Key Largo

We left Boyd’s campground about 11, and stopped at Parrotdise which is at the 28.5 mile marker. Cute little restaurant and bar, Lisa tried their house wine, called Big Pecker wine, and ended up ordering a glass of the chardonay. Didn’t want to eat lunch there as we planned on stopping in Marathon for lunch. That place was the Island Fish Co., great food and service, it’s at the 54 mile marker. Kept going afterward til we got to Pat and Julie’s place and set up for the weekend. Today was Friday, so we went to Smuggler’s to listen to Pat’s band play their regular Friday night gig. This was the first time we met the rest of Pat’s band, I met Pete last week when we were here. It started out as a 5 piece, and ended up a 7 piece after everyone showed up. Great music, but the worst service I have had in a long time, and the food was average but very overpriced. I don’t think this place will make it long, too bad because it’s a nice regular gig for Pat.

Saturday we got up and headed to the mainland. Pat and Julie wanted to show us a few of their favs, so we went to "Robert is Here" fruitstand, tried a lot of different honey that they sell, we bought some avocado honey along with a few other things. Our next stop was the Schnebley Winery, all their wines are made with different types of fruit, no grapes here. The only one any of us found tolerable was the Mango wine, and after Pat and I competed in the "carambula stomp". The carambula being the name for star fruit, which is one of the fruits they make wine out of. The stomp being a contest on who can stomp 1 gallon of juice out of the fruit the fastest. The winner received a free bottle of wine, and I won! LOL. I picked a bottle of Mango wine to take along. This was the opening weekend for the winerys new visitor center, the help didn’t even know where everything was yet. Very beautiful place, new building and grounds, couple of waterfalls, some tiki huts, a sax player for atmosphere, all first class. Pat gave them a card as he would like to play there.

The ride home found us taking the Card Sound road, which was the old road to get to the keys prior to Highway 1 being built. Stopped at Alabama Jack’s for lunch and a listen to the house band. Pat had mentioned they played all C&W, especially the old stuff, and of course, they were playing newer songs, and not all C&W. Some more good food, we ordered 2 meals for 4 people and couldn’t eat it all, and we sat next to the canal watching the fishing boats go by. There was a little excitement, someone dropped some money in the canal, and they had to get a fishing net to rescue it. The rest of the evening was lounging at the house. We did call Cory though, and he mentioned that he would toast us, so here is our toast to him......


We took our time getting up on Sunday, left the house about 11, stopped at the local fleamarket for a bit, and drove to Founder’s Park for Pat’s gig at the Relay for Life benefit. The weather was warm but cloudy, and it was too bad that more people weren’t there, Pat’s band (Blues Lagoon) played for a hour and a half, we had a BBQ pork for lunch. A nice afternoon, except that Lisa and I both got sunburned. A storm popped up on the drive home, and we stayed in Sunday night, exept for a quick run for groceries, because of the rain. Julie had to nap, she starts her third shift hours tonight, 11-7, and after she left we went to bed. Got woke up during the night with all the rain again, but didn’t mind, I don’t have to shovel this stuff :-)

Pat says to say hey to everyone back home so.....


Great weather now, gonna be 85 today, hope you are all staying warm.......