Yet Another Relaxing Day in KL

After breakfast we headed south once again to browse in a few of the shops we had seen the day before. Dennis and Myrna met us at the flag/windsock garden shop and from there we all went our separate ways.
Dennis and Myrna traveled 80 miles south to go for lunch at a thatched roof cafe called Boondocks they had spotted it on our previous trip to Key West. Their first stop had been the Butterfly Cafe that was closed and also looked too posh.
Rick and I took a tour of "Theatre of the Sea" and we were both impressed by the whole thing. We had a dolphin show, sea lion show, tropical fish, parrots, turtles and a bottomless boat trip. There were iguanas in the trees.
Rick and I stopped at Smugglers Cove on the way back to camp for lunch. We had Mahi sandwich on marble bread. It was good - mmm. Rick found a coconut at the back of the restaurant and brought it inside. The restaurant owner told us about them and said go ahead and take it with you. They are hard to crack, sooo we will see!



Today is New Years Eve day and we plan to go to the rec centre here at Calusa RV Resort. It should be interesting as a lot of people here speak Spanish.

A relaxing day in Key Largo

We all have no worries, no time clock, no schedule and just a lot of time but what the heck the weather is great about 29 C. We had a very leisurely breakfast "OUTSIDE". Decided to get the planning and booking done for the first two weeks of January. Once done that we hopped onto the trikes and we all sort of went our own ways for the day. As we went from place to place we did run into Dennis and Myrna the odd time. Irene and I rode down to Islamorada to the Tiki Bar for lunch.
It was really neat, outside bars and patios. We sat up at one of the bars and ordered a crab melt and had a drink each. Rick says the rum runner was excellent and I had a virgin pina colada. Mmmm. Harriette's was a "breakfast only" on Sunday cafe that Dennis and Myrna went to for lunch.
As there are no helmet laws in Florida we have been doing short rides without our helmets. Rather nice in the hot weather, however on the long rides it is nice to be able to communicate with each other. Rick wears a bandana while riding so he doesn't get a sunburned head. There are so many unique shops in the area it is a lot of fun just browsing and talking to the locals. Also, Rick was pleased to find some more nice Bikinis.

Key West our most southerly point 24.34 Degrees N

It's a long way south of the 49th parallel and the temp is always around 28c. What a ride it was on the trikes, it was so nice that we plan on riding the 160 km's down to Key West on Jan 02, 2008. There are about 22 bridges, the longest being 11.5 km's long, and is it ever neat to be able to see the Atlantic Ocean on one side of you and the Gulf of Mexico on the other. Key West sure does have some interesting history, we took a tour train called the Conch Train around the town for 1 1/2 hours and it was well worth it, got to see a lot more than we would have on our own.
We stopped for lunch at a Restaurant called "Red Fish Blue Fish" and Rick finally got his raw oysters on the half shell. He shared them with Dennis and to tasty them up he put horse radish with seafood sauce and lemon on them, yummy. Ya right, Myrna and I were not impressed! After the tour we did some browsing and Myrna did shop.
Duval Street is considered the longest road in the world as it stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico! Wow it is about 6 blocks long.
Mile O of Hwy 1 begins and ends there. Key West is the most southerly point in the US and is 90 miles from Cuba.
Irene found her new monopod very useful for photography on the trike.
On the way back to the campground we stopped at a seafood buffet that boasts 80 items on the menu. Whale Harbour Seafood Buffet, not cheap but worth the stop. Once again Dennis and Rick got into the raw oysters and mussels.
A momentous occasion - have you ever seen Dennis putting on sun tan lotion? He got a sunburned foot and Rick got his knee burnt, but we aren't really complaining.
It is so beautiful at our campground, it is currently 9 a.m. and the temperature is 25C in full sun. We are sitting outside planning our next few weeks and posting this blog.

Fort Lauderdale beaches to Key Largo

When we returned from the cruise ship we spent the next two nights in Fort Lauderdale and enjoyed looking around the beaches and at the bikinis. Rick, Dennis and Irene went for a quick dip in the Atlantic Ocean. It seemed cold at first but the waves breaking in warmed us up and we enjoyed the experience. The water was very salty! We were able to walk to dinner both evenings and there were young people ages 6 - 13 taking turns singing in the open air by the restaurant. They were talented and we enjoyed them.
After breakfast at the La Quinta Inn we headed for Key Largo at 8 a.m. The scenery was bright and sunny. We skirted around Miami but we did notice some skyscrapers and the sunshine. It is very picturesque around here with all the palm trees everywhere you look. Once we got south of Miami the countryside changed to lots of water and everglades. Key Largo where we are staying for a week is at the top of the Florida Keys.
The campground is called Calusa RV and we are all set up and ready to head out on the trikes to Key West tomorrow a.m.

Merry Xmas from the Bahamas

Merry Xmas to everyone. We are in the Bahamas aboard the Regal Empress. Now! lets get down to reality the Sensation is NOT, I repeat NOT our ship, it was in a berth next to us. The only way I could make our ship look big was to take this picture from the dock. Notice how many fewer levels we have, but even if size does matter, we had a great time. When we arrived at the terminal we found out that there was NO PARKING for motorhomes. After a bit of looking around Dennis phoned the welcome centre where they had to go and pick up more of the package that they had for Ft Lauderdale and we found out that we could park the motorhome there for the 2 days. The only draw back was the $50 each way for a cab. It sounded bad at first but if we could have parked at the terminal it was going to be about $35 or more for each day. We were on the ship by about 3:00 pm Christmas eve and proceeded to get ourselves oriented with the ship. The food was good and we met a lot of friendly people from all over. Our full day in Nassau was on Christmas day and most of the downtown core was closed. We all decided the best thing that we could do in order to see much was to book a city tour which we did. The Limo seated 6-8 and there were 6 of us in ours which was just right. Our first stop was on Paradise Island where "as the Limo Driver said", the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. We stopped at Atlantis a hotel casino. I can't say much more than WOW!! The rooms start at $300 per night and go up to $25,000 per night. All we did was walk around and look, but don't touch!! Our next stop that was very interesting was the Queens Staircase. It was all carved out of coral rock by 1500 slaves over a period of 16 years in the mid 1700. It is a total of 65 steps, the apparent only reason for them was to get material for building a fort. After the completion of the staircase the queen freed all the slaves. After this last stop the driver took us around to some of the neighborhoods both for the wealthy and also the poor, what a contrast! We were back on board by around 1:00 pm, just in time for lunch. Guess what I found sitting in front of Myrna? DESSERT, and she says she doesn't eat them but isn't a picture worth a thousand words? Each evening there was lots of entertainment and food to be found on the ship. Our Christmas dinner was "you guessed it" TURKEY with all the fixens, you bet that is what we had. There was lots of choices but it just wouldn't have seemed right for us not to have TURKEY.
A BIG MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE from the four of us. HOHOHO!