Signs of the Islands

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Have I mentioned before how many boats there are down here? I suppose that since a major draw of the Florida Keys is fishing (both commercial and sport) and snorkeling/scuba diving and, well, boating in general, I shouldn’t be surprised. After all, it does consist of over 1700 islands and it does have incredibly beautiful weather that happens most every day in the winter months.
We checked out some boat neighborhoods at a local Marina.
And just like neighborhoods all over the country, there are different “flavors” of neighborhoods –
A little on the upscale side –
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And a little on the more down to earth side-
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Why, they even brought the four-legged family along!
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There are lots of sailboats –
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(I love my zoom!)
and there are even some pink Cadillacs (moored next to pirate ships)!
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But boats aren’t the only signs of the islands
There are interesting mailboxes
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and hardware stores like nowhere else!
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Let’s face it, when you’re in the Keys, you just never know what you might run into next!
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Yikes!
Take a deep breath – and think instead on this…..
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Ahhhhhhhh………now that’s a sign of the island that we can all relate to!

Taking the camera out for a walk

It’s turned pretty cool here in the Florida Keys. Tuesday was sunny and hot – high of 80 something. Wednesday it barely broke 60 and it was cloudy and drab. Thursday was still cool – low 60’s – but the sun came out and since it seemed a shame to waste such a beautiful afternoon, my new buddy Marlene and I decided to take our cameras for a walk.
We started at the resort that is just across the street. (They allow us to use some of their amenities – very nice!). Marlene and I didn’t get very far until we were totally intrigued by a banana palm.
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Did you know about that cool banana blossom? I knew that bananas grew high up in palm trees, but I never knew about that impressive blossom. After a little Internet checking I discovered the blossoms are actually a delicacy in some cultures.
I knew for sure the bees thought it was a delicacy!
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But soon the ocean drew us –
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What a beautiful spot.
We enjoyed watching the pelicans out on the rocks –
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(And we could just hear the locals -“come on, ladies. These are just PELICANS for goodness sake!!!)
I love being a tourist!
And while the beach was pretty deserted, there were some folks out on the water working on their kite surfing techniques. Plenty of breeze for that – and I guess the wet suits took care of the temperature! Brrrrr…
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I’m pretty sure that this is one activity that we won’t be getting up close and personal with.
We continued north over the bridge to the next key. While crossing the bridge, we noticed a pelican convention in the trees –
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“Did you hear about those ladies over on the ocean side taking all those pictures? Such tourists!”

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Ah, the risks we take in the quest for a good picture!

Across the bridge were more resorts and more fishing boats, and more beautiful pools-
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Uh-oh – looks like someone besides the tourists found the pool too!
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Everywhere we looked, there was more beauty –
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It was a great walk! It was fun to get to know Marlene better, and as always, I love an opportunity to revel in the beauty of God’s creation.
Thanks for coming along!
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PS – Guess what? There are a couple more pictures here, along with individual shots from the collages. Just in case you needed to see a couple more palm trees to cancel out all the snow that’s going on in your neighborhood! 🙂

Kayaking

Even before we got set up on Saturday, one of the other SOWERS (who had been at this project before) asked if anyone wanted to go kayaking. Kayaking???? On the Gulf of Mexico? Sure, that sounds like lots of fun!!! The day was perfect – sunny and calm, and the school has all the equipment, so we made plans to meet together after lunch and walk to the launch. Unfortunately, Gary had something called “chores and maintenance” to take care of, so he didn’t come, but I was excited to join the adventure. We grabbed the paddles and the lifejackets from storage and I followed the gang to the kayaks.
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This should be fun!
What? Everyone else would be in a double kayak, and I (with all of my 3 hrs. of experience 6 years ago in an entirely different type of kayak) would be in a single? OooooKaaaayyyyyy.
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So, you want me to get in there?
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Hold it still. Please……..
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OK, made it.
Now, where is it I’m supposed to go? Through these mangrove tunnels?
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(sorry this is a pretty bad picture, but it’s really hard to use a camera and paddle a kayak. Where was my driver when I need him? Oh, right, back at the house doing important stuff. Sorry, honey, I shouldn’t be complaining.)
Eventually I caught up with the first kayak in a clearing before we moved out of the mangroves into the Gulf of Mexico –
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My official “Steph in her Kayak” picture. Thanks, Marlene!
There it is – the Gulf of Mexico –
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Wait for me – I’m coming…….
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Such a beautiful excursion – even though I was quite the novice and spent a fair bit of time trying to catch up or getting pointed in the right direction!
Here we are headed back – and I’m just hoping someone remember what mangrove trees we came out of…
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OK, so I’ll try it the other way…
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(In my defense, after the adventure we talked with some of the folks from the school and they said they NEVER use the single kayaks – they sit too high and have no back support. All things I noticed, but was trying not to whine about!)
We did make it back through those amazing tunnels
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and all of us decided that THIS was an excursion that needed to be repeated!

