Wednesday morning we left Marsh Harbour early and got fuel and then headed to Man O War for a day or two.  We got fuel in Marsh Harbour since this was the cheapest place to get fuel in the Abacos. We wanted to fill up since we think we’ll head south to the Exumas.  Looking at the weather patterns we now wonder if we will do that after all.  To which Ben said today….we wouldn’t have filled up there if we thought we might head north instead of south…pricey fuel!  Jello plans again!  Who knows where we’ll end up.

We pulled into Man O War after traveling 6 miles.  I love that these islands are all so close together!  Man O War is the first island to have a more prosperous feel to it.  The other places we’ve been haven’t at all felt impoverished, but Man O War had a distinctly different look to the houses and the area in general.  And it is VERY VERY small!  After looking at the weather we decided we’d get there Wednesday morning and spend the day exploring so that we could head to Hopetown on Thursday instead of Friday. There was a big front with a LOT of wind moving in and we wanted to get to Hopetown before that happened.

We spent the day popping into the cute boutiques and watching the people working on boats in the boatyards around town.  Ben was impressed with the marine railroad that one of the boatyards used.  He explained to the girls how it worked to pull the boats out of the water.  We made our way down to the sail shop to watch the women sewing canvas bags of all shapes and sizes.  I did take note of the gender roles.  The men work on the boats in the big boat yards and the women sew the canvas bags.  Regardless of that, it was neat to talk to them and watch them work.  The girls love playing with and petting any cat and dog they find.  The lady in the first picture had a cat curled up sleeping on the corner of her desk.  The girls found out her name is “kitty”.

We told the girls they could each pick something out.  We had no idea the prices on these bags!  The idea is they are made from the canvas and sail materials from sail boats. There were a lot of cute patterns that were probably not sails but you get the idea.  Once we got an idea of how much the bags cost we scaled back on what they could pick from.  Cute little canvas wristlet sized bags and lots to choose from.  Madelyn has lots of trouble making decisions!  Molly got a wristlet sized canvas bag. Neither picked one with the wristlet strap.  Madelyn ended up picking one of those and a little coin purse she just HAD to have with the agreement that I put one of them away for her birthday.

There are two restaurants we had been told were good on the island. We went to one and had a nice lunch.  Then we walked up the big hill and looked around the neighborhoods some more.

Maddy took this one!

The National tree

Adorable houses, cute town buildings, pretty flowers and winding roads.  Life is simple here.  We found the Library, School and Post Office right in a row all painted in cute colors.

Library

School

Post Office

We headed back to the marina and tried to track down the fellow boater who is teaching in the local school.  We found her boat but not her.  I got up early Thursday morning to go for a walk and noticed she and her husband were in their boat so I went over and said good morning.  She talked with me for quite awhile about what she’s doing and what all she has studied with the kids.  It was really interesting.  And it had a lot of overlap with what we’ve been doing with the girls.  She did a big study with the kids on the ocean reefs.  That is one topic we haven’t covered yet so it’s on my list.  She and her husband lived on their boat and home schooled one of their sons when he was 15.  And she taught.  She asked how old the girls were and said that she taught 4th grade for  few years and it was one of her favorites.  Anyway, she was heading out on a deep sea fishing trip that day but told me that I’d be more than welcome at the school and to just drop in.  So, I walked up the hill and found the principal who also teaches one of the classes.  She said we could absolutely bring the girls by.  The girls wrote blogs posts about visiting the school so I won’t say a ton here and will just post a picture or two so I can put  the rest in their blog.  But I’ll just say that we all thoroughly enjoyed our visit.  The kids in the upper grade classroom did their science presentations on the atmosphere and solar system for us.  And it was a lot of fun to see that all the way in the Bahamas the local school looks a lot like the school classrooms in Chicago….just smaller.  And the principal was so welcoming. She teaches the 4-5th grade class and said many times that Molly was welcome to stay or come back another day and join them.  We’re hoping to go see the local school in Hopetown tomorrow and check out some similarities and differences.

A number of these islands are still largely inhabited by descendants of the original loyalist families that settled here.  In Green Turtle it was the Lowe family.  In Man O War it was the Albury family.  The Albury family built boats and if you look around the Abacos you see their name everywhere.  All of the inter-island ferries have the Albury name on them. We’ve seen a number of other boats with the Albury name. And in the 4-5th grade classroom 4 of the 8 kids had the Albury last name.

After our school visit we pulled lines and headed out for the 4 mile trek to Hopetown on Elbow Cay.  It was already incredibly windy!  We’re in Hopetown for at least 5 nights so I’ll cover all that we’ve seen and done here in my next post.

Well, we didn’t leave Treasure Cay as scheduled.  That’s kind of how things go here.  We have heard a number of boaters say that their schedule is set in Jello.  Pretty much!  We liked Treasure Cay a lot and decided to stay until Saturday.  And even then it was hard to leave!  So maybe we’ll go back.  Who knows. Jello!

During our extra days there we met up with some other loopers on Bee Haven.  Rod and Susie are wonderful.  They are welcoming and friendly. We were out in the dinghy and swung by to say hello.  They invited us on.  Joy and Jeff from Tidings of Joy were also there visiting.  We managed to figure out that we have a very similar schedule to Jeff and Joy (as much as we can plan, see above) so will hopefully travel south with them.  Rod and Susie showed us around their boat.  We LOVE their boat and were excited to take a tour.  Then Rod cracked open a coconut for the girls.  Another new experience!  He used a pry bar to remove the outer layer and then let them hold the coconut inside.  Then he drilled holes in the coconut and had the girls pour the coconut water into a glass. We all gave it a taste….even Madelyn who won’t try anything!   She didn’t like it (nor do I) but she tried it!  Then he cut the coconut open and chipped out chunks for them to try eating.  Molly liked it.  Madelyn tried it AGAIN!  Wonders never cease.  He let the girls keep the coconut. Fun new experience for them.

Rod and Susie also have a pedal kayak that the girls were so excited to try.  Rod had mentioned a couple of times that we should take it out.  Another reason to stick around!

Thursday night we went to Pizza Night at the marina.  Great pizza.  Ben bought more fresh stone crab the next morning on the dock – colossal claws, the BEST we’ve had – for less than the pizza.  Yep, that’s crazy.  We devoured the crab and had so much that we made yummy crab salads Sunday for dinner.

Friday morning we went and got cinnamon rolls again.  Couldn’t stay away!  Friday after school we went and got the pedal kayak.  Ben and Molly took a turn first and then Maddy and I took a turn.  It was some good exercise and fun to pedal around.  We saw a couple of turtles.  We returned the kayak and took the dinghy back out to explore some more.  The tide was out and the girls could hop right out of the dinghy into the sand.

This is our recess!

Also our Physical Education!

They were thrilled to run around and play in the water.  They gave snorkeling another try too.

It was a perfect Friday afternoon and looked like a postcard.  And we came back to fresh stone crab again for dinner!

I have to remind myself this is real!

Saturday we planned to leave around 2:30 or 3 pm so that we would be entering Marsh Harbour on a rising tide.  The tide moves about 40 minutes each day and has been on a tough schedule for travel recently…7 AM/7 PM, 7:40 AM/7:40 PM, etc.  Anyway, that gave us the morning to play before we left.  The girls grabbed their scooters and I put on my running shoes and the three of us headed out.  We saw some of the beautiful waterfront neighborhoods in Treasure Cay and burned off some energy.  Then we threw our suits on and went to the beach.  I warned them they only had an hour. It took forever to get Madelyn out the door and then once there was impossible to get her to leave!  That sand is just so amazing.

