

The fish were small but we sill had fun.

Sombrero Beach

The view for lunch from under our palm tree cafe

A little visiter that was enjoying Sombrero Beach Saturday.

We went out to 7-Mile Bridge to fish but the water had gotten a little rough, so we decided to came back into Boot Key Harbor where the water was smoother.

Another little green iguana visiting on the dock

Thanks for reading our blog and spending part of your day with us. The Pearl is also on Facebook – stop by and say hi or follow us on Google+.

Camp Marathon

By on January 10, 2016 in The Pearl
Sombrero Resort & Marina
“Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, now solutions searched for.” — Maya Angelou
It’s hard to blog daily when we stay in one spot…even here in Marathon where there are activities going on all the time. As I stated in last year’s blog, Marathon is like summer camp for cruisers. There’s an endless array of things to do and people to meet. The only thing there isn’t much of is shopping, oh there’s all the basics…food, liquor, boat supplies, drug stores, hardware and a few souvenir shops, but nothing you’d spend hours wondering through. Other than shopping the harbor is full of things to do, if you like sports activities you can take part in softball, yoga, golf, tennis, fishing, bocce ball and volleyball, there are also seminars for learning new things such as engine maintenance, ham radio, cruising to the Bahamas and Cuba…just to name a few. You could also take part in bible studies, book reviews, basket weaving, mahjong or dominoes. I’m sure there are more things I’ve forgotten…if you have an interest you can find someone here to do it with. If music is your thing there are jam sections to take part in and bands to listen to every night. If you are bored here it’s only because you choose to be.
Since we arrived last week we’ve spent time getting the boat clean, doing a few small boat projects, connecting with old friends, going to the movies, eating out, relaxing by the pool and staying out of the rain. Even in paradise a little rain must fall…we’ve had too many cloudy days for my liking this week and that has curtailed our activities some. Hopefully next week we’ll be able to get outside a little more and do little more exploring.

A beautiful cool day by the pool

Sombrero Resort Tiki Bar…fun with our friends Sally and Ted

Sombrero Resort’s Tiki Bar is open this year…a fun place to listen to music and visit with friends.

The Marathon Cinema…we went to see Star Wars with a few friends.

Unique seating at the movies…Stan, Ted, Burt, Prue and Sally

Dinner with friends we met a few years ago…so fun to catch up with old friends. (Susie, Gail, Stan and Larry)

The sun coming out just in time for sunset

Thanks for reading our blog and spending part of your day with us. The Pearl is also on Facebook – stop by and say hi or follow us on Google+.

Silent Sunday

By on January 3, 2016 in The Pearl

Thanks for reading our blog and spending part of your day with us. The Pearl is also on Facebook – stop by and say hi or follow us on Google+.

New Year’s Day

By on January 2, 2016 in The Pearl

Sombrero Resort & Marina

“Life is short, break the rules, forgive quickly, kiss slowly, love truly, laugh uncontrollably and never regret anything that makes you smile.” – Mark Twain

We’re back in Marathon…same marina, same slip, same neighbors. It almost feels like being home. Sally met us on the dock to help us tie up and we’re getting settled in. There’s still work to do, but we’re on Island Time, so no hurry no worry. I even had a chance to spend some time at the pool and had time to talk to friends I met last year.

The highlight of our New Year’s Day and arrival in Marathon was dinner aboard Exuberance…a time to celebrate good friends, good health and even a birthday. Prue prepared a traditional Germany New Year’s meal of pork, sauerkraut, potatoes and applesauce. It was wonderful but the brownie and ice cream dessert was excellent. It was a great way to welcome in the New Year and to celebrate being together.

On our way to dinner…here in Boot Key Harbor the dinghy is most people’s mode of transportation.

Sally and Ted

Burt and Stan

Stan and Susie 

Prue’s beautiful table (unfortunately I didn’t get a picture of our host Prue)

Birthday brownie and ice cream

Thanks for reading our blog and spending part of your day with us. The Pearl is also on Facebook – stop by and say hi or follow us on Google+.

Jan. 1 – Happy New Year

By on January 1, 2016 in The Pearl
Marathon Bound

“The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” ―Eleanor Roosevelt

Happy New Year…2015 was a good year filled with a lot of family time and a few new adventures and we look forward to the new adventures that await us in 2016.

Our last day of the year started on the water with a short cruise from Key Largo to Islamorada. We spent the rest of the day relaxing, eating good food, doing a little shopping, visiting with friends and thinking of the possibilities the New Year could bring. We feel blessed to have such a wonderful family and the opportunity to spend our life on the water.
World Wide Sportsman – Where Bass Pro Shop began
 The view with lunch
 Birthday Key Lime Pie…complete with candle and a song
Our friends Tom and Diane on Open Return 
We were in the perfect place to enjoy the New Year celebration fireworks.
Thanks for reading our blog and spending part of your day with us. The Pearl is also on Facebook – stop by and say hi or follow us on Google+.

Island Time

By on December 31, 2015 in The Pearl

We’re back in the Keys. Time to start living on island time…leave your watch and your worries behind, taking life where it falls with a grain of salt and a wedge of lime…we’re living on island time in the tropical zone. There’s no place like home j…