Wednesday, July 24, 2013

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to CAPTAIN JACK!!!

by Robin

Yes, my sweetie is another year old but like cheese or wine, he's getting finer with each year.

Love,
First Mate,
Robin

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

LIVE WEBCAM!!

by Robin

 photo 100_5955BlueEyes.jpg Look at what I found!  The Plantation at Crystal River has a live web-cam on top of their restaurant!!!!


http://www.plantationoncrystalriver.com/live-web-cam.htm









I absolutely can't wait to get to vacation.  Can you tell?


 photo DSCN0172RobinSm.jpg


On another topic, we ate the last of our frozen vermillion snapper. It's time to go fishing again. Below is a picture taken from one of our spring fishing trips.  Couldn't buy a mahi bite on the troll so we bottom dropped and picked up something for the freezer.

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Must. get. more. fish!  Of course, with these daily massive fronts moving through w/ lots of lightening, it makes me want to stay in my house.



Happy Fishing,
Robin

Monday, July 22, 2013

6.4 MILES!!

by Robin

Jack and I did it!  We walked 6.4 miles over the local bridge today.  It is 1.6 miles each round trip and we did it 4x.

 photo DSC00158MaxBrewerBridge.jpg

We began at 2:10 and finished at 4:10.  We knew the afternoon storms were going to come early before we could do a night walk, so we planned to go early.  It was awful when the sun was out fully.  But, whenever I could take it any more, I prayed and asked God for a cloud.  Really, it was joking but it felt more than coincidental that God continuously answered my prayer over and over again with shade.

We had water at the half-way mark but oh... it gave me some cramps to fight through.  Almost wished I wasn't so thirsty.

Before we knew it, we were done.  We got in the car to drive home and rain started dripping down.  Jack laughed saying that it was like God was hearing my every prayer.  (Should have prayed for a million bucks!)

We took a swim in the pool to loosen our muscles.  It started sprinkling again.  We decided to celebrate as a family with a little Mexican food.  After our meal, we were driving home and a massive dark front began to cover our car.  I couldn't wait to get to cover.  It poured & lightening for a short while.

When we thought it had all cleared, our son went to take the dogs potty.  He was telling us how beautiful & orange the sky was.  Many of my friends posted it up on FB, including pics with rainbows.  Gorgeous.

Here is my own photo of our orange-pink sky.  It was on fire and yet we were still covered in clouds.  This picture doesn't do it justice.  It was like watching the world with orange-shaded sunglasses on.


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What a magnificent day!  I love Sundays!  I love my walks with my hubby.  I love feeling stronger and healthier.

On a separate note, only 20 more days until we go on our scalloping vacation.  Can't wait!

Robin

Saturday, July 20, 2013

5 Miles!!!

by Robin

We officially made it 3 times back and forth over the bridge completing 4.8 miles and then cooled down for a full 5 mile walk!!

Tonight, we were suppose to do it again but the evening thunderstorms have been ruining our walks (or cutting them short).  Tomorrow, we are shooting for 5 miles again.

You know, you have to be very fit to scallop all week.  I'm also working during the week with my upper body strengthening.  Heaven knows that going in and out of the boat all week will certainly tire me out.

Happy Fishing if you can get offshore.  I have heard of some cobia being caught in our area.  And there are more talks of Red Snapper opening up for Aug 23-25th, but that is still being debated.


Thursday, July 11, 2013

EXERCISING - FLORIDA STYLE

by Robin

Sometimes I just can't believe that I live in a state where people dream about vacationing.  I am so blessed to be here  EVERY day.  I've lived in snow, in very hilly area and now Florida for 11 years.

Recently, Jack and I began exercising together.  This is my route.  Other than walking the beach, it doesn't get much prettier than this.

 photo DSC00158MaxBrewerBridge.jpg

And the breeze is amazing even after a long hot day.  Each direction is .8 miles and so we're committing to 1.6 miles every single time we go over.  We have been walking it twice, but are very close to making 3 passes back-n-forth.  The sunsets are amazing too.

The other day, we were parking for our walk and saw a handful of these guys doing stunts in front of their GoPro camera.  I snagged a couple pictures.

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I would love to try this once to see if I can do it (of course, staying on the water!).  It looks like so much fun.

