Nice! We woke up to a day of 24C. It was cloudy to start but then it broke into sun. The wind was gusting out to sea though… small boat warning in effect that put paid to any plans for kayaking.

We went exploring Marathon this morning. I needed a haircut and even more so, a manicure. Broke my thumbnail on the shower door back in Orlando and I need to get them sorted. Fi wanted a pedi. I do too but there have to be compromises.. Stuart wanted to get a dive in before we get to the Caribbean and one of us would definitely go too…..

anyway.. we went off looking for likely venues for all these activities from our internet trawl of options. We went to quite a few dive shops but most had cancelled out this week because of the winds. The dive sites around here (as opposed to further north or south) are pretty shallow and any wind turns them into a churning washing machine. No thanks. We will try again later in the week as the forecast develops but it looks unlikely we will dive here.

We found a nail bar and a hairdressers after a few duds. I went into one, which was very highly reviewed, and was met by a “man” on reception who was the rudest personal services individual I have encountered in 40 odd years. That accolade goes to a wig fitter in a theatrical wig shop in London who was fitting me for a wig for a play. He was apparently astounded by the size of my skull and waxed lyrical and endlessly on the subject at the top of his voice….. I crept off at the end… utterly humiliated…. said enormous skull hanging low all the way home….. This guy today was a similar individual, who was astounded at my utter audaity in trying to make a hair or nail appointment THIS WEEK. Didn’t I know it was high season???? Didn’t I know that they would be fully booked until Tax Day (I have no idea when that is). No. Poor old stupid foreign me had no idea they would be so overwhelmed with customers…./ This is despite the fact that I went in at 1015 and the place was totally empty except for his High Fatness and another skulking operative… Sorry, rant over. I left his court and luckily found both a better nail bar and a wonderful hairdresser who was glad to accomodate me late this afternoon.

We came back and had a quick lunch and then went out to explore the beaches nearby: Sombrero beach first – amazing white sand, beautiful blue (cold) water, nice facilities and also Sunset Park Beach – smaller, nice water and saind. We walked all along the water’s edge, paddling. There were pelicans in the water.

Got back to the apartment about 330 and then Fi and Stuart went to walk across part of the 7 mile bridge and Bob and I chillaxed at home. When they got back, Stuart and I went off for our haircuts, Bob went to Publix supermarket and got dinner for tonight. On the way back we checked out the location for our covid tests on Thursday.

Tonight we had rotisserie chickens for dinner with mac and cheese and washed down with white wine. We picked out sundowner and dinner restaurants for tomorrow in Key West.