Who's having fun? We are... yes we are.. yes we are...

Imagine that in a high pitched, happy tone and you have the sounds coming from our boat fairly regularly. It's called boating with a baby and a doting family that likes to see Ella giggle. I'm sure that people passing by our boat in the marina think we are all nuts but...

And Tom and I need to step it up a bit because at Ocean Reef where the average size boat is probably 100 feet, Tommy and Kelle trolled the docks with baby Ella in an attempt to trade up; and they were almost successful. This lovely old couple on a 130footer came off their boat twice to get a little play time with OUR Grandbaby. As lovely as Ocean Reef is, we thought we'd better move on.

The guys really wanted to do some sport fishing so we figured Holiday Isle on Islamorada was the next stop. What a major step down from Ocean Reef. One night here will be sufficient. While Val, Ben and Tommy fished, Tom, Kelle, Ella and I lunched at the Cheeka Lodge and it was great. Not a cloud in the sky so lunch on the beach was dreamy. (Did I hear something about freezing temps in Michigan?) No fresh fish dinner tonight. They scored 1 sailfish and 2 barracudas but nothing to eat. Had a lot of fun though. And returned in time for us to set off to Marathon Key. Farewell dumpy old Holiday Isle that badly needs some maintenance.

We're in Marathon now and while planning the remainder of our trip, we realized that we all somehow lost a day. I hate when that happens. So now we have to decide between Key West or heading directly to Naples. Val is pushing hard for Key West but this close to New Years everything is booked. She and I are not giving up though and we are finagling a way. Finding a secluded anchorage is out after reading about increased crime and pirate (yes pirate!) attacks on boats anchoring out. We'll see...

Baby Ella loves the boat. The motion and the humming of the engines puts her into lala land. It doesn't hurt that she has four extra people around who are happy to play with her, feed her, hold her and for the most part spoil her non-stop. I don't envy Tommy and Kelle when they get home.

As an aside, we are keeping up with the news and I took great satisfaction in learning that the terrorist who tried to bomb a flight in Detroit may well have burned his privates off. A bomb in your underwear? A lot of good 12 million virgins in heaven will do a guy with no wiener. What will they think of next?