2nd Week @ Curry Hammock

Sunday December 21- The start of our 2nd week here. We really love this park. We have been blessed with great weather this time around. Again the weather was almost perfect so back out to fish we go. I caught a small barracuda and a weird puffer fish. Jeff had a good time pulling in a nice mangrove snapper. We knew it was time to head in when the fish quit biting.

Monday December 22- We had quiet a morning. Another go around with Verizon, I think its going to be a long 2 years. Spent some time on the beach reading. We decided to get on our bikes and ride to The Island Fish Co. for happy hour. Its a really nice place on the water. Jeff enjoyed some local beer and I even had a rum punch. We made it home safe before it got dark.

 

Tuesday December 23- Happy Anniversary to us...37 years, who would have thought it. Went down to watch the sun come up. Weren't really sure what we wanted to do. Jeff kind of wanted to kayak the other side of the island. We rode our bikes over to check out the water. It looked good but thought we would just go back to Jeff''s lobster spot. I fished, he snorkeled. He got 4 but they were all too small, I guess he'll have to wait for them to grow some. To finish this night off we had a visitor to the park. Mr. & Mrs. Claus, I guess we've been good. It was quite the show. He arrived on a fire truck that was completely decorated with festive music playing....I loved it.

 

 

 

 



Wednesday December 24- Decided to stay off the water today, Its really windy and that makes the water too rough for me. Instead we decided to take a road trip. First Jeff had to work on his bike, flat tire. We got in the truck and made our way to Tavenier and the movie theater there. Went and saw the movie Exodus..it wasn't bad but both of us were kind of disappointed. It just seemed really dark to me. We came home and had a movie night at home too...something a little lighter. The best part of the evening was the facetime we had with the grandkids. We have a tradition of new Christmas jammies on Christmas eve. Ashton knew what the gift was, Hailey on the other hand was a bit disappointed in the package she opened. After a bit she decided she likes her new pajamas.

Thursday December 25- Merry Christmas to everyone!!  We were already up when Seth called to facetime. This way I get to watch all the gift opening. Its the next best thing to being there, at least I get to be a part of there special day. The weather here had turned sour....It was very cloudy and rainy a little. We have been so spoiled with the weather.....The bad part was it really made the day long. We got to visit with Justin too. I love the warm felling of Christmas but its hard being away from the family.

 

Friday December 26- Jeff wanted to run to the bike store in Marathon...he needs a new tire. We left early so we could walk the old seven mile bridge. It started off really nice and all the sudden a big black cloud seemed to be approaching, we made it back with only a few sprinkles.

After walking we went to the bike store and Jeff got a new tire. Home to put the tire on, it took a little longer than he thought. We still had time to get the boats back into the water, caught fish but no keepers. Finished off the night by going out for supper. We went to The Outpost Restaurant. We ate there last year and loved it. This year was the same, we enjoyed the onion straws and pizza. The place is super clean and really good service.

Saturday December 27- Our last full day here. I woke up and like always looked for the sun rising. When I looked out I hollered at Jeff and said lets go, the sky is red. This actually took place before the sun came up. It went from red to orange. All I can say is wowzee it was something to see. We got busy putting things away for our move tomorrow. We had a lot of stuff to clean up and put away. Jeff is still having problems with his bike. I also got started on another quilt, I got all the blocks laid out but haven't sewed them together yet.  I spent a little time on the beach watching the kite surfers.
























Well our 2 weeks are almost gone, time to start our trek north. We really love are time in the Keys, the plan for next year is to go out west but after the time we had down here its hard to think we won't be back next year. I guess we'll just have to see what happens. Tomorrow we are heading to a brand new spot for us...Johnathan Dickinson.

Quiet at Curry Hammock

Sunday December 14- Everyone got up early. Justin and Molly finished packing up there stuff and we loaded there luggage into the truck. We left for Key West around 8a.m. It was a little early but we still had to get back and load up to move. It was a nice drive down because traffic was very light. On our way back to the campground we filled up the truck....all ready to move. We packed up hooked up and dumped. It was a short trip to our next stop. I think its about 25 miles. Impossible to get lost. Again we had been here before so we knew what to do. We arrived around 12:30 and our spot #9 was empty and waiting for us. This site is great, so big and very private. We have 50 amp service and water on site. No sewer and the shower house isn't my favorite. The bathroom have  no flush toilets. The park only has 25 sites. We really like it here. So quiet and laid back. We backed right into our site and got busy dragging everything back out. We went back into town to get new fishing licenses.  Came home and watched a movie with leftovers for supper....boy its sure quiet with our guests gone.

