Squid picker upper

That was my job yesterday, out on the boat. I had managed to steer clear of any fish touching until then, but once it was a necessity (no one else had a free hand to bring Dave a piece of bait) then I was caught - then they knew I could (would) do it. But I drew the line there – NO cutting any squid up, no putting it on a hook, or touching the fish they caught.

Dave and Neil fished both days that Jace and I were in Orlando, so they were ready for some “fun” fishing on Wednesday and Thursday; we all slept in both mornings until 9ish, and then went out in the boat for 3-4 hours. Wednesday we went out about 2-3 miles off shore, to do some shark fishing. It involved a lot of “chumming”… I’ll forgo the details, but basically it involved cutting up fish and putting them in the water behind the boat, to attract the sharks.

The chum did its job, and within an hour Neil had hooked a shark! Then a little while later, Jace reeled one in, too:





The sharks they caught, the 3-foot Atlantic Sharpnose Shark, are one of three species found off the coast of southwest Florida. They weren't huge, but definitely were sharks, with plenty of teeth.

Dave did have one pole set with a hook and bait for a larger shark, an 8-10 foot species; he did get a bite on that line, and it must have been a pretty big one, because it broke the line and took off. I think we were all fine with that, because Dave didn't have the gear to handle one that big. He did have the necessary equipment to unhook the sharks they caught, and then they threw them back, after I took several pictures.


On Thursday's fishing outing, Dave caught this King Mackeral; as he was reeling it in, the mackeral was putting up quite a fight, and leaping out of the water. It was a good four-plus feet long- I put my size 8 flip flop down by it to give an idea of the size. It had some teeth too, but Dave managed to unhook it and throw it back.

Today we drove about an hour and a half south, to the Everglades, and took an airboat tour:

A little windblown!

We saw several alligators, and learned a lot of interesting facts from our guide; alligators eat "real" meals usually only once a month. But many of these are also used to the tours, and are enticed by the guides' treat of... marshmallows, believe it or not! It was very interesting - they only eat what is on the surface of the water, so the guide would throw a rock, and get no response from the gator, since the rock sank as soon as it hit the water. But the marshmallows floated, and the gators headed for them every time.

Tonight we're packing, we'll leave for St. Pete/Clearwater about 8AM. Jace is taking back a bag of sand dollars and shells he's collected over the past few days, and a dried coconut that he found under a neighbor's tree a couple yards down.

Dave and I agreed that this has been our favorite vacation - we missed having Paige with us, that's the only thing that would've made it even better than it was. I think the boys had an awesome time, it was wonderful spending a week at the beach with them, some great experiences and memories.

Orlando

Jace and I headed to Orlando on Monday and Tuesday, and checked out Universal Studios and Sea World. I really struggled with the choice of what we should do, since "going to Disney World" is what every kid hears about... but since Jace is almost 12, I didn't know if he would really like the younger parts of Disney. After talking to several people in the weeks before the trip, we settled on Universal Studios, which is a movie/TV theme park located in Orlando, and we definitely weren't disappointed.
It was an awesome time, but geez - so hot! The temps have been at 97-99 degrees this entire week, which is not typical for June, according to many people who live here. Sea World was really neat, but I thought they would have more water rides - only one! We drank a lot of water both days, and just tried to keep cool - at least the roller coaster rides helped to cool us off.

One of the shows we saw was on horror movie special effects; computers have definitely changed the industry so much in the past twenty years, but current movie monsters are a still mix between old and new technology. They also demonstrated how to cut someone's arm off (a hesitant audience member was the volunteer) and several other cool things.


The Simpsons ride was our favorite at Universal Studios - it was a simulation ride; we were in a "roller coaster car", four people in two rows, with sides put down, and then all the action took place on the screen that was all around us - like IMAX on steroids. Jace rode it three times; I could only handle two, had to sit out the third time.

Sea World was very cool, although I told Dave afterwards that the actual aquariums/exhibits were neat but I really thought that the New England Aquarium in Boston was better; would love to take Jace there sometime, it was one of my favorite places to visit. But the sealion show was great, they are so entertaining! And we rode Kraken, the "longest and fastest coaster in all of Orlando"... whew!

Shark exhibit at Sea World

Petting the manta rays

Sea Lion show

Jace had a great time, and I was glad we were able to visit - it was my first time to any of the parks as well- there were enough kids in my family that vacations were a very budgeted luxury, and Disney or the like were understandably out of the question, we'd have spent a fortune! This will probably be a one time experience for Jace, and I'm glad he got to do it - especially the special effects, the movie sets, etc. But as far as the rides, I think he'll be just fine to enjoy the coasters etc at Six Flags and Silver Dollar City, which are a little more affordable and closer to home.

Our next day was back in Fort Myers, out on the boat - some shark fishing! More on that soon.

Island Hopping

Our morning started semi-early today, about 7am; I drove Dave and the boys over to Cape Coral to get the fishing boat we had rented for the next few days. Then they boated back over to our rental house, which is located a canal on the back side of Fort Myers Beach. As I waited for them, I fixed some breakfast, packed up some necessities for the day, and then we headed out. The boat is a center console fishing boat, which is a very common boat down here on the ocean, but not so much back home on Tablerock. It is outfitted with multiple fishing pole holders (for lack of a better term), and has some seating, but is really a serious fishing boat. We saw many similar boats out on the ocean today, some rigged out with eight and nine poles and all of the other bells and whistles.

