Keys bound for Christmas vacation

got you pm, I'll let you know. Its been reall windy down herre at times. we wentriding around yesterday, saw a bunch of big boats having problems in hte wind and waves. Makes me rethink the McKee may have not been such a good choice. The neighbors went out on thier 30 Whaler, came back in shortly. Kendall and I did some pin fishing off the dock, we had a blast. Got to be the biggest pin fish I've ever seen. Headed to Key West to see the sites today.
 
Hope you have a great time. Misery when weather doesn't cooperate. We have spent weeks at a time on the gulf side when the weather gets up. Still plenty of places for a small boat to beat around in the backwater.
In Key Wesy hit Clinton Square for the kids. It is about as commercial as it gets. Have fun.. :beer: and one of these.
 
While your down there, go through BIG PINE KEY after dark, and head north through town off of US1. At night time the KEY DEER are all over the north side of the island. There neet to look at to see such a tiny deer(not much bigger than a medium sized dog) with such a big rack on it. you wonder how they can hold there head up. And if you head out that way during teh day, you can hit the blue hole and see the alligators.
 
spareparts said:
got you pm, I'll let you know. Its been reall windy down herre at times. we wentriding around yesterday, saw a bunch of big boats having problems in hte wind and waves. Makes me rethink the McKee may have not been such a good choice. The neighbors went out on thier 30 Whaler, came back in shortly. Kendall and I did some pin fishing off the dock, we had a blast. Got to be the biggest pin fish I've ever seen. Headed to Key West to see the sites today.
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Find the state parks down there...some GREAT beaches for the kids(and you & mom)...go do a sunset at Key west if it practical from where yer staying...the kids will love it...lots of street performers...Ya'll have fun down there...hows about some pics when ya can...:clap:
 
went to Key West yesterday, I rank it right down there at the bottom with New Orleans, looks like it would be a cool place to go if I was single and about 20 years younger, but with a family in tow, not the place to be. Tried fishing off the dock today, can't even get the pin fish to bite. Weather is beautiful, light wind, low 90's and i can't get my family off the couch and away from the TV, next time I'm coming down here, it will be without them, too many places to see and too much great weather to waste sitting on your *** in front of a TV.
 
spareparts said:
went to Key West yesterday, I rank it right down there at the bottom with New Orleans, looks like it would be a cool place to go if I was single and about 20 years younger, but with a family in tow, not the place to be. Tried fishing off the dock today, can't even get the pin fish to bite. Weather is beautiful, light wind, low 90's and i can't get my family off the couch and away from the TV, next time I'm coming down here, it will be without them, too many places to see and too much great weather to waste sitting on your *** in front of a TV.
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Did you go during the day or at night? I know in teh summer by day KEY WEST is very family friendly, but by night it is very UN-family friendly. Not sure about winter time as I've never spent much time there in winter. If you head up to the north of MARATHON or KEY LARGO area, some of the deeper bridge channels are pretty good to fish from. The bridge down by BAHIA HONDA is also a good fishing bridge. In the middle of summer you can catch AJ's right under the bridge(got some pictures somewhere of me as a kid in a jon boat holding up some 35+ inch AJ's under that bridge. The 7 mile bridge is good for tarpon and sharks. And you can head down to Cudjoe and go out the north end to the end and wade fish the flats.
 
spare, i gotta second what ferm said about the key deer. we would take our kids and play " deer poker". who ever saw the most deer on their side of the road won. just go to big pine late in the afternoon, turn behind the winn dixie and follow the main road to no name key. i believe its a left then a right. go to the no name pub about dark and have a pizza and the conch fritters. it'll take about 2 hours. then go play deer poker on the way home
 
took those who would get off their *** to Curry Hammock State park today, very nice place, its got the cheapest kayak rental around, I didn't rent one as I had the kids with me. Got back to the house and went pin fishing off the dock, couldn't get anything to take shrimp off of a hook. My oldest said she wasn't a good fisher-person, i told her its never the person with the rod, it the wrong tide, wrong season, wrong moon phase, wrong bait, wrong current, wrong wind, wrong anything, but its never the person holding the rod.... I got to teach them right.

