Author: ginnyinshanghai

We stayed at Disney’s Sequoia Lodge, our second time.  It’s modeled after the great lodges in the West and the landscaping complements that.

Rooms are pretty typical of Disney, lots of theming.

Our last visit, friends had up-graded us to the Golden Forest Level – and spoiled us.  This time we paid for that privilege.

It’s mostly used at breakfast having available a variety of foods:

>scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, sliced potatoes, baked beans (for the Brits), pastries, cheeses, meats, yogurt, cereal – you get the picture.

Friday’s plans we both had people to meet and we split up.  Eric was to meet their Horticulture team and present the soon-to-be-retired Director with a topiary ‘Mouse-car’  from the Horticulture Department at WDW and also talk about some WDW horticulture practices – he gets to count this as a work day – go figure.

I am meeting up with a lady I met during my time in Shanghai, Christine, a Custodial Proprietor.  Our bus ride back to our apartments was 45 minutes and we shared task force stories (and frustrations) during that time.  She visited WDW earlier this year, but we were out-of-town during that weekend.  I asked Christine for a back-stage tour of both Parks and she spent 4 hours showing us around and sharing comparisons between all the Parks she has visited.

While Halloween isn’t such a big deal over here, they decorate one of their lands.  They had some weird statues as part of their decor.

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We had lunch together before she had to go back to work.  She’s planning on coming back to WDW within the next 12 months, so hopefully we will be able to get together.  We ate at ‘Annette’s Diner’ in the Disney Village area –  typical American food with burgers, hot dogs, fries and shakes.  The hostess escorting your group to your table wore roller skates.

Our previous visit we saw numerous plastic topiaries but they have definitely improved their horticulture standards within the last 2 years.  We saw numerous live topiaries and this Mickey was in the Disney Village.

Before Eric left the Horticulture Director, Luc took him to a Dutch Garden that was a combined effort with the Dutch government and Disneyland Paris.  It was pretty impressive and Eric took me back there later in the day.

This was in front of Disney’s Newport Bay Hotel and part of the garden was a meadow.

If you don’t like pictures of flowers, skip to the end.  This is the result of two people interested in Horticulture around the world. 🙂  I showed some restraint, I could have put in 3 times the amount of photos.

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This was a good way to start our trip.  It gave us a chance to get over (most) of the jet lag, meet up with friends and run a (short) race.  It was also nice to visit during a special year (25th) for one of the Disney parks world-wide.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Made it.  I didn’t doubt that I could finish just wasn’t sure how long it would take me.  And actually, I didn’t end up timing myself since most participants were taking photos with characters and standing in line for a very long (in my opinion) time so I decided not to bother. DLP is celebrating their 25th park anniversary so ’25’ could be found most everywhere.

I was in Corral C since I signed up so late.  The good thing was the start line was right in front of my hotel (Sequoia Lodge).  The bad thing was my corral was almost a 1/2 mile away on the other side of a man-made lake in front of a different hotel,  Disney’s Newport Bay.  They did have several boats on the water to get people excited and warmed up as we waited and waited and waited and waited.

These photos are taken with plenty of light.  By the time I started, the sun had gone down.  For a point of reference, I’m to the right of the hotel you see in the background and the start line can’t be seen.

Okay, so this is my first Disney race and the first one with this many runners.  I felt like a sardine.

The race started at 8pm, and at 845pm I was barely 2/3 closer to the start line than when I started and twice that many was behind me – yikes.  Eric and a couple of friends were at the start line to see me off, then they went for a beer.

Most of the run was in Disney Hollywood Studios, some on-stage and some back-stage.  The lines for each of the markers was so long, I just went for a photo of the number.  I’d still be waiting if I wanted to be in the photo with the marker.  Sent Eric a message saying that I was at MM2 – thinking that it was mile marker 2.  Oops, forgot I was in Europe and the marker was kilometers.  My first clue was ‘Wow, that was fast and I don’t feel anything’.  Hmmm, wait that’s not right.  Aarrgghh  kilometers not miles.