Yesterday we had a quiet first full day here, did a little swimming at the beach, and then walked around and looked in some of the shops on the boardwalk. Our plans for today were to take the boat out to several islands, including a couple that are only reachable by water. I was a little worried, because I have been out on the ocean in a fishing boat one other time, and kept getting seasick every time the boat would stop. But that was in Hawaii, many years ago, and the Gulf is much calmer; I did just fine today.

The weather in southwest Florida has been unseasonably warm for early June, with highs in the mid-to-upper 90s for the past week. It was wonderful to be out on the water, definitely didn't feel the heat and sun, as we zipped around on the water. It was deceiving, how much sun we were getting; even though we applied and reapplied sunscreen, my back is red tonight.

Our first leg of today's trip took about an hour, at a pretty good clip. The houses were huge, some three and even four story homes as we boated northeast up the coast, past Sanibel and Captiva Island; we stopped and dropped anchor on North Captiva island, which is one of the islands only reachable by water. There were some amazing homes there as well, mostly located at the ends of the island; looked like several of the inhabitants traveled there by their sea planes or big cruisers. We stopped at a pretty quiet spot in the middle, not near any homes; seemed to be a popular spot for boaters, with fishing boats and cruisers moored up and down the shore. Jace and Neil put scuba masks on and looked for shells, and when Neil tired of that, he and Dave broke out the football for a little catch. I just enjoyed the water, remembered to bring some noodles to float on today after not having them at the beach yesterday.

After we piled back into the boat, we headed further north to Cabbage Key. The restaurant on Cabbage Key is famous for its cheeseburgers; it is said that Jimmy Buffett's "Cheeseburger in Paradise" was written about this place, and I don't doubt it! The island was purchased by Alan and Gratia Rinehart for $2,500 in 1929, and they then spent over $125,000 developing the resort and amenities that are still there today.



It has been operated by three couples since then, and the present owners have lived on and maintained the resort for the past 30 years. We arrived after the lunch rush, so didn't have to wait to be seated; the restaurant was simple but full of character, with two fireplaces, a bar, and lots of photos of famous visitors. One of the traditions at Cabbage Key is to commemorate your visit by taping a dollar bill to the wall. You can see them hanging from the ceiling in the picture below:

It is estimated that the running total of dollar bills affixed to the walls is at about $70,000, and we added our dollars before we left today.

After lunch we headed back on the intercoastal route, between the islands and the mainland. Dave stopped at a quiet inlet to let Neil try out his casting skills, to catch some bait fish for them to use when they go deep sea fishing tomorrow. Neil had been practicing at home with the net, in the yard, after watching the how-to video on YouTube.

He got the hang of it after a couple of tries, and did net a few fish, although he admitted it was a lot harder to cast it and keep his balance on the front deck of the boat than it was when he practiced in the front yard. As he was casting, we started seeing lightning in the distance and clouds moving closer. We headed back towards Ft. Myers Beach, and I fully expected we would be caught in a torrent of rain, looking at the clouds:

We made it back with just a few sprinkles, and it apparently didn't even rain at our house. Tonight we're preparing for busy days tomorrow - Jace and I are leaving to go to Universal Studios in Orlando, and Dave/Neil are heading out for a full day of fishing. We'll all be leaving the house at 6am, so tonight will be busy with packing before getting a good night's sleep.

Whew, back to the grind, a five day work week - first one I've worked in several weeks! I've been working on this post for a couple of days, and just haven't had the time to get everything in here... And I have to get all the pics in here, for certain... that's the bloggity-blog feedback I heard from sis Annie, who vacationed with us in sunny Florida. She informed me that she would read my blog more often if I had more PICTURES, like our brother, Rob, does! Well, Annie, here it is, complete with a few pictures of you, so hope you enjoy!

We're home from spending four days in Florida, and brrrrr, with this freezing 2 degree weather here, we're ready to go back! Unfortunately, the weather in Florida was cooler than normal, but not near as cold as it was here in MO. The temps were in the 50s for most of our visit, and here's one of the main reasons why we were in beautiful, sunny Destin:

Dave, Neil and my BIL Matt had a great time fishing, even with the cold weather. What kind of fish is this, you ask? I'm not sure... apparently they caught some sheepshead, red fish, speckled trout, and also some bait fish (little guys that are then used to catch the BIG guys!) And Ann and I had to go to the harbor midday Saturday to meet them with some bait (a bag of sand fleas -blech!!) that they forgot in the freezer at the condo.

In addition to the fishing, there was a little of this:

I said a "little" of this, because you will notice that only one of us was in the water; it isn't surprising that an 11-year-old had no qualms when it came to the cold water, while the rest of us sensible (and boring) grownups only got wet up to our ankles! These were taken on our first full day there, when the weather was sunny and mid to upper 60s. Jace met some other kids from Indiana and had a great time in the surf.

We made it to the beach all three days we were there, and although it was too chilly to swim, it was still beautiful!

We had a quiet New Year's Eve; we all went to eat at a local restaurant, and then the five of us ended the evening at home, while Ann and Matt stayed and listened to a band and rang in the New Year. We enjoyed the rest of our meals in the condo, which was beautiful and roomy, with our own private hot tub on the roof.

It was a great time, and I was so glad that Paige and Neil could both go with us, despite their busy schedules. We will only have Paige at home for another couple of weeks and then she starts her second semester at Jewell. It was wonderful to have Ann and Matt join us; I thought it would be fairly close for them, but it was still an 8 hour drive from Charlotte NC, but I think they were glad they made the trip too.

Jace (not surprisingly) said the ocean was the best part of the trip, and he can't wait until we go again. Hopefully we will go again this summer, when it is much warmer!