Making It Official In The Keys!

On November 7th, we packed up Richard's old Toyota truck and took it to Key Colony Beach to live! Yep, we pushed the button and bought a little place on hole number four of the Key Colony par 3 golf course.  We stayed in KCB and got somewhat settled in before flying home on Thanksgiving day.

With no retail stores to speak of in the Keys, Amazon would be getting a lot of business from me over the next couple of months!

Orange Beach & Frog Pond

Late October is the perfect time to visit The Frog Pond at Blue Moon Farm!  Cathy Steele hosts some of the best music at her eclectic little paradise.  The Pecks graciously hosted us at their beautiful Orange Beach condo and in turn we took them about 10 miles outside Foley, Alabama to what appeared to be the end of the earth, parking the pickup truck in the middle of a field.   Our friends (from the Keys) Don and Susan joined us to see what it was all about.  Grayson Capps and the gang once again put on a show.

The Pecks also took us to "The Garage" in Fairhope; a great little shop with an art studio attached.
A great few days with good friends.  Life is good.

Washington

The 6 amigos (Pfluegers, Mangums, & Waldreps) took another road trip.   This time, we headed to the state of Washington.   The Mangums and Pfluegers got an early flight and were able to see some of Seattle before the Waldreps arrived later that night.  

SEATTLE

The next morning the six of us visited Chihuly Gardens to see the awesome blown glass art.  It was truly amazing.  

We then took a boat tour of Lake Union and saw where “Sleepless in Seattle” was filmed, the University of Washington stadium, and lots of float planes landing on the lake.

The weather was perfect!

Port Angeles

After two nights in Seattle, we picked up the really, really large van we had reserved.   It gave the group lots of room for luggage and to spread out.  We lovingly referred to it as our BAV.

We took the ferry to Bainbridge Island, where we made an impromptu stop at a quaint little village near the ferry terminal, got a little shopping in and had a picnic lunch in the park.  Our destination for that day was Port Angeles.  Patty had found us a wonderful house on Lake Sutherland for two nights. It was so nice, we hated to leave!

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Not having planned very well, we found ourselves at the cabin before making a stop at the grocery store.  So, our wonderful husbands made the 20 mile trek back into town and returned with a big bag of hamburgers for dinner!  

The following day, we visited Lake Crescent Lodge and drove to the end of Hurricane Road to an overlook.  But the high point of the day was stopping along the side of the road to watch the salmon running!  It was absolutely crazy.  

We made our needed stop at the grocery store and spent the evening at our cabin grilling filet mignons and lounging outside around our campfire.   

Lake Quinault

Another picturesque day in Washington!  We visited the Hoh Rain Forest before heading to Ruby Beach.  

The driftwood that had accumulated on this beach was amazing.

We drove on to Lake Quinault Lodge for the evening.   This was a very comfortable rustic lodge with an awesome view from the room's deck.  We had dinner about a mile away at the Salmon House. After a full day of touring, we made an early evening of it.   We met up for breakfast at the Quinault Merchantile.  It was a great little market right across the street from the lodge.  

Alta Crystal

We got plenty of windshield time today!  The vastness of this area became apparent today.  But we still managed to hike the entire Pacific Crest Trail!  (Or that was what some of the group thought.)  After hiking a couple of miles, we decided to turn back because when we looked over our shoulder, we could see a dense fog rolling in.  This is not somewhere you want to be visually impaired.  We had also began the hike too late in the day and were worried about it being too close to dark.  (With age comes some maturity).  This was an absolutely spectacular hike!  The views in every direction were remarkable.  Truly God's handiwork.

We stayed at Alta Crystal Cabins.  We had reserved a 2 bedroom loft and a one bedroom studio apartment.  As usual, we drew straws to determine who slept where.  Richard and I got the private studio.  The Mangums and Waldreps decided to drive to town for dinner.  But having had all of the BAV we could handle for one day, we opted to visit the Alta Crystal main office which sold a variety of items to cook for dinner.  We grabbed a cheese pizza, a bottle of wine, and stayed in.   After dinner, we took a walk and found a hot tub in the middle of the complex.  We returned to our cabin to change, and relaxed in the hot tub along with two young couples that had actually hiked the entire trail.  We shared stories of our hiking adventures and quickly realized their day had been much more strenuous than ours.