I don’t blame her. Molly swam.  Maddy played in the sand.  I listened to a good live band and sat on the beach reading my book.  We headed back to the boat a little before 3 and headed out of Treasure Cay.  It was my favorite stop in the Bahamas so far.

We pulled into Marsh Harbour around 5 pm.  Got docked and showered and went to walk up to the restaurant we heard was good and it was closed.  It being a bigger town there are a number of places to choose from and we found one close by.  We had hoped to be able to see the Junkanoo festival here.  But turns out the parade we were hoping to see started quite late Saturday night and would have involved a cab or long walk with the girls.  Didn’t seem like the smartest choice.  Molly was upset to miss it.  It would have been a neat cultural experience.

We came to Marsh Harbour for a lot of provisioning before we head further south.  Sunday morning we walked to the big grocery store here.  I’ve mentioned previously what a nightmare shopping with the girls is.  Well this time we were all so happy to see an actual grocery store that it was all good!  We loaded up on cantaloupe, strawberries, apples, bananas, mangoes, limes, sweet potatoes, asparagus, romaine, carrots, and lots more.  All that fruit has been hard to come by!  Monday Ben headed to the hardware store and marine store.  Both of which he had lists for.  Back to the hardware store today.  He has changed the oil on the engines and the generator, worked on one of the air conditioners and installed something so that the generator can draw fuel from either tank (you’ll have to ask him specifics – I stick to palm trees and beaches and school).

We are in a big harbor here that has a few marinas all next to each other.  But there is no beach close by and the pool is pretty chilly.  There is a great snorkeling reef around the other side of the bay we are in but we haven’t taken the dinghy down.  So, instead, when we’ve been on the boat we’ve gone on a puzzle kick!  The girls did a 300 piece and a 400 piece and now we’re working together on a 1500 piece.

Yesterday after school we walked to a local fish store and stocked up on some fish and then stopped in a few cute boutiques.  I’m sure there is more to discover and see here but we were largely here for a boat maintenance and shopping stopover.  Our friends on Ocean Dancer pulled in Sunday and Dealer’s Choice today so we’ve been able to visit with them as well.  Brian from Dealer’s Choice has given all of us a lot of local knowledge on routes south to the Exumas and has patiently sat with us looking over charts and showing us where to go.  He’s been coming here for years and we thank him so much for all his help!

Today there was a very tiny farmer’s market in the courtyard at the marina here.  A jams/jellies/pickles table, a fresh greens table and a sweets table.  Yum all around. We got some dill hamburger chips from the pickled table.  Grabbed more cucumbers and tomatoes and loaded up on sweets. Madelyn got a donut and the rest of us chocolate chip scones and grabbed a slice of cheese and guava Danish.  It was incredible.

Tomorrow we are heading to Man O War Cay for two nights.  It’s a small sleepy little island that is known for its sail shop and boat building.  We can go to the sail shop and watch the women in the back sewing canvas bags and other items.  And there are a couple of boat builders that we hope to be able to watch as well.  Susie from Bee Haven told us about a lady that lives on her boat at the marina who teaches at the local school. She is currently teaching ecology.  We’re hoping to meet her as we’ve been learning lots about the ocean ecology and animals.  It would be really cool if we could stop in the local school.  Stay tuned!  Then Friday we will go to Hopetown we think for 5 nights…jello.  Our friends from Trawler Life, Michael and Cathy, are there.  We haven’t seen them since Chattanooga and are so excited to meet up with them again. You may recall that months ago Michael taught the girls how to fish!  There is also a local there named Gary the Explorer (YouTube him!) that Cathy told us about.  We have been watching his videos and have learned a lot about the ecosystems down here.  We can’t wait to meet him.  Michael and Cathy told him about the girls today.  After Hopetown we plan to head south to Little Harbor and then on to Spanish Wells and the Exumas.  We think….

And just to keep it real, yesterday both girls had separate meltdowns during school. The usual.  Math for Molly and Writing for Maddy.  Fun times.  But again…get through that nonsense and then get off the boat in paradise.  We’ll take it.

As Ben said in his post, we are a week away from 6 months on the water.  That’s CRAZY!  It has flown by.  Absolutely flown.  And I think here we are, enjoying the Bahamas, hard to believe we have come this far.  Then I think back to all we’ve seen.  Our first week we took the girls to St. Louis to see the Arch.  They are collecting magnets and those were their very first magnets on their magnet boards.  Their boards are filling up now.  And for a long time their favorite place was Green Turtle Bay in Grand Rivers, KY.  We got to see Nashville and Chattanooga and those were both awesome.  Those seem like a lifetime ago and yet it was just a few short months ago.  And so many more places along the way before we made it all the way south.  All of them were special places with special memories.  Wonderful visits with friends and family, great discoveries, new experiences for the girls and for us, and countless new friendships made.

Way back when their hair was still dark!

We ended up in Great Guana Cay for an extra day.  Sunday morning brought high winds and one look out at the Sea of Abaco and the wind and we weren’t going anywhere.  So glad we didn’t!  Slowly but surely one boat after another came flying into the marina and out of the wind.  By Sunday late morning 3 boats that we left West End with had joined us.  We left Green Turtle before they did and it was great to see them again.  We also met a few new people there that spend time here every year and were full of advice for routes and places to go.  We welcome all of it!  Monday morning the winds had died down and it was time to go. But first, time with friends.  Bill and Kellirae from Ocean Dancer came and hung out on the boat for a bit to visit. They are hoping to go diving and Ben would love to go with them since he needs a buddy to dive with.  Sonny and Phyllis from Corkscrew were right next to us. The girls LOVE their dog Marena.  We spent some time on their boat Sunday playing with her and visiting with them and Monday morning Phyllis came out and asked if the girls could come over again before we left for Treasure Cay.  As soon as they finished their school work they hopped on over.  Phyllis makes jewelry.  She uses their second bedroom as a bead and jewelry room. The girls made jewelry with her and had such an amazing time.  Their jewelry is beautiful!  They want to blog about it though so I’ll save the pictures for them to post.  Molly also asked Phyllis lots of questions about jewelry making so we’ll post those answers as well. 

After saying goodbye to everyone we moved along.  We just had to go 10 miles across the Sea of Abaco to the other side.  Treasure Cay is on the mainland of Great Abaco island.  I’m reminded every time we travel somewhere new that I don’t like the way the ocean rolls.  It was sunny and beautiful and no matter what, the ocean has swells and rolls.  Even for 10 miles.  But we pulled into the well marked channel and this marina is tucked way back behind the island on an inside channel.  Such a nice change.  Our last two marinas have had no protection and we’ve had a lot of strong winds (it’s winter after all).  Finally we are somewhere that’s mostly quiet and still.  We planned to stay two days, which has now turned into four again because of a front that moved in this afternoon.  Treasure Cay has one of the top beaches in the world.  I said to Ben today that this is what I picture when I think of the Bahamas.  We’ve seen quite a few neat little towns, exposed the girls to new cultures, seen new things and all has been great….but this is like a postcard. 

