Birthday celebrations continue!

Happy Birthday, Barbara!

Today is Barbara's birthday and for the past few days we've been planning to get together for dinner at Ian's Tropical Grill.    As we were heading to Rio, guess what happened?  Yep, that darn train.  Fortunately the cross bars on the road open faster and more frequently than the railroad bridge!

Not only do they have really good food, a nice atmosphere and friendly servers, but if you're in their Birthday Club, you get $20 toward your dinner bill! 

Plus if you have at least four people, they throw in a birthday cake!

It has been fun celebrating Barbara's and Frank's birthdays over the past few days and we look forward to everyone coming to the Keys to help celebrate Frank's birthday week, next week.

But since this is Barbara's birthday, we will wish her Happy Birthday again!

Raindrops, rainbows and a bee on my bonnet = fish in the box!

Because of the weather forecast (rain), we decided to leave a little later than usual this morning.  As we were heading down the channel, some neighbors were heading back in.  He said the railroad bridge was down and it would probably be quite a while before it opened again.    That's just great!  We could potentially be stuck on the wrong side of the tracks and not be able to fish!  But we headed that direction anyway.  We figured we could kill a little time getting fuel.

Luck was on our side!  Just as we were approaching the bridge, we saw the railroad bridge open!  Woohoo!  We opted to get on the other side of the bridge for fuel, just in case it closed again. 

Out the inlet we went with a few raindrops hitting the windshield. We tried a few of our usual spots for bait, but no luck.  But we did see some very pretty rainbows! 

From previous fishing trips we heard there were fish to the south.  So we headed toward Jupiter and set up for trolling.  Shortly after we started heading north, Frank got a phone call from our friends who we are visiting next week in the Keys.  Well about 5 minutes after hanging up with Bob, we got our first hits!  A double dolphin hook up!  We cleared the lines and we were able to get one in the box.  The one on my line spit out the hook.  (Too bad because it was a really big dolphin!)

We resumed trolling operations and about 20 minutes later, got another bite!  It was another big dolphin.  Frank worked for a while to bring it to the boat and we got it in the box with the first.  By this time we were very pleased with our catch.

During the time we were trolling, a bee landed on a piece of equipment.  I shooed it away or so I thought.  At one point during my time at the helm, I put my hands on my head and yowza!  Guess where that bee landed?  Yep, the top of my hat.  Fortunately we had some bee sting stuff on the boat.  That stuff works like a charm!  And it's a good thing because it wasn't too long after that I reeled in another dolphin. 

It was getting late in the afternoon so we decided to call it a day.

Guess what we met with on our way in?  Yep, the railroad bridge was down.  Frank decided to make good use of the time and was able to clean two out of the three fish, saving the BIG one for last. 

All in all it was a great day of catching and good practice for our trip to the Keys next week!

Guess this is an early Happy Birthday fish for Frank since we won't be fishing on his birthday!

Celebrating begins early!

For the past few weeks, we have been trying to coordinate getting together with our friends Barbara and Don.  (We know them from NC, but they also have a place not too far from our Fish Camp.)  With everyone's schedules and commitments we just haven't been in the same place at the same time.

The stars finally aligned and we were able to have dinner tonight!  The suggestion was made to have dinner at Benihana (or Beni-haha as I like to call it).  It's been years since any of us had eaten there and we thought it would be a fun way to start celebrating Barbara and Frank's birthdays.

Our Guatemalen-Japanese chef, Hector, put on a good show and dazzled us with his knife and spatula skills. 

Of course there was the obligatory shrimp-tail-in-the hat-flip, "egg roll" and even some fried rice shapes.

And who could forget the onion volcano!

And Japanese birthday dessert:   Haagen Dazs ice cream.

We had a nice dinner, numerous laughs and really enjoyed catching up. (Plus they gave us a group picture!)

And this is just the start of the birthday festivities!

Spring Football!

