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!