A Great Week

The weeks events started on Tuesday with the Venture Out Boat Club's fishing tournament.  I was able to go out with Blane and compete in my very first fishing competition.  What a day it was.  We came home with 27 fish.  The days catch included two Cerro Mackeral which won 1st and 2nd place in that category.  Wow!  It was great.

Wednesday brought a visit from a great friend and his wife.  John Jelinek has been a friend on mine since our days in high school.  Now that's a long time ago, for sure, and yet there are times when it seems like yesterday.  What great times we had remembering the  events and conquests of so long ago.  Yes, we still can remember that far back.  Mary even said that we are like two peas in a pod.

John and his lovely wife Mary came for a short power packed three day visit.  They arrived here on Wednesday just as I arrived home from a day out fishing.  It was a great welcoming.  We caught 20 yellow tail snapper and Jon's eyes got bright at the prospect of him being able to go out and catch some himself.  The rest of the night was spent getting settled, planning the three day visit and attending the boating club's dinner.  He and I bought some 50 /50 raffle tickets with the hopes of hitting it big.  Low and behold we did win the 1st place pot.  With our winnings, we decided that we'd stimulate the local economy the next day during our tour of Key West.  Nothing like a free days outing.

So Thursday was spent seeing the sites of Key West.  There were some places that Mary wanted to definitely see.  First there was lunch and Sloppy Joe's Bar.  As usual, the food was really good and the music and crowd lots of fun.



The second stop was Hemingway's House for a tour.  That entailed a great 10 block walk which helped get rid of a little of the lunch.  The tour of the house was a fantastic literary history lesson.  They even have the famous 6 toed cats.  They are currently numbered at 42 free roaming cats. That man sure lived life to the fullest but had a tragic ending for sure.

From there is was an 8 block walk back to the famous, yes you guessed it, Matheson's for the frozen chocolate covered Key Lime Pie on a stick.  Mary and I had ice cream and Rose shared some of mine.  John ate the pie with gusto.  We also had to stop for our picture at Mile Marker 0.

It was then time for a walk through the shopping area and then on to Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville Cafe.  Crazy busy with the cruise ship being in port.  Then again this is a tourist party town and everyone is here for the winter time.

Now it was time to start heading to Alonzo's on the wharf for the tarpon feeding at 5 PM.  Today was a little different though.  The tarpon were there but so were a mass of pelicans.  It was a fight for the food and for the most part the pelicans won.  So much for seeing the ferocity of the tarpon.

I said it was time for our feeding at Alonzo's also.  They have a great deal on their menu each day.  All of their appetizers are 1/2 price along with ALL the drinks from the bar from 4 PM till 6:30 PM and we were here at 5:10 PM.  We wound up having more food on the table than we could eat.  Oh well, that just means leftovers.  We ended the day spending just a little over our winnings of the previous night.

Then there was Friday, a day for the women and a day for the guys.  Mary and Rose started with Yoga and then time at the pool catching the warmth or the sun's rays.  It was a great day for just being quite and sharing good time together.

Tim & John joined Virgil on his boat for a day trying to bring home dinner.  Well, they sure did bring dinner home.  After about 6 hours, they came back with 29 Yellow Tail Snapper and 2 Grunts.  That turned out to be about 10#'s of fish fillets.  Virgil & Jo joined us for a great supper of fish, biscuits, steamed vegetables, salad and ice cream for dessert.  What a bountiful feast it was.

As far as the fishing went, John turned out to be the winner of the day by catching the most fish.  It was really a lot of fun seeing the look on his face as he pulled in the first three fish before anyone else caught anything.  What a fantastic time with great friends.

Saturday morning came way too quick for us.  Rose and I had our work cut out for us as we volunteer to serve at the pancake breakfast every other week and this was our day to help out.  John & Mary slept in and then joined us for breakfast before coming back to pack up for their trip back to Ft Meyers to catch their plane to the cold up north.  It was a sad time for us all.  However we are so fortunate to have been able to share this precious time with John & Mary.  We thank them both from the bottom of our hearts.

Mom's Visit

Time sure does go quickly when you're having fun. Our grandson, William, left us after a wonderful two week visit on January 4th and here it is February 6th.  A lot has happened sine then for sure.  The fun part is we're smiling the majority of the time.

After William left, we had a few days to go through the rig and get everything put back to normal.  We moved some things around so that he would have places to tore his things while he was here.  Now we had to get ourselves setup for Tim's mom's upcoming visit.  She was with us for 15 days starting on January 10th.  It was wonderful being able to spend this precious time with her.  We are very thankful and greatly appreciate it.

After picking mom up from the airport, we immediately introduced her to The Gieger Key Grill and their great dinner fair and a fantastic sunset.  It brought back memories for her of her and dad"s visit to us in Spain and watching the sun set over the ocean there.  Great memories for us, for sure.

The next day was set for mom and Roseann to compete in a Mah Jongg tournament.  Well mom won at her table as was rewarded with her trophy pen.   That was just the start of many days of her and Rose enjoying Dominoes and Mah Jongg game times.

Then on the 12th, we were able to celebrate her 91st birthday.  What a great treat for us and special to us all.  Her phone was buzzing all day as family called to wish her well.

