Marathon and more

  We have been doing some exploring the last week or so. We picked up a rental car and started traveling the back streets of Marathon and some of the other Keys. Once you get off the main road and into the developments you can see where the snow birds come every year. Things here in Marathon seem to be slowing down a bit as the snow birds fly north. A few weeks ago we started to see more and more sail boats leaving the harbor in the morning.
 We put our bikes in the rental and drove to Bahia Honda State Park. It's the spot were we went snorkeling with Deb and Chuck. We rode around the island and then walked a trail to the Flagler bridge. The park is very nice and a very popular spot for beach goers.
 We continue our Wednesday evening routine of sitting on the bridge listening to Cory and Ty play at Burdines Chiki Tiki. We got a bonus this week and went to Castaways and listened to them on Friday night too. Of course Bets had to buy Cory's CD. https://coryyoungmusic.com/  
  Gail and Dave came down from Okeechobee and stayed for two nights. They too got the Wednesday night experience! We really enjoyed their visit albeit too short! Cruising boaters are always the best laid back guests. With the car we have been checking out more restaurants and of course Dunkin Donuts has been seeing Betsy's face a few times for her favorite Iced Decaf coffee.
  We are getting anxious to travel north, although I will be taking Bets kicking and screaming to our new dock at Solomons Yachting Center when we finally get to Solomons harbor. (Betsy paraphrase- I am anxious to get cruising but not anxious to head north!) She doesn't want to go home yet. Bets has planned out our trip north and picked nice anchorages and marinas to stop at. The area around Miami and north will be a challenge due to all the required bridge opening. Oh well, we will do it once for the experience. Cheers!

 Bahia Honda State Park gulf side beach

 I have been fascinated by the history of Mr. Flagler and his bridge. I will have to find a book. This is the section of the highway that was constructed on the very top of the railroad bridge because the trusses were to narrow at the track bed.

 

 42' Grand Banks leaving the anchorage with its steady sail still up. It looked pretty cool circling the anchorage and then heading out the pass.

 The road bed is at the very top of the bridge.

 Hey Ben, its another old people selfie.

 

 No sure why this was picture worthy.

 The Atlantic Ocean from atop the Flagler bridge.

 

Sand sculpture done by the Friends of Bahia Honda

 

 Really cool sand castle artwork.

 One of two dinghy docks at Marathon Municipal Marina. Its huge but they need it because there are 226 mooring balls and another hundred or so people anchored outside the mooring field.

 

Gail and Dave came to visit this week. We had a great time catching up with our friends. Here we are at Boot Key Harbor after a nice relaxing meal at Island Fisheries. Hope to see them again soon.

 The other dinghy dock. Its a good place to scope out what dinghy you might want to buy. Lots of ABs but I didn't see a single Zodiac while we were there on two occasions.

 Picture of a picture. This is Boot Key harbor. There were several pictures on the walls in the Captains Lounge of the Boot Key Harbor City Marina. This is not your usual captains lounge. Its as big as a high school gymnasium. There are several TV lounges, many tables to hang out at and a mail table that looks like an Amazon depot with all the cruisers packages laid out in alphabetical order.

 This is a Boy Scout dive boat that sometimes parks across from our slip. It does scout crew changes a few times a week and goes out for a day or two. Its an older cargo merchant ship that has been converted. There are a lot of scouts on board when the go out. Pretty cool adventure flying the pirate flag and sailing the seas.

 The beautiful water at Sombrero Reef. We took a day cruise and topped of the fuel tanks for our

upcoming trip north. If the seas would have been flat we would have tied to one of the mooring and gone swimming but the winds were up and the seas were 2-3ft.

 

 Best seat in the house.

 Burdines Marina, our home for the last 40 or so days. That big boat  near the end of the pier looks like a Chinese Junk.

 Entrance signs to Boot Key mooring area.

 Beautiful houses along Sister Creek heading out to the Atlantic from Boot Key Harbor.

 

 

We saw this Key Deer behind CVS in Big Pine Key. He was bigger than I expected and it was really cool when he stood on his back legs to eat something off the tree. He was a spike buck with only one horn. He didn't care much when he saw me sneak in for a picture.