Monday afternoon we walked to town (which is 10 steps from the marina) and checked out the grocery store. Each little town the stores have gotten a little bigger.  We are on the mainland now so we should be able to get better produce and selection.  We’ve learned that the store has different things each day.  Monday bananas looked decent, romaine horrible and disgusting.  Cucumbers have been fine everywhere we’ve gone.  Tuesday bananas completely gone from store.  Shelves stocked with new romaine.  Bell peppers still wrinkly. But got more cucumbers and made a big cucumber salad.  Also grabbed romaine – we had run out a few days ago and I like having fresh produce on hand.  Today the bananas were back and Ben bought a bunch.  But all the romaine was gone…so weird!  Tuesday we also walked into the bakery and a couple of other little shops.  We promised the girls we’d come back for cinnamon rolls and ice cream.  We walked over and checked out the beach.  It’s as beautiful as we had been told. 

Tuesday after school we hopped in the dinghy.  We chatted Monday night with a fellow looper who has been here awhile.  He told us some places to explore to find loads of turtles and rays.  It was a cloudy and windy day.  We ducked into a little cove.  Ben saw a couple of turtles but the rest of us missed them.  But we stopped so the kids could look in the water.  Sea cucumbers, starfish, one big ray…plenty to see.  The girls didn’t want to get in the water.  It was chillier than they have become used to so instead they snorkeled over the side of the dinghy.  Ridiculous but it worked!  We got chilly and headed back to the marina. We walked to the bakery and they were OUT of cinnamon rolls!  NO!  Molly and I had been waiting all day.  She settled for a huge blueberry muffin instead and Maddy got Junkanoo ice cream (Superman in the US).  Another trip to the store and back to the boat for Taco Tuesday. 

Maddy being lowered into the water

Molly lowering herself into the water

Today was one of my favorite days!  The girls and I were up shortly after 7 and by 8 we were at the bakery along with a lot of other people.  The cinnamon rolls were well worth the wait.  SO good.  I ate half and saved the other half for Ben.  The girls each polished an entire one off. They did eat half and eat the rest a couple of hours later. 

As soon as we were done eating we ran down to the beach.  I love being out in the morning.  The water is so calm and peaceful as is everything else.  The breeze was a bit cool since it was early so the kids opted for clothes instead of suits.  I should have known better.  Two hours later, every inch of clothes covered in sand we headed back to change to suits.  I was able to run/walk on the beach while they built a castle in the amazing powdered sugar sand. 

Then I got them to walk down the beach with me because I spotted another mom with two girls down the beach.  We went and talked to them for a bit.  They come down every year for a week or so and she gave me some good tips.  One tip was where to find sand dollars!  I’ve been waiting to find one!  One of my favorite memories from childhood vacations is walking on the beach collecting sand dollars.  They are so beautiful.  On our way back down the beach I spotted a ray in the water very close to the beach.  Then Molly spotted a crab lying on the beach.  She touched it and it was still alive and had washed up.  She ran back and got shovel to try to scoop it up.  I eventually scooped it up with a lot of sand and carefully put it back in the water.  We watched for a bit to make sure it didn’t wash up again. 

This ray was so close to the beach!

Anyway, back to the boat, swapped our sandy clothes for swim suits and headed back.  We took Ben with us.  There were storms forecasted for this afternoon through tomorrow morning.  Can’t waste the good weather sitting on the boat!  We went back to the beach at low tide, i.e. sand dollar time!  We walked a least a mile and a half down the beach.  Tide was out and we could walk way out in the water.  Ben spotted the first sand dollar!  Yay!  And then after he found that one we found tons of little baby ones.  The lady we met on the beach explained that if they are brown and on top of each other they are still alive but if they are white they are dead and ok to take. 

Molly also found a starfish in the water and the girls took turns touching it. And then Ben found one washed up on the beach.  The girls touched it and moved it around.  We are pretty sure it was no longer alive but Maddy insisted on putting it back in the water anyway.  Back to the sand – the girls made chairs in the sand and covered every inch of their bodies in sand! 

All of this exploring fit so perfectly into our ocean habitats and animals unit.  We did school when we got back to the boat.  The girls grabbed a laptop and did some research on Starfish and will look up Sand Dollars tomorrow.  They learned that starfish eat by having their stomach come out through their mouth to get food.  Yuck.  Anyway, they were giggly and excited about that. 

Storms moved in tonight.  Currently we are sitting without power.  The whole island appears to be out, as is all WiFi so no blog posting tonight. This happened last week during winds as well.  Not much we can do but wait and turn the generator on if we need it.  It’s quiet now but more rain is expected. May be a rainy boat day tomorrow but hopefully just for the morning. We will likely move onto Marsh Harbor Friday.  Update – it’s sunny and beautiful and this morning and the power was only out for about an hour.  So school and then more exploring! 

Random closing thought.  I blog about what we see and do on our trip.  But it’s not all beaches and exploring and swimming.  It’s also boring daily life.  I get up with the girls in the morning.  I make breakfast and we make lunch and dinner most days on the boat.  We ate out a lot in FL, not so much here.  I have been craving a good meal out.  A lot of food here is fried and overpriced and we can eat better on the boat and it’s simpler, so we do.  I do a LOT of dishes.  Dishes all the time.  I do laundry.  We clean all the time. I clean inside. Ben cleans outside.  The girls help – Molly more than Maddy.  The boat breeds dust everywhere.  We are constantly cleaning floors and picking up toys and trying to find places for everything.  A friend commented last week that he loves that we are always in swimming suits in pictures.  I replied back that I don’t much take pictures or blog about time spent on the boat.  But we do all the everyday life chores as well.  Every day!  And then we get to go outside and experience the amazing beauty of where we are.  It’s a balance we’re happy to take! 

A little time for puzzling

The girls enjoy seeing the different money

I left off Valentine’s Day morning with my last post.  That afternoon the girls baked brownies and then cut them out in heart shapes, frosted them and decorated with red sprinkles. They also made Valentines for the boaters we met in West End that traveled to Green Turtle with us.  They had so much fun delivering the Valentines.  And such a sweet surprise, later that afternoon KellieRae from Ocean Dancer brought them a Valentine with chocolates for all of us in it and the next day Carol from Freedom brought them a Valentine with bracelets in it.  We’ve met such wonderful people on this journey!

Hard at work

Finished product

Wednesday and Thursday brought some INSANE winds through Green Turtle Cay.  Wednesday after school we tried to go into town on the dinghy.  We made it halfway up the channel and turned back.  I took the girls to the beach and pool instead.

The beach the day before the wind…

Cool sea urchin and tree roots on the beach

After an hour and a half of the intense wind blowing off the water I insisted we head back to the pool on the other side of the bluff and out of the wind.  Thursday was much of the same only the wind came from the opposite direction.  So, we rented a golf cart instead and headed into town.

Cute houses on the way into town

We had lunch at the Wrecking Tree.  Amazing cracked conch!  Then we walked around town a bit and then stopped for a drink at Miss Emily’s Blue Bee Bar, home of the Goombay Smash (rum punch).  The girls left one of our boat cards on the wall!

Yum!

Boat card on the wall!

Friday morning the winds were gone and the day was beautiful.  We headed out along with quite a few other boats.  We stopped at No Name Cay to visit the pigs!

Welcome to Piggyville!

That view!

And that water!

What an incredible experience.  I kept my distance but it was very cool.  We brought them food and played on the beach a bit.  The water felt great, and was so clear that the girls had fun watching all the fish darting around where we were standing.  Everyone but me took the opportunity to pet a pig.  We just started a unit on Habitats and Animals so this fit right in!  The girls are keeping notes on the various plants and animals we study.

