Hurray! The last of the bikers have left the Keys after the Poker Run of last weekend. It was music to our ears when we finally heard the last roar of the thousands of bikes that crowded A1A and just about every restaurant from Key Largo to Key West for the weekend and beyond. Unfortunately, but not surprising to anyone, really, we had a fatal accident in front of the hospital on Friday afternoon. A 70 year old rider with his 34 year old wife were hit when someone made a left hand turn at the wrong time. Now at my age, I am not about to tell anyone that 70 years old is too old to ride a motorcycle, however we did see lots of wise riders trailering their bikes down to Key West to enjoy the events without having to drive in the crazy traffic conditions on the way down the Keys that we witnessed over the weekend. Restaurants, hotels, and of course bars did a great business for the past 5 days, but I'm sure even they were glad when the last motorcycle headed north on the 18 Mile stretch. Now bring on the snowbirds! It's time, and the weather is great. It's 72 degrees out there; we opened up the doorwall! Now that's a fall event we have been waiting for.

This may have been the last pizza served at L'Attitudes Restaurant, and we had it! The Cay Club closed down three restaurants last Thursday, L'Attitudes, or the old Pizza and Pasta, Cabots, and Tropical Cafe up in Tavernier. BUT The Butterfly is still open. The Cay Club seems to be in deep financial trouble. Pridham Singh has taken over the management of Tranquility Bay, Indigo Reef and The Boat House. They say they plan to reopen the restaurants in December. I feel bad for all the employees that came down here to work, and now don't have a job. Poor Peggy, she was our favorite waitress. I'm sure she will get a job elsewhere. In the meantime, we are looking for a new pizza spot. Friday night and pizza are like The Easter Bunny and Tom Storey, it's tradition!

The Key Colony Beach Public Works Building is coming right along. This is on 8th street by the golf course right by the sewer treatment plant. Now it looks pretty large just to hold the work vehicles. There are a few residents who have speculated that maybe it will become our veryown fire station some day. Key Colony was not very happy with the amount of money that Marathon Fire Department was charging us for Fire Protection this past year. Who knows? A brand new Key Colony Beach fire truck would look nice in the St. Patrick's Day parade.

This week my sisters brought my Mom down to celebrate her 86th birthday. It is just about empty here at The Cay, and three sisters have been having so much fun together. When I woke up this morning and came downstairs, Sue and Nan were gone, I stepped out on the porch and there they were in their pajamas hunting for seaglass on the beach. I grabbed my camera to get a photo of the two of them. Saturday early, no one was around, so we took a photo opportunity on the beach. What a coincidence, we all happened to be in green. A trip to Key West, a birthday celebration on the deck, lots of relaxing in the ocean and the pool, dominoes, cribbage and lots of laughs...life doesn't get much better than this.

Keys Kaleidoscope

Photos posted between 2006/1/1 and 2007/8/19.

Generated by Flickr Album Maker

It's Coming Down...Finally The shops next door to The Quay are down already, that took about 10 minutes, but now they are taking down that landmark restaurant and I think it will take a little bit longer to dismantle. These buildings have been falling down ever since Hurricane Wilma, and they really needed to be demolished. I know a lot of you have some great memories of special dinners at this long-ago famous place. I think the bar out back was Banana Tiki Bar, or something like that. The city had to send in trucks to tear it down, but I am sure the Gus Boulis Family Estate will pay for it ultimately. Most of you know that Gus Boulis was also the one who owned Sun Cruz Casino, the Quays, The Greek Fisherman, and Perrys,and then was shot in the head at a stoplight in Ft. Lauderdale after selling Sun Cruz to Jack Abrahamoff and some other inverstors who weren't paying him The city would like to buy the land for a park, but the $5 million price tag for that little strip of land is way too high. I believe the city did get the boat ramp. Well, this photo did come with a small price tag. I was filling up at the Citgo on the corner because the gas was a low $3.03 a gallon and while thinking about taking this photo, I forgot to replace my gas cap, went back to look for it later, and can't find it, so now it is a trip to KMart for a new gas cap. The good news is that I took this photo from the turn around lane while no one was behind me, and I did not get rear ended. Unfortunately, my niece has gotten me into taking photos while driving, but I swear I am going to give it up from now on, too dangerous!

Breakfast out, Keys style. My teacher friends, Arlene and Riet and I meet here often to start the morning out with breakfast on the water. Keys Fisheries has everything you would want from a breakfast sandwich, to the lobster omlet. If you fall in love with the lobster omlet, you can come back at lunch for the lobster rueben. Prices are reasonable however you do have to put your order in at the window, give a favorite movie or song title, and wait for them to call you back to pick up your order. Coffee is serve yourself. Also, they have a new upstairs bar, called "The Upper Deck" for happy hour, but we haven't tried this yet. As you all know, it is down the street from the Stuffed Pig, right next to the elementary school. How handy is that for us part-time testers? Great friends, great fun, and you can check out who's going out fishing for the day, oh..."'Love Me Tender' is up", time to go get my order.

It's a new store...for those of you who like to cook your own. "Lobster Monster" selling meat and seafood. Yes, I know, you can read the sign. It's located on the south side of A1 across from Walgreen's. They had fresh yellowtail advertized today for $4.99 a pound, probably the whole fish, Bill says. I haven't been in yet, but plan to go next week after the commercial boats start pulling traps on August 6th. Let's see, they are supposedly going to get $5.00 a pound for their catch, so I could expect to pay $10.00 a pound for lobster? That may be wishful thinking, or as they say down here, "fishful thinking". I'll let you know how the pricing goes, and what else they have there after I check it out. I love the marine blue paint job on the outside. It really sets it off from the other stores around, and you can't miss it when you drive by.

