Dolphin Are In
Originally uploaded by sache47

When I say they're "in", I'm using the term loosely. They are about 30
miles out, and it was a rough day at sea, but someone had to do it.
Bill had quite a catch on the "Reel Smiles" yesterday with Big Dave.
Here they are along with the one wahoo that Bill brought in. It was a
half day of fishing turned into a full day of fishing because nothing
was hitting for the first 3 hours until they came upon about 50 milk
jugs tied together and their they were keeping cool in the shade and
just waiting to be hooked. So tonight it's dolphin fingers on the
deck. Be there or be square!

Ocean Floor Clean Up

Ocean Floor Clean Up
Originally uploaded by sache47

As Doris, Dave, Bill and I noodled around and enjoyed a beautiful
Mother's Day in the warm water, we noticed this young girl snorkeling
around us and making several trips with a mesh bag back to the beach.
Turns out she was collecting lots of litter from the ocean floor. Old
cans, plastic pipe, big pieces of glass, snorkel equipment, she
carried it all back to the beach, and was still busy at if for most of
the afternoon. We looked over her collection, and thanked her for her
hard work. Christina's grandparents own a condo at Ocean Front Condos
and she comes down every weekend in the summer from Miami to check on
the place. How great to see someone working hard to clean up the
environment, and no, she did not find the diamond ring that the
Steiners lost out there 4 years ago.

Best Wishes to Warren

Best Wishes to Warren
Originally uploaded by sache47

All of us (those survivors who are still around) wished Warren the
best as he moves on to be near his kids in Denver. It was a great
night, beautiful balmy weather, delicious food, and a rousing game of
Alligator to top off the evening. The BIG money winner was Dennis,
but Cole Tracy did well also. We shared memories around the table and
told a few stories of parties in the ocean room, stories told around
the pool, and summer days of seeing Warren multitasking in the pool,
doing his walk and reading at the same time. He will be missed. You
know everyone in the picture except for his daughter, Mary, in the
green next to Warren. They will be flying out together on Tuesday.

MONKEY BUSINESS

Big celebration at the Brass Monkey today, and we were a part of it. It was a tense week in Marathon when the Winn Dixie gave the Monkey 30 days to move out after they refused to sell their liquor license. Winn Dixie owns the property. The town showed up to support the Monkey and threatened to boycott the Winn Dixie, and so their lease was extended. Part of the victory party today was 1000 hamburgers and hotdogs provided by Winn Dixie. The band rocked out with Clarence Clemons (Bruce Springsteen's Band) on the sax, and us in the Monkey for our first time enjoying the local crowd and the music. Yes, that really is Clarence Clemons, he just bought a house in Marathon and enjoys jamming with the band at The Monkey now and then. Doris even got a big smooch from local talent, "Rocket Man" from Porky's. Check out his jewelry and monkey hat! We decided we need to hit the local watering holes more often. It was lots of fun.

The 7 Mile Bridge Run, Saturday, April 17th. Cool, breezy, very little sun. Isn't that about just right for an early morning run?

Ukranian Egg Decorating at Cindy's starts with sucking out the innards with a special tool.

Ukranian Egg Decorating at Cindy's starts with sucking out the innards with a special tool.
Originally uploaded by sache47

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Before melting off the bee's wax

Before melting off the bee's wax
Originally uploaded by sache47

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Using a kitska to paint on the bee's wax

Using a kitska to paint on the bee's wax
Originally uploaded by sache47

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Lot's of colors to choose from

Lot's of colors to choose from
Originally uploaded by sache47

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Ukranian Decorated Easter Eggs

Ukranian Decorated Easter Eggs
Originally uploaded by sache47

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It's ST. PATRICK'S DAY and tradition is that everyone shows up in The Ocean Room at The Cay for a little Irish cheer. It was great to have Tom Storey here to celebrate with us and since his birthday was the day before, the partying seemed to just go on and on.