It got a little long between the 3 and 4 kilometer markers.  Most of that was back-stage and they didn’t have their overhead lighting right.  Some runners were using the ‘flashlight’ option on their smart-phones to ensure they didn’t fall or trip.  Obviously I made it all the way through to the end of the 5 kilometers – no marker though.  I got my medal, took a selfie and headed out to find Eric and friends.  The finish line was inside the park and you had to purchase a special (extra) ticket to be there, so we didn’t.

 

Eric saw me before I found them.  We all went back to our hotel bar for a drink.  I just needed one (and didn’t finish it) before I started crashing and went upstairs to sleep.

 

 

Wow. It’s been just about a full day since we’ve been up and running halfway around the globe. Trying something new for me-writing this all on my phone, not my laptop, so I get a pass this first time around.

Meeting the friend I worked with in Shanghai that works at Disneyland in CA. After connecting at the airport, we purchased our train tickets and 10 minutes later we were at the park.

First on the agenda was lunch in their Downtown Disney area…….at King Ludwigs Castle.

I ordered a delicious tart and Eric got sausages

Had to to take a few photos in front of the park……

And of course the floral Mickey.  Guests enter the park by walking through the Disneyland Hotel.

The park is celebrating their 25th anniversary and had some interesting displays.  

Yes, those are live (succulent) plants that have been spray painted with metallic paint.

After getting our tickets and maps we walked both of the parks.

Had to take a photo in front of the castle.

And also ride the Remy ride which is coming to Epcot

By now we’re starting to crash and met in the hotel bar for drinks and snacks before calling it a day.

This post is short and sweet.  Hoping everything works when I hit ‘publish’ on my phone.  More later after  I get some sleep.

au revoir

Ginny

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bags packed – check

Passports packed – check

Laptop, phones and assorted chargers – check

We’re ready to go!  This has been almost a year in the planning and finally the day has come.  We both worked the day before – me later than Eric – but he had to mow the yard (front and back) before we left.  He waited pretty much  until the last possible moment so the grass had minimal time to grow before we got back.  We started the relaxation process the night before at Chilis.  The black cherry Margarita was a great way to start the trip.

We’re driving to Miami for our flight since it goes straight through to Charles DeGaul Airport.  That was Eric’s main selling point to me.  It worked at the time,  not sure how I will feel about that at the end of our trip, but we’ll see.

The plan was to leave 8 am (ish) which undoubtedly leaves us plenty of time to check-in for our 7:30pm departure.  We picked up a rental at Car Care yesterday and taking that to the airport.  We’ve got the luggage thing down pat.  We each have 1 bag and a carry-on.  Technically, our bags are of a size that we could carry-on, but neither of us wants the hassle of schlepping around more stuff at the airport.

Yes, that’s right, 7:30 pm.  It’s typically a 4 hour drive to the airport.  We weren’t sure if all of the Hurricane Irma ‘evacuees’ returning would have an impact on the roads (it didn’t) and of course, we wanted to check in early since we’re unfamiliar with the Miami International Airport.  So we dropped off the rental, caught the shuttle to the airport and found the AirFrance gate……..it was closed.  Signage indicates it opens at 3:30pm – 2 hours from this point.

What to do………grab some food, then get a manicure!  There are a few spa places in the airport and we definitely had the available time.  Thirty minutes later, pink nails.

We thought with our Global Entry Card, we would be able to skip the Security line that requires you to remove your shoes and stuff.  It should have……..but did not today.  😦   No matter, it’s not like we’re on a tight schedule yet.

The credit card used for our flights allow us to enjoy a VIP lounge at the airport – nice.  We can charge our phones/devices in peace, snack on goodies and enjoy free drinks.

It was crowded and noisy in the beginning, but by the time our flight drew near, more than half of the people left.

Finished our time in the lounge with sweets (for  me) and a drink (for Eric).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So this was our initial preparation for Hurricane Irma at home.  We had a company come out several months ago and prune our trees away from the house, and yes, they even pruned the tree you see in the photo above.  But a sweet gum is not known for being a strong tree.  Once it seemed that Florida was not going to dodge this storm, Eric gave a lot of thought to taking this tree down and ultimately-as you can see-it was cut.  He and a friend got out their chain saws and started chipping away at the base.  They used our red truck to encourage the tree to fall away from the house (and the neighbor’s fence) and voila, the tree is no longer a threat to our house and the Florida room.

