Snorkeling, Lobstering and Boca...

During our last weekend our friends planned some really fun activities. This was extremely nice of them to plan because I was starting to get a little stressed in regards to packing, cleaning, worrying about our deposit on the apartment etc.. so I could not wait to get out on the water.

Dave and Annette took a small group of us on a boat ride to a little sandbar for sun and a picnic. The sandbar was located in the channel that leads toward Snipe, Cher and Frogger beach. On our attempted journey with K&K we had stopped at a similar place because we were unable to make it all the way to Cher and Frogger. We stayed at this little sandbar long enough to enjoy a few beverages and to eat our lunches. After eating we headed back to Dave and Annette's house to exchange for some more beverages and to gather some snorkeling equipment for a lobstering adventure.

Not a great image but this is along the pathway to the sandbar that we had our lunch 

Our lunch view was something more like this..

I have done a number of amazing things in Key West, and in all honesty I love crabbing.. it is fun trying to snag the buoys and the anticipation while pulling up the crab pot just adds to the experience. Also there is not much that can compare to a dinner of fresh crab.  I think though, I may have found my most favorite experience. I am pretty sure in previous life I was a mermaid and when you go lobstering this plays right into that previous life for me. To begin, when you lobster you are wearing snorkel gear or at least a mask with the snorkel, a "tickle" stick and a net. Next, you need to find areas the lobsters like to hide. They tend to be around rocks, sunken ships, or man made areas. When you are in the water with your snorkel gear on you are scanning the areas for the antennas of the lobster. At first, it can be very difficult to understand what you are searching for. I saw my first antenna sticking out of a small sunken flat bottom boat. After you locate the lobster the fun begins. You may be wondering what a "tickle" stick is and how you get a lobster into the net. I know you are wondering because I wondered the same thing. The "tickle" stick is used to literally tickle the lobsters out of hiding, generally when you touch them with it it causes them to move - even they hate being tickled- the interesting thing regarding lobster is they swim backwards. Once the lobsters are removed/tickled out from their hiding spot you place your net behind them and then continue to probe them.. they swim backward right into the net.. but the fight is not over. As soon as the lobsters hit the net you need to quickly turn the net in a manner that twists the net around which cause the opening to become closed.. if you do not do this the lobsters hit the net.. realize they are going to be trapped and quickly change directions shooting out the net the same way they came it.

As I swam down toward the small flat bottom boat I had a brief realization I did not have the lung capacity to fully enjoy the experience. Then, I think my mermaid life kicked in because the more times we dove the longer I was able to stay below to watch the techniques. I decided to partake in the experience.. grabbing a tickle stick I handed Rick a net and we dove down to try to snag our first lobster. Approaching the boat, I wanted to get all the way to the ocean floor because I wanted to see what I was tickling. Looking along the edge of the boat there were no less than 10 lobster sitting there waiting to be caught. Taking my stick I managed to dislodge a few of them and Rick was there to snag them. The problem with lobstering is that when you are in the ocean snorkeling things seem bigger than they actually are. Like crabbing, there are limits on what lobsters you can keep. Dave and Annette have been lobstering many times but have not had any large enough to meet the minimum requirement so they always have to throw them back. With that in mind it was practically a miracle that we had collected 2 keepers. On my 5th or 6th approach I noticed a set of antennas that may be thicker than the others. I did my best to tickle at the lobster attached to these antennas. Just then a very large, very mad lobster came out from under the boat. If he had a voice it would have been east coast and he would have been saying something like "Hey.. what.. you want some of this?!" He had his lobster claws up in the air.. his antennas were erect on top of his head and the his flipper things on his tail were splayed outward making him look very menacing. I am pretty sure that his demeanor would have scared off potential predators because I screamed in my snorkel and went immediately to the surface. Another guy in our group had to go back down to get him in the net.

Here is his images once we got back to shore...

He is menacing.. 

After our day on the sea and all the water I drank while we snorkeled for lobster we elected to spend a quiet night at home eating delicious Tai Island.

