Cedar Key fun begins...

I have seriously neglected my blogging and can't believe it's the end of April! I am happy to say that I haven't been working this entire time during tax season but have been very busy enjoying Cedar Key!

After settling into our little slice of paradise here, we took off for our first drive to the Tampa Bay area to see Bill's mom, Doano. She lives in a condo in a great area called Belleair Bluffs that is on the "intercoastal waterway". She is a fabulous photographer and writes beautiful Tanka. We spent the weekend and then headed back to our new "home" and found our friends Sini and Bob, who we met at Slab City, had arrived to stay at the Low-Key Hideaway for a week. 


Bob and Sini were so excited to finally be HERE as they had been following the blog of Pat and Cindy, managers of the Low-Key Hideway Motel & RV Resort,  for years and it had inspired them to get out on the road rv-ing. Bob and Sini had also befriended Dave and Sue, who ran the karaoke at our rv park --and guess what was happening that night?! Now Bill and I have NEVER done karaoke before...as "out there" as we both are I just don't think either of us are that comfortable with our singing voices and try to spare our friends. That night, I don't know what happened, but there Bill was singing with Bob, who had also never done karaoke before then - and they were affectionately dubbed the Billy Bob show, serenading us all night. Finally by the end of the evening, with much fortification, Sini and I were up there with Sue belting out "Love Shack" - losing our cherry-oke, virgins no longer! That began this week of fun.

Pat hauled us all in his boat over to North Key Island for a day of frolicking au naturale among the flocks of birds that call it home. On the boat ride over he alerted us to watch over the back of the boat as the dolphins love to play in his wake and we were treated to a show by a pair that followed us almost all of the way there. The skipper dropped us off on a deserted part of the island where we sun-bathed, picnicked and developed one fabulous movie plot after another based on our crazy lives. 

Pat, being the consummate inn-keeper and concierge that he is, mentioned that we might want to "swim with the manatees" at Crystal River. So we planned another outing to see what there was to see...after several fits and starts we finally made it out onto the river in kayaks. We were warned that it was very late in the season  (and the afternoon) and really warming up and that we probably wouldn't see any manatees, but we didn't care, we were going! After paddling about for an hour we found a manatee that had a homing device attached to her.  We had been told there was a tagged mom and baby out there and to give them lots of space. After that we had an idea what to look for and then we found them! They are soooo cool, these big, funny looking mammals that occasionally come up to the surface to "blow". We had fun just hanging out and watching them...at one point we were going to get in the water with them but we couldn't figure out how we'd get back into the kayaks...so we missed that part but I, for one, really didn't need to disturb them any more than we did.

on the dock at the Low-Key Hideaway with Bob & Sini