Day 4: Tuesday, April 14th





We woke up (sorta) early and broke down our Key West campsite. It was a beautiful campsite, but windy! That was kinda nice, though, because it made the heat bearable.

I awoke with a killer sunburn, the product of using spray-on sunscreen in windy weather. Ouch. Just looking at these pictures makes my shoulders hurt!

I didn't find a remedy that worked until we arrived in Marathon: a local lady told me to use cold cream and to keep it in the fridge. It really helped! If it's really bad, you can put the cold cream in the freezer, but that's a little too refreshing for me!

We left Key West and headed for Marathon, which is pretty much in the middle of the Keys. We went straight to a party boat for a reef fishing trip. Deep sea fishing trips are uber expensive, but reef fishing is basically an excuse to drink booze and maybe catch a few fish.

It sounded good at the time, but "bring your own booze"...not such a good idea on my part. I spent the first half of the trip having a great time, even catching a few fish! The last half, however, was spent either chumming the water for the other fishers or lying in misery in the cabin.

pre-puke

Right before Mike got a nibble.

Whoa, don't let that fish pull you over the side, hon!!

This guy went back - too small.

We caught lots of others, though.

After our fishing trip, we went to our campsite, where Mike immediately blew up an air mattress and made me lie down while he and Nils set up camp....sorta. That will come into play later.

After partially sleeping off the effects of seasickness, we headed to a restaurant that cooked our catch for us. It was a local place that did a great job - they made a platter for us with jerked, fried, and blackened fish. I was still feeling a little queasy, but I enjoyed a little bit. After all, I played a very important role in the boys catching them!

After dinner, we drove back to our campsite, looking forward to sleeping off a long day. And that's where it got interesting. I will now attempt to recreate for you the conversation between Mike and Nils that transpired while they were setting up camp:

Nils: do you think we should put the stakes in the ground?

Mike: Nah, there's no wind; it'll be fine.

Famous last words. When we got to the campsite, our tent was in the mangrove. A nasty-strong wind had picked up while we were gone, taking our tent with it, including the coolers and suitcases we had placed inside.

We spent the next hour or two trying to situate the tent to where we wouldn't blow away over the course of the night. It was WINDY!! Like, don't wear baggy clothes windy. We ended up strategically parking the car to try to block part of the wind, but the tent still stayed in a 45-degree position during the night.

Needless to say, I did not sleep well that night. Mike the Champion Camper slept like a rock. One last re-created conversation for you:

Nils: You know, we'll be laughing about this in a week.

Me: ..................maybe a year.