Then next day we got a call from Dave and Annette for another day of snorkeling as well as Boca Grand beach. Piling into two boats we took off toward >>> While we road in the boat toward our snorkeling destination Rick spotted a lone dolphin, but when we slowed down it disappeared and didn't come back to the surface. Rick and I had been to >>> the year we got married. It was the day before our wedding when our families took a snorkeling excursion and day trip. Needless to say we learned that day that the excursions go out regardless of if they should and that my mom really needs a life jacket... not the ones you can blow air into.

This particular day was a perfect snorkeling day. The sea was calm and everything was very clear. I didn't get images of this but I know that Dave video taped a bunch and I will see if I can get some of those videos. After we snorkeled we proceeded to Boca Grand. To remind you this is what Boca looks like..

We spent the day hanging on the beach with very fun people and beautiful weather. There was only one down fall that we learned about the next week. As we hung out at Erin and Phil's house the last week we lived in Key West, Erin informed us of a not so fun fact. One of Erin's friend's dad had been fishing just off of Boca Grand and he caught the following

Yes my friends that is a very large hammer head shark and it was caught very very close to where we hang out at Boca Grand... The next time we are there I may not get in the water!

On Sunday make sure to kiss your mothers..


Rick and McKenzie

K&K stay in Key West

Every year, or at least for the past 5 or so, Kurt and Kim visit Key West for about 1 month.  Rick and I had been looking forward to this month since we moved to K.W. because we had learned so much about our island and the surrounding water and we couldn't wait to share it with them. K&K arrived at the end of January - and as luck would have it Rick and I were out on our bike ride. We had decided that we wanted to go to an art/craft show that was set up on whitehead street, and of course by we I mean I decided that I would like to go to the craft show and I persuaded Rick by promising booze. Oh who am I kidding we went for booze and we happened upon an arts show.  This is what we were doing when Kurt and Kim arrived at the Galleon.  We met up with them in the late afternoon at their boat and spent the evening drinking, eating and chatting.

Over the next few days and weeks we did our best to spend time with K&K but with work during the week it was a little difficult. The days that we got to spend with K&K we would either go shopping, hang out at the back of their boat or go up to the Galleon's pool area. If I had known that the Galleon was pretty accessible for everyone I would have been there a lot. One of the best thing about the Galleon pool area is that Monday -Thursday you got to play bingo. The cards were $5 a piece and the prizes were money.  The blackout bingo prize could be up to $200 or maybe $250 depending on how many people were staying at the Galleon and bought bingo cards. Unfortunately, a little busy body lady was at the pool one day and it happened to be during a week where a lot of families were there with their kids. The kids had won a few of the games and the prizes were $20 (ish) dollars.. this lady turned in the Galleon for underage gambling and the prizes have now changed. Only twice a week will the prize be money and the other days they give away bags and drink cups. The day I got to play bingo at the pool I learned I am to competitive for bingo. There was a group of people at the pool with southern accents and they got to laughing at me because I was caught unknowingly mumbling curse words when I didn't get a number on my bingo card. Sadly none of us won that day at bingo.. I am not surprised by this because it is very rare for me to win prizes when it is a raffle or bingo. I figure that one day all this losing will allow me to win the lottery.. bring on those millions.

Besides lounging at the pool, we went on an excursion. K&K's boat type is an aft cabin. This means that they have a huge butt that makes their center of gravity very high. Needless to say wind and their boat are NOT friends because it makes their boat very very hard to maneuver.  The day we were going to attempt our excursion to Cher and Frogger beach it was a low to mildly windy day with winds out of the north east - this was the direction we were headed and that could be an issue. Rick and I went to White Tarpon to grab some sandwiches for lunch. White Tarpon is located in the marina area of Key West between Alonzo's oyster place and The Boat House. White Tarpon is a deli style restaurant and bar. They also carry wines and beer. I had been there for the hurricane party as well as Rick and I once ate dinner under their outdoor patio while listening to music. After snagging our lunches we hurried back to the boat for our outing.