In 2004 the windows on the east side of the house leaked due to the wind & rain direction, so Eric added an extra layer of protection.

After that, it was hurry up and wait.  Moving the potted plants, bringing in outdoor furniture and laying down anything outside that could become a projectile meant we were ready for the storm to hit.

We had purchased water, drinks and ice earlier in the week, preparing before things became scarce – which it did.

Eric had cleaned out the chest freezer within the last several weeks,  so it had plenty of room for ice.

We pretty much assumed that our DirecTV service would stop since a good thunderstorm knocks out the service already.  But, who would guess………..we never lost the signal the entire time of the storm.  Hmmm, what does that mean.  DirecTV can control the strength of their signal, when they choose to?

We settled down to watch the storm approach, switching between The Weather Channel and local TV stations.  We started getting some storm bands after 9pm.

And by midnight, the center had jogged to the right and was going right up the center of the state.

One of Eric’s peers was in the hurricane command center on property and they continued to text throughout most of the night.  He said a particularly bad cell was coming after 2am and he told his wife (in Clermont) to take cover in their closet.

We all headed to our Jack & Jill bathroom for the next 1 1/2 hours until the majority of the bad weather had passed.  Once in a while we peeked out the windows to see the rain going sideways and listen to the howling wind.

We saw something interesting on the garage door.  One of our plants we brought inside the garage had a chrysalis on it and a monarch butterfly came out.  Being inside our garage definitely expanded its life since it was protected from the hurricane force winds.

By Monday, the storm had left Florida and was hitting other states in the Southeast.

After a few hours of fitful sleep, we were able to go outside and see the damage.

Broken limbs in the loquat tree:

Jasmine vine came off the trellis:

And that noise we kept hearing from the roof…………………missing shingles.

All over the ground……..

That tree he cut down last Friday, piece by piece, it will get to the curb.

 

 

 

 

 

So there’s a lot of prep work in the Parks before a hurricane arrives, and obviously a lot of planning.  My team has been cleaning up the backstage areas all week, then just keeping them clear when others dropped things off.  😦

 

 

We stayed open until 9pm on Saturday and had a ‘soft’ close.  Actually, there were few guests in the park so that was an easy task to accomplish.  Everyone assumed that guests would want one last day of freedom before hunkering down in their hotels, but not so much.  Last year guests were unhappy due to limited food items in the resorts, so my team had extra carts displaying consumables for guests to purchase – most did not.  The Guests I talked with had bought food before arriving and purchased extra activities & toys for their kids to do if they were cooped up in their hotel room.

Since the majority of my team was together for last year’s Hurricane Matthew, this storm was much easier to prepare for.  It was hurry up and wait………which gave me time to walk the Park during my lunch.  Interesting.

Lamps were secured before the winds came:

F&W Merchandise kiosks were stripped and the sides rolled up by Saturday.

Tables and umbrellas were ready for tropical storm and hurricane force wind gusts.

While some of the smaller kiosks/carts were closed early.

BTW – all photos were taken while the park was open.

One of the coolest things I saw, was the utility trucks being staged.  I had heard that quite a few were staying on property since we were centrally located, but it looked like they were being dispatched from our parking lot.

Next post will be our plans at home…………and riding out the storm.

 

 

We headed over Monday morning to Crystal River, launching the boat at Pete’s Pier.  The boat ramp definitely looks a lot different than last week, mostly because schools have started AND we are going on a weekday.

Since Eric drove, he backed the boat down the ramp before I took over and he got on the boat and got it off the trailer.

Hmmmmm, seems like he’s taking up both lanes of the ramp – just saying.

The tides seem perfect for fishing in the morning and scalloping early afternoon.  The tide should start coming in around 9am with high tide being at 2pm.  It definitely was low as seen at this slow motor zone.  It would have been tricky to get a kayak up some of the creeks.

