And Another Monday (5/11/205)

These days are just rolling by, and all of a sudden, another week has passed.  Not too eventful a week. Bridgette finished up her teaching for the semester, got her finals all graded and the grades posted.  John just put in another week, but no travel right now so that's good.  On Tuesday, Joe, Andrew and I took the boat down to the dealer at Bradenton to get it fitted for a cover.  We left it there, and headed back home. Andrew found a boat seat there that fit him pretty good.

 Joe and I got to spend some quality time with Andrew this week.  We did some writing.  And he and Grandpa hung out waiting to get seated at the restaurant.

We stopped at the farmers market on our way home and Andrew picked out a watermelon.

 

  Joe and I drove up to Dade City on Wednesday to have lunch with Sherry and John Hedge, another Decker Chapel friend of mine from our school days.  We had a nice visit and a good drive.

  Joe and I shopped a little for things for their boat, Joe got the faucet finished and I think John shoveled most of the dirt back over the line he put in.  Mostly, we spent our time getting ready for this week's trip (John and Bridgette's vacation).  One day some of Florida's white birds visited the back yard -- the dogs about went crazy but we kept them inside until the birds left.

Saturday morning Joe and I went to a Flea Market looking for a new phone case for him.  We picked up some Ruskin tomatoes, fresh corn on the cob, and some other items at the farmer's market there. Then we got back and started loading. I saw a mirror that I thought John could try, with pieces of driftwood decorating it.

Andrew was a big help, both with the loading and helping Grandpa wash windows.

Sunday we left Tampa about 10:00 and drove 3 hours over to the East Coast, to Long Point Campground near Melbourne Beach.  On the way, we saw several converted school buses that look a little different than the Indiana ones we are familiar with.  Maybe they just do convertibles in Florida.

It was a nice drive across Fla 60, and when we got to Vero Beach we headed north for a little while, then east over the causeway to our campground.   We crossed the bridge and saw the swimming beach and the jetty where we hope to fish this week.

We drove over in the RV, and John followed in his truck, pulling the boat.  Joe researched campgrounds before we made these reservations, and he picked a good one.  Grassy sites, the boat ramp is right in the campground and puts you into the Indian River Lagoon, lots of roaming room for the little guy. We walked over the wooden bridge and there's a clearing with a floor of pine needles that opens up into some fishing spots too.

After we got settled in, we went up to the restaurant right outside the campground and had some lunch.  They had a few gift items for sale --Andrew got two new books.  I saw this fish that I thought John, with his new woodworking skills, could make for me. 
 
Then we headed back to the RV, hooked up the boat and took a little boat ride.  We hadn't bought any bait, so although we threw our lines in the water, we didn't have any luck.  The lagoon here is really shallow, with lots of seagrass beds.  We came back in at low tide and had to stop a couple times to work our way around the seagrass.  We found a little island to beach on, so we waded out in the water for a little while.  We saw some interesting things on the boat ride -- a sea turtle, a sting ray, various other things I usually missed.  And Bridgette found an awesome starfish, oops, not a fish (a brittle star) where we docked the boat on the island. A brittle star does not have a backbone, nor a urochord, or a placenta, and therefore, they are a sea star, a penta radial symmetry (which means 5 sided, equal sides).  Anything on them is in groups of 5.  OK.  Lesson over.  I don't know why I see 8 legs (instead of 5), but I'm not asking!~!!

Being raised by biologists, Andrew gets to touch lots of interesting things, and he is usually not afraid of any of it.

Captain John is liking his boat.

 I stopped an osprey in the top of a tree -- at first I thought it was an eagle, until it flew and we saw it's white belly.  There are always lots of birds to see in Florida.

We headed back to camp just before sunset.  It was low tide by now, so John had to really look to keep us in the deeper water.

After a quick dinner of cold sandwiches, we called it a night.  But Monday morning we were ready to go again.  After breakfast, John and Joe went out and got some bait (shrimp and crabs), and we loaded up the boat and hit the water again.  We saw a bull shark right off the boat ramp, and John spotted another turtle, and some other fish (I have to get tome polarized sunglasses because I don't see very much of what he spots).  We drift- fished the seagrass for a while with no luck, so he drove us over by the jetty.  And just inside the swimming area, Bridgette spotted a manatee!  We watched it for a while, and spotted a second one.  Some people waded out right next to them, which is against the law to be that close, but it didn't seem to bother the manatees.

Some pelicans were guarding the entrance to the swimming area. 

Andrew likes the boat, and it's roomy enough that he can play.  He even has a water table and swimming pool on board, and he likes to play with the shrimp bait in the pool.  Then we went back to our "island" and got back in the water.  We caught some small fish here -- 7 of them, mangrove snappers.

