Sell Your Stuff, Keep the Dog, Live on an Island

 

Cudjoe Key, Florida (high 85, low 72)

 

Here in the Florida Keys, everybody “lives on and island.”   The Florida Keys consist of a string of many islands starting in Key Largo and ending about 100 miles down in Key West.  We are on the island called Cudjoe Key, which is in the lower Keys.  There are hundreds of unnamed and uninhabited islands, as well as  hundreds of islands which are being started every day with just a single drifting piece of a mangrove bush.

There is a popular local musician here by the name of Howard Livingston.    He came down here to retire, but was inspired to start writing music.  His music is kind of the Jimmy Buffet style. 

His favorite saying is “sell your stuff, keep the dog, and live on an island.”  Which he does.  A few months back the Tv show “Buy the Beach” featured him and his wife looking to purchase an island.   They have two Golden Retrievers which they apparently he and his wife dearly love. Golden Retrievers are our favorite dogs ( as well as Shelties, thanks to sweet little Finney and Binney)

Every time Howard and his band play,  the crowds are crazy and we have a difficult time getting a place to park or a seat at the bar.

He was playing last Saturday at the Koa RV park on Sugarloaf Key, where our friends Kathy and Rick are staying.  After dinner at the Square Grouper and a visit here to Venture Out, we all drove back to their place with hopes of finding a place to park.  Fortunately, we were able to park on their site, but a seat in the bar was not available.   We enjoyed listening to the band and watching a 96 year old woman dancing and enjoying her birthday celebration.  He puts on a great show with songs like “Magic in Key West” and “Blame it on the Margaritas.”

Howard always does a thing where he makes a margarita in an old Johnson boat motor.  He rigged it up with a blender on top that’s powered by the motor.  The highest bidder gets the margarita, and the proceeds go to Care Camp, for kids with cancer.  The highest bidder was $5500.  I neglected to bring my camera, so you’ll have to check out Ricks blog for pictures of our evening.

 

Speaking of Golden Retrievers, this is who we came across the other night while waiting for sunset.

She was enjoying playing fetch while waiting for the sun to set.

A couple nights before, we arrived a little late, but got a few interesting pictures.

Sunsets are popular in the Keys.   :)

The weather has been perfect for boating, so yesterday decided to head out for a little fishing.  The Overseas Highway or Highway 1, divide the waters into what’s called the Atlantic side,  and the back country side.  Venture out is on the Atlantic side, so when we leave here we can turn right for the channel leading to the reefs, or left and cross under the bridge leading us through Kemp Channel, and out to deep water.  It starts out being fairly shallow, the visibility is not as good, but its a good place to fish and lobster.

We went back to a spot we found last year, but unfortunately another boat was sitting there, so we had to pick a different spot.   We anchored, I read,  Al fished, we ate our vegan eggless “egg” salad sandwiches.

Al got a few bites and one big bite which bent his rod.  Unfortunately, he lost that fish so we never knew what monster he had briefly hooked.

The fish finder was showing some big fish right below the boat, but he never hooked one of them.

The only thing he got was a baby  grunt, and quite a bit of sea grass.

We had a good time anyway.  

Today is therapy day and then a board meeting at the clubhouse, so no boating today.   He is changing his PT to twice a week, down from three times, so we’ll have more boating days.   :)