Mini-season ends tonight at midnight. They warned me to stay away from the 25th Street boat launch, Kmart fishing section, and the beer aisle at The Winn Dixie. Did I listen? No, but it was pretty tame during the day while everyone was out on the "bug-hunt". The FWC was out in full force with boats, heliocopters and even a lobster-sniffing dog. It's too crazy out there for most of the locals. Me? I'll wait until August 6th when the regular season starts. Hopefully Jim and Pat Janda will take us out on their boat; They know ALL the spots.

The rush is on! Lobster Mini season starts tomorrow, and there are tons of people down here. The ocean is full of boats. There are pickup trucks and boat trailers everywhere. The Marathon Lady has been doing lots of fishing trips daily. The signs are up, no lobstering in the canals or water around Key Colony, but the boats have been going out daily looking for just the spot where all the lobsters will be when the season starts. Now, if only the lobsters will cooperate for them and stay in exactly that spot when they start the hunt, they will be all set. Here at The Cay, it is very quiet as usual. We have only our usual summer residents, and even Marie is in France for a few weeks. The only noise here is from Oscar doing his spalling work, and he is working at a fast clip. He finished our parking lot side of building 4 this past week, and is now rounding the corner of Snavely's. From my uneducated view, he is doing an excellent job AND he has been very neat, cleaning up as he goes. What a guy! While is is quiet here, not so at Sunset Beach next door. They do a lot of short term rentals, and have lots of families fishing off the peer, swimming in the pool, etc. It's nice to see so many groups having such a good time this time of year.

We've been gone for a month, but now we are back from the great Up North, and it looks like we may have a MAJOR BANANA PROBLEM right below our balcony. When we left, there were two little trees, planted there last November. We return and one of them has massive amounts of bananas on it! How exciting! The problem is that there just aren't enough people around to share them all with, but don't worry, they aren't ripe yet anyway. We have had a few families here enjoying the 4th festivities. The Sables, the Winterichs, to name a few. The beach is peaceful and the water is warm...very warm. It's a good place to contemplate some recipes for the future. Let's see, banana bread, banana daqaris, banana margaritas, bananas Foster, banana creme pie...

Are They Catching Anything Down in The Keys?

You bet they are...on The Best Bet. Check out these dolphin that Dave and Doris got last Wednesday. They had a great time and brought back plenty of fish to share with their friends and family. They worked hard to haul in this catch, sore muscles, a few cuts and bruises, but it was all worth the effort! They'll be serving lots of dolphin meals in New Jersey this summer. Mmm-mmm, start up the barbie and cook up some fresh Jersey corn to go with it.

A Mural Comes to Life

Last week on Thursday when I was working at Stanley Switlik Elementary, a big cherry picker truck pulled up to the bare white wall in the outside hallway at the school ( down here, all of the hallways are outside). Next they brought in about 20 gallons of paint, and then the work began. It has an interesting local flavor to the story. The artist, Yoslan O'Farrill, went to Stanley Switlik when he came to Marathon from Cuba in the 6th grade. He graduated from Marathon High School and is now an artist in Daytona Beach. His mom works in the school as a janitor, and his brother is now a 4th grader. They convinced him to come down and paint the mural. He said he painted it as a testament to what Keys students can accomplilsh. It was fun watching him work. By Friday afternoon it was almost complete, and Monday he came back to finish the dolphins' eyes, and sign his work. The dolphins are the school mascot, of course! This young 23 year old artist is married and has 2 kids. He says his next project is a gaming mural at Bellagio in Vegas. .

Deck Party Trivia

Can you name the members of this partyin' group?. Hints: Three generations, 4 different families, two are related, one's "just a renter". They all had a great time being together in April.

Farewell Party

Yes, it's that time of year when the last of our friends head North, or East, or West, and it's also time for them to clean out the fridge and share some of the best recipes with friends on the deck. These are the kind of people who can take off their sandals in a second to head to the sand for a photo op by the water. These are the people who show up in whatever they are wearing, be it bathing suit, holey shorts, or bathrobe, to spend time together. We are sad because some of them are leaving, but there will still be a few hearty souls here through the month of May, and maybe beyond. Good bye to Carl and Dana, Carlo and Sharon, Dee and Verne, Sophia and Bill (yes, they made it in one piece to Columbus once again). Hello to summer, absolutely no goosebumps when you enter the ocean, more dolphins and manatees to swim with, and still some parties on the deck...they may be smaller, but they will be just as lively, and guaranteed there will be more fish to fry. Save that jug of Carlo Rossi, Warren. We will get to it sooner or later.

Marooned in Marathon...if you haven't gone North yet, you must stop in and see this very Keysee store, and if you are there on Wednesday, this very Keysee lady, Arlene. They have every chatski, googa, item that you could possibly think of, including cigars (Tom, don't you dare get one and smoke it on your porch!). We especially like the redneck horn, but all of the new sandals and purses are also very tempting. A rainy day, a sunny day, you don't have to be marooned to stop by and spend some time shopping and chatting.

HARDTOP MOPED Seen yesterday in Key West. With gas prices up to $3.02 a gallon, this doesn't look so silly to me anymore. Would you consider it? What if gas prices were $5.oo a gallon, then could you give it a try? I couldn't tell if it had windshield wipers or not, but that would be a must. I'd definitely give it a go on Key Colony Beach, but no way up on the turnpike. Guess I better keep my Element for a while.