I know where I'm gonna retire

Someday, many moons from now, like 27 years worth of moons I'm gonna retire to the Keys. Much sooner than that if the Fl Lottery system would give me a big win. And I'm not picky, I'll take any one of the Keys. Key Largo is the exception...its way to close to Northern Cuba, errr I mean Miami. They all have the same thing going for them though....sand, palm trees, the ocean and THE MOST RELAXED LIFE EVER.

What a fabulous 4 1/2 days that just kept getting better and better until it was time to go. My buddy Josh and I left Fort Lauderdale at about 1pm on Wednesday for the 3+ hour drive down to Big Pine Key. One cooler full of Malibu Bay Breezes later, we arrived, slightly toasted. Good times on the drive down with lotsa laughs and a State Trooper that was behind us for about 25 miles. lmao. Poor Josh is a paranoid boy. I have no idea why ;)

Upon Arrival we set up camp and got down to the serious business of relaxing and deciding what was really important in life; getting up to get another adult beverage or just sitting there staring at the moon rising over the water for awhile longer.

Thursday morning we awoke with the sun shining and calling us to play....

And play we did!! We went into town and got some live shrimps and frozen shrimps to fish with. Now the big decision was whether to fish from the beach or go up on the Seven Mile Bridge. (thats the bridge you see in the pic above) The bridge won out. Heres Josh in his quest for the "big" one.

and you see that fishing pole he's holding right there??? Well, lets put it this way, he left the bridge without it. lmfao!!! poor poor Josh, had a little accident and dropped his pole over the edge while trying to get his line unsnagged. doh! I didnt say a word. Nope not one word while he sat there and stewed and cursed. I offered him mine, but he wasnt having it. Anyway, I caught a fish!!! I got a Yellowtail Snapper. ::big cheesy smile:: But I didnt get a picture of it because I wasnt prepared with my camera and I wanted to get it back into the water before it croaked. I'm nice like that.

After the fishing pole incident, (it was referred to as such through the whole weekend) we decided to go back to camp and chill for a bit and have another adult beverage. Imagine that! On a side note, we met a couple, Maggie and Rich down there that we know. Josh and I both work with Maggie and she is the sweetest person ever! Her husband Rich is really nice as well. They were there for 10 days and a shit-ton of their friends were there for the weekend as well. So all together there where about 30 people in the little group that was our compound. It was really cool and they were all real nice rednecks from central Florida. So that night we just partied our butts off and played games and laughed our asses off. A Lot! Josh decided he wanted to go in the water (pitch black water at night) and I was having non of it. I tried telling him at night the ocean belongs to the sharks but he was too buzzed to care and its a good thing I wasnt right or he woulda ruined the weekend if he'd been eaten by a shark.

Friday dawned just as beautiful as ever and today was snorkling day!! We walked over to the other side of the campground and near the swimming pier is the Marina that you have to pass. As we passed by there were two boys that were on the dock with the UgliestThingIHaveEverSeenLiveInPerson.......

Apparently this thing, I think it was a Morey Eel had attacked them while they were snorkling in the Marina (which your not supposed to do) and the boys shot it with a spear gun. It was still alive and squirming around and I was beyond flippen grossed out. And a little freaked out too. I was not about swimming with Floatsam & Jetsom.

We left the gross beast behind and tried to put it out of our minds as we snorkled in the cutest little cay. Absolutely beautiful!!

When we were done snorkling, we got crazy and ran and jumped off the end of this dock and swam around for awhile.


Later that night we went to No Name Key for dinner at this great pub called, No Name Pub. hmm imagine that. Its been there since something like 1938. Crazyness if you ask me. Same building and in the middle of no where. I couldnt have found it if I tried. In fact its the logo on their shirts, "A great place if you can find us".

Thats Maggie, Josh and Rich.
Anyway this key is home to an endangered animal....Key Deer. They walk around all over the place!!! They are tiny little things and very cute.......


I know I'm probably boring you all by now, so I'll finish this up. Here are a couple of more pics from the trip....

Ghetto Beach Club


Perfection


reflection of sunset on the clouds...


And finally, I know some of you are looking for the drag queens from Fantasy Fest....well, we didnt go. Key West was was another 25 miles south of us and the traffic was stoopid on Saturday. They estimate 50,000 people go to this thing. Plus, the drive back would have been a drunken shit show. And I dont like shit shows when I'm tryin to relax.

Thats about it. We had a great time, and it is a slice of heaven down there. I could definately see myself spending my golden years there. Thanks for reading this long ass post and its obvious I missed you all as I was logging in and drunken blogging on Friday night. Fabulous. ;)