What The Wind Blew In...or...Sights Around The Middle Keys

Well I thought by now I would have plenty of new material to write and talk about. We should have been kayaking. We should have been free diving for lobster. Snorkeling the reef heads. Fishing. But NOT! Simple truth is it has been too windy. Oh, it's pretty chilly too at the moment but that wouldn't really matter much if the wind would lay down. The signage out front of all the dive shops usually reads: Let's Go Diving Today. But this week many have crossed out the "diving" and penciled in "shopping." The wind has been non stop overbearing. Those few boats that tried to out fishing have returned to shore in short order with all on board soaked and relatively unhappy. It's too windy; it's too rough; and fishing is almost impossible under these conditions.


So what's a person to do. There are some cool little tropical shops. But a shopping mecca this ain't. Key West is another story regarding shopping (it's incredible there) but we'll be closer in a couple weeks so why drive all the way down there at this time. We went out to lunch a couple times. But sitting by the water right now, even if you are hiding behind the rolled down plastic side curtains- still pretty chilly. So we've been hopping around from place to place in the Quigley and jumping out here and there for a short walk, taking a couple pictures just to stay in practice, and seeing if we can find places we may not have visited on previous trips to the Keys. With the exception of hurricanes, being in the Keys is fun in almost any weather; it's just that we are chomping at the bit to get going with our agenda, and right now that just has to stay on hold.

We haven't even been able to take our planned annual Christmas family photo yet, because we use a tripod to snap the shot and right now it would blow right over if we tried. Not good. So we have another day (two in a pinch) to get the job done. So if we don't get pre-Christmas posted, do check back. I think it will be one of our best! Or so we hope.