What's been happening since Thanksgiving?

Well, we spent the weekend in Tampa. Our 3rd Annual Chili Cookoff was a success for our Bucs Tailgating group! It was a lot of fun, lots of people and many really good pots of chili!
Monday morning we packed up the car and truck and headed east to Stuart for fishing. It's been way too long since we got our lines wet! The first day produced several dolphin (but only one in the boat) and a few sailfish bites, but nothing stuck. The next day was a bust! We trolled and trolled, listened to the chatter on the radio and returned to the dock empty handed. But after dinner with Captain Pete, we were re-energized and looking forward to getting back out on the water. We could only do a half day and had a pretty good strategy. Early on we got a hit and pulled a good sized bonita into the boat. After a few more hours of trolling, working our plan, and seeing lots of 'signs' (birds, flying fish, jelly fish, a coconut and weeds) we only had the one fish in the box. :( But, it was good practice for next week.
We're headed to Tallahassee for the weekend for some FSU basketball and cooler temperatures.
Happy Friday! Happy Birthday, brother Daniel!

Thanksgiving in Tampa

We spent Thanksgiving in Tampa this year. Allison, Andrea, Frank's mom Alice and his brother Rich were all here for the holiday. It was nice to spend time with family and for everyone to hear Allison's stories from the time she spent in Hawaii and Thailand.

Even though there were only 6 of us, we had enough food to feed an army. We had 4 kinds of turkey breasts (2 fried and2 roasted), along with all the traditional Thanksgiving fixings, including pumpkin and pecan pies. But we added a little Florida flair by having fried fish (mahi mahi) and hushpuppies.

After dinner, we played a game that we have played during our neighborhood Thanksgiving celebration. Everyone picks a plate from an assortment of randomly decorated plates and has to come up with a story of how that plate was a part of the first Thanksgiving. There were some very creative stories! And because his was the farthest from the truth. (Something about a Foo Young Jones being part of the first Thanksgiving and the symbol he created that became the symbol of peace for the Pilgrims and Indians). Like I said, there were some creative stories.

At the end of the evening, after the kitchen was cleaned up, we all relaxed and enjoyed the movie "Evan Almighty".

And now, we're on to Christmas!

From NC to FL in 10 hours, but the day doesn't stop there...

We are living up to our name! We left NC at 8:30 Monday morning and arrived in Tallahassee about 6:00pm. Had dinner with Allison and Andrea where we were able to catch up with Allison who recently returned to the states from her world-wind travels. After unpacking the car and changing clothes, we zipped off to the FSU Basketball game at 9:00pm. There weren't too many people in attendance, but we were able to spend time with friends Ron & Lynne.
Maybe while we're in Tallahassee we'll get to play golf!

A somber experience...

This past weekend, we traveled to Blacksburg, VA for the FSU-Virginia Tech football game. Before going into the stadium, we walked across the campus to see the memorial that has been established in memory of those who lost their lives in April during the shooting on their campus. Unfortunately, the battery on the camera died and I wasn't able to take any pictures of the awesome tailgate or during the game.

Still a little color in the mountains

What a nice surprise to find a few trees with colorful leaves! This is a view from the front porch.
This is a view from the other side of the front porch, looking towards Grandfather Mountain.
Carolina Blue skies today, but quite chilly! This is a view through the golf course.

Tailgating in Tampa before the Bucs game

With 4 cars and 4 tents, our tailgate is really starting to look professional! Living room, dining room/kitchen and bar! The weather on Sunday was fantastic! A bit cooler than previous games, with sunny and clear skies. It was great!

Our theme for this game was 'breakfast/brunch'. The food was delicious - hash brown casseroles, bagels, donuts, muffins, breakfast burritos, biscuits and gravy, pigs-in-blankets, mimosas and fresh stone crab claws! Nobody went to the game hungry. :) Plus we had enough leftovers to make quesadillas after the game.

Red sky at night....

What a beautiful sky we had the other night when we were home!