Of course it was much different when we returned – high tide.  I didn’t get the photo at the exact same spot, but close.

There is a new bait boat at the last slow zone before heading out the channel.  This one seems to have some permanence since they have a holding tank on the shore.

I can’t believe the FWC allows it – maybe they haven’t seen it just yet. Ha!

The morning was busy catching Jack Crevalle fish – lots and lots.  They’re fun to catch since they pull hard, pull out the drag and are a good fight…………………but not really good eating.  Eric kept one during our fishing trip in June and cooked it – not something that needs to be repeated.  It was edible, but not really ‘eat-able’.  Why waste the energy and the calories.  I stopped counting the Jacks that I caught, once I got up to 10.  Eric caught a fairly big one and it was a photo moment.

My first keeper fish was a Mack.  (The photographer doesn’t generally get in the action shots.)

My next keeper was a nice 21″ Redfish.

Surprisingly Eric caught a sheepshead, but it was returned to the water to grow up.  Within a few years he should be eating size.  We have never caught one of those in this area.

Eric’s face lit up when he brought in this next fish……………………

………..a flounder.  They are one of my favorite fish to eat.  I’ve gotten lucky in the past and caught several, but not for some time.  This one was almost 17″ long.  Interesting thing about flounder.  Since they generally settle on the bottom in the sand, camouflaging themselves, their eyes migrate so both are on the same side.  You can see their eyes on the left of the photo below.

All in all, we had a productive fishing day.  Eric caught several snapper, but after catching the macks, redfish and flounder, they seemed kind of puny.  We kept them since they are good eating.

This tale wouldn’t be complete without some food photos.  Monday night we made sushi with our freshly caught fish.

He used the fresh snapper, mack and flounder in the bowl.  No need to repeat the flounder sushi – it was tough and chewy.

Tuesday night we had blackened redfish, dirty rice and creole cole slaw.

He made enough for leftovers to take for work the following day.  He still needs to smoke the remainder of the mack so we can have smoked fish dip.  The remaining filets were vacuum-packed and put in the freezer.

This is one Christmas gift that has been used a lot and very handy – thanks Anna & Lance.

We (Eric) had planned to go scalloping after fishing, but it was too darn hot.  Even though we were on the water, the breeze dropped and the afternoon turned into typical, muggy Florida.  We headed back home for an early day.

Oh, by the way………………..I only took up 1 lane of the boat ramp when I backed the trailer into the water- just saying  🙂

 

So the following day after this was posted, I remembered an event that happened on the road…we got stopped by a state trooper.

Eric is always very respectful and the trooper let us off with a warning – this time.  We need to correct 3 things:  (1)  Fix the trailer license plate so that it can be seen when driving down the road.  Currently the wind causes the plate to be aerodynamic and flies with the wind as we are driving.  (2) Purchase safety items (flares or triangles) in case we stop by the side of the road for any reason, alerting others of our location.  He said the length of our boat required this item.  (3) Get a strap to secure the boat to the trailer, don’t rely upon the weight of the boat to keep it stable.  All good suggestions – I guess not really a suggestion since he wrote that on the warning ticket.  Before we left Crystal River to drive home, we stopped at West Marine to get a boat strap.  Definitely by the next time we take the boat to the water, we will have all items fixed.

 

It all starts at the boat ramp.  You never know what you will find once you pull up to launch the boat……………..

Rich and the boys came over for the weekend to go scalloping.  Since it was kind of last minute, we couldn’t find an acceptable hotel room (on the water).  This meant getting up fairly early – especially for high school teenagers – to drive the  1 1/2 hour journey to Pete’s Pier both days AND hopefully find nearby parking.

Luckily for us, there were morning showers and it seemed to have pushed back some of the boaters.  We only had a short wait at the ramp, but after we were heading out, there were 5 boats in line.  Eric was able to find a parking spot in Pete’s parking lot, but boy does it need some work.  The trailer almost got hung up in the potholes!

Rain was around us, but no thunderstorms.  On Sunday, we had to go through a rain shower as we were heading out the channel.   It wasn’t pleasant.  Connor and I huddled under a beach towel to keep the rain from pelting us since we were in the front of the boat.

