WE HAVE A WINNER - Ms Renee!!
by Robin

You are right, we're going to the Keys. I'm going to bring you back a souvenir.

I would have called it a vacation, but folks around here seem to call very short trips, in your own state, a staycation. Hmmm...., but we're definitely not staying home. Sorry for any confusion.

Our first clue is of Jack's first house, down in the Keys. He was born & mostly raised in Key West. He roamed the island by bike almost every day of his life. So, we're taking our bikes and going to park the SUV at the hotel.



This is my version of a cheeseburger in paradise. (no cheese) I put it poolside and snapped a shot. Renee, I ate it. I haven't had a homemade hamburger in over 2.5 yrs. It was delicious!! I really can't stand red meat much any more, but this..... well, settled well on my stomach & tastebuds.

My third pic is of the infamous chickens that roam the island. I'm half-tempted to steal some eggs or chicks for my back yard. Maybe that is illegal. I'm not sure. Key West is also famous for a line of 6-toed cats. Funny little island, but I'm very glad observe micro-evolutionary changes. Keys deer are smaller than other deer.

Clue #4 was of Ernest Hemingway's house.

Clue #5 are murals & mosaics that can be found around town. I'm going to steal some decorating ideas for my own house. Maybe even come home w/ some knick-knacks if I can afford them.

Here are a few more pictures I had picked out for the Treasure hunt. Jack wants one of these flags. Conch_Republic This declaration was a tongue-in-cheek protest from 1982.


Fort Jefferson is in the Dry Tortugas which is a National Park out past Key West.
Dry_Tortugas_National_Park Jack's grandmother traveled with her mother frequently out here to take care of the prisioners. One of the most famous was Dr. Mudd who took care of John Wilkes Booth after shooting Abraham Lincoln. The fort was used to house Union Army deserters and held about six hundred prisoners when Mudd and the others arrived. If I remember right, Jack's Great-Grandfather was a guard out here, but when he wasn't doing his civil duties, he was running rum illegally. Yes, we have a little bootlegging in our history. :o) Probably both sides, if truth be known. We will not be able to take the tour boat out to Ft Jefferson on this trip.


We already have a Mile 0 sticker on our SUV, but this is where US 1 starts and then travels all the way up the eastern coast of Florida. I have no idea who the woman is. I got this picture off a travel site.


So, we're counting down the days now. Ten days to go before our mini-trip. I just pray a hurricane doesn't decide to ruin our plans.

CLUE #5

This treasure hunt will continue until somebody guesses it right. Hey, I've got time. The Atlantic is churned up from tropical disturbances, so I've got nothing better to blog about.


Many artists live & visit this destination.

Clue #4
by Robin

Very famous house in the local area.

CLUE #3

by Robin

Sorry for the late posting today. We actually considered cancelling our reservations. What were we thinking?

C'mon y'all. Nobody is guessing.

TUESDAY'S TREASURE CLUE
by Robin

LET'S DO A TREASURE HUNT
by Robin


Every day this week, I'd like to give you a picture and by Saturday, announce where we're "staycationing" next. Jack's company is having forced furloughs so that gives us more time off than we ever have. Given the recession, we're finding deals left & right. We booked a deal this morning.

Here is today's clue.....

Hurricane Bill
by Robin

It looks like my next chances of fishing on Monday will be totally knocked out by Hurricane Bill passing by. Let's hope that he churns up that cold water on the bottom of the sea. Thermocline has been rough this summer on all the bottom fishermen. However, it has cobia running back towards the beaches which the fishermen are liking. We opted to not fish this past Monday and have a slow family day at home.

8.10.09 KINGFISH with JEFF
by Robin

On Monday, Jack and Jeff went out in search of edible fish. Mahi mahi really haven't been around in big numbers like they were in spring & early summer. So, Jack refocused on Kingfish found on 8A. They did troll further out, but after one peanut dolphin, they came back to 8A.