Cole and Rex stopped by, probably on their way to wrapping up the evening at Cabana Breezes.

We took time out from the party to watch the "big" parade as it went from 15th Street Circle, right past our driveway and on down 1st street. Lots of people got into the spirit of decorating their cars, and dogs, and bikes.

Dinner was at Sparky's. The green beer, cabbage and corned beef was enough to make your hair stand on end, right Bill?

Valentine's Day Sunrise

Here's Where We Live

Key Colony Beach - an island off of Marathon Key, upper right side of photo - just behind Joe Lombardo's left wing.

Big Catch off Key Colony Beach

This was one of the two swords that were brought in today, and here's our own Jack Miller, posing with the crew of the "Reel Easy" with the largest of the two, 300 pounds, caught in 2000 feet of water. It took a good hour and a half to bring it in, but it will be worth the effort for the swordfish steak dinner someone will be eating tonight.

THIS is more like it!

It's beautiful down here today, look, people are even swimming in the ocean. Our friends, Karen and Steve, are coming down for the weekend and it's supposed to continue to be beautiful for several days to come. There is only one thing missing on thebeach, and that's me! I'm on my way!

Arctic Temps = Indoor Crafts

A beachblogger has to find something to do when it is way too cold to be outside. I'm getting in touch with my Native American roots that I'm sure must be buried somewhere deep in my DNA. First, collecting and sorting the pine needles; some from Northern Florida, some from Withlacoochie State Forest, some from Big Pine. Then it's on to soaking them in boiling water and removing the caps. Bill slices the shells with his grinding tool attachment and drills holes (sorry about the noise on our porch, neighbors). Then the best part, coiling, sewing, coiling sewing, around and around. What a great way to pass the time while listening to a good book on tape. However, the sun is out, the temp is warming up to the 50s, so I must get down to the beach this afternoon. This squaw is turning into a pale face!

"Dear Abby", the men's acappella choir from Boston University is vacationing here at The Cay and treated us to a mini performance on the beach today. They were excellent! It sounded just like they had percussions backing them up, but no, it was just voice sound effects. Doug Enger's nephew is a member, and I am pretty sure he is the third from the left. If you haven't heard them, they'll be around all week and may do little street performing at Mallory Square.

Did Santa bring you snow for Christmas? Well not us, we musta been bad because all we got was a huge load of weeds on the beach. The wind was out of the southeast on Christmas afternoon and in rolled the sargasso weed. It's filled with little blue man-a-wars and lots of sea lice and so the seagulls are having a Christmas Day feast. NO one is even thinking about getting in the water or even close to it, although it's plenty warm enough for a dip today. I have no idea what the beach raker will do with all this stuff when he shows up tomorrow morning. Dump truck? Bulldozer? We shall see.

The KCB Boat Parade on Sunday was the best we have ever seen. There was quite a variety of boats, from huge right down to kayak size. One very large yacht had a marching band and vocal group that sang the Star Spangled Banner. A small dinghy was cleverly made up to look like a sleigh pulled by Rudolph, and now it's parked in front of Sparky's for the rest of the season. Of course Tucker DeGraw was there in "Tuck's Toy", as always, having a great time. There were 3 kayaks this year, the waitress from Stouts was in one. They had themselves wrapped in battery powered lights, and were so much fun to watch. My night time photography skills are really lacking, so I couldn't capture the real beauty of it. There were no tandem kayaks, and I couldn't talk Bill into making a fool of himself, but when either of my sisters come down for Christmas again, we WILL be the Kayaking Sisters Act in the Christmas Boat Parade. I promise!

