Quirky Key

This blog covers March 2nd to March 5. It's posted later because the wifi and phone service was bad.

March 2nd: we left Port St. Joe and traveled to Dunnellon, FL. It was a 5-5-1/2 hour drive. We arrived at Goethe Trail Head Campground which is a horse ranch and campground. Basically an open field with hook-ups. Today was travel along with a group dinner of smoked chicken, bean medley, roll. cake & ice cream and followed by a GAM meeting. All very good.

March 3rd: we departed for Cedar Key. Cedar Key is an island city off the northwest coast of Florida, in the Gulf of Mexico. It’s known for Cedar Key National Wildlife Refuge, a group of small islands with trails and rich birdlife. Cedar Key Museum State Park offers a nature trail, a 1920s home and artifacts depicting Cedar Key's history as a busy port. Cedar Key Historical Museum explores the town’s past through photos, documents and Civil War items.

We went to the Cedar Key Historical Museum. The docent (a local retired physician) was the son of the owner (a local dentist) of Donax, a cleaning brush company that operated from 1910 to 1952 in Cedar Key. The brushes were made from young cabbage palms. This part of the museum is the actual home that the doctor grew up in. The company office was in the front of his home. Another docent led us through the other part of the museum which was a historical building filled with local history artifacts. Very informative and enjoyable.

After the tour we went to Steamers, a local restaurant on the water. Tim had Oysters Rockefeller and Pat had the fried oyster basket. Both delicious.

After our lunch, we headed to the Villages to visit good friends, Bill and Patti. Tim went to North Catholic with Bill. It's the perfect town for 100,000 active retirees. They both enjoy golf and play the game often. There is an array of activities so you can be as active as you want to be. The town is beautiful with lovely manicured town centers and neighborhoods. We visited them last year around the same time. They graciously accepted our call to visit again. We went to St. Mark for the 4:00 Mass. Afterwards we went to a local town square for Happy Hour and a live band. We then went to dinner at Demshar's. We all enjoyed our meals.

March 4th: we headed back to Cedar Key. We started with a late breakfast at Annie's which is a quirky little cottage restaurant on an inlet. Basic breakfast, eggs, home fries, bacon, sausage and biscuit. Yum. The rest of the day was exploring the town ending with a beautiful sunset.

We really enjoyed Cedar Key. It's an old town with unique shops and restaurants. You can enjoy delicious oyster meals since Cedar Key provides over 90% of our oysters.

Great visit.