Accompaning K&K's boat is a dingy that has been very nice for outings. As stated the Thompson's boat is not that easy to maneuver so the dingy allows for K&K (and friends/family) to investigate surrounding areas with less stress. It was elected to take the dingy on this adventure because if was going to be much easier to use. Here is an image of our vessel :)

Once we were all on board we started off toward Cher and Frogger. I was really excited to show K&K this area because it is just so beautiful. We headed out through the navigational beacons which was a really nice calm ride. Here are a few images of our ride.. sorry they are blurry but my new water proof case apparently doesn't like distant images.

After traversing between the reds and the greens we turned the corner and hit the waves. The waves were not by any means huge but when you are in a vessel that is literally on the same level as the water any wave is bad and it likes to splash over the front of the boat. We made it approximately 15-20 more minutes before as a group we elected to turn around. Once we were headed with the waves the ride was back to being very pleasant. Unfortunately, Rick and I never got the chance to show our knowledge of K.W ocean surroundings to K&K but I think that is just an excuse to head back as a group for vacation.

In a previous blog I had mentioned that Tyler and Sherry came to visit us. During that time we took them through the marina and we had stopped at Kurt and Kim's boat. As we walked toward the boat the three of us had noticed a very beautiful aqua green/blue fishing boat. The boat was equipped with matching paddle boards and next to the fishing boat was a small wooden sailboat that may have been associated with the fishing boat. Here is an image.

The following day I received a message from Kim regarding the fishing boat and sailboat. Apparently the boats belonged to none other than Jimmy Buffet. The day before they had noticed a bunch of movement surrounding the recording studio - which is located along the board walk in the marina area- and that was the day after these boats had arrived. It was rumored around the marina area and the Galleon that Mr. Buffet was in the area recording but those are they types of rumors you hear all the time. "Oh the Kardashians are down from Miami... Nick Carter is out at Sunset Key... We saw George Strait at the grocery store... Christain Bale owns a house... Ophra owns a house... JayZ and Beyonce own an island" etc.. but who knows when these things are true. During the course of about a week Kurt and Kim chatted with Mr. Buffet's body guards, watched him eating a sandwich and also watched him give an interview from the back of his fishing boat. When I write that it sounds a little creepy of K&K to watch him eat a sandwich but in all fairness they only kinda watched him. You see between their boat and his boats was a giant tug boat that obstructed their view.

Rick nor I got the opportunity to see him while he was on the island.. hopefully next time.


xoxoxo

Rick and McKenzie 

Traits we get from our parents..

As children we don't fully realize that we are slowly becoming miniature versions of our parents. In fact, I feel, that most kids think they are never going to become their parents but alas we are, and besides one tiny little characteristic I got from my dad I am pretty happy with who I am becoming. My parents are the best, they are positive influences and they know when to push their kiddos as well as when to lay off of them for a while and let them make their own decisions and mistakes, all the while knowing we will eventually come to them for advice. Yesterday was my Dad's birthday. 

We as his children may give him a hard time for the grumbles he makes when he is hungry ~"Give me my sandwich" or if you ever came to our house in high school he would immediately ask "If you wanted him to grill something".. nowadays you need to make sure that you do not sneak up on him from the right, he cannot see you coming and you may scare him a bit. All of these things we laugh about and he laughs about but I am going to tell you, Dad, there is one characteristic that I mentioned above that I am not so happy you passed down and that is sleepwalking. Yep that is right, my Dad is, or at least used to be a sleepwalker. In fact he was enlisted in the Navy but in boot camp they realized he was a sleepwalker and released him. So here are some stories for your enjoyment, of this little trait you passed along to your youngest daughter. 

It started when I was in 5th or 6th grade. I wanted so badly to stay up but my bedtime was still 8:30 and my now junior high sister's bedtime had increased to 9 or maybe 9:30. Of course I wanted to stay up but I wandered down to my room and fell asleep when I was trying to stay up as long as Sam. The rest of the story is from my Dad and Sam's perspective as I was asleep and do not remember. I apparently came walking down the hallway towards the living room where Sam and Dad were watching TV. I didn't say anything but went straight for the door at that time Dad asked where I was going. I think I grumbled something about outside.. and Dad being the smart man he is convinced me to walk back to bed. Nothing funny happened during my first sw experience but we all had a good laugh about it the next day because I do no remember any of it. 