Today my retired teacher friends and I went to lunch at the Marathon Yacht Club with Mrs. Gradick. It's a Christmas event I look forward to every year. Mrs. G, in her 90s now, moved down here in the '50s, and was principal of Marathon High School for 20 years, and can she tell the stories. I love to hear her talk about school life down here back then, it was a different ball game, and she had a way with the kids, and they knew who was in charge.
I love to get her going on her athletic career. She was phys. ed. teacher first when she came down from Philly. She made the girls' gymnastic team for the 1948 Olympics in London, but had to drop out right before the competition when she caught and seriously injured her knee while vaulting the horse. Heck, I was only one year at that time! She has a basement full of medals, trophies, and ribbons, and can tell you every single competition she was in. She competed in the Senior Olympics until she has 87. That year she was in the discus throw, shot put, and hammer throw, and broke a hip. She still lives by herself with her dog, Heidi, and is quite active in the community. "The girls" sure have a good time when we get together. Our bodies may be less active than in the past, but our mouths can still run at full speed.

I guess it's not too much of a surprise that the wildlife around here is not one bit afraid of us. After all, we are very predictable, swim/walk/bike in the morning, Scrabble under the palm in late afternoon, cocktail on the deck before dinner. What's to worry about? They know where we will be and when. This juvie heron seemed to like to be near me this morning. Laps 1-3, he watched from the top of the fence. Laps 4-6 he did figure eights on the ground in between the fence posts. Laps 8-10 he stood on the side of the pool and counted along with me. He's a good influence, and nice to have at my side. He kept me swimming a little longer while Bill got the camera. Hope he's back again tomorrow. I think I'll call him "Coach".

Late afternoon seems to be the best time to watch the osprey practice his hunting skills. He perches right above us while we sit in the shade of the palms. We think he's a young one, first of all because he's not one bit bothered by us being so close, and also because he's really not that great of a hunter yet. He has a few obstacles to overcome. The palm frond he sits on swings in the breeze while he spots his target. Then just as he takes off, the seagulls on shore charge to his prey and make all kinds of noise and shadows and scare it away. He likes to go for the needle fish that are bluish green, easy to spot, and sit still by the surface. When he's got his approach just right, he comes up with the fish, head first in his strong talons, jealous seagulls flapping along just in case he drops it, and carries it off somewhere else to chow down. Then he returns to the palm tree to get ready to try it all over again.

Only in Key West...
KEY WEST: A 62-year-old
Clearwater man was jailed
Monday after allegedly using a
golf putter to beat a man who
tried to kiss him, saying he
was acting out of “moral self
defense,” police reports say.
John Crawford Swindle was
charged with disorderly conduct
and aggravated battery
causing great bodily harm.
from Key West Ctitzen

THIS IS WHY you don't swim in a canal on Key Colony Beach. Daniel Calahan, Fifth Street Canal, 130 stitches at Fishermen's Hospital. Bull Shark attack. I'm taking this post off very soon because it is just too disgusting.

It's the talk of Key Colony Beach, and it's really no joking matter. This past week someone was attacked by a bull shark in the 5th Street canal. As far as I can tell from overhearing different conversations, bull sharks weighing about 200 pounds were seen in the canal in the morning. In the afternoon a man was snorkeling in the canal,spotted the bull shark and tried to get away, but was bit on the foot as he was climbing up a ladder out of the water. The number I heard was 42 stitches.
Yesterday afternoon, as the water is gorgeous right now, Marie had just got out of the ocean, and we were about to get in, when Steve, the manager came down to let us know that someone had spotted an 8 foot bull shark off of the pier at Sunset Beach Condos next door. That is just way to close for comfort. It could have been Marie's last swim forever, and our final noodle if he had decided to cruise the shore while we were there. We have had a number of seagulls, pelicans, and herons hanging around the shoreline on our beach this week. Something is coming up and scaring the pilcherds up onto the shore, and the seagulls are grabbing any that they can. Sharks? Barracudas? We don't know, but if we get in the water today, it will be while we are inside our kayak.

