Eating and drinking and drinking and eating!

It's been a whole week since we arrived in Tavernier, and we are very gradually devovling into living life at a slower pace. Morning wake-up has changed from 5:45 AM to, well...whenever!  Mostly 8-9 AM. We have made excursions to the very excellent Key Largo Chamber of Commerce Visitor Center (www.keylargo.org/visitor.) for brochures, maps and general advice.  And after discussion over cocktails and coffee we've developed a list of things we would like to do. Some are very healthy, like today's choice of walking through the Crane Point Hammock Nature Trails (http://www.cranepoint.net/).  Some are less so--like figuring which sports bar offers best food/beer prices and atmosphere for watching the Patriots & Jets playoff game on Sunday.

Happy hour on the Happy Ours!

We had heard that retirements (even faux ones, like ours) often center around food. Where to go for happy hour...where's the best sunset dining...what to cook on the grill...should we forego lunch and have a snazzy dinner? This, I am a bit chagrined to say, is totally 100%  true--at least so far. It is very clear that we will have to structure exercise into our lives and look at our winter months not as "anything goes" vacations, but more of a measured lifestyle.

And so we exercise Maggie, take her to the incredible dog park at Founder's Park in Islamorada and work in brisk walks. Still, conversation at the dog park often revolves around the best dog-friendly restaurants. Over the weeked we ate at the Pilot House up in Key Largo (http://www.pilothousemarina.com/). We were surprised when then hostess led us through the whole retaurant with Maggie in tow and settled us on an enclosed adjoining deck. No one batted an eye and Maggie was the hit of our section! (nary a bark or anything but polite behavior, by the way). The dog park people have recommended the Outback in Marathon for it's oceanfront beach dining (not exactly like the one in Concord, NH!) and a place called the Islamorada Fish Company as well.  Both are on our list and we'll let you know how it turns out.

Maggie checks out the appetizers!

Meantime, we tried happy our on our own dock last night.  Timed properly, we catch a stunning sunset and watch pelicans skimming the water while we (you guessed it) eat and drink!