The boat traffic was wasn’t bad, we have seen a lot worse.  Sunday had less boaters than Saturday.

After exiting the Crystal River channel, we headed south and searched for a cluster of boats – usually a sign that scallops are prevalent.  After a few scouting forays in the water, they found an acceptable spot.

Here’s what they are looking for.  The shells are usually 2-3″ in length and the actual scallop is about the diameter of my thumb.

Since Eric’s had the lasik eye surgery, we joke about his ‘bionic’ eyes.  He does seem to find a lot of the little buggers along the bottom in the sea grass.

Upon anchoring, a dive flag is needed to let other boaters know people are in the water.

Throwing out the anchor is not something I love, mostly because I’m not very good at it.  It was nice giving up that duty to someone else.  Rich or Connor took over this responsibility on the trip.

Eric did really well.  Each time he came back to the boat, he had a healthy amount of scallops in his mesh bag.

 

Here’s a bag of scallops that Eric gathered on Sunday.

Both of the boys got into the water, but Connor spent a good amount time on Sunday finding the scallops.

 

Rich also was successful at finding the bi-valves.

There was some down time while on the boat.

At the end of each day, we had a live well of scallops to share.  Between the two days, we probably ended up with 5 gallons unshelled.

Saturday night’s dinner started with two appetizers. First was a raw scallop with a bit of soy sauce, crunchy cabbage and a drop of hot sauce.

And who can resist broiled scallops with cheese and bacon.

We did a little fishing after scalloping both days, but only caught a few silver trout and one sea trout before heading back to the ramp on Sunday.

We always need a selfie before the end of the trip.  🙂  We may not look our very best, but after being on the water……………..who cares.

Yep, that’s right.  Not a single photo of me with a snorkel.  Had a bad experience back in the 1980s during a snorkeling trip in the Keys and putting on a mask brings back that time.

Funniest story on the trip…………………..

The guys always miscounted the number of scallops in their mesh bag, usually having more than they expected.  The scallops were then counted as they dropped into the live well.  On Connor’s last snorkel, he gathered 13 scallops.  Eric had one.  Connor asked if Eric had any trouble counting!

I saw this sign as Rich was waiting to back the trailer down the ramp.  While it specifically calls out airboats, the code of ethics applies to all.  Too bad that most boaters have probably never seen this let alone read it.

Glad we were ale to get in a weekend of scalloping. This is uniquely Florida.  And, it’s always more fun with friends & family.

Eric and I haven’t been here in a while, especially together.  I went at the beginning of the boys spring break this year, but haven’t returned since then.  😦  It was time for a road trip.  Driving up after work on Saturday, we arrived in time for dinner together.  Pizza from a nearby restaurant was picked up and devoured by the group.

Before it got too dark, Rich suggested a quick trip to the beach and Connor & I jumped into their vehicle for the ride.  Wow – there were lots of people.  Of course, what else would you expect at the beach in the summer………..but the last time I visited their beach, it was on Christmas day – a cool, chilly Christmas day.

We were able to get a photo with the moon just starting to rise.  Their beach was hit hard with Hurricane Matthew and the city is adding back sand to keep the tourism going and the locals coming back to their beach.  It’s nice, but it feels and looks different.  Right now there aren’t many shells mixed in with the sand as seen in years past.

Typical first evening is the guys are outside talking and sipping bourbon, while Karen and I are inside sitting on their couches catching up on the latest events.  Not tonight.  The guys said they were getting eaten up bugs so they joined us inside.   Hhhhhhhhmmmmmmm.  It just wasn’t the same.

Plans on Sunday were for the guys to go shooting and we were going to work on jewelry.  Since we’re only there for the weekend, I didn’t have any clear plans for making jewelry unlike on some of my other trips.   I snagged a necklace from home I made several years ago that needed to be re-imagined.  I tried to wear it recently and the strands were all tangled up.  By the way………putting it in a baggie for the trip didn’t help the tangles.  Karen was insistent that she could get it straightened out.  After 45+ minutes, she finally agreed – at my urging, not because she gave up – to cut some of the strands.  I didn’t have a vision of what changes I wanted, but going to Michaels was always on the horizon.  It was a given (on my part at least) that we would go out for lunch during our Michaels run.