BABY, BABY, BABY!
Last night looks to have been a very busy night for at least 83 hatchlings that crawled out of their nest here on Key Colony Beach and headed out to sea. Most of them followed their natural instincts on a very dark night with just a crescent moon, and went the right way. Eleven of them, for one reason or another, headed off to the pool at The Residences, where our manager discovered them this morning. One lively little hiker was actually found getting ready to cross Ocean Drive. The nest was next door at Monte Cristo, about 4 beaches down from us. It had been discovered and reported to Save-A-Turtle on July 4th, and marked off with flags. The hatching was to have occurred exactly 53 days later, on Aug 27, so you see our guys and gals arrived a few days early. This morning after his discovery, Steve called Ed Borysiewicz, or City Inspector and head Turtle Count person on Key Colony, and lucky for me, I was riding my bike by, and got in on the whole thing. The nest was inspected and hatched eggs counted, 83. Eleven disoriented will be held until this evening when they will be given a second chance to find their way at exactly the same spot. The eggs that didn't hatch were also counted 33, and then buried back in the nest. All of this is carefully recorded and reported back to Save-A-Turtle. We hope that the little tikes that made it will return here to the same beach in a few years to lay their eggs, that's how it's supposed to happen.

It would have been nice if Mama Turtle would have come back for the evening to show the babies where to go, but she was out to sea after laying the eggs 53 days ago, and more interested in her own survival. And from the looks of the beach this morning and all those tracks, there must have been quite a bit of confusion on which way to go, and it sure looked like a lot more than 83 hatchlings were marching around.

I know were I'll be at dark tonight, when the 11 wanderers are given their send off... down at the beach!

A NEW BIKE! And it's MINE!!
It's a Trek Pure, and believe me, I spent way more time bike shopping and test driving than we spent on our new car purchase last month. But this was important, a new bike is not something to be quick about. I had it narrowed down to 3 so called comfort bikes that I really liked after riding several. Comfort, that's the important quality for me these days. I checked out the bike shops in Key West last week, and ended up at my LBS, that's Local Bike Shop in biker lingo. For those of you who have had bad experiences with Overseas Outfitters, I know what you went through. But now there is a new young manager/part owner, and he is really making an effort to turn things around. His parents (my age) live on Little Torch Key and help out at the store. They couldn't be nicer, and the Dad has had two weeks of bike mechanic training...what more could you want?
Now not to bore you with too much ancient history, I got my biking start exactly 58 years ago with my first bike and some tender loving help from my Dad.

I think it looks a little bit like my new bike, except for the training wheels. As a young girl, I rode my bike daily until I got into my teen years. For some reason, it just wasn't cool to ride a bike in the 60s. I took about 40 years off in my riding, and then bought my next bike when I was about 50 and put many miles on that Trek. Because of various back issues, I find myself riding it less and less, so time to try something new. That old Trek won't go to waste, Bill has already taken it over and attached his motor to it. It will be an improvement over the K Mart Dirt bikes, and those two will go to Manuel, who will put them to good use.

We finished up our morning exercise routines with a kayak trip yesterday. Early morning and late evening is the best for kayaking this time of year. As we went past Seapoint, here in the photo, we saw tarpon rolling by the pier. We headed on past Bonefish Towers all the way to Coco Plum Beach, but did not go ashore to search the wrack line for sea beans. Then we took our good ole time heading home. The noodle afterwards was the real cool down. The heat index yesterday was 105, the water is in the low 90s, but it still felt very refreshing. What a way to start the day.

SEA BEANS, or Drift Seeds. I've been collecting them. This is a great thing for me to collect because they are hard to find, and so the collection grows very slowly.

They are, from top and clockwise, Sea Heart also called Sailor's Heart, Hamburger Beans, Sea Pearl (although I'm not sure about this one), Starnut Palm, and hog plum, in case you didn't guess,this one is not so special.
A seabean is a fruit or seed that has drifted in from another continent. The ones we get are from Central America or Africa. My favorites are the sea heart and the hamburger bean. Since this picture, I have found one more sea heart, and one more hamburger bean, but the season hasn't really started yet. When the strong winds blow in lots of seaweed from the south east, that's the best time to search the beach.