After lunch, Andrew took a much-needed nap, and John went fishing while I worked on the blog.  Joe was going to take a shower, but they turned the water off to the campground, so he had to delay it a little.  We checked the water a little later and it was back on, so he went off to take a shower.  John came back and said he was catching some things, so I headed down there.  I pretty well put a stop to his successful fishing.  My first 4 casts were 2 in the mangrove trees and one catching his line.  I finally did catch a little catfish.  John caught catfish, pinfish, puffers, mangrove snapper, and a southern kingfish.  Joe never did catch any, but we helped John use up all the bait (as well as a few hooks).  John mentioned that fishing with me and Joe was a lot like fishing with Shooter.  It was really hot and humid, so we all finally headed inside the RV to cool off. 

Another Monday (5/4/15)

It's been a rough week.  Andrew and I both came down with some kind of stomach flu and were sick most of the week.  I had been thinking I wouldn't do a daily blog since we aren't traveling -- I don't need it to be a diary of our day -- so I thought maybe I would just do highlights now and then.  But there weren't many highlights last week.  After another (mis)diagnosis of an ear infection at urgent care, John got Andrew in to a new pediatrician on Friday (he couldn't get in to see his regular pediatrician, so now they have changed), they diagnosed him with the stomach flu.  He had a fever of 104 when he got in so the doctor took him serious.  He had vomited that morning.  Mine worked the opposite -- I had low fever and diarrhea.  But I think finally by Sunday we had both kicked it.

So Sunday we got to go out in their new pontoon boat.  That was a fun day.  We started getting ready to go about 8:00, it was a beautiful day, and the boat was wonderful, very roomy.

I think Joe and I had only been on one pontoon boat before, and we were really impressed with how roomy theirs is, how easy it is to move around, and how much more maneuverable it is.  When we are stopped, Shooter has plenty of room to play with his toys (lawn mower, water table, etc.).

 And of course he has to help Captain Dad drive every once in a while.

We went out to Davis Island and lauched into Tampa Bay where we fished for a little while (John caught a mackerel), but then headed up Hillsborough River, past the harbor where the big ships and cruise ships come in, to a water park right across the river from the beautiful University of Tampa (UT) campus where Professor Bridgette spends her work day.

University of Tampa Campus

Shooter loves the splash park here, and they have a dock where you can tie up your boat and walk right over.  There was some kind of event going on, but we just stayed by the splash park, where he was a regular fashion model in his fish suit.

We loaded back into the boat and sat there and ate our lunch before heading on upriver.

Eventually, we turned around and headed back to some mangrove trees at water's edge, which looked like possible fishing hideouts.  We didn't have our lines in the water very long before Joe hooked the first fish -- a catfish!  All the way from Arizona to Florida to catch catfish!!!!

Then I hooked one.  Andrew had been napping but all that excitement woke him up, and he was equally excited to see the fish coming in.  He even touched it (unlike his Arizona "girly-girly" cousin Kaylee who is always reluctant to touch the fish).

Then Joe caught another one.  Shooter liked playing with the shrimp (bait), and he would put them in his water table, but then he would throw them over the side -- chumming for his Grandpa, I think.  Joe finally hooked a different breed, a white croaker, and he put it in the water table, but when it jumped a little, it scared Shooter, so it went back in the water too.

Bridgette played with a needlefish for a while but didn't get it in the boat, and I hooked a large blue crab, but again, didn't get it in the boat (which was fine with me!).  We finally had to quit and head back to the boat ramp, but enroute we had an interesting encounter.  A huge tanker ship was coming into the port, and the Coast Guard  was stopping all boaters to allow a 500 yard safety zone around the tanker, which essentially closed the boating channel until it got turned into the port.  It probably took 30-45 minutes for it to move out of the channel.

We finally got the boat loaded, made the 30-minute drive back home, stopping off at a car wash to hose off the truck and boat, and unloaded everything.  We were all exhausted, so John and I ran out to pick up dinner.  Their neighbors walked over for a visit, so we got acquainted with them, but finally got to bed shortly after 9:00.  Exhausted.

Sunday was a nice end to a week that wasn't very.  Nice, that is.  With Joe trying to baby his foot, and me and Shooter being sick, we all just got through the days.  Joe and I certainly haven't set the world on fire here, but so far they are putting up with us.  Maybe we can earn our keep this week.  Joe is working on that faucet this morning, so maybe he can get that finished today. 

Next Sunday we are all heading over to the East Coast for a 5-day camping trip at Long Point Park near Melbourne Beach.  We will all be staying in the RV and taking the boat.  Should be fun, although John said last night there is some "tropical weather" maybe heading that way.  Great.  I'll have to keep an eye on that.