BAHIA HONDA AND NO NAME PUB

LIFE IN THE FLORIDA KEYS

Our first full day in the Florida Keys was a relaxing, unplanned day of exploring and lounging about. After barely getting out of the northeast winter weather and driving about 100 miles to get to our first stop at the Looe Key Reef Dive Resort, we needed a day like this.

COFFEE

After sleeping in the first order of “business” was coffee and Janet (of course) found the 7 Mile Café & Kava Bar (and Vape Shop) a few miles back on Big Pine Key. As we waited for our extra-strong brews the overly zealous barista with her sky-blue eyes twinkling, her mammoth breasts swaying, her numerous tattoos jiggling, gleefully told us about every aspect of her life, about her children and about how important marijuana was in her life.

7 MILE CAFE  

JANET’S WAY

Now, usually I’m the one who likes to go on meandering drives, but Janet expressed an interest in driving through Middle and Big Torch Key and who was I to refuse. Turning right off Route 1 we entered what we thought was a desolate land. For a long stretch the road was bordered by water or wildlife sanctuary, and then we’d pass a beautiful house. No shacks located on these islands. Then more land, then a few more houses. The road twisted like this for around 10 miles and ending eventually at a guardrail where the pavement was littered with broken glass. It was a nice drive, but we had to consult Dr. Beach

BAHIA HONDA STATE PARK

Sandspur Beach at this state park was once voted the 1992 National Winner by Dr. Beach, Stephen Leatherman, one of the world’s foremost beach experts. The good doctor’s website is a great resource for finding that special beach.

DR BEACH

BAHIA HONDA WITH BRIDGE

Bahia Honda, which means in Spanish “Deep Bay” is situated near the still majestic looking wreckage of the Bahia Honda railroad bridge, part of the Overseas Railroad started by Henry Flagler. The devastating Labor Day Hurricane destroyed much of the train line and the bridge was converted for vehicular traffic before the current road was built.

The more recent Hurricane Irma did a number on Sandspur and Bahia Honda. When I first visited this place 15 years ago, I marveled at the beauty. The sand was pure white, the water crystalline. While snorkeling in the water I saw conch and octopus. It was fascinating. Sadly, today the park was still in a state of repair. Janet really enjoyed the stop though and we walked the grounds, eyed the bridge, sat on the beach at Sandspur for a while before heading to Calusa Beach on the other side.

There is camping, cabins and boat mooring available at Bahia Honda. There’s an entrance fee of $4.50 per person with no “discrimination” towards older folks, i.e. senior citizen discount. 

BAHIA HONDA STATE PARK

YOU FOUND IT

The famous No Name Pub is one of the oldest bars in the Florida Keys. Once a brothel, now a pub, No Name Pub is a bit out of the way near the end of Big Pine Key. Dollar bills, many with notes and doodles have been stapled to the walls over the years. The bills undulate with the capriciousness of air currents inside the pub, looking like a coral reef flowing with the movement of the water.

NO NAME PUB 

Evidently during the 1970’s and 80’s a lot of people got rich smuggling marijuana through the Keys and many of these “nouveau riche’ began hanging some extra bucks on the walls adding something close to $90,000 over the years.

Historic, funky and boasting perhaps the best pizza in the keys, No Name Pub was a great place for lunch, though a little pricey for casual food. I had a Caribbean chicken personal pizza and Janet had a subpar fish and chips. We split a very nice order of conch fritters.

We ended our day back at the Tiki Bar at the Looe Key Reef Dive Resort to have a drink and to listen to a band that played everything from Jimmy Buffett to the Rolling Stones to the Average White Band. The place was packed with patrons. It was taco Tuesday after all.

  

CONCHS KUNAS AND BSD

NEW HORIZONS

Okay, Team VFH is serious now with the traveling. Janet has retired and my work has been thankfully sporadic. Life is good, but our time in this Garden of Eden is measured, and so your humble sojourners are going full monty with the destinations. New horizons are in the works and though we will continue to seek out the jewels amid the mundane, the world is waiting and in 2019 we plan to see a fair amount of what she offers.

HOW ARE WE GONNA PAY FOR THIS?

Truthfully, I don’t know. Hopefully the ghetto stock market (lottery) will help, but if not that whole adage about spending your children’s inheritance is ringing true. (I keep dropping hints that they should call more often…). I realize this may seem to be hedging on vindictive, but truthfully the sea change attitude of enjoying my life now, because the future is unwritten, has been a healthy dose of living for me. Too long for too many years I’ve plowed through work and Saturdays and Sundays were just two more opportunities to earn. I earned and earned, afraid an indeterminate future would not take care of me and my family. 