….now if I can just get my driver on board! 🙂

Getting to our January Home

We are safely tucked in at our January project, but it certainly wasn’t without just a little bit of drama.
Friday started with beautiful sunshine, and some of the first “Yes! We’re in Florida now!” scenery.
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But before we even made it to lunch time, we were stuck in a 4 mile long back-up due to a multi-car accident. So glad we carry our bathroom with us!
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Apparently the accident had happened several hours earlier, so I guess we should be happy we were only tied up for about 90 minutes. Once we got to the accident site, and saw that they needed a crane to clear the accident, I think we realized we were very fortunate indeed!
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I loved our drive through the Everglades –
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So many beautiful birds – and places I would have loved to have stopped except that there were no shoulders and we really wanted to make it to the project before dark.
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With the delay, we were driving through downtown Homestead, FL right about rush hour,
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and our hopes of reaching Islamorada by dark was fading.
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You might wonder why we were so anxious for a daylight arrival at the project. While parking a motorhome in a parking spot (as opposed to in a big parking lot) in the dark is never an first choice, we knew that the parking at this project was quite challenging. Lots of trees, all back-in sites, and lots of bad angles. And lots of trees.
It was quite dark when we arrived :(, but they found an overnight spot for us behind the school and we were delighted to just dry camp for the night.
In the morning we inspected our designated spot –
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Ooooo – lots of fun branches, and trees. But, Gary LOVES a good back-up challenge, so he was ready to go.
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He also had four guys giving him directions. (I stayed far away, chatting with the girls!)
It only took him a couple of swings before we were all set.
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I really don’t know how he does it!

So our slides are out, the utilities are good to go, and we’ve spent the weekend just scratching the surface of all the delightful things to see and do here in the Keys! But most important, we’re here to help. Work starts tomorrow morning, and we’re ready!

PS – Here’s a map of where we are.
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When people are giving us directions to things they usually include the words “Ocean side” or “Gulf side”. And the “sides” are literally just across the street from each other! I am really looking forward to this month!

In the last couple of days

we’ve covered a lot of miles!
We left Waco on Tuesday morning, the 4th, packed to the brim.
Leaving Waco
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825 miles and 14 hours later (thank goodness for books on CD!), we were back to Lizzie in Bonifay, FL.
And as sad as we were to have said good-bye to Lara (and Katie and Denali and Evie and Clem and Bear), it was very good to be home. In our own little place, in our own bed. Very good indeed.
We woke in the morning to pouring rain, so our plans to unpack from one long drive to get packed up and on the road for another long drive was delayed until quite late in the day. However, thanks to a break in the weather in the afternoon we were able to get on the road by 3:30.
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Notice anything wrong with this picture?
The brake lights are on in the rig, but not in the truck. Not good. We decided to get on our way with the flashers going on the truck, but we knew we really couldn’t be driving in the dark.
We only made it to the first rest stop on I10 before we knew we’d better stop. And just in time it seemed. The heavens opened again and the thunder crashed and the lightning bolted (?). We were so happy to be sitting still.
The morning broke with lovely sunshine, and the lights were working a little better (maybe they didn’t like the rain, either?) so we continued on our way.
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By the end of the day, we were on the south side of Tampa (again at a nice Florida Rest Stop) enjoying a beautiful sunset.
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Another 300 miles tomorrow, and we’ll be at our January SOWER project – Island Community Church in Islamorado, Florida. We’re looking forward to getting “back in the saddle” with our SOWER work, and we’re really looking forward to this project. A, we’ve never been to the Keys and are looking forward to the experience (and hopefully the warmer temps!), and B, we’ll be working with a nice mix of folks we know and folks we’ll be getting to know!

I think it will be a great start to 2011!

Seeing the country……Serving our Lord!