God bless & Happy Fishing.
Robin

Tuesday, July 09, 2013

WE'RE BOOKED!!!

by Robin

We found a new location to be our base while we scallop in August.

http://www.plantationoncrystalriver.com/

I think our room will be in the building to the top-right of the pool.  We can park the boat right in front of our room.  It's going to be a fantastic vacation.

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And at night, we can relax our sore muscles in this gorgeous pool.

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Well, that's a sneak preview of our upcoming trip.  Also, we are invited some new friends with us.  They will join us a couple of the days.

We are praying for good weather and NO HURRICANES!!!

Happy Fishing,
Robin

Monday, July 08, 2013

4th of JULY FOOD!

by Robin

 We had some wonderful food around our house for 4th of July. I only spent $40 on seafood and fed the 4 of us two different meals that would have cost us well over $100 in a restaurant. For lunch, we fried up some oysters that were already shucked for $14.99/ pt container. There were 2 plates full and so we loaded up our sandwiches. The guys added cheese to theirs. We had tomatoes, onion, homemade dressing and ate like Kings (& 1 Queen).

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Very filling lunch for us as we did a small list of honey-do's. Then, in the late afternoon, my youngest and I knocked out the other couple dishes for dinner.

 We seared the outside of a small marinated (overnight) pork loin that had a dry rub on it all day. After it was seared, we added a little bit of Diet C*ke into a double-tin foil wrapping and put it into the oven at 225 for 2 hrs. It slowly cooked all by itself. We let it rest for maybe another hour before dinner was served.  This was the end result.  Very moist and tender.


   photo 2013-07-04170340PorkLoin.jpg

 These thinly sliced pieces made into more hoagies for those that were still hungry after the seafood. Oh... back to seafood. Right.

   photo 2013-07-04170435Shrimp.jpg

 Boiled some already de-headed shrimp for a couple minutes. Seriously, shrimp do not take long so don't overcook them. We put them on ice immediately and into the frig they went. We prepared a homemade dipping sauce of ketchup, horseradish (hot) and lime juice. Yum!  (If you're keeping up with the costs, I think these were $13.99/lb.  I bought 1 lb.  Normally, I can get a better deal on this, but the day before a holiday, it just didn't fall into place for me.)

   photo 2013-07-04170353Clams.jpg

 Then, I steamed the clams until they opened up. Middle-necks are only $4.99 for a dozen and so I bought 2 dozen. Our local guys always give us a handful more in case some do not open up.

Never eat a clam that is open BEFORE you cook it (dead) or is CLOSE after you steam or grill it. Something is wrong with it.

 We made a Smart Balance, hot sauce, lemon juice broth to drizzle over the clams. Yummy, but I don't eat much of this. The oils in the smart balance can sometimes gives me reflux issues... Oh, but it is so good.

Now, that is our meal. Of course, we top it off with good veggie sides and usually a pie. This year, I got slack and made the pie 5 days later. ha ha.

God bless & Happy Fishing. Our water was blown up again last week and THIS week, we get Tropical Storm Chantel to stir up the waters.

Robin

Monday, July 01, 2013

STING RAYS

by Robin

One day, our family went offshore fishing for mahi and vermillion snapper.  We trolled and trolled without success.  We did come home with a bunch of "beeliners" as they are nicknamed.  So much fun!

But, best treat of all was to come across this school of Sting Rays about mid-way home.

I have video of them from above and below the water.  I am SO THANKFUL I actually remembered to take my underwater camera.  I rarely do that.

Here they are.
ABOVE WATER

School of Sting Rays from Robins Reports on Vimeo.

UNDERWATER
(I was not swimming with them. I merely held the camera under the water at the back of the boat.)

Underwater view of sting rays from Robins Reports on Vimeo.

BOOKED IT!!

by Robin

We booked our scalloping vacation. 

We've gotten bigger. (taking friends)
We've gotten bolder. (booking a week)
We've gotten better. (going to the Plantation instead of Days Inn)

We are so EXCITED!!!! 


We have not been fishing much. We went out a couple weeks ago but got skunked for tripletail.  Saw many cool things like dolphin & sharks but not edible fish.  I haven't blogged any of it, but maybe I should make that my goal.

For now, we wish you a wonderful 4th of July week.

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