Monday December 15- I got up in time to go watch the sunrise. It was a beauty. Its just a quick walk to the beach to witness this every morning. Since the tanks are empty I decided to go ahead and get the laundry done. It was a perfect day for drying outside. While the clothes are drying we loaded the kayaks up on the carts and headed to the beach. The waters are calm enough and the suns shining. We headed out to the mangroves to see if we could catch us some snapper. The waters pretty shallow out there and as we were casting into the mangroves I got a scare. There was a huge stingray that decided to take off and circled my kayak. So I was in a circle of flying sand. It was a good day on the water. We caught some fish but nothing to keep. We had a good time looking at these crazy iguanas and any other critters we could spot.

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday December 16- Jeff got up and went for a bike ride. Across the street from the park there is a bike bath. Its really nice and no need to worry about traffic. The hard part is getting across the street. I decided to make some Christmas treats. I started with caramels. Jeff took his kayak back out and I stayed back. I went to the beach and worked on finishing a book. I tried to get on my new computer...its windows 8 so I don't know what I'm doing and Jeff's not used to windows 8 either. It's very aggravating...will I ever learn?

 

Wednesday December 17- Jeff got up and rode his bike over to check out his snorkeling spot. He wanted to see how rough the water was. He came back and said he was going back with his snorkeling stuff. I had started defrosting the freezer so I finished that task up before heading over. We loaded up our bikes and made our way over. Jeff got in the water, I stayed on the shore watching him. He said he saw lots of neat critters. Even an octopus. He spotted some lobsters but they were small and he didn't have enough weight on his weight belt to get down. When we got back I went to the beach for awhile. Jeff worked on replacing the cable on his drive system for his kayak. We got the dogs out for a walk around the loop. We watched a movie. We don't have any over the air TV so we are drawing from our movie library.

Thursday December 18-Another gorgeous day out there. It was so windy at our last spot I didn't get out in the boat. Then, since Justin was visiting when the weather was good I let him take out my boat. So now we are taking advantage of this weather. The sunrise this morning was awesome......again. Since the wind wasn't an issue and the sun was a shining we brought the kayaks down to the beach again and launched from there. We tried a different spot and we were catching some snapper but to small to keep.  I am having a bit of a problem using live shrimp....first of all you have to catch them. Then putting them on the hook is something I find hard to do. They are so wiggly. Well I think after some practice I have it mastered. I'm even getting some practice taking my fish off the hook. Since we weren't catching any keepers we moved out to the channel. I caught a blue runner and a lady fish....Jeff caught a couple lady fish too but none we kept. It was a great day on the water.

 

December 19-Jeff went fishing early. I stayed back and made some Christmas cookies. I visited the beach for awhile. That's one thing about the beach here, its almost always empty. Its very quiet and peaceful. Since its Friday we decided to go Sharkeys for happy hour. Ended up having supper here as well. It was ok. The location was wonderful.



 

Saturday December 20- We both got on our bikes to ride over and see how the water is. It looked plenty calm so our plan was to load up the snorkel stuff and some fishing poles and come back. Jeff was gonna try and get some lobsters...me I thought I would fish. We watched something big swimming around out there. We figured they had to be snook. Jeff got a few lobsters but were to small to keep. I caught some fish but nothing I could keep. I had fun catching a Spanish mackerel. The fish quit biting so we headed home. After some lunch we went to the beach and got to visiting with some folks. Come to find out they were at the last two spots we were at, at the same time. Small world huh.

Can't believe our first week here is over...such good weather and so much to do...bring on week 2.

 

 

 



Week 2 @ Bahia Honda

 

Sunday December 7- Had big plans today, we all are taking a fishing trip on the Marathon Lady. We have been coming down this way for years even before our time camping. We have been going out on this particular boat since the mid 80's. We love it, they run a great operation with helpful friendly help. They are on top of things and want everyone to have a great time. We took the morning trip which was from 8:30-12:30. Molly had never been so we wanted to make sure she had fun. We picked a great day, the wind had died down and so had the waves.