He couldn't get the lines in the water fast enough before the reels would start singing. So, they brought home 3 kings and 1 barracuda. Jeff's wife likes to cook barracuda and this one was relatively "small". Do not keep big barracuda as they have a toxin in them! (The barracuda is the one on the bottom w/ spots.)



We kept one of the smaller kings for smoking and making dip. It was DELICIOUS. We're making a 2nd batch tonight because all our friends & neighbors are addicted to it. ;o) Our basic recipe can be found in the right-hand column of this blog. I have a link there.

THREE SISTERS SPRINGS
by Robin

ThreeSisters.htm (for more info & map)

Forgive all the hazy, out-of-focus pictures. These were taken with the cheapie, disposable, underwater camera.

Below is the entrance or "run" into the springs area. We got here with our own boat, but you can take one of the dozens of tour boats that drop you off here too. There are bars at the entrance so only people & kayaks can make it through.


It is a narrow pass & you will see big boulders on the bottom.


And then, before you know it, everything changes once you get inside. We turned left and were met by blue, crystal clear water & sandy bottom. Here are the boys in front of me.


Looking at a fish.


Here is the middle spring w/ a 17 foot drop. (There are 3 main springs in a small area.)


Here is my eldest diving down to see how far he can get.


.... and needing air again.


Here is my youngest w/ his life-jacket. We did this so if he got exhausted, he wouldn't get stressed out.


Here I am demonstrating how deep it is. I'm not even all the way to the bottom.


Here we are swimming to another spring.


Here we are leaving the springs. The exit is to the right just beyond the kayak.


Here I've made the turn past the kayak and looking at the run back to the boat.


The passe is narrowing.


There is exit up ahead.


Here is Jack waiting for us just outside the exit. He was guarding the boat.

DAY 3 - PLAN B
by Robin

Sometimes you have to give up your plans......




and go with God's plans. (My favorite landscape pic of the trip.)



And then it really is a huge blessing when that spontaneous change of plans ends up being an awesome experience. (Anchoring up in the inlet. Only snorkelers & kayaks are allowed back in the springs.)



So it wasn't meant for us to be scalloping. The water stayed dirty in the river & Gulf and we didn't want to risk another expensive maintenance repair bill. We consulted with Crystal River Watersports marina and they gave us directions to Three Sisters Springs at the head of Crystal River.



This turned out to be better than anything we hoped for while planning the trip. Sure, scallop meat would have been nice, but quality family time can NOT be beat. As the commercial says, "Priceless."





(Little fish in the grassy area.)








(It's safe. I'm in a tank top. Just don't look at my bad hair! )


Out in the main inlet (clue: green grassy water)


Sometimes, the cold water had us back into the boat to warm up. Spring water is 72 deg coming out of the earth. We were in a warm 76-78 deg water area w/ our boat. Little man is playing his Nintendo for a few minutes.


The blue water springs pictures are coming hopefully tomorrow. But, to end this day's shots on the big camera, I had taken this photo of us leaving the area at high tide. We just about didn't make it under the bridge. We had probably only 2" to spare. Look at all the other scrapes from previous boats.

We came in a low tide and glided through 1 ft deep water at one point. YIKES! .... but impressive in our big boat.


Hope you enjoyed these pictures. Wait until you see tomorrow's set of pics with the cheapie underwater cameras. I had lots of fun doing that.

(Oh, yesterday Jack took a coworker fishing for his last day of vacation. They suffered through some extreme heat, but brought home 3 kingfish & 1 barracuda. Jeff's wife loves to cook fish & fish soup. Barracuda is something we don't usually keep because of the possible toxins, but many people say it is delicious on the smaller ones. I guess the kingfish were all over the place. They could have filled the cooler but chose not to. More pics on that another day.)

Happy Fishing!
Robin

End of Day 2
by Robin

After we got out propeller fixed, we headed back out to the Gulf of Mexico once more. The time was roughly 2:30 pm.

