Guitars and Tiki Bars

I don't know how, but weeks have gone by without any word from the John Ray. Since our last post, we have done quite a bit of tourist stuff. First, we went to the Crane Point Museum and Nature Center. This nature preserve was purchased by the Florida Land and Sea Trust to protect the tropical woodlands, or hammocks, which contain both unique hardwood species such as Lignum Vitae and Jamaica Dogwood along with native thatch palms that grow nowhere else in the United States. Sheltered amidst its tropical forest are numerous rare and endangered species as well as unique archaeological and historical riches. The 63 acres is home to a large thatch palm hammock, a hardwood hammock, a mangrove forest, tidal lagoons, wetland ponds and the fauna that is associated with these various ecosystems.

Crane Point harbors evidence of human use dating back well over seven hundred years. The first documented permanent settlers to this particular property were George and Olivia Adderley, who lived here from 1902 until 1949. To learn more about them and about Crane Point, please click on the link - which is where I got the above information: (http://www.cranepoint.net/about.html).



The next thing we did was visit the Turtle Hospital. http://www.turtlehospital.org/ The Turtle Hospital is a non-profit organization dedicated solely to the rescue, rehabilitation and release of one of our most endangered marine creatures. We thought it was going to be totally depressing to see wounded turtles, but it was actually very interesting and encouraging. You should definitely take a look at their website to learn more about it. Unfortunately, my camera's memory card was unreadable and my pictures from the Turtle Hospital, Crane Point and our visit to Key West (most) were lost forever!

Oh yes, we took the bus to Key West. It was a great day, albeit long! We caught the 8:30 a.m. bus which took us to the Sears Shopping Center. When we got there we had to take another bus to downtown/historic Key West. We walked around for a while, checking out Duval Street and the Waterfront before meeting Jenni for lunch at Dante's where her daughter works. We had a great lunch and visit. (Joanne made excellent margaritas too!) After lunch Steve and I took the Conch train tour around Key West (compliments of Jenni- thank you so much a $60 savings). The bus ride home was interesting as a drunk peed on the floor of the bus and got kicked off. His two friends weren't happy about it and left the bus too.

The last week there wasn't anything else new. We walked Route 1 a bunch more times, had $5.00 lunches and a couple of parties on friend's boats. We played tennis with our friends from Ileanous, Jovette and Robert. We rollerbladed and Michele did Yoga and ran a couple more times.

Our mooring is paid up until Thursday this week. We planned to renew for a while longer. Steve wanted to sign up for another month, but Michele had visions of spending her cruising life in more exotic locations. When some friends from another IP 38, Butch and Gretchen (and their 5 yr. old son Reese) showed back up after leaving last week, we starting talking about heading to the Bahamas with them. There are now quite a few boats that are planning to leave together on Thursday heading to Rodriquez Key and then hopping over the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas. Steve and I will be joining the convoy! Stay tuned for more details to follow.

But we are off the Bahamas!!!!