Zoo, Kaylee's arrival (5-22-2015)

This morning's schedule included a visit to the zoo.  John and Bridgette have a season pass so they go fairly often, but it was our first trip.  They zoo is currently decorated with a Chinese theme, and it is very colorful. 

Joe sat down on the concrete to take an eye-level picture of Andrew in front of this beautiful peacock, but when Andrew saw his grandpa sit down, he went right over and sat down beside him.  So much for that picture.

His favorite things are the goats and the monkeys, so anything extra was just beside the point for him.  He loves goats for some reason, so we didn't mess around too long before going over to the petting zoo.

 Andrew is brushing the goat here.

 I was trying to protect my zoo map from the goat in front of me, and one snuck up behind me and took a big bite out of it! 

 The splash park is right outside the petting zoo, so that was our next stop, and it was plenty warm by then.  

Next, we took an African Safari ride through that part of the zoo.  It was nice to get to sit down, although we probably had to wait 15 minutes to get on the train.  They have a nice selection of animals here, some we had never seen before, and we've been to a LOT of zoos over the years.

Time to head over to the monkeys. We spent a long time looking at monkeys, they have several different areas of them.

 After the monkeys, we headed over to get something to eat. 

And then we finally headed out, knowing we would probably be back next week.  They have some kind of evening show with all the Chinese decorations lit up, so we might try to get back to see that sometime next week.

We got home, then cleaned up and Joe and I headed to the airport to meet Kaylee's flight.  John got off 2 hours early so he got home before we left for the airport, and they headed out to run some errands.  We were very excited to see Kaylee come out of the elevator from the tram ride from the gate.

We stopped at Chili's on the way home, and finally got her to her Uncle John and Aunt Bridgette's house.  They had kept Andrew up to see her, but everyone was pretty tired, so we didn't stay up too long.  Joe and I had moved out into the motorhome so she could have our bedroom, and we were all glad to call it a day.  We were very thankful that she arrived safely, and she was glad to be there.  She admitted that she was a little nervous on her first flight by herself.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday - new aquarium (5/21-23/2015)

I can barely remember  Tuesday, but I started doing some painting for them that day.  When they moved into the house, they painted all the rooms, but some of the trim needed another coat, so I had decided (or it had been suggested) that I would take on that task.  I didn't get it done, but I made a good start.  I got the kitchen and our bedroom done.

On Wednesday, I painted the trim in their bedroom, which had not been painted at all, so it required two coats.  But Wednesday's big event was that Bridgette brought home a 10-gallon aquarium that someone had given her, and they set up Andrew's first fish tank that night.  After dinner, off to the fish store we went, to get rock, structure, and FISH.  Andrew said he wanted red fish and white fish, so that's what we got.

By the time it was finished, he was pretty tired, but he was very interested in the process.

Thursday morning, the lawn mowing crew started early.

If he thinks it's time for his Grandpa to rise and shine, he gets his lawn mower going and runs up and down the hall with it.  He went off to daycare and I finished my project -- the last room to paint was the living room, and I got that done this morning.  Then Joe decided he would try to get a little mopping done so Bridgette didn't have to do that this weekend, so we both earned our keep today. 

Monday Again (5/18/2015)

Time sure flies . . .  We had a pretty busy weekend getting things done after being gone for 5 days.  It took most of the weekend to get the laundry done, but we managed to fit in some other things.  Friday night John and Joe went and picked up a pizza so we could eat at home and Andrew could sit in his high chair.  We had a fairly early night.  Saturday John and Bridgette did some of their normal weekend errands (didn't get all of them done) while Joe and I headed south to Bradenton to the flea market.  We didn't find any great buys but it took a big chunk of the day.  I got my scrapbooking materials out and messed with them for a while that evening, but we didn't make it to Walmart to print pictures so my progress was minimal.

But Sunday, we were back in the boat!  This time as scientists.  Bridgette needed to check out the drainage into the Hillsborough River along the University of Tampa for some of her summer student projects, so we loaded up the boat and headed to Tampa Bay again.  She and Andrew had to stop by her school, so we drove separately, which was a good thing because when we got ready to unload the boat we found it had a dead battery -- the prop wouldn't even go down.  We think there was a small light left on.  After some debate between John and his dad, we waited for Bridgette to arrive with the car, and John hooked up the jumper cables to her car and got it started.  We were on the boat ramp, so as soon as they got it running, we put it in the water.  No harm, no foul, and lesson learned.

While they messed with the boat, I walked over to the dog beach and took a few pictures.  Their Annie dog would love to come here.

Once we got going, we headed upriver to look for drainage pipes -- scientist stuff.  And we found several.  Bridgette was writing down the coordinates using her phone so she can come back with her students.  She decided some of the drainage pipes would only be accessible on the sidewalk so she will probably need a crew there as well as one in the boat.

 And there's always birds!

After we finished with our work, we boated out into the bay to check out potential fishing and sandy beach locations.  We saw several patches of seagrass which excited our scientists, and then found a really nice little island with a dock, beach, and sandbar.  We didn't bring our "wet" clothes with us so we didn't take advantage of it but plan on coming back here with Kaylee next week.

Andrew was getting tired so we headed in, back to the house.

 

I decided tonight was the night Joe was taking me to the casino, so after John fixed our spaghetti, we took showers and headed to the Hard Rock Casino.  I actually came out $90 ahead, but Joe lost $40 so we only had a net gain of $50 -- but still pretty good.