Piglet!

Piglet!

Can you tell Ben has the food?

After about an hour playing at No Name we took the dinghy back to the boat and finished the trip to Great Guana Cay. This required us to go through Whale Cay cut – a passage out from the Sea of Abaco into the Atlantic.  The Sea of Abaco shoals in with sand here and boats have to go out and around Whale Cay and then back in.  The actual cut is only about 2 miles long but it can be an experience.  The water only swells side to side because of the narrow opening between two islands so even if the water on either end of the cut is calm it can be a mess in there. Thankfully we scooted on through with some slightly uncomfortable swells and nothing worse.  We pulled into Great Guana Cay and enjoyed another beautiful afternoon.  Right when we pulled in we met another family who is from Telluride and currently traveling on their sailboat.  They have a 6 year old girl and 10 year old boy and a sweet dog.  They were spending the day with friends who also have kids but are not on a boat but doing an extended stay here right now. We walked into town here, stopped in a couple of little shops and the local grocery store and walked down to Grabbers, a local restaurant and bar on the beach.  We had a drink while the girls played in the sand and in the hammocks.

Island life suits Ben!

This morning I took a long walk and determined that we saw most of what there was to see in Great Guana yesterday!  But the other famous place here is a bar and restaurant called Nippers.  It is on a bluff facing the Atlantic Ocean side of the island. We put our suits on and grabbed the beach bag and headed that way for lunch.  The ocean and beach on that side of the island were amazingly beautiful.  And the turquoise water crashing over the rocks was pretty spectacular.  The girls spent ages climbing the dunes and running down them.

They made it down the hill faster than we did!

Those specks up there are the girls

A rare picture of both of us

We had lunch and they played in the pool a bit and then headed back to the beach.

Nothing like being able to eat barefoot in the sand!

They also wanted to stop at Grabbers again to play in the hammocks so we did that as well.  When we got back to the marina a ton of boats had arrived.  It was practically empty here yesterday and today it’s almost full.  We went to say hello to some boaters that we have been traveling with that came here today.  We also went to introduce ourselves to two other families that we met over the radio pulling out of Green Turtle yesterday.  They are from Maine and take their kids out of school for two months in the winter.  They keep their boat in Florida, home school and travel for two months and then head back north.  One family has 6 and 9 year old girls as well and the other has a 7 year old girl and 10 year old boy. They were traveling with a third boat that had grandparents (the boat owners) and their son, daughter in law and granddaughter (also 7ish I think) on board with them.  We’ve found that in the Bahamas there are kids everywhere. We have noted that they are ALL on sailboats, not motor like us, but it’s refreshing to see so many families. We didn’t encounter too many kids on boats in the US so it’s been fun to see so many here.  Random side note on the marina – we spotted a nurse shark swimming around under the boats and Ben and Molly saw an Eagle ray tonight as well.

People ask me and ask the girls all the time about school.  What did you learn today?  What program are you using?  What are you teaching?  And on and on.  I’ve met teachers who I’ve had great conversations with.  I’ve met a TON of people who home schooled their own kids and are great to talk to as well.  And now I’m meeting a lot of other parents that are home schooling.

We’re still trucking along with Engage NY for math for both and continuing to work on reading daily with Maddy.  Molly and I read novels together and we’ve started including Maddy in that.  She loves to listen and both girls can certainly answer questions about what we read at their own levels.

We do Science together.  We just finished a Solids, Liquids and Gases unit that both enjoyed.  And this week we started looking at Habitats and Animals. Not surprisingly the girls chose to study the Ocean habitat first.  The learning opportunities are endless.  A friend sent me a YouTube link about some island guy named Gary the Explorer that we will possibly get to meet in Hopetown.  I clicked on it the other day as a little brain break for them and low and behold he makes a ton of videos about ecosystems in the Bahamas!  We ended up watching a 15 minute video all about the sea grass here.  The girls (and I!) learned that the sea grass is why the water here is so CLEAR.  It acts as a filter and pulls everything out of the water, leaving the crystal clear waters.

Wednesday while playing on the beach they found a rope swing.  We just finished reading Bridge to Terabithia and the girls spent a half hour swinging on the rope pretending they were swinging across the gully over to Terabithia.  They took turns pretending to be the different characters in the book and played until I told them it was time to move along.

Yesterday we stopped and saw the wild pigs.  What an opportunity for my city kids.  It goes on and on.  So, oceans for now. And when we head up the east coast we’ll get back into the Civil War and social studies.  I am trying to let where we are and what we are doing guide what we study for school.  And just so it doesn’t sound like I’m painting a life is rosy and perfect picture, I’ll let everyone know that in 5 1/2 months Madelyn has not gotten any less stubborn.  She still fights me on writing every single day.   And she has ups and downs on school in general.  Thursday she was impossible. Friday she came into it deciding to just do her work and we flew through it.  She loves how good it feels when we have a good day and yet at times we can’t reason with her when she’s choosing to be impossible!  It’s an adventure.  One I’m thrilled to be on.

Tomorrow we think we will head 10 miles to Treasure Cay.  We’ll decide in the morning.  Maybe we’ll stay here another day.  Treasure Cay has 3.5 miles of one of the top beaches in the world.  And a friend told us about some river that has turtles that we’ll try to find.  Stay tuned!

So much exploring to be done.  It will be a week tomorrow that we crossed over to the Bahamas.  We spent 4 nights in West End at Old Bahama Bay waiting out winds. The resort had kayaks, paddle boards and bikes all just there and available to use.  Thursday after we finished school the girls were so excited to kayak. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera out on the kayak with us.  The water was so clear and they both did a great job helping to paddle.  We spent the rest of the day at the pool and playing on the shuffleboard, chess and checkers courts.  Fresh conch salad for lunch by the pool.  Fresh stone crab for dinner that Ben bought from someone selling it on the dock.  He also bought a conch shell.  It’s huge and pretty and SO SO LOUD!

Friday after school Ben got the girls’ bikes down and we grabbed bikes from the hotel.  We rode out of the resort and around one of the housing developments next door.  We all love the colors of the houses.  It’s so bright and cheery.  We think Chicago homes would be prettier painted these colors.

On the advice of others at the marina we rode past all the houses and hopped off to walk down to the beach to collect sea glass.

Maddy wanted to bring the entire beach home.  We rode on a little further through a development that never happened.  Beautiful roads, brick sidewalks, fire hydrants, street lamps, a club house, golf course….and then nothing.  Road ends in this circle drive with not a single house ever built.  I commented it’s so interesting to me…most places in the US the lots would be sold and the houses built long before the roads and sidewalks were put in.  We ditched our bikes at the end of the road and walked down to the beach again, this time for shells.  The tide was way out and it was a beautiful day on this side of the island.

West End was hit by Hurricane Matthew last October.  Ben rode into town to the store Saturday afternoon and saw just how destroyed it still is.  So sad that it is so hard to recover for many of these smaller countries.  As it is many places in the US as well.  The marina and hotel barely got hit however were under water for 3 days.  The power has been restored to the hotel and marina offices but the marina phones don’t work and there is no power to the slips.  This meant a huge discount on docking but for them is sad and a real problem.  Ben talked to the owner a few times.  They are hoping to have every power pedestal pulled and replaced and back up and running by April 1st.  Ben doesn’t think that will happen.

