Not much has happened since our last post. The weather has been lovely until yesterday. We're experiencing winter in the Keys...daytime temps in the high 60s and night temps low 60s. Of course there is a pretty stiff breeze so it feels cooler. But that didn't keep us from riding our bikes to church this morning.

Most of the past week we've battled plumbing problems on the boat. First the fresh water pump was cycling on when no water was running. Then the drain line under the sink cracked. As usual God provided an answer, we have made friends with a guy from Wrightville Beach, NC and he's very knowledgable about plumbing/electrical/ac on boats. So he went through the boat and took care of all our problems.

In the Florida Keys there is no name for famous than Henry Flagler who built the world famous Overseas Railway in the early 1900's. Called the “8th wonder of the world”, this amazing ribbon of steel and concrete forever changed the history of the Florida Keys.

Yesterday, we attended the Centennial celebration of the completion of the railroad. It was held at Pigeon Key, a five acre parcel of land that housed as many as 400 workmen during construction. Now it is home to the only authentic museum documenting construction of the Overseas Railway.

We had to ride our bikes about 5 miles in a stiff wind to get to the site. But it was worth it to be part of a historic celebration and to ride on the Old Seven Mile Bridge that may be closed to the public soon.

There were many volunteers dressed in early 1900s attire adding to the feeling of stepping back in time. After visiting all the old buildings and sampling seafood chowder, molasses cornbread, and mango crisp we had to ride 5 miles back to the marina.

This is how they cooked the seafood chowder, the cornbread and the mango crisp...just like it was done back in the day.

Here's Phil with our new friends, Stu and Chuck from Norfolk, VA.

This is the Old Seven Mile Bridge with the middle span removed so that boats can go from the Gulf of Mexico into the Atlantic Ocean without going all the way around Key West.

And this one is just to prove that we really were at Mile Marker 0 at the southern end of US 1 in Key West.

Even though there was play-off game last night on TV we were too pooped to ride a half mile to see it. Remember, we have no TV here in the marina after the office closes at 5:45. The only thing that causes is being out of touch with news, sports, etc. but we really don't have a problem with that. And we spend much more time interacting with people. Cruisers learn quickly how to slow down and let the world pass by...even when we're not on Island time.

Time to Catch Up

We didn't make it to Key West on Tuesday...just too lazy to do much of anything except enjoy the sunshine. Same thing on Wednesday. Guess we were resting up for a the visit from our wonderful friend Zandy. She drove 700+ miles from Pensacola so that we'd have a vehicle to use for sightseeing. (Thank you Zandy).

Zandy and Phil on her arrival.

Friday we spent here in Marathon just getting her acquainted with the area. We were sitting outside late Friday afternoon and a boater pulled his dinghy up beside our boat. He's a Columbian (the country) and he lives in Duck, NC. It was a fascinating evening hearing about his travels.

New Year's Eve we went to Key Largo which is back toward the mainland. After having lunch in a great seafood restaurant, we went to the John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. It was the first undersea park created in the US and encompasses about 70 nautical square miles of Atlantic Ocean waters. There are so many things to do: glass bottom boat tours, snorkeling, scuba diving, camping, fishing, or just hanging out on the beach. The Visitor's Center features a 30,000 gallon saltwater aquarium and other natural history exhibits. There's also a theater where visitors may watch nature videos.

The following pictures were taken inside the Visitor's Center.

This is Key Deer which are small than whitetails or any other breed we've seen. They look like minatures.

These are some of the birds that inhabit the Keys. Notice there are no songbirds. That's because there is no fresh water except that piped in for human consumption.

We got back to the boat in time to join the New Year's Eve festivities which didn't amount to much.

Sunday was another beautiful day so we checked out the only public beach in Marathon. The surf is totally different than beaches further north; there is no wave action and the water is very shallow. None of us were interested in taking a dip so not sure how warm it was.

After lunch we went to Crane Point Museum and Nature Center. It's a 63 acre plot that maintains the natural habitat of the Keys. We took a trolley tour of the park and learned about many of it's trees and plants. We saw one of the world's last remaining thatch palm hammocks, a butterfly meadow, and one of the oldest houses in the Keys built out of tabby (burnt seashells) in the early 1900s.

This is just one of the many flowers blooming here...and yes, it's January 1st.

Monday we headed out to Key West where we saw many things that you can't see anywhere else, like the southernmost house in the continental US. Zandy and Vi took the Conch Train tour while Phil just walked around taking in all the sights. Perhaps Vi would have been better off walking because the train had very uncomfortable seats and the driver hit every bump in the streets causing her back to flare up.

An mid-afternoon shower chased us out of Key West and the front followed us back to Marathon. We were all too tired to cook so we opted for pizza and a little of the Rose Bowl game at a nearby restaurant. The wind was pretty stiff all night causing the boat to rock and roll. The temperature also dropped down in the low 50s during the night...that's the coolest weather we've had since arriving on December 19. Neither the weather or Vi's back improved much on Tuesday so Phil and Zandy had to entertain themselves with mostly inside activities. With no improvement in sight until the week-end Zandy decided to leave this morning. The temperature won't be in better in Pensacola but her bed will certainly sleep better than the bench seats here in the boat salon.

Nothing much planned until the 14th; that the date of the centennial celebration of Flagler's Overseas Railroad. We'll tell you about that in our next post.