Since that first walk, they have become more elaborate and I can related them to stress. The more stress I feel the more likely I am to get out of bed. Once my mom had purchased a duvet from Pottery Barn that I had wanted so bad. It was white on one side and off-white on the other. I was stressed enough about that Duvet getting ruined that I had a dream about it. In my dream I am laying in bed and the fan in our room is spraying paint every where.. I decide I need to save the duvet because it is new.. and white. I get out of bed walk to Rick's side of the bed and abruptly pull the duvet off the bed in one sweep. I then roll the duvet up and shove it under the bed.. I walk back to my side and lay down. About the time I hit the bed I am fully awake and realize that I literally just rolled the duvet up and shoved it under the bed. Rick turns to me and says "McKenzie are you awake?" to which I hastily and embarrassingly say "Yes" and I get out of bed and grab the smooched up duvet and pull it out from under the bed... and replace it. 

Here in K.W my stress level has been pretty high on a weekly if not a daily basis. When we first moved down here I dreamt many times that the island was sinking or flooding and we needed to get to higher ground. One night in the not so distant past I had this particular dream 3 times.. We are in our room and it is night time. There is a storm outside, it is thundering and lightning and I am immediately nervous about our home. I decide I need to check it for Rick and Bentley's safety... so I get out of bed and walk to the door that goes onto our screened in porch. The door is literally two feet from where I sleep, but the lock is kind of a bitch to turn. I finally get the door unlocked and the storm outside has slowed down so I know that our house is going to be just fine.. but I need to check anyway. I walk over the the door nearest to the house - oh by the way in this dream our houses is a house boat and I am checking to make sure the ropes have not come unhooked or loosened... I open the door and look down to check the ropes.. SHIT oh no oh no.. I am wide awake and I am standing outside in the screened porch looking down the fence line of our house, there are no ropes, there is no water, and it is not raining... I turn and go back to our room and lay down. My heart is pumping because I have never gone outside before.. ever. Not only did I have this same dream three times that night, all three times I found myself outside. Thanks Dad. 

I hope you laughed a little and in all actuality there are so many more stories. Thank god Rick it doesn't bother Rick..he is so polite about it and usually just tells me to go to bed. Unless I hug him to save him.. then he just decided to go limp hahaha. 

Hope you enjoyed these stories Dad, and I hope you had a nice birthday and didn't work to hard. Love you and see you soon :) 

xoxoxo

McKenzie. 

The beginning of something new..??

Dear Friends, Family and Followers,

The past 7 months have been challenging. Rick and I moved to an island far far away from everything we have ever known. Luckily, we had friends here that took us into their island life and made us feel more than welcome and at peace with our decision. We also met some amazing people along the way and our weekends were filled with at least one new activity, which we loved. 

Over the past month, or so, Rick and I have held some very lengthy in depth discussion regarding our goals for this next chapter, the post vet school lives we are now living. There are multiple factors affecting our decision but, we have decided it is time to leave Neverland and return to the heartland. 

Brother John is flying into K.W next week (weather dependent) and will be helping us drive back.  We are expecting to roll into central Iowa around March 1-4. The actual date depends again, upon weather. I know this all may seem very sudden, but that is because we wanted it to be a SURPRISE. Sam said we should just roll into town and act like we never left.. and for quite a while I agreed with her.. but now I think we should share the news. 

Sorry if you missed out on visiting while we lived here, but if you are wanting a nice vacation I can write up a pretty epic and enjoyable tour de Key West. 

xoxo 

Rick and McKenzie 

Tyler and Sherry Visit Key West

My dear friend Sherry is a classmate of mine from Vet school. Sherry and Tyler are currently residing in Ocala Florida where she is kicking ass at an equine internship. We have been talking about them coming to visit, but with an internship time off is extremely hard to come by. Luckily, she got three days off in a row (YES) and they made the 8 hour drive last weekend.