This weekend was the much-anticipated Garnet-and-Gold spring football game.  It's the start of a new era for FSU football and everyone we know was very excited about the game - to see the new coaches, new players and how all the changes have benefited the team.  Plus, it was going to be a real game - none of the phoney-baloney scoring scrimmage from years past. 

We attended Get Down on Friday and was surprised to see so many FSU players and coaches!  Head Coach Jimbo Fisher, QB Christian Ponder (7), Coach Greg Hudson to name a few.

Originally we were going to tailgate, but with so many strikes against the plan (no assigned parking, no tickets, no assigned seats), we opted to get tickets for the Skybox.  (Thanks, Frank!)  Food, beverages, comfy seats and clean potties! 

Rick, Joanne, Tad, Bonnie, Leann, Frank, Lynne and Ron

Something else new for the game was a draft!  Seniors picked the players and coaches they wanted for their teams. 

You could feel the excitement and enthusiasm - from players and fans - when the players came out on the field!

I think everyone was pretty pleased - there were over 51,000 attendees, players got to play a real game and coaches got to see their guys in action.

Touchdown!

 Head Coach Jimbo Fisher

During half-time, there was a flag football game.  Players were former FSU players who came back to have a little fun.  While I didn't see anyone need it, the announcer kept talking about oxygen tanks on the sidelines.  :)

QB Brad Johnson.  (The last time we saw him was when he played for the Bucs.)

Game on!

It was a fun weekend and I think everyone has a renewed enthusiasm for Seminole Football!  150 days until the start of football season!

Nice garnet-and-gold sunset to cap off the day!

Annual tradition continues.

For the past 3 years, over Easter Weekend, the Broomes travel from Tampa to spend the weekend at the Fish Camp.  Then on Easter Sunday, we meet up with Victoria's brother and their mother, sister-in-law, her father and step-mother for brunch.

The Broomes arrived Thursday afternoon and everyone met at the Fish Camp for dinner and to hand off Pat (mom) to Tad and Bonnie for the weekend.  We enjoyed a yummy lasagna dinner and hit the hay relatively early since we were planning a full day of fishing.

It had shaped up to be a beautiful weekend!  The temperatures were warm and the winds low.  We made our way out and thankfully did not get stopped at the railroad bridge.  With it being the start of a holiday weekend, there were already a lot of boats on the water. 

We went to a bait spot and did not find the kind of bait we wanted so we motored to another location where we were very successful.  Victoria was pulling them in hand-over-fist!  Once the livewell was full, we headed out to where we could start our drift.

We drifted and drifted. Repositioned a few times and continued drifting.  With no success, we decided to troll for a while.  (By now we had been fishing for about 5 hours and the natives were getting very restless.)  As we were nearing the end of our trolling time, we passed a boat where a lone fisherman was fighting a huge sailfish!

No time was wasted changing out the baits and getting the live ones out quickly!  And it wasn't very long before we starting to see there was something BIG that was interested in our little bait.  Ken was ready for battle!

He fought the sailfish for quite some time while Frank manuevered the boat so as not to stress the fish out.  Ken was finally able to get it to the boat for an official release and photo opportunity.  What a beautiful sailfish!  (And Ken's first.) 

Guess that was all the excitement (and fish) we were going to be allowed that day because we didn't catch anything else.  All in all, it was a fun day.

On Saturday, we ventured to a Nautical Flea Market and enjoyed being outdoors and finding a few 'treasures'.  We then went to lunch at a restaurant on the water.  While we were there, we took advantage of the opportunity to say hello to a Captain we hear on the radio quite often, another Captain Pete.  In fact, we drifted right near them as they were pulling in a rather large amberjack.  It was nice to put a face with the voice and to thank him for the information he willingly shares regarding the fishing conditions and locations.

On Sunday, we continued the tradition with Easter Brunch at the Dolphin Bar and Shrimp House.  Everyone loves the "make your own Bloody Mary Bar"!  And the food is pretty good too. 

It turned out to be a fun weekend, with great weather and wonderful friends!