November 25th and 26th

Thanksgiving day and we had plans to go to the casino and eat a traditional turkey dinner complete with all the fixings, however, as we were driving south to the casino we passed the exit. Change of plans! We were thinking if you can't go eat mom's cooking and be with the family, the next best thing would be Thanksgiving dinner in Key West. Off we headed for the 200 mile journey (the same distance from our house in Des Moines to mom's house in Sioux City). It was sunny and nice when we left Ft Lauderdale and by the time we hit Key Largo it was cloudy and started sprinkling. The weather was still quite warm 80 degrees.

Bonnie walking to the tiki bar

Me checking the menu

About half way down the keys we stopped at this tiki bar to have a drink. I was looking at the menu thinking about eating but we decided to wait till we got to Key West. We arrived at Key West about 6 PM grabbed a room at the Bayside Motel, a real quaint little place right on the waters edge. It was dark and my battery in my camera went dead so I could not take any photos the rest of the night. We went to a little place just off Duval St. called Duffys. It had a sign outside that said "Thanksgiving diner with all the fixings" so we thought thats just what the Dr ordered. The place was quite small, probably seating 50 tops, but full with a wait.
They had the turkey priced at 25 bucks a piece, but they also had prime rib at 18 bucks, no brainer, prime rib it would be. It was outstanding! We finished our meal and walked down Duval street checking out all the shops. It was not real crowded, and as one of the clerks we talked to said it was because of thanksgiving. It suited us fine as we had a nice time walking up and back. It was getting late...time to get to the room. We stopped and got some beer and batteries for the camera so I took this picture right before we went to bed.
This was on our little patio..9:00 at night and still 80..Wow...I love Florida!

Ahhh..a nitecap

We went to bed and were awakened about 2:30 AM by the sound of heavy rainfall on the roof. We both got up and went to the patio where we witnessed an absolute tropical downpour!! Buckets of water. We went back to sleep. When we awoke about 7AM we walked out to the patio and the clouds were just beginning to disperse. Looked to be a beautiful day! And it was! Bonnie made a pot of coffee and we went outside to sit and drink it. These next two shots were from outside our room.

view off our patio

Bonnie bringing more coffee

We relaxed, sat and drank coffee and just enjoyed the moment.

We did run down to old town and grabbed a couple of pictures...check these out

Christmas in paradise

A street artist

I just liked this sign

Duval Street

The infamous roosters of Key West

Zoom lens in action

 When we finally got ready we decided to go to the beach and see what Key West beaches were all about.

Key West beach is awesome

relaxing

want to go sailing?

The beaches were spectacular as advertised! Except for this guy....WTF?

WTF

Click on this pic...LOL....he was an old guy....We are still laughing! The front was even worse, if you can believe it. It was just a sock over his ding dong. We couldn't believe it was real. We saw other beach combers laughing as well. Any ways as we were leaving I have been trying to figure out my self timer on the camera and figured it out and took this picture.

How cute we are....

We decided to head for home as it is quite a drive back up to our place in Deerfield Beach. Robyn and Sarah, Bonnie wanted me to tell you guys we did do some black Friday shopping as we stopped into a bealls outlet store and they had 70% off of all clearance items. We were driving along enjoying the spectacular scenery, and I can assure you it is spectacular, when we were in Big Pine Key we decided to stop and get a key lime pie. We ended up taking a side road back into the island just to explore a bit. We wanted to look for some Key deer, as they are an endangered species. There are only an estimated  300 to 800 left in existence. In 1955   there were only 25 left on earth. At least they are making a comeback. We were looking not really believing we would find one when, much to our surprise I spotted one coming out of the woods.
It looked like a regular deer, but much smaller. They stand only 26 inches at the shoulder and weigh between 44 to 64 pounds. They only exist in the Florida keys. This one was an adult female about 40 pounds.

Key deer

She was very shy and would run every time we tried to get close. We spent quite a bit of time watching this little deer. After about a half hour we continued down the road and spotted 2 more. I slammed the brakes on and got out of the car. these two were a little bit bigger (approx 55 pounds) and much more friendly as you can see in the picture.

Hey! don't feed the key deer!

We found out later you are not supposed to feed the key deer. Oooops. It was quite a thrill to get so up and personal with a member of an endangered species! We felt very fortunate to see them. Bonnie said to disregard the big butt, LOL. She really did not want to use this picture but it was good for size reference. LOL again! As we got back on the road we discussed how lucky we are to get to experience these moments. We will never take for granted the beauty of nature or our good fortune that allows us the opportunity to enjoy this part of life. We got back on the road and I got some cool landscape shots.

Over looking the start of the 7 mile bridge

We walked down to the water and I saw this guy in the water

Crab

As we continued our drive we stopped back in marathon where we had been at the tiki bar and marina on the way down to grab a drink. As we were walking back to the bar I took this picture...

I just liked this picture

Right after I snapped this picture a little girl ran up to us and said there was a manatee under the dock. WOW what are the odds of finding two endangered species in one day! There are only an estimated 2000 to 3000 Florida manatee left in existence. He was right under the dock sleeping. Luckily there was a floating platform right next to him and we were able to lay on the platform and get some great pictures of him. Bonnie and the little girl actually got to touch him! I wanted to get into the water to see it but my camera is not waterproof.

Nap time

These creatures are magnificent!

We sent quite a bit of time with the manatee and it was getting late so we jumped back in the car and continued our homeward journey. We got back to Our condo about 8:30 in the evening. We had a great trip and were sitting on the patio enjoying a piece of key lime pie reflecting on our Thanksgiving trip when Bonnie made a great point. She said that was exactly why we wanted to retire early...to be able to enjoy some of life's simple pleasures while we are healthy enough to enjoy them. I doubt most retired people could have climbed down off the dock to the floating platform, then lay down to get close enough to touch that manatee.
We sat and really thought about how lucky we are....and we do feel lucky! We only wish all of our loved ones could experience this day! Man...we love being retired! That's all from south Florida as we must get some shut eye....big day tomorrow...Garage sales day! By the way our treasures from last week are doing great on e-bay!!! Looking good!