I don’t think I got any pictures of it but the entire time we were in West End there was a sailboat stuck aground in the bay.  We watched for four days as they tried to get the boat unstuck.  No luck.  On day four the owner gave up, gave the boat to a local and flew home.  As the tide would change we would watch the boat lie almost completely on its side and then the next day lean the other way.  They were not in a recommended anchorage, but even so, it was a quick reminder of just how fast the tides change here and how shallow the water can be. Boating here is beautiful and yet stressful all the same for Ben.

We pulled out Sunday morning with a group of 4 power boats and 4 sailboats to head through Indian Rock channel.  A dicey passage that had good depth at high tide but has currents that can pull you to the side and into the rocks. We followed a large catamaran who has been sailing here for years and knew the way.  Once through, the sail boats put up sails and dropped off to the right of us and the power boats motored ahead to Great Sale Cay.  Beautiful day on the water and beautiful anchorage.  The water while getting there was like glass and at 20 feet deep we could see the bottom while standing up on the fly bridge.  Ben saw turtles and sting rays while driving. Other boats saw dolphins and sharks, we missed them unfortunately!  Once anchored and settled Ben got down the dinghy and we cruised around.  Before cruising he got the water maker running.  It has added to our boat clutter but is great to be able to pull in the salt water, purify it and fill the water tanks without relying on a marina.

Making water

Once in the dinghy we saw starfish and sponges under water.  I can’t say enough how incredibly clear the water is.  We had a great dinner, watched an amazing sunset and looked at the stars.  And then we went to bed as the winds shifted and so began a night of not sleeping. Yikes.  At one point I got up b/c I was convinced we were blowing away.  Not so much.  All boats were still anchored where we started and there was hardly a ripple.  It’s a mystery why on earth it was so loud.  But we didn’t sleep.  We talked to the other boats the next morning and most had the same issue.  Thankfully the girls slept through it.  We set out early because we were all up.

Starfish

We’ve seen a lot of abandoned boats like this

Sunset

Our group broke up a little yesterday and headed different places.  We and two other boats came to Green Turtle Cay. We had planned to make one or two other stops along the way but with winds moving in last night and then again tomorrow we decided to just come here and stay put until Friday.  We started slow to save fuel and then Ben picked up pace the last 20 miles to get in at higher tide.  Seeing the boats come in after us he was happy he did that.  Boy does the tide drop fast and a lot.  We are at Bluff House Beach Resort and Marina for four nights.  As frequently happens we pulled in, others came to help.  A couple of people saw our Loop flag and asked if we are doing the loop.  Ben handed them a boat card and we got the “We know you – you have Molly and Madelyn”.  Yes we do.  Funny how many people know who we are when we arrive because of the girls. They went on to tell the girls they have been following them.  It’s good motivation for them to keep writing!

Docking is always an adventure.  This time our boat backs up to the dock and we have a ladder we have to climb up.  This morning at high tide it’s quite manageable.  Last night was a bit crazy. Ben basically lifts and pushes the girls up.  It’s a very vertical ladder on the side of the dock and requires being quite careful. Yesterday we went into town with the dinghy and walked around a bit.  We will head back today or tomorrow to hopefully check a few of the sites out.  We visited two of the tiny grocery stores last night (picked up brownie mix because the girls asked to make a Valentine’s Day treat) and saw some more colorful houses.  We decided the turquoise and pink one was our favorite.  We also walked past the post office and library.  We had dinner back at the hotel restaurant.  The rum punch here means business.  Tasty stuff!

Library

Post Office and Customs Office

Today is Valentine’s Day.  The girls are lamenting not being able to exchange cards with friends.  But they got up this morning and were happy to see a few treats waiting for them and then they made us lovely cards with really sweet notes about taking them on this trip.  We managed to make it to see second cousins for Halloween and saw all our family at Christmastime so this is the first holiday they have been affected by not being with kids.  But we think they’ll do alright.  We made Swedish pancakes with all the fixings for a special breakfast and are having stone crab again for dinner.  They have a heart shaped cookie cutter and we have red sprinkles left over from Christmas cookies so we’re going to make brownies and cut them into heart shapes later.

Swedish pancakes!

Valentine’s selfie

We’re here until Friday and then moving along.  Next on the list are Treasure Cay, Great Guana Cay, Marsh Harbour and Hopetown to finish out our tour of the Abacos Islands.

I wanted to write up a quick post before I lose connection.  We have a T-Mobile hotspot that should work in the Bahamas but I’ll try to get this post out while we are crossing.

I believe I last posted Friday as we were pulling into Dinner Key in Miami.  We spent one night there.  Coconut Grove was a beautiful area out of the chaos of Miami.  But Saturday we headed north to Ft. Lauderdale.  After Ben called about 30 marinas in the area and north he finally called the New River city marina back and they had a spot.  So we docked at the New River Downtown Docks for the past four nights.  Pulling out of Miami and into Ft. Lauderdale left us with incredible views of many enormous cruise ships and mega yachts.  The money oozing out on the water here is just unreal.

There were about 8 cruise ships piled up here

SKyline! Haven’t seen one since Chicago.

These are private yachts, not cruise ships. CRAZY!

Once we got into Ft. Lauderdale the New River is fascinating.  It’s a plenty deep, very narrow river.  Houses on the banks are beautiful, the yachts people have parked outside of them also beautiful. The mega yachts can’t do the river under their own power because it is too narrow with tight turns so they have to be towed front and back.  We watched more than we can count go past.  New River was a fabulous location, right in the heart of the river, right by Las Olas Blvd, every store we can imagine around for provisions etc.  The one downside was that the river is very narrow, big boats docked on both sides and the boat traffic is busier than the Chicago River.  And no one slows sown.  Water taxis, tour boats, tons of personal watercraft.  We got rocked and bumped into the wall nonstop.  By day two or three we just got used to it.  By midnight it quiets down for the night.

New River

Oneof my favorite houses and they have a yellow boat too!

We had such a great weekend.  Saturday when we pulled in my childhood friend Samantha and her husband Yaniv came to see the boat and then took us to their house for dinner.  We met their three kids (Ben and I hadn’t seen them since they were little and the girls don’t remember meeting them b/c they were so little).  She has a 14, 12 and almost 4 year old.  My girls loved having different toys to play with, a little kid to play with and big kids to talk to.  And we enjoyed a home cooked feast!  We cook a lot on the boat, but is different to go chill out at someone’s house and just relax.  Thank you Samantha and Yaniv!  Somehow I didn’t take any pictures.

Sunday the Grammatkes came to see us.  They drove over from Marco and got to us around 10 AM.  It was like we saw them last weekend.  The kids squealed and hugged and disappeared to play immediately.  It was so good to catch up and seems impossible it’s been so long since they moved to Denver.  We had lunch on the riverfront and then took them out on the boat to see Ft. Lauderdale, the houses, boats and cruise ships.  After a great visit they had to head back. We stayed on the boat, put the girls to bed, watched the super bowl alone (missed our Super Bowl party this year!) and went to bed.

Happy to see each other!

Climbing trees

Karaoke

Monday started two days of chaos.  Ben picked up a car bright and early and hit four boat stores and Home Depot to start provisions and supply shopping.  I did school with the girls and took them to the park.

