Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas celebrating our Saviour's birth. We had a very quiet, relaxed week-end.

Friday was an exploring day. We rode our bikes as far west as you can go in Marathon. That's not very far because the entire city only covers 8.6 square miles.

We checked out several restaurants before we decided on an old 1950s style cafe, Castaway. See pictures below.

The water here is so clear that you can see the rudder on the boat and the roots on the trees. One night there was a hugh manatee swimming around here in the harbor but we missed it. We do see fish almost everyday. It's strange to look down and see fish swimming around or shadows of clouds on the bottom.

Remember we told you about all the bikes here. This is just one of the parking lots...there's a bigger one at the end of the harbor.

Why even Santa rides a bike when he's here.

Saturday we went to a covered dish dinner where all the boaters in the area are invited to. Of course, they didn't all come but there was a nice size crowd and tons of good food including ham and turkey. With people from all other the world staying here there was quite a variety.

After dinner we went to a candlelight communion service which we enjoyed very much.

Christmas was another beautiful day so we walked to an 8:00am service about 2 blocks from here. Again, we had communion and met some nice people. The walk made us hungry so we had a big breakfast back on the boat. The rest of the day was quiet because most everyone either went home for Christmas or stayed on their boat like we did. Of course all the businesses were closed so there was very little going on.

Today it's back to business as usual. Lots of traffic in and out of the harbor. Most of the boats here are on mooring balls and they have to come in for water, showers, laundry, groceries, etc. Of course they don't bring their big boats in, they just use their dinghys. The dinghy dock is just past where're we docked in the harbor so we have a steady flow of people going back and forth.

This is a picture of the dinghy dock with a few of the boats there. Building in the bakcground is the showers/restrooms/ laundry.

We made a run to K-Mart this morning before it got too hot. Had to return an item and pick up a few things. Made an unplanned purchase - a DVD player - now we have to find a movie rental nearby. Or maybe borrow some from other boaters. Every morning at 9am there's a broadcast on the VHF radio for all boaters. It updates who's new and who's leaving, announcements of anything happening in the area, and what is for sale, swap or giveaway. Lots of interesting stuff - just learned this morning there are free Spanish lessons being given every Monday at 10am. Think I (Vi) might give it a try next week.

Tomorrow we're planning to take the bus down to Key West; it's a little too far to go by bike (about 17 miles). Will tell you about it in our next post.