Hope you can read the sign in this picture. To me it sums up the Keys mentality. It says no trailers and the whole parking lot has nothing but trailers in it! Down here rules are just made to be broken! The Florida Keys attracts all kinds of kinds! Gotta love it!

Today we had a wonderful Christmas present. Our friends and neighbors, Ginny & Ray, came by to see us and treated us to lunch! We were so happy to see them and hear the news from Avalon Park. I really do miss everyone there very much!

Hope Ginny & Ray have a great trip home! Thank you both for your continued love and support (and for the lunch!) I just ate the leftovers for dinner!

We love you both!

The main theme that has run through the last 6 weeks of traveling around Florida, in addition to the spectacular sights, has been the kindness of the folks we have met. Everyone has been so great!

For Christmas, we were invited to a Bloody Merry Christmas party at Mangrove Marina. We had just met a few of the folks a couple days before. But everyone was so friendly and welcoming that we felt right at home!

We had a great time drinking Bloody Mary’s and eating Cuban sandwiches. This picture is of a Christmas Carol and her boat neighbor, Jim. They are dressed for the Christmas party! Carol made an awesome Texas Queso and they all played dominoes. We love it here, the place is peaceful and the people are all so generous!

But we have to travel on, can’t stay in one place very long. Friday, we are planning to navigate Snake Creek over to the ocean side. Hopefully, the wind, waves, current and tides will be good to us! Hope each of you reading this had a wonderful Christmas! I know we did!

We could only stay at Isla Morada for one night because another blue northern was headed our way. There was no wind so we motored back up to Mangrove Marina for a place to duck and hide from the 25+ knot winds predicted for Christmas Eve!

The weather held until we got into the slip but it was a rough night, with wind and rain. The next morning the sun came out (but the winds didn't lie down) and there was a rainbow over the mangroves! Hope you can see it just above the back porch of Carol's houseboat! BTW...Is that not the cutest houseboat ever? To me, it just screams, Florida Keys!

We spent most of the last week in a place called Community Harbor and it really is a community of sweet people! We took some time off to sail down to Isla Morada (the Purple Island) which is magnificent. It was a Northeast wind and we were traveling south so the sailing was awesome! We got on a tack at Ramshorn Cut and didn't drop the sails until we were in Barley Basin which is where the Lorelei is located. The water is so clear, it looks like you are in 2 feet of water when you are in 10 feet.

Will and I love the Lorelei restaurant and always try to stop in when we come to the keys! We brought Minnie and Max in on the dingy for dinner and the staff could not have been nicer to us. You all should see Max ride the dingy! He is such an adrenaline junkie! He stands at the bow with the goofiest grin on his face! He just loves it!

That basin is a sweet anchorage and the sunsets and stars are just amazing. We had no problems getting the anchors to hold and I sat up most of the night because it was too breathtakingly beautiful to go to sleep!

The next morning, the water was like a glass mirror, not even a ripple and you could see everything in it! I had to go for a swim off the side of the boat. Minnie watched me the whole time and when I got back on board without offering to take her. She just jumped right off the boat into the water! She loves to swim and is a natural. But Max had a cow!

Sunday, it was six weeks we have been living on this little sailboat. We went out to celebrate and had a most excellent New York Italian dinner! We agreed to try living aboard for 6 weeks but neither of us is ready to quit just yet. We have not made it out of the upper keys yet! That will probably be our New Year's Resolution!