Sunday March 20: Time with the Kubits

Joe and Joy arrived right on schedule late Friday afternoon. We saw them last about a year ago as they were in Marathon on their sailboat for a few weeks before heading to the Bahamas.

Since then our former 55th Street Marina boat neighbors have sold their boat and settled in to their home in New Hampshire. I feel certain they should have had enough of winter having lived in Cleveland for ?? years but apparently not!

Joy still enjoys skiing and that is certainly hard to do unless you are willing to live in the climate that produces snow (or of course you travel to Dubai).

They came bearing gifts: purportedly the best key lime pie in the Keys.

Personally I wouldn't argue that it wasn't!. Found it somewhere in Key Largo and had to make a U-turn after passing up the place the first time through.

A definite winner and with careful cutting, it made it for desert three times :-)

Of course we had to play Euchre every night. I don't seem to recall who came out ahead overall - it was perhaps the guys but then with my bad memory maybe it was us ;-)

It was plenty warm on Saturday - enough so that Steve and Joy went snorkeling off of the beach. Surprisingly murky though.

And later that day it was a gathering in the water for the Banana Bayers. People just kept on joining in! Very fun. (Thanks to Nancy for the picture!)

Prime location for us as you can just make out the front of "Yesterday's Dream" to the left of the tree. Love this new dock!



Sunday morning was a trip to the Blue Hole. It did not disappoint as Wally Gator was there waiting for visitors.

There was also a soft back turtle laying eggs along the shoreline - very unusual according to the park guide.

Steve also found a green heron. In the picture left, it's head plumage standing on end (apparently this is attractive to the females!) and then in the picture on the right is the same bird with it's plumage flat.

Oddly enough, green herons are one of the few species of birds known to use tools. In particular, they commonly use bread crusts, insects or other items as bait. The bait is dropped onto the surface of a body of water in order to lure fish. When a fish takes the bait, the green heron will then grab and eat the fish! Perhaps Steve should try this method next time he goes fishing :-)

There were several key deer spotted along the road as well. Look very much like Ohio's white-tailed deer - just a lot smaller.



And the Banana Bay resident ducks can be spotted most days (and heard most mornings) hanging around the area.

This day was particularly hot so they were sitting in the shadow of the dock piling just in front of the boat. Guess everyone's just trying to stay in the shade on these hot days :-)