Heat Wave

 

Cudjoe Key, Florida (high 90, low 80)

Can you believe our predicted lows this week will get all the way down to 80 degrees?  It’s been pretty miserable the past couple of weeks.  The mountains are starting to call my name.

It seems like it’s been hotter than normal, so I went back to previous years blogs to confirm that it has definitely been hotter than usual.  That is one reason I always post the temperatures on my blog. I often go back and see what to expect.  We rarely get up to 90 but we’ve had several 90 degree days the past week or so.   No end is in sight.  Our normal daytime high is 82 and low 72.

We have been going to the pool every evening. Venture Out has a beautiful heated pool and is the perfect temperature for night swimming.  Al finds it helps his aching shoulders and knees.  Last night we finished it up in the hot tub. It made for some really good sleeping.

It’s very hard to believe it’s not summer everywhere and that some places are still getting snow.  It certainly feels like summer here in the Keys.

 

We had visitors from the Tampa area this week.  Heidi and Suzanne live on Anna Maria Island, but keep their 5th wheel in the site next to us in Quail Run.  They work in Tampa 2 days a week and stay in the 5th wheel when they are in town.

We’ve become friends over the years, thanks mostly to their sweet little dog Toto, who sneaks over to see us every chance he gets.  Heidi thinks Al keeps a dog biscuit in his pocket to bribe him, but he doesn’t.  Toto just has good taste.

Heidi and Suzanne towed their 5th wheel down to Key Largo to stay at the Point of View Rv Resort.  It’s a lovely, new campground and they really like it there. 

Heidi and Suzanne drove the 75 miles down here to Cudjoe Key on Tuesday afternoon.  They wanted to bring the dogs and asked if there were any dog friendly restaurants.  Of course there are plenty to choose from in the Keys!

We took them down to Geiger Key Marina and RV Park which has a wonderful waterfront restaurant that is also very dog friendly.

Toto stays pretty close to his Mom as you can see here. 

 

Heidi  was being bad, and feeding fries to the fish.  A cormorant was getting in the act as well as some gulls. We think the cormorant was going after the fish when they came up for the fries.

Toto only had eyes for the plate of food.

It’s hard to get a good picture that shows the beautiful turquoise water and still get a decent picture of your subject.

This is the best I could do.  Heidi and Suzanne, with Toto and Zoey.  

We all had hogfish, which is a delicious white fish that has no fishy taste at al.

This is what a hogfish looks like.

Here is our waterfront view. We had a lovely breeze so we were nice and cool.

After lunch we took a drive around and showed them the area including Bluewater Key Rv Resort. We’re trying to talk them into buying a rental property here in the Keys. 

Bluewater Key is one of the nicest resorts you’ll ever find with prices to match.  The for sale sites range from about $300,000 to $850,000!  Rental rates aren’t too bad though, in case you ever need a nice place to stay in the Keys.

We had a nice afternoon with Suzanne and Heidi.  They will be heading home Friday, so we won’t see them until we get back to Tampa.

 

We are planning on heading to Key West tonight to take part in some of the Conch Days Celebrations.  I posted about that in the previous blog.  I want to take the boat our for a few hours, but Al still isn’t feeling back up to normal and he’s not terribly enthused.  I guess we’ll see how the day plays out.

Key West Seceded from the Union

 

It is officially too darn hot here in Key West.  This is the time of year that you either go boating, swimming, or stay in the air conditioning.

We opted not to go out in the boat yesterday because Al wasn’t feeling great.  We decided to head to Key West for lunch and then a walk around Duval Street.   We quickly discovered it was too hot to enjoy strolling Key West.

We parked by this beautiful building that was painted by the famous artist who goes only by Wyland.

 

Isn’t this mural fabulous? 

It wrapped around two sides of the building.

 

 

 

 

It was a huge undertaking and it looks like he had some help, but Wyland did get top billing.  :)

 

We were lucky enough to see him in person a few weeks ago at the annual Ocean Fest.  He painted some paintings that were auctioned off for charity.  We were told the paintings would sell at his gallery for $9000.  If you like, you can read about it HERE.   We actually saw one of those unsold paintings on the gallery wall in Key West. 

Click on the following link to see snapshots of some of his amazing paintings.  Now, I see why he is so famous.  He has galleries all over the country.

Wyland paintings

Key West has some amazing art galleries.  We’re not in the market for any art, due to lack of wall space, but we always enjoying strolling through art galleries.  If you get to Key West, be sure to check out the galleries.  There are things unique to Key West.

Near the building was a car show…..  Key West Style.

They are a part of the annual Key West Conch (pronounced “konk”) Republic Days.

 

 

There were a lot of decorated bicycles as well, but it was too darn hot to stand there and take any more pictures.

 

The cars are part of the annual celebration to commemorate the day Key West seceded from the union.

In April of 1982, a roadblock was set up on US 1 leading out of the Keys.  Every vehicle heading north was stopped and searched for narcotics and illegal immigrants.

The Key West City Council complained but the roadblock continued. In the eyes of the Council, since the U.S. federal government had set up the equivalent of a border station as if they were a foreign nation, they might as well become one and Key West “officially” seceded from the Union.

The Major and the Council declared Key West's independence on April 23, 1982.

As many of the local citizens were referred to as Conchs, the nation took the name of the Conch Republic and the flag still flies.

As part of the protest, the Major was proclaimed Prime Minister of the Republic, which immediately declared war against the U.S. (symbolically breaking a loaf of stale Cuban bread over the head of a man dressed in a naval uniform), quickly surrendered after one minute (to the man in the uniform), and applied for one billion dollars in foreign aid!

Every year there are parties and craziness all week in Key West, including the annual “Drag Races” which unfortunately we have missed the last two years.

Thursday there will be a parade down Duval Street billed as the longest parade since it goes from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico (not a great distance in the Keys). There will be a party at Schooner Wharf and our favorite band will be playing.  We’re planning on going….if we can take the heat!