I wanted to go back to the biscuit restaurant she took us to during my last visit.  Pulling into the parking area, it was pretty obvious that we were the only ones at the place – it wasn’t open on Sunday.  After driving through the adjoining area looking for somewhere else to eat, I saw a fast-food place called PDQ.  The only thing I knew was that it specialized in chicken tenders.  While this was a definite step down from our original goal, it was close in proximity to our location.  I enjoyed my meal, Karen was ambivalent.  I loved the options for dipping sauces, ordering 3 out of the 11 (made from scratch everyday!) choices:  chipotle BBQ, sweet sriracha and ranch.

The French fries were the weakest part of the meal, just ho-hum.  One point in the restaurant’s favor was the free-style Coke machines where you can customize your soft drink to your own liking.  After a semi-productive stop at Michaels and drive-thru  McDonalds run for Hunter, we were back at their place.

Meanwhile, the guys had gone to shoot clays.  After that they shot one round of trap where they all did comparable.  They also shot a round of sporting clays in the nearby woods where Rich dominated.  Like his brother, Connor is also an excellent shot and did well today.  Driving the golf cart at the range was a definite bonus for Connor.

Before coming home they had lunch at the ‘Schnitzel House’.  Connor ordered chicken schnitzel and spatzle.  Rich ordered veal schnitzel while Eric ordered pork schnitzel – both of theirs covered with hunter gravy.  The gravy only being mentioned because of the next sentence.  Connor declared that the veal schnitzel was the best after eating his meal and portions of theirs. Gravy isn’t something that I would normally associate when thinking of Connor’s eating habits.

Eric and Rich met up with another friend of theirs after dropping Connor off at home and passed what remained of the afternoon drinking a few brews.

The guys did the cooking for that night’s meal, even involving Connor.  🙂  He was in charge of the cubic fries.  Eric gave him direction for cutting the potatoes and also imparted some ‘scientific’ info concerning potatoes and their starch content and how it affects the finished product.  So okay, understanding about the starch in potatoes is not really important but I could over hear them from the living room and being a food snob (Eric and possibly me)  this technical issue does affect the finished product.

The result was a much-anticipated part of the meal.

Rich was the fry-master and had the oil and fish outside on their back porch.

Which is the same place that Eric cooked the blackened redfish.

The cooking team stopped for a photo when everything was done.

It was a delicious meal and the group let me get a selfie before digging in.

We ended the night watching a movie that Eric had been talking about for a while, ‘The Big Lebowski’.  Do not, I repeat do not go out and buy the movie.  It has a following, mostly male and is definitely under-appreciated by the female population.  If you must, look it up on the internet, but don’t invest any $$$ with a purchase.

I saw it while I was in Shanghai, for a friend’s birthday and she was also unimpressed by the movie.  Just saying!

Breakfast on Monday was an individual affair and after eating some sausage balls that Karen cooked for Connor (his favorite) we went back upstairs with the goal of finishing the necklace that morning.  The finished product was different from the version envisioned, even changing several times Monday morning.  By noon, it was done and now wearable.  Most importantly, I love it now and how it turned out.  This will definitely get worn, probably this week.

Eric had taken the boys out for lunch to give us uninterrupted time for finishing up the necklace.  We left shortly after 2pm and made it home by 5pm.  I can’t believe we got Eric to stay that long.  He’s built a reputation for packing everything up immediately after his morning shower and pushing me along to leave by mid-morning.

Driving through the Ocala National Forest on the way home takes longer, but is a nice drive and we avoid the vast majority of rush-hour traffic.  We made it home in time to see Beverly before she went out to play cards.  While it was a pretty quick weekend trip, it was nice seeing all of them and getting away from Clermont.

