Abandon ship!

Here we are abandoning ship for a visit to a small key surrounded by a convienent sand bar that allows wading in to see how the locals spend their weekends. The small cluster of enclosed pontoon boats is the Big Pine version of a tent city. Apparently a good way to avoid the local property taxes (and the IRS if rumors are true).

Big Pine Key Boating

We had a day on the water complete with snorkeling, fishing and visits to small keys including the world famous Little Palm Key. PT109 was filmed here, president Truman spent many weeks here and it is an extremely exclusive resort with prices that start at $1200 per night. No, that doesn't include any food. The top shots are of the FEC's old bridge. Apparently he imported concrete from Belgium to use in the base of the bridge piers. In the closeup you can see a grey color just over the black barnacle band. That is the Belgian variety. Very hard. Attempts at removing piers have largely failed. The bridges were of the ballasted variety and you can see how the pier was hollow to accept the stone. Weep holes at the bottom of the arch allowed water to drain out of the ballast.

Patti's big day

We had a great time for Patti's Birthday. She finally turned something something. She's been waiting her entire life for this day:) We went out to the strolled around the campground and went to the park and wound up a the Sunset Grille for Lobster dinner. Flager's seven mile bridge is shown behind the new span. The restaurant looks out at this view. Wonderful at sunset. His railroad celebrated its 100th birthday here this week. As you can see Patti had a ball.

A beautiful day in paradise

A quiet day at the Jolly Roger Campground. The pelicans abound, feeding from the fish cleaning station. A quiet day capped by a gorgeous sunset.

Punta Gorda and Marathon

We have made our way south through Punta Gorda to Marathon Key. We happenend upon a reconstructed Nina and Pinta at the Fisherman's Village in Punta Gorda. We have parked Scarlett in a wonderful spot next to the sea wall at the Jolly Roger Campground in Grassy Key (just up the road from Marathon). We are on the Gulf side so we get terrific sunsets and fabulous weather high 75 low 68:) See you in February:)

Christmas In Huntsville

We had a wonderful time in Huntsville. Three solid days of feasting and gifting. The kids got a Thomas the Tank expansion set from us (a train of course:)

And there were trees!

The railroad had a NMRA Potomac Division open house in December and I built about 350 trees for the occasion. The railroad promptly swallowed them up and it looks like I will need about twice that again before its done:)