3/22/16 To Lighthouse Point Yacht Club

Another day of traveling up the ICW and going under bridges! We only traveled about 15 miles today (2 1/2 hrs). Our destination is Lighthouse Point Yacht Club. They are closed tonight for dinner, but we got here in time for lunch. And the salads were great! BTW: their wi-fi is excellent, so I'm catching up on my posts.............Yippee! We will leave here in the morning and make our way to Old Fort Cove Marina in North Palm Beach.

Example of what we see a lot of.....

Waterways along the ICW

Beautiful Home

Miami to Ft Lauderdale

This is where it gets exciting. Lots of big,big yachts and plenty of small ones too! There are lots of bridges through here, some we can pass under and some we have to time our traveling because they only open on specific times. Ex: some open every 30 minutes starting on the hour, then others open every 30 minutes on the quarter hour. Our destination today is New River in Ft. Lauderdale, arrived on the 17th and will leave on the 22nd.  Rob n Sandy (Sandrobber) are there and we will get together for dinner. Also; Ken n Jo (Friar Tuck) are in this same river. It's always fun running into fellow loopers. We didn't venture out a lot while in Ft. Lauderdale; it was exciting enough just watching the boats go by while we sat on ours! I walked to Las Olas Blvd one day and checked out the shops. Publix is only a half mile away, so we grocery shopped for our needs. We also rode our bikes to West Marine, wow what a store! Sonny was in heaven!

Miami at night

Bridge in front of Corkscrew in Ft Lauderdale

View of Corkscrew (on left) from the bridge

Gorgeous yacht being towed thru river

Another view of the river from bridge

Rob n Sandy with us at Italian restaurant in Old Ft Lauderdale

Me on Las Olas Blvd having lunch

View of river and Corkscrew on left

Corkscrew

Big Yacht

Miami skyline

March 15th; Leaving Marathon

Oh what a sad day; but it's time to move on.............we have been here 7 weeks! Time has passed very fast, but new adventures await! Our ride today is 50 miles and very shallow water along the way.  Many of these miles were with only 2' of water under the keel. It is a little nerve-racking when you can see the bottom so clearly. Along one particular stretch the dolphins showed up again and rode along in that shallow water. It just seemed odd that I could see the bottom and watch them swim! Then appeared our friends (Phil n Jeanne, Knot Yet, which happens to be an Ocean Alexander very similar to ours)! Our destination is Tarpon Basin for tonights anchorage. Tomorrow we will leave there and head to Miami.  The Grandstand  (which is the new site for the Miami boat show) will be our anchorage for that night.  It is across the ICW from downtown Miami. There were lots of boats anchored there. The view of the Miami skyline at night was absolutely beautiful.

Dolphins swimming with us

Corkscrew leaving harbor

Same

Going by the Lighthouse

Marena n I waving bye................

Jack n Sara

They came to visit March 4-8....................and absolutely had a blast! Went to Key West, stayed by the pool, grocery shopped (of course I always take advantage of a guests car) Lol; and took a ride on the boat for lunch one day. You can tell from the pics that we ate out a lot. It was just a very relaxing time and we sure hated for them to leave. We'll get to see them this summer while in The Chesapeake. Several years ago (I think maybe in 2007??) Jack n Sara, Bobby n Pam, Bart n Cindy and ourselves chartered 2 catamarans in The Chesapeake; and Sonny n I have wanted to go back. So this summer is it! Thanks for all the fun and laughs and hugs n kisses here in Marathon; we had so much fun!!!!!!!

Goofy!

Burdine's

Mooring Field in Boot Key Harbour

Vino's wine bar in Key West

Jack n I

Sonny n Sara @ The Lighthouse Grille

Dinner @ Sunset Grill w/ friends

March in Marathon.......

I know I've not written much while here in Marathon. But honestly there are not a lot different things happening, or maybe I'm not creative enough in my writing!!! We seem to do pretty much the same thing over and over....................relax! We did go to the Dolphin Research Center; very interesting. We've tried to eat out as much as possible and have succeeded very well I think..................lol! Also went to the Marathon Seafood Festival on the 12th. It was nice, but it seemed to be more about the vendors and very little about seafood. I expected it to be the other way around. This resort has been a destination spot for weddings and where our boat is docked, we have had front row seats!
We are planning on leaving here on the 15th. Gonna anchor out a couple nights, then head to Miami and Ft. Lauderdale, and on up the east coast. Our stay here has been wonderful, but it's time to move on to new places. We have changed gears on how we are planning on completely this trip. We are going slow up the east coast, taking our time wherever we want. When we get to the Chesapeake Bay, we will stay there 2-3 months. We have two granddaughters graduating (May n June), so we felt going home would be good from there.

Burdine's

Sonny n I

Lunch @ The SS Wreck

Dinner @ Sunset Grill w/ friends

Sonny relaxing

2/17/16 thru 2/24/16 Courtney n Savannah

My daughter Courtney and her daughter Savannah came and stayed a week. It's very hard to put my feelings into words; but simply said, happy, happy, happy!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sonny needed to go back to Nashville to attend to some things; so he chose to go while they were here. Probably a good choice; cause we had stuff strewn everywhere! Would've driven him nuts..............lol. We stayed busy going places, eating out, shopping, laying by the pool, etc. They went to Key West twice; there are a lot of interesting things to see there! When Sonny returned we all went to the Turtle Hospital for a tour. Savannah loves turtles; so she was especially interested! We laughed and had so much fun....................
Savannah even tinted my eyebrows for me!
Anyhow; I sure hated to see them leave and can't wait till the next time! Love my girls!!!!!!!!!!!

Courtney, Savannah n Marena

Savannah tinting my eyebrows

Willie T's

Savannah

Willie T's in Key West

Savannah

Burdine's for lunch

Burdine's

Savannah learning to use chopsticks!

Castaway's