 

 

 

We should be in for another good day of fishing.  The tides are right, coming in late morning/early afternoon which is exactly the timeframe we will be fishing.  We have eaten breakfast at the Resort’s restaurant, but it’s nothing special, fairly traditional, expensive and cuts into our time for fishing, so therefore we’ve changed things up a bit.  On our last few visits, Eric has brought some yogurt smoothies from home and then goes out to get me a breakfast sandwich from some nearby restaurant.  This time he went to a close Greek restaurant and I ended up with a bacon and egg bagel.  Not what you would expect from there, but it suits me perfectly.

The weather looks good for another day of fishing and after buying more live shrimp from Pete’s Pier bait shop, we head down the river.  LOVE fishing on Mondays!  Having our current days off suits us just fine since we have a great day for fishing with minimal boat traffic.  Also, the ‘weekend’ boaters are not out joy-riding and drinking on the water – which is always a plus. We don’t plan on fishing all day since we checked out of the hotel and have to drive home, unpack and get ready for our workweek.  But I digress.

We went to our honey hole and started fishing.  It was slow fishing in the beginning but eventually fish got hooked.  Eric’s first fish was a bonnet-head shark.  We’re not keeping him, but he was fun to catch.  He hooked another one later in the day, as did I.

Redfish were our first keepers.  I got two nice size fish within the slot and they went into the cooler.  While I couldn’t keep the redfish pictured below, the spots made it an interesting catch.  I didn’t count the total number of spots because while I wanted a photo………………..I needed to get it back into the water ASAP to increase his chances of living.  He’s swimming in the Gulf as we speak (type).

Eric caught a redfish before we headed home – a nice one.  He is getting to be a much better photo model.  He never wanted any photos before and all our tangible fishing memories were of me (I’ve been at Disney way too long.  Who else uses ‘tangible’?)  If I could just find a place to use ‘plethora’………

Seems like today was all about different species.  Eric got a snook,

and also this ugly creature below.  At first I thought it was going to be a puffer fish and wanted a photo.  Once Eric landed it……….it didn’t puff. Ha!  After a quick photo, he went back into the water.

At one point we had a double hook-up and we both caught Jacks.  On our last fishing trip Eric wanted to cook this fish since he had seen something about Jacks on a Andrew Zimmern show, but really, it’s not worth the time or effort.  It was just a fish with no taste.  Again, fun to fight but not to eat, just saying.

(By the way, Eric caught the bigger one.)

I finally hooked a trout and got him to the boat.  Earlier in the morning I had a ‘nice’ size trout, but obviously not hooked well since he got off before we needed the net.  😦  Eric kept reeling in the trout both yesterday and today, while I kept bringing short redfish to the boat.  I got a porgie that was in the size limits and we both continued to bring in Mangrove Snapper today.  Like I mentioned earlier, the weather hinted that it would be a good fishing day and it was.

My last fish was one we had hoped for during the entire weekend……….a Spanish mackerel.  They are fun to catch, not always a sure thing and a good fish for sushi.  Yep, who would expect a girl from the Midwest would be eating sushi.  Right after that, Eric hooked something that tore off a good deal of his line before he held the spool breaking off the leader line (he thinks it was a tarpon).  That ended our day.  We packed up and headed back to the boat ramp.  The fish photo waited until we got home.  Total fish count today was 5 mangrove snapper, 2 redfish, 3 seatrout, 1 porgie and the Spanish mackerel.

True to form, the boat ramp at The Plantation was unable to be used for our boat due to the low tide.  So after the trailer was hooked up, I drove to the ramp at Pete’s Pier AND did a fine job backing the trailer into the water.  Actually only took up one lane of the 2- lane ramp – one of my best boat (trailer) backing jobs ever.  It definitely helps to not have a audience, too much pressure.    Once we got home Eric processed the fish, using his vacuum sealer to preserve them in the freezer.  We had a sushi poke bowl for dinner.  Rats, forgot to take a photo.  Just when I thought I was getting good at that, I forgot.  Anyway, it tasted amazing and Eric did a fine job ‘stylzing’ our dinner.

No immediate travel plans are on the horizon, but you never know.   Great weekend for a fishing couple since we definitely caught a plethora of fish within two days (did it!).  🙂