Day 3 at Indian River

 7-12-2021 Monday

Today was a busy day.  Our plan didn't quite go the way we thought -- a threat of rain was back in the forecast this morning so we delayed our start a little.  Bridgette started her day with an early run in the campground (yes, we know she is a little nuts).  She said the heat is what stopped her, not the cardio, so she thinks she needs to go a little earlier tomorrow.   Joe went up to get more bait, and by 9:15 it seemed safe to head out.  We went to a different spot, over by the inlet to the Atlantic Ocean.  The water was just a little cooler over here (refreshing), and clearer.  The fishing wasn't much better, but a few were caught.  But the wildlife was awesome here.  As we pulled in, John spotted a bonnethead shark swimming away.  He said if you see one, there are usually more in the area.  As soon as we got out of the boat, Bridgette and the kids found some brittle star(fish).  They carefully picked them up so we could see them.

As we got in the water to begin fishing, Bridgette and the kids explored our island.  They spotted a rabbit on the backside of the island.

But then Andrew made the find of the day -- a little seahorse!  The kids always have to touch every critter, so Catalina came over to hold it too.

John and I were fishing, Joe took a little time to get started, I think he was re-rigging his line.  I had one hit, but missed my fish.  A little later, John caught one -- one of those bonnethead sharks he had seen earlier.  It put up quite a fight, but he got it in.  He loves catching those fish because they do put up such a fight -- it took him a few minutes to land it.

We fished for another hour or so, but the only other fish caught was a catfish by Andrew and a small puffer fish by John (needless to say, Joe and I were skunked again.).

The kids spent most of their time exploring, catching small critters in the butterfly net (until it broke).  They saw some sergeant major tropical fish too, I don't know if Andrew caught any of them in his net or not.   By the time we left there, they had several specimens in a bucket.

We saw manatees here too.  Three swam right past John and Bridgette, and then in front of the boat where I was.  I only got a picture of their shadow, but I did see one poke his nose out of the water.

We saw a dolphin, and a stingray.  And a really awesome sight -- 3 large eagle rays jumping clear out of the water!  They jumped at least 3 times.  (It's good to fish with marine biologists so they can identify everything we see, or catch.)

We finally gave up on this spot and moved over to check out a sandbar in the middle of the lagoon.  We saw several people in the water here, and there was some seagrass, but it didn't look too promising for fishing -- very shallow.  So we played in the water.  Catalina started off jumping from the boat into the arms of her dad.

We all got in the water, which was very nice and clear.  

Andrew got back in the boat to get a football, then that game was on.

Catalina decided to be brave and jump in the water on her own, so that occupied her for a while.

Then everyone cooled off.

When it was time to head in for lunch, Bridgette and Catalina took the bucket of sea critters over to the sea grass bed and set them free.  

We got back to camp, had lunch, played Mexican Train with the kids, then took a nap.  While we napped, the rest of them went fishing off the back of the boat.  Andrew caught a keeper -- mangrove snapper.  But John said they probably caught 20 fish in that time, the rest of them small.

Our dinner plan was to boat over to Sebastian for dinner at Capt. Hiram's but a storm was back in the forecast so we drove over.  While we were there, it absolutely poured.  It's an open-air restaurant right on the lagoon, but they lowered the plastic windows when our table started getting wet.

We had a beautiful blue heron right outside our window that posed for us.

After dinner, we made a trip to Walmart (Bridgette forgot to pack shorts for Catalina, so she only had dresses and leggings to wear, besides her swim suits).  Then we stopped for ice cream.  Our final excitement of the day was a drive on the Jungle Trail on the way back to camp -- a dirt road through "hammocks of palms and other coastal wetland species."  It's 7.8 miles long, but it took us 45 minutes to drive it because we followed John at a speed of about 2 mph (and he made frequent stops).  We have driven this trail every time we have been here, but only seen crabs before.

Tonight we lucked out and got to help a turtle across the road.

We saw plenty of crabs too, and John's group saw a snake, but we missed that.  And a rabbit.  We missed the rabbit but didn't get too excited about that since we have plenty of rabbits in our yard at home.

We have rain forecast again tomorrow, so we will see what the day brings.  The forecast changes every time I check the weather on my phone, so it could be anything, anytime.

Day 2 at Indian River

 7-11-2012 - Sunday

John got to sleep in this morning until Catalina pulled the blankets off him to wake him up.  She came over to check on us and told us she had to get her dad up.  John said they had the temperature down to about 40 degrees and he was snuggled in.   But once up, then he got busy, ran up to the bait shop for bait, took the boat over and launched it.  I offered him coffee but he got that in the bait shop so he did everything on his own.  After we all had breakfast, we loaded up the boat and headed out, about 9:15.  It was already pretty warm, and there was no breeze.  He drove us over to a nearby island where he had luck before, and we did catch a few fish there.  John caught one as soon as he cast out, then Andrew caught one.  We ended up with 4, 1 for John, 2 for Andrew and 1 for me.  But Andrew caught the best one, a small sheepshead.

We moved across the water to another island we have fished before. 

