A Little more Paradise

Wednesday we managed to get our bike ride in.  It's a little over a mile to the Old Seven Mile Bridge, then a 2.5 mile ride out to the end.  There is a ramp that used to take you to Pigeon Key, but the ramp

View from the Bridge

is closed, so we just did some viewing from up above.  It was sunny and not too crowded, so we had a nice ride.  After that we had lunch at the Lazy Day's Marina, were we got to see a manatee, then headed over to Veterans Park.  We walked the little beach there, even managed to get out toes in the water.  After that down to Big Pine Key, heading out to the point looking for the 'Key Deer', but no luck.  On our way home we stopped at Kiki Sand Bar for a beer, checking out the place, then back home to rescue Rudy and have dinner in.



Veterans Park
 



Veterans Park
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Manatee at the Dock

 

 

 

 

Thursday was haircut time, yes I did chance it on the island and I actually like the cut.  Back home for a shower then lunch here at the house.  About 2:00 we headed out for a walk up the island, which we will never do again, to close to the main highway and too noisy to enjoy the walk.  We did find the Marathon Fish Market/Restaurant, but passed on a beer there as we still had a long walk home.  When we got to the Hyatt (next door to the CG) we stopped for a drink or 2 or 3.  The bar maid was great and the crowd that started to show up was rather interesting.  They all had yachts parked out at the dock, or were from the private club next door...rather funny to listen to their stories.  We were there until about 5:00 then headed home for grilled chicken on a salad for dinner. 

 

Friday after breakfast, Brad walked up the island to the battery store, thinking he knew what he wanted, but got an education from the guy at the store, it was back home and a little more research.  We then headed to Porky's for lunch and were amused by the 2 groups of Germans that came into the restaurant.  Some spoke very broken English, while a few of them seemed to speak none at all.  We sat there for a while, enjoying the sunshine, then headed up the island to find the post office and grocery store...which is always shoulder to shoulder crowded, ugh.   We then headed home, a little cat nap and a stay at home night.  It was cool out, so grilled cheese sandwiches seemed to hit the spot. 

Guess what they
specialized in!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday(Happy Valentine's Day),  we headed out for breakfast, where we wanted to go, had about 20 people waiting for tables, so up the island we headed to the Cracked Conch Café, which ended up being very good.  I had the normal eggs and sausage while Brad stepped out and had the Conch Eggs Benedict...interesting.  We stopped at the house, walked Rudy then headed out to Bahia Honda State Park.  We walked along the beach for a while then headed up to the butterfly trail (where there weren't any), then headed out the walk to the old railroad bridge.  Amazing enough, it was loaded with butterflies and a beautiful walk.  It is amazing, as long as you were on the ocean side of the

Beautiful State Park

island, it was calm, warm and nice for the walks, but when we headed over to the nature center on the Gulf side, the wind was pretty stiff and a little cool (sweat shirts required).  We learned a lot about the building of the railroad and the hurricane of 1935, that hit the rescue train on Islamorada and swept it off the tracks.  We spent most of the day at Bahia Honda, then headed home for a steak and salad for dinner, with a nice bottle of wine, that was being saved for something special.