Now, in hindsight, I realize how we all suffered from my devotion to labor, but the past is gone and I must abide by the tenet taught well by my wife Janet, that life is good, but is fleeting and the Garden of Eden awaits us.

I’LL SIT HERE IN THE DARK

There’s a joke: “How many Jewish Grandmothers does it take to change a lightbulb?” The answer: “Don’t worry, I’ll sit here in the dark.”

Okay, I don’t mean to simply wave off my family. I have struggled mightily with how to atone for my imbalance over the years. I can continue to guilt myself and beat my chest and bawl. I can attempt to guilt my children and become a nuisance and show up on their doorsteps and constantly hover. I can sit in the dark and wait, to no avail.  

Or, behind door number three, there is the road. It’s a big world out there you know, and in the words of Dedalus, a character in my second novel, “The Music Made Me Cry”, “someone’s got to see it.” As they have the right to live their life, so do I.

SPENDING THE INHERITANCE

  

“KEYS” TO SUCCESS

Team VFH has resolved to travel somewhere every couple of months and we’re not talking about trundling over to the mall. In this still young 2019 we have planned three major trips: carousing in Key West, sailing in Croatia, and lounging in the Bahamas.

1) GOD’S WAITING ROOM

In February, Team VFH will call the Florida Keys home for a few weeks. We fly to Miami, rent a car and drive to Looe Key Preservation Center to either dive or snorkel for a few days. Nearby is the incredible Bahia Honda State Park, considered one of the best beaches in the country, and on Big Pine Key, The No Name Pub.

LOOE KEY

 BAHIA HONDA STATE PARK

NO NAME PUB

After a few days we will stay in the Conch Republic, Key West and enjoy the revelry down there for a week. We've both been there before and though we're not sure what will greet us on this wacky island, I'm sure there will plenty for us to squint at.

One side trip I had always wanted to go on was to the Dry Tortugas National Park a 70 mile ferry ride out into the Gulf of Mexico, to see Fort Jefferson. DRY TORTUGAS

 

FORT JEFFERSON

We’ll be in the Key West area for about a week. On our return we will stay a few days in Marathon key.

2) BUCKET LISTS AND DEAR FRIENDS

A long time ago in a galaxy far far way I worked the Sarajevo Winter Olympics for ABC and since then I have often wished to return. I still have dear friends there and I suffered greatly when the former Yugoslavia was wracked with extreme violence when the republic broke apart after Communism fell. Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, was crippled by the longest siege in history. When I visited Sarajevo, I was impressed by the myriad of peoples living cohesively. Sarajevo was renown for all the Muslims, Catholics and Jews living together in peace. The war changed all that. One fellow I worked with at the IBC (International Broadcast Center) fled Bosnia before the siege and settled his family in Zagreb, Croatia. Over the years we've kept in touch through social media and last summer he invited us out to visit. We’ll be out there in July.

 GEMS OF THE ADRIATIC

DALMATION ISLANDS, CROATIA

We will fly in and out of Dubrovnik and stay with Mr. Z and his clan in his villa in Trpanj, but before that Janet and I are sailing through the Dalmation islands for 7 days. We depart from Dubrovnik and visit islands like Korcula, where it is said Marco Polo was born, and Hvar. The trip ends in Split. We explore that area for a day or two before taking a ferry back to Trpanj. We won’t be traveling in-land to see Sarajevo, but I’ll bet my bottom Kuna there’ll be a lot of hugs and much pivo swilling. I have always wanted to sail through these beautiful islands and so here we go!

CROATIAN BEER

 

CROATIAN KUNA

IT'S BETTER IN THE BAHAMAS

We enjoyed our honeymoon at the Antigua Sandals enough to give this adults-only, couples-only, all-inclusive luxury resort company another swing. This time we’re off to their Royal Bahamian resort in Nassau in late November of this year. We were able to save a couple of BSDs (Bahamian Dollars) because we booked the trip very early, almost upon our return last month. 

SANDALS ROYAL BAHAMIAN

BAHAMAS DOLLAR

                                             

It may seem a bit anti-climactic to be lounging about instead of exploring new horizons, but this particular resort boasts their own private island to go along with the pampering that Sandals offers.

Thanks for reading. Keep checking back for updates on these and other trips that crop up.

Oh I realize I've mentioned my book in a shameless plug earlier. Here's where you can buy it:  THE MUSIC MADE ME CRY by Greg Dunaj