Happy New Year

I have been terribly remiss in taking pictures for the blog but that doesn't mean we've been couch potatoes - far from it!! We hit Key West the other day on our rental scooters - one last fun day zipping around the island and between bars.

Our Rental Scooters

We walked out past the KW Aids Memorial to the fishing pier for an amazing view of the Atlantic Ocean between the two beaches that call KW home (you really don't come to KW for the beaches believe me but the water is gorgeous!!!)

View From the Fishing Pier

Next it was on for a couple coldies at Louie's Afterdeck - there's just something about that place that makes me smile and chill out!!

Louie's Was Quiet in the Early Afternoon

A View from Louie's Afterdeck

Another View from Louie's Afterdeck

Another couple $1 beers at Guy Harveys and then an afternoon spent at Irish Kevin's laughing along with Bil Krauss - what a fun day! Unfortunately we had to turn in our scooters (which meant walking the 6 miles back to the boat...don't worry, we found a place to stop half way that was having happy hour so we didn't faint of thirst!) We have a line on several new scooters through our friend Dave (who plays guitar with Scott) and he's promised us they didn't just happen to "fall off the back of the truck!" We went over to see them the other day and they are great - we're keeping our fingers crossed that all works out (usually things too good to be true are....but....)

Wednesday evenings we have started a tradition (with Terry and Lois' approval of course) of sunset cocktails on the top of Coconuts - their upper deck is so tall it looks out over the trees so we can see the sun setting over the Hawk Channel.

The Sunset Party on Coconuts

There are no islands in the way so we are hoping to see the green flash - but the other night it was not to be as the clouds rolled in right before sunset (made for a gorgeous view though!) It was a fun mix of boaters and Conchs (which is what local Key Westers are called) and you just couldn't beat the company, the cocktails or the view! Here's looking at maintaining that tradition!!

Sunset from Coconuts

Sunset from Coconuts

Before we knew what hit us, it was New Year's Eve which also happens to be Doug's birthday (although he swears he's not having anymore!! - we just now call it an anniversary!) Not wanting to brave the craziness of downtown KW, we decided to have a more mellow celebration on Gypsies with our friends Brett and Jill. But first I must mention that the weather was so warm and wonderful during the day that we spent the entire afternoon poolside soaking up some rays (we really need to do away with that white Casper-like pallor caused by the really cold weather we've had since about October!!!) I have to tell you our pool is unbelievable - darn close to bath water at a heated 82 degrees (from what I hear, the pool is cooled in the summer and heated in the winter - yippee!!!) Sun pig felt like it was her birthday!! That evening we had a simply awesome evening of way too much food, drink and laughter - did I actually say that?

New Year's Eve on Gypsies Started Out With Appetizers

The full blue moon had us spellbound topsides

The Blue Moon Rises Next to the Clubhouse

while the master grillers (Brett and Doug) cooked a tenderloin topsides to perfection and Jill and I just looked on in admiration with several evening cocktails! After desert, another round of cocktails and watching the ball drop (in KW a pirate wench drops from the mast of a schooner over at the wharf but we couldn't find that on tv!), it was time for the "dock walk" to see who was still up, hip and happening. Not too many people - we don't make it to 1:00 am too often anymore, but come on it's new years - we woke up the folks on Belissimo (oops - sorry guys) so we headed back to Gypsies and eventually decided we'd probably be better off calling it a night too! (Notice how the only picture posted was from very early in the evening - that was done on purpose to protect the not so inocent!) What a great way to usher in 2010 - can you even believe it!! We hope everyone had a happy and safe holiday and we look forward to crossing paths with our friends in the new year!

Most sane people have enough partying on New Year's Eve to carry them through for at least a little while but not us - oh no, we had to have a cocktail party the following evening (actually it was the only night our friend Bil Krauss and his wife Elizabeth could make it before she had to head back to SC so we dove right in!) We rounded up a gang of boat people and despite the front which had just steamrolled in bringing with it torrential rain and the cold after a very enjoyable short afternoon spent again at the pool, we kicked it up on Gypsies once again!!! Bootsie even attended the party - she was so happy not to be locked away downstairs that she was quite sociable (but is now pretty exhausted and has been sleeping the good part of the last couple days!) Sorry that there are no pictures but I flat out forgot to take any I was having so much fun (without Bob's dueling cameras I tend to forget to pick up mine - we miss you guys!) - I promise to do better in the future!

OK time to dry out a little - or at least get some exercise to burn off some of those calories (of course to burn them all off we'd have to kayak to the Marquesas and back!) So the other day we dropped the kayaks and went for a long kayak out the Boca Chica channel and into the mangroves! What a great place to explore - between the fish jumping all around us, the iguanas and birds hanging out in the mangrove branches and the huge red and orange star fish laying on the sandy ocean floor (we are actually back in water so clear you can see down to the bottom!!!), we were loving life and not feeling the burn too badly of kayaking way too far for the first trip out!!! Of course yesterday and today have been cold with ripping winds following the cold front that blew in which seems to have stalled over us, but we see lots of kayaking in our future here!! Muircu's boat kitty Binkus sees the kayaks (which we are stowing on the docks beside the boat) as a possible easier egress onto Gypsies so she can visit Boots - she doesn't want us to know this though!!

Binkus Checks Out the Kayaks

Today is Sunday which means it's football day - Bootsie is very happy! Given the cold windy weather I don't think we'll bike into KW to the Duval Beach Club as planned (DBC is the local Patriots bar in town!!! Lazy Gecko is the Red Sox bar - nice to know these things!!) - we may just hunker down onboard, watch the Dolphins/Steelers game and make lots of munchies! Maybe even a James Bond flick later (we've been in a James Bond marathon for the past several days - Sean Connery really rocked although Pierce Brosnan plays a pretty darn good JB himself!!!) Tomorrow we start hitting the streets in search of jobs - we gave ourselves until the new year to have fun, but that has sailed past so it's now time! We'll keep you posted of course on what we wind up doing but odds are good it'll be something fun!!