We have been here a week and a couple of days. We've been doing boat chores and also having some fun! There are always boat chores to be done so you have to plan fo
r some fun so that you don't go crazy. Many of our friends think that this life is just a great life of leasure. Well, let me demistify that thought!! Vicki and I rented a Rug Dr. machine from Publix, the local grocery store last week. We helped each other clean the carpets on our respective boats. That is always fun, right? NOT!
There are now 4 DeFever boats here with another one arriving tomorrow. One of them is owned by Stephanie and Bob and Bob took the guys fishing in the dingy, while Vicki and I slaved away. The guys were real excited about catching dinner but, alas, they only were able catch 2 fish big enough to eat. In the meantime, they fed the fish a lot of shrimp, which I'm sure the fish enjoyed. Below are Bob, Norm and Rick.
After fishing and rug cleaning Bob and Stephanie picked us up and took us to Bodines which is a local Marathon restaurant known for their french fries. How could you not love a restaurant like that!! We ate dinner on the water and as the sun set the waitress took a picture of the 6 of us. 
On Monday, the three couples went to Key West. Bob and Stephanie had rented a small SUV which seated 5 comfortably, but since there were 6 of us one of us had to sit in the back. I sat in the back on the way down and Vicki sat in the back on the way back. Key West is about 50 miles south of the marina. We had a great day in Key West. It was finally feeling like Florida weather. Here are some scenes from Key West.
Rick had to stop and buy a T-shirt at Rick's Bar.
A Keysie Jeep.
T-shirt shopping for the rest of us.
We stopped for a great lunch at a Thai restaurant.
There were two cruise ships docked along Mallory Square, THE place to watch sunsets. The cruise ships have to be out of the harbor before sunset so that folks can watch it. They have their priorities down here!
Pepito looks amazingly like Rick!
We won't be able to get the new upper enclosure done. Rick had planned this with the canvas guy a month ago. The first day he had lost his wedding ring, the second day he had a bad toe, the next day the wind was too much....I guess that we just didn't plan for people on 'Key's time'. So, we'll get that done when we get back to NC. That means that we will probably leave next week sometime for the Dry Tortugas. This is a collection of 7 islands preserved as a National Park about 70 miles west of Key West. Fort Jefferson, which was built in the 1840's but was never completed is the main attraction. It was a prison for Union Army deserters and Confederate war prisoners, including Dr. Samuel Mud, the doctor who set the broken leg of John Wilkes Booth, Abraham Lincoln's assassin. We've heard that it is the best snorkling and some great fishing in the Keys so we'll go check that out.