Monday, we spent most of the day running around.  I went to Walmart to get pictures printed, but their machines were down, so then we went to Walgreens.  But I forgot one camera chip so I had to make a second trip there.  We also went to a radio stereo shop (don't ask), and the grocery store -- didn't find everything on the list there either.  It wasn't long after we got home that the rest of the family came in.  Bridgette had to take Andrew to Walmart to buy a white t-shirt for him to decorate.  He will be wearing it at his graduation next week from the 1-year old room to the 2-year old room.  Rumor has it that he, along with the rest of his class, will be performing Itsy Bitsy Spider on stage.  Gotta get that on the calendar!

Thursday and Friday at Long Point (5/15/2015)

Thursday we decided to give the fish a break, and we headed to the beach instead.  We got there about 9:30, and only one other person was there, so it was like a private beach for a little while.  The tide was going out, and the water was crystal clear, so we could wade out a long ways.

 

When we got tired of the beach, we headed to Vero Beach, just for a drive.  After lunch, Andrew fell asleep so John just kept driving, through Ft. Pierce on down to St. Lucie.  There was a Bass Pro shop there, so we made a stop there for some essentials (it's never ending when you have a new boat).  It was a long day, and we were all glad to get back to the RV.  After a quick dinner, John, Bridgette and Andrew went down to the water (across the bridge to the island) to try out Andrew's new dip net, and to see if John had gotten any better with his drop net.  Joe and I headed across the highway to the ocean, and walked the beach for a little while.  But when we got back, we found out that we had missed out on 4 manatees right beside them when they were netting the bait fish!  Sorry to have missed that.  Andrew likes to make animal sounds (he's very good at it), and now he knows how to sound like a manatee.

The surf was pounding in and the ocean was very pretty, but it looked like it had a pretty good riptide.  We only got our feet wet, and just trudged through the sand for a ways.

Friday morning we had an early fishing trip again, on the water about 6:30, but the fish weren't as cooperative this time.  It was a bit breezy, and the tide was probably low, but for whatever reason, we didn't have much luck.  I think we ended up catching about 10 fish altogether. 

We came back into the dock and picked up our two hitchhikers again.  We saw lots of birds this morning, and four raccoons right at the edge of the water.  Andrew helped us fish for a little while, but we were all a bit tired, knowing we had to go in, pack up, and head home today.

 

We were all a bit sad heading back in to the boat dock for the last time.  We've had a great time here and all hope to have the opportunity to return.

 Joe wanted to go up to the restaurant and have breakfast before we de-camped, so John, Bridgette and Andrew got the boat ready and their stuff packed up while we took his truck up to the restaurant.  I happened to notice this surfboard on the wall today -- I assume it has been there all along, but I missed it before.  This little restaurant has quite a bit of art work available, but I liked this since it included Hurricane Wilma!

John, Bridgette and Andrew pulled out about 10:30.  I went down to take a shower while Joe finished up our work, and we left about 11:00.  We stopped at a Camping World at Bartow on our way home, but we still pulled in about 3:00.  John was washing down the boat and truck, but we eventually got the camper unloaded and started our 10 loads of laundry.  Everyone was tired, but we all agreed that we had a great trip.

Andrew loves the birds, and we got a good look at a pelican in one of the mangrove trees, and some other kind of white bird when we got off the boat.

Wednesday at Long Point (5/13/05)

We got up at 5:30 as planned, went out to the highway for bait, and had fishing lines in the water by 6:30.  Joe caught a nice speckled trout right away, and we all caught something within the first half hour.  John had a hot day of pinfish.  We moved around a little, saw another manatee, and kept catching fish.  We eventually ended up on the back side of the island across the bridge from our campsite, and Bridgette and Andrew waded out to get picked up.  They had seen a turtle on the island, and Andrew even got to pet it.  He mostly wanted to go back to the turtle, forget about fishing!

We probably caught 50 fish today, John probably caught 30 pinfish by himself.  But we added to our specie collection:  Joe caught several speckled trout, we caught puffer fish, Bridgette (who didn't get to fish very long) caught a little sand trout, John caught a lizard fish (it's nice to have marine biologists available to identify the fish).  John figures we've caught 10 different species of fish.  Still waiting for the big ones, though.

puffer fish all puffed up

side view of puffer fish

jack crevalle fish

 

John was on the pinfish

Joe's speckled trout

 But the big excitement of the morning was when I hooked a sheepshead fish  -- which is what Bridgette is doing her research project on.  Unfortunately, it has teeth and cut my line so I didn't get it in the boat (I would have been the real hero of the day if I had landed it).  But it was like a Japanese fire drill for a while, Bridgete shouting to get it in, either John or Bridgette getting the net (not quickly enough), me trying to reel it in.  I was VERY DISAPPOINTED when it broke my line.

A big turtle swam right under the boat, and we saw dolphins again.  We came in off the water about 10:30, and headed up to the restaurant for lunch when they got the boat unloaded.  Then we all had a little rest.  Andrew woke up pulling at his ear, so we headed into town to the grocery store to get some eardrops for him.  Andrew plopped down in front of the book rack and had to have a book read to him before we left.  For him, the book rack is like a candy store -- his favorite place.

On the way back they decided to go to a museum, so they dropped me off at the campground to wait for Mike and Lisa Sullivan, and they visited the turtle museum just up the road.

Mike and Lisa got there about 5:00 and 5:30.  Lisa had worked in Sebastian that day so they drove over separately.  We had dinner together and walked down to the boat ramp, across the bridge to the island.  We had a fun visit with them.

Today is the anniversary of my sister's passing, 13 years ago.  Joy was a real joy.  We all miss her.   May she rest in peace.