MOUNT RAINIER

The next morning we headed to the pinnacle of our trip, Mt. Rainier.  But not before a lot more windshield time.  

One of our first stops was for a short hike at the Grove of the Patriarchs.  This was a forest of old growth trees.  

Although not pictured, Sam did get in his head stand on this swinging bridge.

Next stop...Reflection Lake.  True to its name, well, lets just say a picture is worth a thousand words.

Mt. Rainier National Park is a must see!  This 14,410 foot wonder can be seen from Seattle, but there's nothing like getting up close and personal with this beauty.

A short walk to the waterfall was agreed to by all instead of the longer hike up to the base of Rainier. Definition:  A walk is when you stay on concrete, a hike is when your feet touch dirt.

The colors this time of year were remarkable (late September).

We loved the marmots that were everywhere you looked in this area.  They were fun to watch and very photogenic.

Late that afternoon, we had come full circle and were back in Seattle for some more touring on our last day.  The trip would not be complete without a visit to The Market Theater Gum Wall.  This is a brick wall covered in ACG (Already Chewed Gum).  Its located in an alleyway in downtown Seattle, under Pike Place Market.

I'm not sure if Richard is making a deposit or a withdrawal!

Another epic journey!

Mid-Year Trip to the Keys

Sometime back in February we casually began talking about purchasing a place in Key Colony Beach.  After spending 5 winters there and making a couple of mid-year short trips down, there was no doubt that its our "happy place".   When you run the numbers it makes absolutely no sense at all but sometimes the heart out weighs the head.  

Since February, we have stayed plugged in to new listings, price reductions, and foreclosures.   OK, the head did at least play a part in this decision because we centered our search on CBS construction, preferably stilted, and just something that we thought might stand a chance of making it through a hurricane.  But there was nothing (other than the multi-million dollar mansions) out there.

We had planned to make a quick trip down and look around in the fall.  But, as our schedules began filling up, we decided we'd better book a flight sooner than later.  After purchasing tickets, we began talking to Richard's mom about going with us.  She had never been to the Keys before and as we described it, it wouldn't get any easier to get there than on this trip (a 2 hour drive to Nashville, a 2 hour flight to Fort Lauderdale, spend the night there, and then drive 2 more hours the next morning).  We neglected to mention that the return trip would be done in one long 12-hour day.   We were thrilled that she was going. 

Our friend Mary graciously let us stay in her beautiful home while she was away.  This worked out beautifully in that we could all be together instead of in two hotel rooms.  We took Richard's mom with us to see the properties.  She quietly observed and then, when asked, would tell us her favorite. 

While there, we had to take her to Sunset Park, which is much less crowded than it is in the winter months.  However, on this particular day, we saw two weddings.  The first appeared well planned, with the groom and friends there anxiously awaiting the bride's arrival.  Shortly after this ceremony ended, another couple and the person (I won't say minister) registered in the State of Florida to conduct wedding ceremonies.   They stood and talked awhile and then began the ceremony.  As we sat under the tiki hut observing, I couldn't help but notice that not only did they not have any friends there and more importantly did not have a photographer.  This simply would not do!  Not as long as I had my IPhone with me.  So, I secretly took a few shots.  Then, without warning, the groom's cell phone begins to ring.  He takes it from his pocket, looks at it, and yep.....he answered it.  Richard's mom and I were about to die.  She said something to the tune of "well this one is never going to last"! 

The bride and justice of the peace just stood by patiently waiting.  We were making assumptions as to who had called....his ex-wife, his mother, another girlfriend?   After he put the phone back in his pocket, they all bent over and started looking in the sand.  They spend the next 5 minutes walking around bent over obviously having dropped something.  Yep.....the wedding ring!  By then we were unable to conceal our laughter.  But I took pictures! 



















Finally, they found the ring, they were pronounced man and wife, and I went over to ask them if I could send them the pictures I took.  They told me the story of the phone ringing, the groom dropping and losing her ring, then added that they had eloped and that when she put her wedding dress on, the zipper had broken and she had to go buy a new dress.  Hopefully they will have fond memories of this day and they will live happily ever after!

So, did we buy a house?   More later!

The Keys Finale!