Fun xylophone bench

Awesome workout park complete with a stair stepper

After he was back and unloaded we all headed to Costco for a 2 hour marathon trip.  You’d think we’d never been shopping before.  We’ve been warned so many times about how expensive food is in the Bahamas.  Well we have made darn sure we won’t ever need to buy cereal, goldfish, popcorn, granola bars, oatmeal squares, oatmeal, yogurt, of course Vodka and Rum, or anything else you can imagine…we probably bought it.  After Costco I was exhausted.  But I trekked out Monday night and spent another 3 1/2 hours shopping.  Much to my delight I passed a Nordstrom Rack and picked up some new running shoes!  But then went to Trader Joes and stocked up on our favorites there and a monster Target trip….cleaning supplies, vitamins, dish soap, hand soap, body wash, shampoo/conditioner, lot of shelf stable juices, big watertight containers for Ben and some of the many things I listed above.  By 11:30 PM when I got home the boat looked like it did in August when we left.  Molly and I spent ages on Tuesday carefully storing things under beds and in cabinets and lining the guest room.  We LOVE having guests and would love to have you visit in the Bahamas, but be warned, you will be sharing a room with lots of food.  While we were doing that Tuesday Ben ran to do some more boat errands.  He needed to stock up on oil to do an oil change there and went to dreaded Walmart for that.  But Walmart sells Parmalot which is decent shelf stable milk so we’ve added 8 boxes of that to our stores.  We also both managed hair cuts and I fit in a quick pedicure.

Some of our food stash

Some more – lots from Costco

Last night the Wilsons flew back to Ft. Lauderdale.  Before driving back to Marathon and their boat they came to see us and joined us for dinner. We met Ozzie and Cathy from our Chicago dock at Burnham at the 15th Street Fisheries and had a really great dinner.  Cathy is too sweet…she came armed with big goodie bags for the girls.  All sorts of fun stuff for them to play with.  Currently they are making Blizzard Wizard snow…instant snow in a jar.  She also outfitted me with an adorable nautical style purse which I love.  It was so fun to see people from home and catch up.  It was equally hard to say goodbye to the Wilsons AGAIN.  But we will say See You Later because we are both committed to seeing each other again somehow!

Crazy fish at 15th St Fisheries

Girls feeding the fish

After we got back to the boat Ben met the people dropping off our Water Maker.  We decided to rent one for the trip rather than relying on Bahamas water and having to pay for it.  We had to pay for the water maker but means we can use as much as we need for laundry and showers and dishes and not worry about getting somewhere to get water.  With the testing kit Ben has showed me that the water that comes through the water maker, out of the river last night is more pure than the water in the boat that has gone through two filters.  I’m working on being convinced.  We do have some bottled water but this should apparently be perfectly good to drink.

Molly has commented a couple of times that she’s kind of nervous.  Nervous about being in a different country mostly.  We realize we’ve probably fed some of that since we’ve been running around like crazy people for two days.  We’ve been to Mexico many times with the girls but she commented that she’s gone there since before she remembers so it doesn’t seem different.  We’ve explained that the reason we’ve done so much provisioning is so that we can have the comforts of home on board and so that we don’t have to spend a fortune on everything.  We will spend our money on fresh fruits and veggies and the amazing fresh bread we’ve read and heard about.  Although we did bring plenty of ingredients to bake our own bread once we run out of the stash we brought with us.

We set out this morning, got fuel, and headed out.  As I type we are in amazing blue flat water and Ben says he can confirm we are currently crossing the Gulf Stream.  He can feel the boat getting pushed north as it carries us.

We should arrive by 3:30 or so this afternoon. We’re cruising along slowly to save fuel.  Ben thinks he saw a whale breach.  There are four other boats making this trip today as well although they left much earlier than we did and left from further north.  Despite my best efforts I lost signal before being able to post so I’ll post when we arrive and I have time to upload pictures.

Back online.  After we lost signal we enjoyed 50 miles of beautiful water.  The last 20 miles were big waves, rolling and pitching the boat up and down.  The Seakeeper worked overtime today as did the engines.  It wasn’t dangerous, but Ben could tell the water was changing a bit and picked up speed and we opted for getting there rather than saving fuel.  Three of the other boats were already here and six more were clearing customs when Ben walked up to do so.  The color of the water is indeed incredible.  Molly had felt not great much of the day today and was itching to get off the boat.  But no one is allowed off til Ben was done with customs.  Once done we went and flew the girls’ new kites from Cathy Factor in a big open field and then walked over to the pool and beach.

Lots of room to run with kites!

Beach at the hotel – ocean is 80 degrees!

And now I’m trying again to post Thursday morning.  We’re staying put for a few days as the winds have kicked up. We’re at the Old Bahama Bay resort and other than not having power restored to the slips post hurricane the resort has a nice pool, beach, restaurant, bikes and paths and a workout room.  So back to school this morning and then off to explore.

After 6 nights in Marathon and 3 in Islamorada today, sadly, we are leaving the Keys and heading to the east coast of Florida.  We really enjoyed our time in the Keys.  Marathon wasn’t all that interesting but we largely spent a week there to spend time with the Wilson family.  Other than when we’ve had visitors this is the first time the girls have had true playmates.  They took advantage of every day and made good use of the time together.

Faro Blanco, Marathon, FL

Wendy got a picture of us pulling into the harbor

Swimming with the Wilsons

Molly and AnnaMay tower

Mia, Molly, AnnaMay, Ella, Maddy (left to right)

In addition to lots of pool time, time on each other’s boats playing with dolls and meals together we did all go on a tour of the Marathon Coast Guard station and went to the Turtle Hospital. Both were great learning experiences.  The girls talked a lot about those in their blog so I won’t say too much.

Coast Guard vest – very heavy!

Captain Molly

Captain Madelyn (and Ben in the background)

I loved the Turtle hospital.  We learned a ton of new information.  I don’t like to swim with the turtles the way Ben does, but I enjoy watching them and was happy to learn so much more about them and how this facility cares for them.  You can sponsor a turtle for a year. The girls may be getting that for an upcoming birthday gift.  You are kept updated on the turtle’s condition and care and get a letter every so often from the turtle.  Anyway, just another really fantastic experiential learning opportunity for the girls.

Madelyn loved watching them come up to breathe

Saturday our friend Ozzie from our dock in Chicago came to visit.  He spends the winter in Ft. Lauderdale and drove down for the weekend to see us.  He took the girls and Ben fishing out on the rocks at the marina.  They didn’t catch anything but are trying to gain more knowledge to hopefully catch some of our meals in the upcoming months!  It’s always fun to see friends from home and we hope to connect back up with Ozzie and Chris in Ft. Lauderdale.