We have had better days catching fish but we caught enough to feed us 4 two times. It was a great time. Everyone caught fish and we enjoyed the sunshine and the beautiful views.

Monday December 8- We drove to Big Pine Key looking for key deer before getting some bait. We didn't have any luck seeing the deer this time. A funny thing whenever we drove by this Shell station at night there were always key deer there...so funny. After picking up bait back home. We went over to the beach on the east side because it was calmer. Justin and Jeff brought over the kayaks, Molly and I brought the chairs. The boys were trying to catch some fish, Molly and I caught some rays. Jeff caught a nice snapper. We had a good day on the beach, most days on the beach are great I think. Went back and enjoyed our catch from our fishing adventure.

Tuesday December 9- It was real windy today. We tried fishing under the bridge but didn't have much luck and that wind was crazy. Went back over to other side its protected from the wind. The guys wheeled the kayaks over this time. Fishing for them and sunshine for us....with a little Christmas music. Beachtime with Christmas music life is good. We planned to go out for dinner in Marathon at The Sunset Grill. Justin had been there before and liked it so back we went. We set in the tiki room and they had theses huge gas heaters that were really neat. After dinner we headed back for a game of yahtzee.

Wednesday December 10- It was really windy and cool today
so a group decision was made to head to Key West. Took the truck even though we knew parking was difficult. It was a pretty drive down. After driving in circles for awhile found a place to park. We paid for it this time. We walked down Duvall street and did a little shopping. Got the map out and found our destination, the southern most spot. That's where we headed next. Had to get some pictures there.

We went back to Duvall St to find us some lunch. We went to Willie T's.  It was right on Duvall Street and out in the open air. This place had dollar bills all over the floor, ceiling and walls. Besides it being unusual the food was great too. We left here made one stop at an Irish pub and they all had a drink and listened to the entertainment. Next stop Mallory Square. We got there plenty early to check out the street performers and there  were some dandy ones. The sunset wasn't bad either. Made our way to a bar along the water, brrr it was getting chilly. After all had  from the sunset the sky really did some magic. It was pink everywhere, wish the camera could catch that. We made our way back to the truck and I drove us home. It was a fun day at Key West.



Thursday December 11- After all the wind lately we were pleasantly surprised by how flat the water was outside our site. I mean it was flat, smooth as glass. The guys wanted to take advantage of it and go out to fish the bridge pillars. They caught some fish but I think Justin was more excited by the dolphins that appeared by the kayak. They also saw a big turtle and a big stingray. Molly and I enjoyed our private beach. We fixed the rest of our fish for supper with some shrimp Jeff had got in Charleston, SC. Ended the evening with a beauty of a sunset.

 

 

 

 

Friday December 12- Good thing we enjoyed those calm waters yesterday because we are really rough out there again. Everyone just wanted to hang around here today. Ran to the store to get stuff for supper. Then we thought a little beach time would be nice. It was a little chilly when the sun went under. Came back home prepared supper. The sunset tonight we thought was gonna be a bust because of all the clouds but boy were we wrong. It was a doozey.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday December 13- It was our last full day here and tomorrow is when Justin and Molly leave too. We had so much stuff drug out that we thought is best if we start picking it up today. Tomorrow we have to run them to Key West to catch there flight home. We had fishing stuff, snorkel stuff, kayaks, bikes, you name it we had it out there. Justin and Molly walked around while Jeff and I got busy. I had made a brunch so we had planned on an early supper and call it good. We had some friends recommend a place on No Name Key called the No Name Pub...(catchy). We drove over and walked into this place and it had dollars stuck up everywhere but way more than at Key West and way more cool. The help were super friendly and our service was great. We ordered pizza and it was really good. The garlic breadsticks are a must. Molly even saved room for a slice of Key Lime pie. It must have been really good cause she wasn't sharing.

 

 

 

After Molly finished her pie we left. Outside Jeff spotted some key deer so we went on a walk to try and find them. Little did we know they were back waiting for us in the parking lot of the restaurant. They are so cute and we got to get pretty close to them. What a special way to end the evening