I took this picture of the sea heart pod at the orchid show in Redlands. It was part of a display of items that are illegal to bring into the country. The pods are about 4 feet long from the monkey ladder vine. It is supposed to be the longest bean pod in the world. They say that Columbus found a sea heart floating in the eastern Atlantic and this inspired him to search for land to the west. I think I know how he felt. Once you discover one sea bean, you just have to look for more.

Last night dined at Banana Cabana for the first time. This restaurant is at Banana Bay Resort on the bayside. We got there at 6:00 and the restaurant didn't open until 6:30, so we had a drink at the tiki bar while we waited. This is a beautiful resort tucked in to an area of beautiful tropical plants and trees, and cute little cottage areas, they also have a marina. We were very pleased with the restaurant. The new restaurant owner partners are from Michigan, Grand Rapids and Holland, and couldn't be nicer. They even gave us a 10% locals discount, which we weren't expecting. The inside is just like out of the 70s, you can eat outside, but we chose air-conditioning. The menu has a nice variety and reasonable prices, but we had our favorite, pizza, and believe it or not, it was the best we have had in Marathon, and we are pretty picky about the crust. Next time you are down, you must try this place out. When we go back, we are going to venture into some other items on the menu.

Get Key Colony Beach City Council Meeting minutes emailed to you.
Click on the City of Key Colony Beach link to the right of this post, and then go to "automatic email updates".

Good news for shoppers!
We are really in paradise now with the addition of Daffy Doug's Discount Dollar in Marathon. I'm not kidding, this store is really nice. It is past the Hospital on the right side in the old yellow Tropical Furniture store building. It is huge, everything is brand new and arranged really nicely. "Doug" has gone all out, three cash registers, free hotdogs on opening day, and he is even having O'Farrill paint a big mural on the outside of the building so you can't miss it when driving south. Not only is there a large greeting card selection, a dollar each, but believe it or not there is a craft section. Yes, I said a craft section including knitting needles and crochet hooks in every size. I'm not kidding! There are great scrapbooking items, and just about everything is a dollar. Tools, fishing stuff, cosmetics, household supplies, clothing- well this area is a little lacking. As you can tell, I am very excited. It's way better than K Mart or Walgreens, and good for at least 45 minutes of brousing twice a week.

Lychees are in season now, and we are hooked! They have them for sale at the weekend fruit stand across from Publix and I think they bring them in from Homestead. At $5. a pound, they aren't cheap, but they are so good I'm afraid the first pound won't last until the fruit stand is open again on Saturday. They outside is hard like an egg shell, but the inside is sweet and so juicy, it makes you want to pop off the shell and eat another one right away.

The Royal Poinciana
This time of year as you drive up and down US 1, the bright orange blaze of the Royal Poinciana just keeps catching your eye. There are many bigger and brighter than this one, but I love how this tree frames the little cottage beneath. This is part of "Tropical Cottages", right before you get to Gulfside Mall. I also keep noticing these trees because of the huge seed pods attached. I'm waiting for them to fall after a windstorm so I can collect them to make some seed jewelry.

We headed out this morning on a typical Keys summer day, hot and very little wind. We had hoped to go for dolphin but the wind wasn't just right so we went off for yellowtail instead. We went for the deep, big yellowtail this time in about 100 feet of water. It was tough to feel the fish biting when the line was out so far, but we pulled in quite a few and Bill caught the largest yellowtail he has ever caught, the one in the picture, probably about 3 pounds. On the way back we trolled for dolphin and Roger brought in this very nice one. Summer's here, the air- conditioning sure felt good when we got home!

The mini-tornado we had last week blew in some interesting finds at the beach. Jan Sables found not one, but two beautiful conchs in the ocean. We took this one out for a photo, and then Roger put them back where they will hopefully find their way back out to deeper water. It's nice to know that the conch population is alive and well on Key Colony Beach. The fishing team of Sables/Cherry goes out on the Lobster Boat tomorrow for our traditional May fishing trip. Wish us luck, we hope to get into some dolphin.

