We left around 11:00AM after getting a pump out and saying our goodbyes. We had shipped oranges and grapefruits to my sister in Canada and they had never gotten delivered. When I called Hales Groves they offered to ship a replacement order so I had it directed to Galati so we could pick them up. They had still not arrived this morning so I offered them to Charlene who had done such a great job of taking care of getting us our mail and packages. She sent us an email later saying they had arrived in the afternoon and she had shared them with the rest of the office staff.
We headed out of Galati and turned north to go out one of the bigger passes onto the Gulf. It was the perfect day for our trip. Sunny, following wind and calm seas. We set the auto pilot and only deviated when we got close to Casey Key to get closer to shore and see the properties where we used to own houses. Things have changed a lot over the years and the houses have gotten bigger and bigger. I first came down here for Christmas in 1966 and my parents purchased a property on the north end of the key in 1971. We had many family Christmas's and vacations at Casey and it has always been like a second home. We had progressed to our third property which I sold in 1995. Since then my sister Prue and Andre had come down to Casey Key over the years until their deaths and we continued to have family reunions here. Many fond memories.
We arrived at the Crow's Nest around 3:00 and had planned for slack tide to make docking easier since the marina is right on the Venice inlet. We got securely tied up in our inside slip on the main dock and off loaded the motorcycle and bikes. We will be meeting my niece Fiona and her guy Greg, who we have not met yet. I'm so looking forward to seeing them and they will stay with us for a week on the boat as we travel south down to Ft Myers. We took Abby for long bicycle rides up to the Tamiami Trail via Venice Avenue. There is a linear park between the two streets making up Venice Ave and there are lots of monuments to the founders of Venice and its creation as an Army Air Base. I still remember being here in 1969 when the base was still active and the town still had the barracks in the central area. Lots of young kids heading off to Vietnam.
Fiona and Greg arrived Sunday night in time for cocktails and dinner aboard. We loaded all of their gear onto the boat and Abby was excited to have more friends to play with and take her for walks. Monday we traveled around to Cosco and Detwilers farmers market to stock up on supplies for the coming week as we would be anchoring for the most part as we slowly made our way south.
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| Greg Fiona Debbie and Jim |
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| Our dock for the week in Venice |
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| Detwilers Farmers Market |
Debbie and I had been here before Greg and Fiona arrived and they had a special on where if you bought a lobster roll they gave you a cup of either clam chowder or lobster bisque for free and then they have $5 banana splits made with your choice of flavors of hard ice cream and toppings. I didn't eat any dinner that night!
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| The lobster roll comes with free lobster bisque |
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| Yummy |
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