Tomorrow I thing there may be an electrical issue at the house, taking out the air conditioning and cable tv
 
spareparts said:
Tomorrow I think there may be an electrical issue at the house, taking out the air conditioning and cable tv
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Gotta watch them electrical issues Spare... next thing you know you'll have to take them somewhere because it's unbearable in the house. :you:

Funny thing about those issues though.... they always seem to clear up after you come back from an outing....:news:
 
got everyone out of the house today, we went by the Turtle Hospital and made reservations to come back at 3. we rode down the Islands, stopped at a park facility right at the 7 mile bridge. It had a nice ramp on one side of the highway, on the ocean side, there was a nice beach with picnic tables and clean facilities. Kendall and I went wading in the water, no one else was game. After playing there for a while, we rode further down. Bahia Honda state park must be the place, the line getting in there was so long they had a highway patrolman directing traffic. We didn't stop, it looks real nice from the highway. We rode past Randlemans hide out at the Big Pine Key fishing lodge, looks like a nice place. We made it back to the turtle hospital, Kendall loved it. She kept raising her hand to ask question to the tour guide. The had 27 turtle in pens for rehabilitation, 14 of which were permanent residents due to various issues, the rest were scheduled for release once they were given the all clear. We all had a good time there, I would have loved to drop a line in one of the big turtle holding pens, it was loaded with drum and snapper. Ended up eating at the Island Fish Co., food was decent, prices were about what we expected. Stopped at the grocery store to replenish my Beer inventory, if you think gas is high down here, wait till you price beer. BTW, diesel in the islands was cheaper than it is at home in Charleston, go figure
 
That is amazing re the diesel prices down there...not so much the beer prices!...lol...Glad y'all found a park you could enjoy for a little while...what's the water temp down there?...

That turtle program sounds like a great stop...kids or not, I'd like to see that...are the snapper etc in the pens for turtle food??...I can see your dilemma!!...:head:
 
Is the turtle program still down on the island south of MARATHON? If so that is where they used to film the show FLIPPER at back in the day.
 
we went to the dolphin place today(dolphins.org), its a little north of us. Thats where they filmed flipper. The turtle place used to be a motel that had a big interactive aquarium, that's where the turtle pens are now, and why those nice fish were in there, I swear, there were the biggest mullet I've ever seen swimming in that pen. The dolphin place was ok, but it was expensive, and they were up selling your "experience" if you wanted to swim with the dolphin, it was $200 per person, the dolphin experience was like $300, and the researcher for the day was like $695. For the place to be a "not for profit" research center, they sure didn't have any issues charging you. We did the basic $20 per person deal, I was a bit disappointing considering the cost. We rode back up to Salt Water Sportsman(bass pro), ate a snack at the Zane Grey restaurant(over rated bar), I did look at some cool boats at the dock(pics for later). The wind kicked up bad today, a cold front came thru and the high was only 70, wind was blowing at least 20 knts. I tried fishing int he canal again, the cold front shut everything down, couldn't get anything to bite cut shrimp
 
Back in 84' my wife and i went to Sea World down near Disney World. They had a huge pool about 3' deep that you could wade in... it had several Bottlenosed Dolphin in it that you could feed and pet. Only thing it cost was the price of the fish if you wanted to feed them. Wonder if it's still there? :head:
 
come to the gulf during snapper season and you can feed all the dolphin you want to. they will follow the fish from the bottom and take it right off your line at boatside.
 
went back to key west today, figure we missed a tourist trap or two, ate at Jimmy Buffets margaritaville (did I mention tourist trap), the freaks were out early today, tucked, taped, and flaunting their stuff. Got out of their in a hurry, rode up to Bud and Mary's Marina, that place was awesome, cool boats every where. I could walk around and look at all the old fishing pics for hours> I've seen a few V's, a couple sportsmans, but I've seen probably 90 % of teh total production of Mako 23's in existence, same goes with Dusky 23's, they are every where.
 
pics from Marathon
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from behind the house
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the turtle hospital

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this guy was just walking around, they are everywhere down there


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