Day Seven: Lost at sea.

So this morning we decided to go over to Sombrero Beach off the bottom end of Vaca and almost against Boot Key. It's a great beach with palm trees lining the edge instead of sand dunes and a long expanse of white sand. It used to be coral beach but has been replaced with some very nice sand. The beach also has small pavilions for luncheons and areas for volley ball and a place for small children to play. It's also one of the very few excellent and free beaches in the Keys. About two hours into some fabulous beach time, tropical storm force winds came in and blew everyone off of the beach. Now this wouldn't be a problem for me, but Lance and Samantha were out at sea kayaking when this happened. My mother of course was on the phone at the time and left me to pack everything up and it wasn't until the beach umbrella was half blown apart that she got off the phone and went right into panic mode. I had to be the voice of reason and snap her out of it. Seriously if there was anyone in the world that you would want to be lost at sea with in a kayak, it's Lance. Mind you if I were Lance I definitely wouldn't want to be stuck with Samantha. Anyways I managed to pack everything up and get a hysterical quinquagenarian to the car to wait for the kayakers to return.

To end the exhausting day and to celebrate our last night in the house, I was rewarded with some fine spiny lobster. I'm going to huff it back over to Sombrero in the morning o get some sun in before I have to return to the great wet Mid-Atlantic.

A pleasant start to a beach day.

The backside of Sombrero.

Smoothing and expanding the beach. 

Sailboat! There was also a dolphin out there somewhere too. 

Storm's a brewin'. Get off the phone MA I'm already feeling rain.

From inside the car. This started long before I made it to the Silver Bullet. 

I broke away from studying to find a pleasant surprise in the pot. 

Day Six: 1983

Today my mother took me around the island to all of the places that she and her friends lived and worked. We spent the day mostly down on the southern end of the island by Sombrero Beach and the marina. My mother came to the Keys after a brief stint in Virginia Beach and stayed for almost two years until she and Lance decided to get married in 1984. It took her a little while to find everything, with age comes memory loss, but eventually we got there and no stone was left untouched.

Where she worked when she first arrived. 

Pancho's, the place to be after work. 

The duplex apartment she shared with her roommate. 

Annette, my mother's roommate. 

What used to be the Captain's Galley where Lance worked. 

Lance's apartment on 11th Street. 

Herbies on Marathon

Herbies is a small shack off of Route 1 on Vaca Key in the city of Marathon. Small and without the pretentiousness of other established restaurants next door, Herbies serves simple, delicious food that has stood the test of time. Already a local institution in 1984, my mother took me back there today for lunch where it was still packed as ever. The menu is a simple selection of local seafood cooked to comfort and perfection and nothing suits your fancy Herbies will clean and blacken your catch of the day for only $10.

Daily specials.

Conch fritters the size of my fist.

Sparse decorations on plain walls, but we just came for the food.

Fried oyster sandwich.

Buoys hung on the walls.