There were football game parties, game nights, quite times, hot tub soaks and good sharing times.  There was also the morning exercise Yoga class on Tuesday and Friday that we attended.  The Friday TGIF gathering gave us good food, entertainment and meeting friends.

There was site seeing around Key West starting up at the southern most point in the U.S. picture.  There was food at Sloppy Joe's Bar and frozen Key lime pie on a stick at Matheson's.

We were also able to attend a seafood festival at the park in Key West and sample great food and, of course, ice cream.  Mom was able to do some shopping too.  It was a fun day for all.


Most of all, there was our time to go fishing.  Mom fished from the dock that was 5 ft behind our rig and from the nearby bridge.  She did really good fishing from the dock but she kept complaining that they were all small.  So it was to the bridge we went.  There she did extremely well at feeding the fish.  It's a little difficult for her to feel the fish biting.  I briefly thought about going out on a boat but quickly gave it up because of the current weather condition making it a little rough.






Before we knew it, her time with us was over and it was time to take her to the airport.  It was a special day.  We know our time of having her with us on this earth is getting shorter and we will cherish these moments forever.

After mom left, we just sat back, took a deep breath and got the rig back to normal.  Well almost normal.  There was something left behind that needed to be mailed to her.  Oh well, we were happy that is wasn't anything really big and heavy and we were able to include a little gift from the Keys.

Now we are fully back to normal and waiting for the fishing tournament coming up on Tuesday.  The weather has really been bad lately giving rough seas so this will be an interesting time.  No one has been able to go out and scope out the good fishing spots.  I've joined the boat club and was able to get a ride with one of the members.  This will be a fun time for sure.  They will be giving only two very small prizes for each category but the more important thing will be bragging rights for the winners.

Caught Four, Landed Two, Kept One

Well the fishing was just that, fishing. It was supposed to be, according to Windfinder.com, a really nice day for fishing. The winds were going to be low, small waves and sunny. I guess one out of three isn't bad. It was sunny for sure. There wasn't a cloud in the sky. The temperature was a little on the chilly side though. It started out around 61* with low winds. The temperature gained only a few degrees but the winds really picked up and the seas got really choppy.

I wound up hooking four fish, one broke the line really quick. The second one came really close to the boat before it chewed though the line. Then came number three which turned out to be a blue fish but it was too small. Oh well, next time I guess. About 30 minutes later after much tossing about, the big strike came. The pole was bent over and the fight was on. I was out about 100 yards, the current was running fast, and I was pulling against the current. Oh what fun it was. It turned out to be a solid 18 inches, a good keeper. That was it for the day. Oh well, next time.

Life has been good here in the Keys. We've made new friends and met up with some old ones. We are also awaiting visits from my mom and a high school friend and his wife. These friendships and our activities are what make our life exciting. We are feeling really special in being able to share in the excitement of accomplishments of those around us. As we look back on our life, so many times we recognized happenings but didn't acknowledge them. Today we are able and excited to take the time to share in and enjoy the excitement of others lives rather than just recognize it.

Happy New Year!

Wow! When I said we were busy here in the Keys, I didn't realize how fast time passes here.

Our grandson William came to visit us here on December 19th and it's now time for him to go back home tomorrow. We have had a ton of fun with him. I will admit though that I wasn't quite prepared for the eating habits of a growing twelve year old. There were only a couple of times when he finally said, I'm full. Success, I thought. Fat chance. One hour later, he starts grazing again.




While he was here we celebrated Roseann's birthday, went deep sea fishing for dolphin, went Yellow Tail fishing on a boat, fished off the bridge and from behind our rig in the boat canal.






We played Dominos, swam in the pool, sat in the hot tub, and visited with our friends Jo and Virgil. He made some friends here in the park and they would do the kid things like ride bikes, play "man hunt" at dusk, climb the coconut trees, and be kids.


We visited the aquarium, where he was able to find out some information about his life's dream from the people working there. We also introduced him to a frozen chocolate covered Key Lime Pie on a stick from Matheson's. Matheson's is also the home of the biggest and best hot fudge brownie sundae anywhere.









We introduced him to the world of snorkeling, riding on and driving boat small boats on the ocean. Yesterday we went to the Dry Totugas. It's 70 miles, 2 1/2 hr ride from Key West by boat. It was a long day finished off by a great meal on Big Coppit Key.




His last day here in the Keys is getting him prepared to go back to Albuquerque. It's windy and cold here now with more on the way. Tonight it's supposed to get down into the 40's. Ugh! I just may have to turn on the heat.

Besides all this, I also sang in a Christmas Cantata with a choral group in the keys. You can see a video here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lS_Uf0l2c_Q&feature=g-upl&context=G26a5cf4AUAAAAAAAAAA. I also continued my cooking breakfast pancakes on Saturday morning for the RV park breakfast. Along with all the other activity, we had to change sites here in Venture Out RV Park on January 1st. That was the start of our New Year after a night of partying with friends.

I will close for now with a wish for all for great health, safe travels, prosperity in love and work, and the realization of all the blessings we receive each day from The Lord above.