We left Marathon Tuesday morning in not ideal conditions.  The day before I had asked Wendy Wilson if AnnaMay and Ella might be able to join us.  The girls were so sad to have to say goodbye because we are not sure when or if our paths will cross again on this journey.  My mom and Jim were meeting us in Islamorada so I knew I’d have a car to drive the girls back to Marathon that night.  Wendy and Bobby said that would be just fine.  They may have thought otherwise Tuesday morning at 7:30 AM when they dropped the girls at our boat and helped untie lines in crazy wind and chop, but they let the girls come with us anyway.  It was a not fun very choppy three hour trip.  Waves were not that bad but winds were from the north and we were heading north and out boat is AWFUL heading into waves like that.  So it was just rough. Not rocky.  Not rolly. Just pounding uncomfortable.  But the kids all powered through and in under 3 hours we were in Islamorada. The Postcard Inn was adorable. We happened upon it after calling just about every marina in Key Largo and Islamorada.  We were trying to meet my mom and Jim in Key Largo and nothing there had openings.  And then our Islamorada recommendation wasn’t deep enough.  So, we tried this place.  We knew the marina was undergoing renovations so were prepared.  The resort was great.  Beautiful pool, beach, roped off ocean swimming area, huge hammocks on the beach, big lifesize connect four game, grassy area for gymnastics,  pool bar, tiki hut bar and restaurant, and huge outdoor firepits that they light every night.  My mom and Jim were there when we arrived.  I took the four girls right to the pool while the rest of the adults went and had a great lunch.  The girls enjoyed the day swimming and doing gymnastics.  Grandma Cathy treated the girls to strawberry smoothies from the pool bar.

Postcard Inn

Smoothies with Grandma Cathy

Molly and AnnaMay lounging

Maddy and Ella playing frisbee

Back on the boat they tried to squeeze out every last minute together. Dinner, a game of Life, etc. and we finally had to pull the plug and drive them back.  It was a sad goodbye with hopes of seeing each other again.  Due to a family emergency the Wilsons flew home to Ohio the next morning and are flying back next week so we’re hoping on their drive back to their boat they  may be able to stop for a hello again!

In the midst of all of this we got word Tuesday morning that my grandmother had been hospitalized.  My mom was waiting around trying to figure out what was happening and when and where she should fly home.  We enjoyed the time we could all the while waiting for updates.  She has pneumonia in one lung and some issues with her esophagus.  My uncle drove down and was with her and my mom is flying home this afternoon.  She is responding well to antibiotics and hopefully will be discharged tomorrow.  My mom can drive her back to the nursing home and will hopefully be able to return to Florida Monday night.  My littlest sister Emily is flying down to see my grandfather next weekend and my mom was hoping to be back in Florida for her visit.  So many moving parts.

We had a lot of fun lazing around the pool, playing in the hammocks and just  purely relaxing, once school was done.  My mom and Jim took the girls to dinner one night and Ben and I got out for a date night.  Sadly they had to leave yesterday after lunch to drive to Sarasota in preparation for flying today.

Hammocks!

Smothering Grandma in the hammock

My turn!

Today we raced through school and hit the pool early because we knew we had to leave around high tide at noon.  We only saw a little of Islamorada but I loved it there.  Postcard Inn was one of my favorite stops.

My beautiful girls by the firelight

Sunrise this morning

Watched the sunrise with Molly

I know we will LOVE the Bahamas and exploring so many amazing places but there’s something to be said for camping out at a nice resort for a couple of days and just chilling.  But today we move along.  We are on our way to Dinner Key right now.  It is near Coral Gables, just south of Miami.

Miami! Haven’t seen a skyline since Chicago!

Stiltsville

Stiltsville

Should be a fine marina for tonight and then we are hoping to maybe boat up to Ft. Lauderdale or Hollywood area tomorrow and anchor.  Sunday we will find a marina we think as our friends the Grammatkes are coming to see us.  They moved to Denver last July and are in Marco Island this weekend visiting parents.  It’s a 2 hour or less drive over to Ft. Lauderdale so they offered to come see us for the day.  It will be great to catch up!  Maybe we’ll even watch some of the Super Bowl.

After Sunday’s visit we plan to spend the time we need to provision and get ready for the Bahamas crossing.  We hope to see Ozzie and Chris as well as my childhood friend Samantha, her husband Yaniv and their kids who all live in that area.  We need to do a big Costco run along with Target and groceries.  Ben has some work on the boat to do, oil change, zincs, etc.  And we’ve sent a number of packages to Ozzie including our Bahamian courtesy flag that we need to fly and our permit to get back into the US.  I’ve been studying up with the help of fellow looper Cathy Rogers and the Bahamas Bound Skipper Bob’s book and have a rough route planned out.  Now we just wait for weather for crossing the Gulf Stream. And wait we will…last Tuesday reminded us again that this boat is great living space, and a terrible choppy water boat.  All a tradeoff but we’ll wait for that glassy water day.

We loved Key West!  We both enjoyed some amazing weather and endured some insane wind during our stay.  We spent 4 nights at Galleon Marina.  It was right in town, 2 blocks to Mallory Square and Duvall street, an easy walk to many great restaurants, the Hemingway House and anything else we wanted to see.

Roosters everywhere!

Precisely!

I remember in high school when we went to the Bahamas once for a couple of days and I came home, got my film developed, and then noticed that all my pictures were just of water and looked the same.  Since then I have made a point to not just take a bunch of pictures of water for no reason.  But I get why I did it then…it’s amazing. The beauty here is unprecedented.  The color of the water.  The blue of the sky.  All of it.

While in Key West we rode out a crazy storm.  Nothing like a blizzard in Chicago with the same strength of winds blowing wind and ice in our faces with below zero temps.  But winds like we have never seen before on the boat.  We were safe in our slip but had more lines on the boat than we ever have before.  And lots of fenders.  The marina was great with helping and checking on all boats multiple times a day during the two days of insane wind.  We watched two boats break loose in the anchorage just outside of our marina.  We spent much of the day listening to the radio and the coast guard’s response.  They were very busy.  There was a huge coast guard station right next to our marina as well.

One of the sailboats that hit the rocks, and the Coast Guard station behind it

Once the weather calmed yesterday we took the dinghy out to explore the anchorage.  There are a number of derelict boats there and were quite the sight to see.  The “street art” in the water was pretty cool.  And then we also found a bunch of half sunken boats and objects…some had been there awhile and others possibly a casualty from the storm.  It was an experience!

Street Art on boats!

We visited the Mel Fisher Maritime museum Sunday and learned all about the sunken Atocha and his work in recovering the treasure.  Monday we went to the Ernest Hemingway House and museum.  It was educational to tour the grounds and house and the girls loved the cats.  They blogged about that yesterday so I won’t repeat!

6 toes!

Last night we walked into Mallory Square for sunset.

We planted ourselves right next to a street performer in the square who promptly asked Molly to be his assistant.  She had to throw two swords and a torch (not yet lit!) up to him.  She was a little hesitant at first but did a great job and had fun. She then got to go back in again to time him escaping from a straight jacket.  We may have had a lighter week in school this week but there’s always some interesting education out there.

A little unsure…

Preparing to toss…

The toss…

Still going…

The catch!

Today we left Key West and are currently traveling up the keys to Marathon.  What a gorgeous trip.  Crab pots EVERYWHERE!  We just passed under Seven Mile Bridge and got some cool pictures of the old Seven Mile Bridge that it still mostly standing.  We’re headed into Marathon for a few days.  We will see the Wilson family again and plan to take the girls to the Turtle rescue hospital there and do a few other fun things before we head north again.

Seven Mile Bridge

Heading under…

It’s still so crazy that we’ve made it this far…on our boat!  But here we are.  It’s amazing here.  Ben and I have never been to the Keys so we’re pretty excited to be here.  I’ve enjoyed everywhere we’ve been on the loop so far, but admit that I’m most excited about the next few months to come. We are headed to a lot of places I haven’t been before.

The view on our way into Key West.  Just look at the color of the water!

The last few days have been great as well.  Lots and lots of sunshine and fun times.  We enjoyed Marco Island. We spent a lot of time in the dinghy.  Checked out the Snook Inn for dinner our first night there.