There are many off/on points of having to be idle speed for the sake of the manatees. We didn't see a single manatee, but I'm assuming that's because it is summer. In the winter, they probably congregate more in the warm areas of Crystal River.

Below is a picture of a pontoon boat coming in from scalloping. The FWC is checking them for life jackets and then they were released. You can't see it, but there were many folks on this boat.


After clearing all the shallows, we headed south to Waypoint 19 on the TopSpots map, which is some type of man-made structure for oysters to grow on. Just east & south of this area are more rocks. As you can see from our photo below, the wind kicked up and the water visibility was nil. Being strangers to the area and having no boats to follow into the shallow grounds, we decided to nix the trip. We'd already bought one propeller for the day and didn't want to risk another hit or running around.



We headed back to the docks, got showers & dinner, then came back to the boat to secure everything for the night. We had some light spinners with gold spoons on them, so we tried a few casts that evening until the bugs bit us up. I caught this perfect picture of the spoon hitting the water.


Dusk & the sky is turning pink.


Perfect reflection in the inlet.


Every night, our chihuahuas woke us up to let me know that Jack was snoring. LOL - like I didn't notice. It became ritual to take them for 4 am potty walks and see the full moon coming up over the oaks. Sorry for the haze. My camera was so cold from the room and then would fog up with the humid air outside.


While I was capturing pictures at 4 am, I thought I'd take this one of the sign.


Tomorrow, we'll start Day 3 of our mini-staycation at the springs.

CRYSTAL RIVER - Days 1 & 2
by Robin

We left our area about 10:00 am on Tues morning. It was a nice drive over to Crystal River area.

Our first goal was to drop the boat into the water and tie it up to the dock slip that we rented for three days. At this point, we were the only ones there.



This little marina/watersports shop held Manatee, Scallop & Spring Tours every morning. They were very nice here.


We checked into our room and had a beautiful view of these palm trees & the pool.


After grabbing an early dinner/late, late lunch, the boys could think of nothing else but getting into the pool. I caught my youngest suspended in the air. Looks a little bit like he's walking on water.


Day 2, we were ready to leave the docks and find the Gulf of Mexico & scallops.


We all had fresh faces and big dreams for our day. Below is me w/ Tiki.


Jack is happy too even with sweat on his brow. The heat was unbelieveable this day.


We enjoyed seeing the wildlife as we made it through the cut inlet that dumped into Crystal River.


At one point, we hit bottom, but Jack raised the engine and we sailed through without running fully aground. We eventually made it out to the Gulf of Mexico. The water is SOOOO shallow that you have to follow this channel all the way out if you're in a bigger boat. We put "First Choice" at full speed and then...... it happened. A weird sound. I hate weird sounds. We've been so very blessed w/ our Opti-Max, but I remember those bad sounds from the original engine that came w/ our boat. Our r.p.m.s increased for no reason. Jack said we had to turn around and head back in or risk being stuck in the water. I cannot express the sadness of being 1.5 mi from scallops and having to turn around.


I cried & prayed a little on the way back in. I thought our entire vacation was over and even worse, our engine may have damage that could exceed $1000, $1200 or worse, $1500. I had to really encourage myself by repeating faith Scriptures and finding trust in Him. Jack gets the idea to stop at the marina that we passed on the way out. It turned out to be a very wise decision to make. We weren't there 5 minutes and the boat was up & out of the water.


This is never a good picture to take on your vacation. It still makes me want to cry just thinking of those feelings of despair. What I didn't know was that they were all pretty happy to see so very little damage and the prop was "spun", which was suppose to be an easy $45 fix. The only problem was that our prop needed to shipped off for the repair and couldn't be done on the spot by these mechanics. So, we bought an emergency spare propeller.


We were back on our way in less than 20 minutes. We headed back out to towards the Gulf of Mexico. THANK YOU TWIN RIVERS MARINA!!! You're the BEST!!!!

Story to be continued............