New Year 2009

Saturday December 27, 2008

We went to the Dolphin Research Center on Grassy key, two islands away from Conch Key and in beautiful downtown Marathon, Florida. As you can see from the pictures, we got "kissed" on the cheek, gave the dolphin a back rub, shook hands, and got a short tow around the exhibit area. Our dolphin was Merina, well into middle age at 24 years, but the mother of a two-year-old, nonetheless.

They do things very intelligently there. Each group gets an entertaining talk on the hand signals, and also where to touch the dolphin, which came down to, "on its back, between the blow-hole and the dorsal fin." Anywhere else -- hands off. (One exception for the pectoral fins, the dophin's "arms": We got to touch them during the handshake.)

Later, Eve and I attended a brief lecture on dolphin birth. The babies come out tail first, so they have a better chance at their first breath. Considering that birth takes three to four hours, it amazes me that the occasional headfirst birth ever succeeds. The Center does not breed to sell, however, merely to maintain their population. The movie, Flipper, was filmed there, and some of their dolphins are direct descendants of the five animals used in the movie.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Matt decided to take this day easy, while Eve went back to the Dolphin Research Center for a more intensive experience than yesterday's.

Rachel and Matt, out for a walk, ran into a fellow named Chad Nedland, also known as "the walking man." Apparently in his mid-thirties, Chad said he had been "walking for peace and safety" for nine years, and was coming up on enough miles to go twice around the world. He was traveling with two women and two children -- theirs, I presume, not his, though we didn't ask. He showed us a backpack, which, he said, contained everything he owned. But the women had a van, the children always rode, and the walkers did their stints in relays. Chad has more to say, including that he used to tend bar in Key West, and where we should go and not go. He has a "personal Web site," http://www.mywalkingman.com. Before you look, prepare for disappointment; it doesn't have much.


Monday, December 29.2008

We all went to Curry Hammock State Park, a few miles south Conch Key (definition: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hammock). It consists of a few acres of campgrounds, a hundred yards or so of beach, and a covered picnic area. Eve and I went kayaking, taking the scenic route around the island. On the way, we saw a few green shoots sticking above the shallow bottom in places, advance scouts of a
mangrove invasion. Almost as soon as they paddled out to the ocean side of the island, Rachel saw a manatee about 50 yards behind them. A family of four followed it in a power boat until the manatee decided it had had enough of humans, and disappeared under the surface. No one around there saw it again.


Wednesday December 31, 2008

We went to a church on Key Largo to the opening ceremony and begining of a peace mandala, painted in sand by some Tibetan Buddhist monks. It takes them about about 20 hours, over five days, to finish. Then, after another ceremony, they destroy the mandala and go on to their next destination.

In the evening we had a thoroughly relaxing and delicious dinner at Braza Lena, a Brazilian steakhouse on Islamorada, just south of Key Largo. We saw in the new year at the Caribbean Club, "where the movie Key Largo was filmed," with a 20-minute fireworks show.

Thursday January 1, 2009

Rachel and Matt went back to Curry Hammock for another round of kayaking. This time, they saw several iguanas in the mangroves, two blue herons, some cichlid fish in shallow areas, and some ospreys, but no manatee.

Later in the afternoon, Eve went back to check on the mandala. We finished up the first day of the year by watching three or four hours of the Twilight Zone marathon on the SciFi Channel.