The Alabama snow birds are headed home!  Our last few days have been spent trying to check things off our bucket list for this trip.   I celebrated my birthday on Wednesday by playing tennis and then kayaking around the island of Key Colony with our new friends Donna and Dave.  This is a four mile (2 hour) trip that includes lots of time in open water.  It was an easy trip today with mild currents and almost no wind.  We decided to stay in for dinner, primarily because we were too tired to go out.   Thursday was spent running some last minute errands, closing out the post office box we had rented, playing golf, and then biking to Sparkeys Landing for one last meal there.  After dinner, we decided to bike to Sweet Savannah’s ice cream shop, which is located across Vaca Cut on Hwy 1 in Marathon.  We returned home with two pieces of key lime pie dipped in dark chocolate in our baskets.  Friday morning we got up early and played pickleball before heading to the tennis courts at 9 a.m.  We had a large group today, with 17 players showing up.   After lunch we managed to muster the strength to get in one last round of golf before packing the clubs away.   We spent most of the afternoon packing up and loading the kayaks on the truck.  We drove to Sunset Park and said our goodbyes to the folks there before going to Little Venice to meet up with Patti & Robin and Don & Susan for dinner.  We walked across Hwy 1 (which I really don’t recommend) to Frank’s Italian Restaurant.  Frank’s is a very small, but highly recommended little place and there is actually a Frank in the kitchen preparing some wonderful food.   Patti had managed to secure a reservation for 6 several days earlier and invited us to join them before we left town.  It was delicious.  After our goodbyes to these fellow Alabamians, my phone rang and it was our friend Bev from Jersey.  She wanted us to stop by (or they were coming to our place) to say goodbye.   It is getting more and more difficult to leave each year.  But, everyone leaves and returns home to their normal lives as the temperatures begin to rise.  

Saturday morning we left KCB around 8 a.m. and drove to Lake City, which is just north of Gainesville.  It was about a 9 hour drive.   We checked into the Hampton Inn and Richard was locking the truck when a little old couple walked up to him and began talking.  They asked him if he had been kayaking and told him they weren’t able to kayak anymore.   They then asked if he had seen any alligators.  Richard responded that yes he had been kayaking, but in Marathon through the mangroves, and no there were no alligators there.   The little old lady responded “What place did you come in?”     They walked away with her husband explaining to her that he hadn’t run in a Marathon, he had been in Marathon, Florida.   Although Richard isn’t able to run in marathons any longer, we both hope we can continue making the trip to Marathon, Florida!

March 1!

Tonight, as we rode our bikes home after playing (and winning 3rd place out of 21 teams) trivia with friends, we stopped along Ocean Blvd, just long enough to take it all in.  Its a beautiful warm March 1st evening in the Florida Keys.  The temperature is in the mid-70s, we are riding bikes at 10 pm.  What's not to love! 

We began our day playing pickleball, then went to lunch at Castaways with Frank (one of the first friends we met here), then played 9 holes of golf, watched the sun set at the park and visited with friends, then biked to Havana Jacks for trivia. 

We know this will be ending soon and are trying to soak it all in before we leave.

Feb 2016 Keys

As we near our last three weeks in the Keys, we look back over this year's stay and realize that our list of friends in the Keys is growing.  Our tennis group has grown close, we now have pickle ball friends that we enjoy being around, and some of our snow bird friends are purchasing homes here. 

The weather continues to improve and its now slightly warmer than we are comfortable with!  But we will manage to endure it.  The annual clam bake was a huge success again and I believe our visitors (R&L) enjoyed it.  

We think the biggest improvement in our visit this year has been the new golf push carts we purchased and brought down.  They have made the par 3 course much more enjoyable.  I can't say my game has improved any though.

2016!

This is the fifth winter we have been lucky enough to spend in the Florida Keys!  We left home January 1st and will hopefully return home in March!    This January has been unusually wet and cooler than normal.  In 31 days, we have had over 10 inches of rain in Key Colony Beach.  

We can't believe we are almost half way through our stay here.  We have been able to bike, kayak through the mangroves, play tennis and golf, and watch beautiful sunsets over the Atlantic Ocean and even got to watch Alabama win the national football championship with our friends here; some of which are from Alabama and some that live in Alabama but have strong ties to Clemson!  

I must admit to being just a little homesick for a precious 2-year old nephew.  I am thankful for facetime and a generous brother and sister in law that indulge us every few nights!  We look forward to visits in February from Madilyn (and her parents), and River (and his parents)!

We have found a fun new sport!  Pickleball!  Although there's not as much running as in tennis, its certainly an activity to get your heart rate up!