WAS IT A TORNADO?
We woke up early Tuesday morning to the sound of wind and rain whistling through the courtyard, and at daylight it became evident that that was not all that was flying through the air. Something blew by, selected certain chairs and garbage cans off the beach, and rearranged them in the courtyard. Was it a waterspout turned tornado? We don't know. There was no mention of it happening anywhere else in the area. The deck was left just exactly as it was the day before and nothing was moved on the porches, but if you were on the beach and in it's path...look out!

NUN RUN NOT SO MUCH FUN
Turns out that Sister Mary Beth Lloyd didn't finish her 100 mile run from Key Largo to Key West. She made it about 40 miles to Long Key sometime Saturday night and then threw in the towel, or the habit, as the case may be. She said she had stomach problems. The pace leader for her said that her 85 year old father was part of her support crew and this also threw her off emotionally because he kept pleading with her to stop running. About two thirds of the rest of the runners did finish the race although it was very hot and humid. We met a young man who did the half race from Marathon to Key West and came in second. He and his family were staying on Key Colony the night before and after the race. His father said he was totally exhausted just going along as a supporter! One person in Sister Mary Beth's group did finish the race, and she was pleased with the publicity that her cause, Orphans of AIDS, recieved because of the event.

"Nun on the Run"
Today is the start of the KEYS100 race, a race from Key Largo to Key West, exactly 100 miles, with a 32 hour time limit. There are 65 runners signed up to do the entire distance, and one of them is Sister Mary Elizabeth Lloyd who will run in her black habit to raise awareness for AIDS orphans. She's almost 60 years old! I don't know if she will finish, but you gotta give her credit for trying. And while I'm on the subject of runners, our own daughter-in-law, Lori and her wonderful husband, our son, Gabe, will be visiting this coming week. Lori is in training for the Chicago Marathon, and will probably get some practice in the Florida heat before she goes back to run in the streets of Chicago in August. The only advice I have is drink plenty of water, race fans, and go for a nice cool down in the pool or the ocean when you are done. I'll keep you posted on how the Running Nun does.

This is the time of year when Manuel goes around and drastically trims up everything around The Cay; it's a hurricane preparation thing, I suppose, but also seems to really get things going with some new spring growth. As I was walking up the steps after my swim this morning, I noticed that he had completely cut down one of the banana trees that had finished producing. Then I noticed the amazing concentric circles of the inner core of the trunk where he had sawed it off, and also a new plant to the left just about 18 inches tall just starting it's lifetime goal of providing bananas to The Cherrys and anyone else who is around. It makes me happy to know that even when something is old and used up and carted away, it can still leave something beautiful behind.

Last week we met up with Ryan from New York on the deck. He came down every evening and kept us amused with his knowledge of New York City living, his Blackberry capabilities, and his daily dive trips and bar/restaurant experiences while he is staying at the Hoffman's unit with his mom and dad.
He sure had us old folks as a captive audience as he went on and on about this and that. A self-described nerd, he told us he was the AV squad captain in high school and now has gone on to become a freelance TV camera coordinator, or something like that. Here he is teaching himself how to use a cast net that he bought in the dive shop when he went on the day trip to Looue Key. That guy will "tackle" anything, and was so nice to spend time with those of us that are from a different generation.
We enjoyed his sense of adventure, "can do" attitude, and friendly nature. Hope he gets to make another trip down to The Cay next year.

Here's what you can do on a rainy day; go up to the Ocean Room and paint fish on pieces of palm spine. What could be more fun and provide lots of laughs? This is the second school of fish created with the help of the craftiest lady that we have here at The Cay. Some look like real fish, like the dolphin and the cero mackrel, and some look, well, just ridiculous. Thanks for an entertaining afternoon, Dana.