The good thing about fishing here is that we can get in the water and cool off.  Joe, John and I started fishing; Catalina and kids did a little exploring (they found an anemone and some crabs).  

 Here, we wade out in the lagoon, the water is quite shallow.  John caught a catfish here, but the rest of us didn't have any luck.  We did see a couple dolphins pretty close.  We stayed about 1 1/2 hours, then it got to be time to head in for lunch.  It had gotten cloudy, and we could hear thunder in the distance, so we loaded up.  We were ready to get out of the sun for a while.

John got a little help driving us in.  I forgot to take a picture of Andrew, but here's Catalina at the helm, taking us under the bridge to our campsite.

We got the boat unloaded, then went into our campers to cool off and have some lunch.  The sun drove me and Joe inside again for the afternoon, but the other Froeschkes spent most of the afternoon in the water right in front of our campsites.  Andrew went for a long swim.  Joe and I came out about 5:00.  Grandpa played ladder golf with Andrew and I took Catalina over to the playground.  I found a bench in the shade by the playground so it wasn't too bad over there. She played until it was time for dinner.

We had dinner inside tonight, but John and Joe got a campfire going (84 degrees and a campfire!) and before we called it a night, they roasted marshmallows for s'mores.  Both kids were a mess from the marshmallows so John took them over to the showers, and Joe and I came in to watch the Suns game.  

We didn't have any rain today, just heat and humidity.  But rain is in the forecast tomorrow, thunderstorms including the possibility of hail.  The plan is to be on the boat by 8:00 so we can be back in before any weather front moves in.  We can do without the storms and hail, but a break in the heat would be nice.  And maybe fishing will be better tomorrow.

Day One at Indian River

 7-10-2021

The long-awaited day is finally here.  We have been planning this trip since sometime last year, during the pandemic, and our journey this summer was based on being at John and Bridgette's by July 10 so we could go camping with them.  We all had a few chores to take care of this morning, but we were on the road by 10:05.  It was hot, of course.  For some reason, Catalina chose to wear her pretty party dress for the trip, and she wasn't in the mood for pictures when we stopped for our first break at McDonalds.  That was about 11:15 in Lake Wales.  

The trip over was uneventful.  We did have to fix the top on John's boat, it was ballooning in the wind, apparently one of the straps broke, so when we stopped at McDonalds, the guys took care of that.

We got to the campground right at 2:00, which was check-in time so that worked out perfectly.  We drove 141 miles.  We are at Long Point Park on Indian River Lagoon, just north of Vero Beach.  Sebastian is right across the lagoon from us. We have two great campsites, which John and Bridgette booked some time last year.  This place is usually full in the summer.  Our spaces have lots of room between for the kids to play, and we are right on the water.  In fact, they all got in the water after we got camp set up, but it was too hot for me and Joe, so we stayed inside.

 It was unbearably hot, it took a while for the campers to cool down inside, but they finally did.  And it clouded up enough that we were able to eat outside.  A storm missed us, but we got some thunder and lightning from it.  John grilled hamburgers and hotdogs and we threw a meal together.

We brought some new games for the trip, so Joe is putting together a ladder golf set.  The directions were a bit lacking, but he finally got it figured out.

So then the game was underway.

After Catalina got tired of playing, I took on Andrew.  He says he won, but he kept changing the rules so I'm not so sure of that.  Meanwhile, John put together the other game, a kind of croquet with inflatable balls that you kick through the larger wickets.  But it wasn't made very well, and fell apart almost immediately, so that one was a waste of money.  Hopefully, they will get some use of out the balls.  

Joe had seen a guy go by on some kind of new "segway" type board, with a big wheel in the middle.  They came around again, so I got a quick picture.  We don't know what this is called.

The neighbor walked over with her granddaughter, so the kids played for a while, and we visited with her.  John built a fire, though we certainly were not cold, but it never really took off, so we came inside and played rack-o until it was time to go to bed.  

John didn't put the boat in the water today, but we will go out first thing in the morning.  We are hoping it doesn't get quite as hot and humid today, but the other choice is probably rain, so there's no winning with Florida summer weather.  But at least we have the water, so we an all cool off there. 

Packing Day

 7-9-2021 - Friday

Andrew started his morning with another dentist appointment.  There was a lot to do today, but when they got back, Bridgette took a few minutes to play basketball with the kids.

John had to work all day, but he did take a few minutes this morning to show Joe how he could help.

We all had to go to the grocery store, and they made a trip to Walmart, but by the end of the day, everything was done that could be done today.  It was unbearably hot and humid, I don't think it ever rained but there was some thunder and lightning at one point.  We tried to entertain the kids after dinner with a game of Mexican Train while John and Bridgette worked in the camper and with loading, but Catalina and Andrew were both antsy, getting ready to go on vacation tomorrow.  Everyone is ready to just be there.

We hope to be on the road by 10:00 in the morning, after Bridgette's get her gym workout in, and we finish the final loading.  It's about a 2-hour drive, so sometime shortly after noon, we should be able to start setting up camp.  I'm sure it will be hot and humid over there as well, but we are hoping the ocean breezes will make it more bearable, plus we will be spending time on the boat, and in the water.  Fish, here we come!!!