The next day after school we headed out in the dinghy to Goodland, FL.  It’s this tiny little community right next to Marco Island and is the place to go in the area if you want fresh stone crab…which we did…again!  On our way there we took a little detour up a creek to check out some pretty cool trees and huge bird nests.  It’s fun to explore in the dinghy because we can go anywhere we want without depth issues.  Molly just put her feet right in while in this creek.

These trees were so pretty

These tree roots are amazing

Most of the channel markers were home to very large nests

We had a great lunch at the Marco Lodge in Goodland and then picked up fresh stone crab and a key lime pie for dinner next door from the Kirk fish market.

The girls dancing to the live music at lunch

We took the dinghy back and headed to the pool of course.  The girls were thrilled to have a night in.  They get really sick of eating out.  It’s a nice change for them to grab lunch out and then stay in for dinner.  They can swim and shower and put jammies on and have a relaxing night.  We put them to bed and then had a feast of stone crab once again.  So good.

We pulled out of our harbor at 7:45 AM this morning to begin the 100 mile trek to Key West.  There is all sorts of weather moving into Florida right now but most of it is north of here. We knew we had a clear forecast to get here this morning but didn’t want to try it after that.  We had good water for most of the trip but the wind picked up and it got choppy towards the end.  Our last 5 minutes before we pulled into the harbor either the wind changed direction or we changed direction or something but we took some waves that soaked us up on the fly bridge.  Once in our harbor our view was just spectacular.

After getting settled we walked into town and hit some of the “must go to” spots, looked around, watched the Key West women’s march down Duvall street and did some shopping.

The girls at Sloppy Joe’s

Key West Women’s March

The girls looking at another version of the statue they like in Sarasota

We got back to the boat just before sunset and Ben, Molly and Ron went out in the dinghy to explore the anchorage just outside the harbor wall and watch the sunset.  The girls got another night in tonight as we decided to just stay in and grill.  We have so much we want to see here.  We only have our slip until Monday however with the crazy winds moving in tomorrow and Monday we’re hoping that people that are supposed to be here won’t be able to get here so we can stay longer.  Time will tell.  We want to try to get to one of the maritime museums, the Hemingway House, the Truman “Little White House”, Fort Zachary Taylor park and a few good restaurants.  So much to do and see!  Monday may just need to be a field trip day instead of a school day to fit it all in.

I’m once again feeling so blessed to be having this experience of a lifetime with my family.  It just seems to get better every day.

Ben hasn’t blogged in awhile so he may blog about this trip as well.  It was our second Gulf crossing and he’ll tell it from a different perspective.

Today we left Naples and are heading a quick 10 miles to Marco Island for a couple of days before hopefully heading to Key West ahead of the bad weather later this weekend.  We’ll keep a close eye on the Gulf and won’t push our luck if it’s not looking good.  Right now the plan is Marco tonight and tomorrow.  Key West Saturday and stay there til Monday or longer if the marina opens up and has a spot for us after the weekend.  I type now as we are anchored in the crystal green, totally flat Gulf just off a little island with an aquatic preserve and lots of shells, a few miles from Marco Island.

Not a great picture but the view from my laptop is not to be missed!

Ben and Molly are swimming. Madelyn is thinking about it.  Our friend Ron from E dock in Chicago joined us Tuesday night and is now swimming as well.

Shelling on the beach

Swimming to shore!

Madelyn made it in

Ben’s parents flew down to Ft. Myers last Tuesday and were with us until Saturday night.  We had beautiful weather and a good visit.  After the two weeks of cousins and photos I failed at taking pictures last week!  I only snapped a couple and then also realized I have none with my Mom and Jim either.  Fail!  We’re hoping to see my mom and Jim again in a couple of weeks so I’ll try to get some  with them then.  We had a lazy week last week.  Got back into the swing of school, showed Ben’s parents around, etc.  Nikki taught the girls how to knit.

We took some walks into downtown Ft. Myers.  Thursday we spent the day in Sarasota, St. Armands and Longboat Key.  Fred had not been back to his mom’s old stomping grounds since she moved to Chicago so it was fun to walk around and share memories of the area.  Fred and Molly and Ben took the dinghy to buy fresh stone crab for dinner one night – 4th time we ‘ve done that and it never disappoints.  Can’t get enough of them!  Friday we had dinner with my mom and Jim in Cape Coral.  Saturday we took the boat out and cruised down to see Sanibel and Ft. Myers Beach before Fred and Nikki had to go to the airport.

Sunday afternoon we finally connected with the Wilson family.  It’s been months in the making!  We just missed the Zomers who were so close to us but busy on Sunday.  We will meet up with them as well. These are the other two families currently doing the loop with kids.  Both families have kids our girls’ ages.  We hit it off immediately with the Wilsons.  We hung out on their boat for a bit and then headed to the pool where they were staying.  We had errands to run and were supposed to go back over to my mom’s that night but the kids had so much fun that swimming turned into poolside dinner and then a visit back at the boat and it was almost bedtime when we finally peeled them away from each other.  But just for a bit.

Monday morning we got to be part of a photo/video shoot for the US Power Squadrons.  A fellow looper asked if we’d be willing because they had a series of videos/photos that needed kids in them.  We said sure.  Come to find out it was the full family.  We did a couple of shots on the dock and then they filmed us pulling out of our slip as we left Ft. Myers.  Not without a series of goodbyes.  We build friendships when we stay somewhere for more than a night or two and the goodbyes are always hard.  In addition to the wonderful people we met at Legacy Harbor the girls became close to many pets on our dock.  Harper, Cora and Sophie were the favorite dogs.  Harper summers in Michigcan so we hope to see her and her owners again next summer.  They would run to greet and pet them every chance they could.  Margo the parrot became a friend as well.

My mom and Jim joined us in Naples. Jim rode the boat with us and enjoyed the beautiful sites and houses along the way.  Naples sure is pretty.  My mom drove and joined us there.   Once tied up the girls headed right for the pool as usual and then dinner.  Fairly lazy day Tuesday.  School and then lunch and then pool.  Ben and I got some errands done before they headed back to Cape Coral with the car.  The Wilsons arrived at the same marina in Naples Tuesday afternoon.  The girls were excited to show them our boat and their dolls.  Ron flew in late Tuesday night.

One of my favorite houses we passed…

Wednesday we got school done quickly so we could spend all day enjoying the Naples Bay Resort.  We headed to the resort pool complex with a lazy river, bigger pool, waterfall, poolside waiters and restaurant. Full day of true vacation.  Not that every day doesn’t feel like somewhat of a vacation but this was a non boating, vacation day.  When the kids had soaked up many many hours of sunshine and water, Molly, Madelyn, AnnaMay and Ella headed to our boat for a very involved playdate with all of their dolls.  They had so much fun playing together.  We all headed to Tin City just across the canal to find dinner.  We had some seriously tired kids and adults last night.  The Wilsons headed to Marathon today so we are wishing them a safe and easy crossing.  We hope to cross paths again in the Keys or beyond.

Today is idyllic.  I suppose we can’t have all perfect weather so we’ll see what Sunday brings.  It makes days like today all the more perfect.  We’re about a third of the way through our trip.  Hard to believe.  It is going so fast.  We try our best to soak up every day to its fullest and be thankful for every minute of it.

Today…

Sunset a few days ago…