As luck would have it I am currently not working Friday (poor Rick) so I was able to great them when they got to our house. They arrived just after lunch and I was so excited to see them I may have teared up a bit. After getting them settled, Tyler also had to do some work so Sherry and I got on the bikes and went to Smather's beach to enjoy the sunshine. We spent the afternoon discussing our jobs, what we were going to do next and soaking in the wonderful sunshine. I may have said to Sherry "living in Florida I thought you would be tanner" but that is the life of an intern. After our beach time we went back to gather Tyler and Rick for our evening out. Sherry and Tyler had never been to Key West and they said they wanted a typical K.W adventure. We decided that meant a sunset and Duval Street. Well after waiting 40 min for a cab we missed the sunset but we took them to Mallory Square anyways to catch a glimpse of the performers. Tyler and Sherry also got some good pictures of the sailboats coming back from their sunset sails. After getting a drink from Andy at the Westin we walked past Captain Tony's where people were attempting to throw the quarter into the fish's mouth. I actually have no idea what you get if you accomplish this feat, but it is pretty fun to attempt. You have to stand partially in the street and face away from the fish. You then toss a quarter over your head in an attempt to land it in the fish's mouth. Sidenote: I have accomplished this once, with Phil, Erin and Rick as witnesses. It was during a quiet night around 3 in the morning on my third attempt.. Rick has yet to get this done. John when you are here and we finish your original bday list, the fish is being added to the list. Anyways, back to Tyler and Sherry, after waiting a few minutes watching a woman facing the fish throwing underhand not make it into the fishes mouth we practically pushed Tyler into the street to get his shot at victory. They both only took one shot and neither got it-but I feel like next time they will for sure land it.

Tyler's throwing his quarter

Sherry- don't hit the baby!!! 

We then headed to Rum Barrel for dinner and conversation. At the rum barrel the few drinks we had prior started to blur the situation. This is where Rick and I quietly discussed what else we could have Sherry and Tyler do in order to get a good experience. If I had talked Rick into it we would have taken them to Aqua to take in a drag show but that can be for their next visit to K.W. Leaving Rum Barrel we headed down Duval toward their first task at Virgilios. Along the way we stopped at the world smallest bar for roadies. I had never stopped there before but the service was great and the bartender made fun of my drink of choice. (Coke and fireball courtesy of Annette and Dave). Our walk to Virgilio's was full of us trying to point out things, walking, talking and drinking. I think I said that every single place was my favorite, but I only spoke the truth. At Virgilios we had them climb the wall - then we went to Margaritavill where we had beverages and they may or may not have gotten a souvenir salt shaker (I know nothing). After this we went to the Porch and met up with Dave and Annette. The Porch is a large house turned into a wine and beer bar at the corner of Duval and Caroline. The Porch has a neat atmosphere, but is very small so it becomes crowded pretty quickly. After the Porch we went to Smokin Tuna.because all Sherry wanted was live music.

Like they were born to do wall climbing :) 

At Margaritaville - with a creeper in the background

They were so excited to go to Margaritaville 

I swear the next story only happens to Rick. So we are at Smokin Tuna, where we met up with Joe and Cher at the bar off the dance floor area. Rick is wearing a Hog's Breath T-shirt. I am a few feet away sitting at a table talking to Sherry and Tyler when I look over and see a woman holding up a shirt and talking to Rick. To set the scene a little Rick is right next to the bar with his back to it, Joe and Cher are on his right, Dave and Annette are to his left and the woman holding the shirt is directly across from him. I can hear Cher saying yeah do it Rick that is a nice shirt. So I being the wife, walk over to find out what is going on.. the woman is in the middle of saying "no no all you have to do is take off your shirt and put this one on and it is yours." I take one second to decide what I think Rick should do and yell "YEAH YEAH YEAH TAKE IT OFF!!!" Rick gives me that look like are you serious, to which I again reply you should definitely do this. My shy hot husband drops his head and says okay.. takes off the Hog's Breath Shirt - we all hoot and holler - and puts on the Smokin Tuna shirt. The woman thanks him and leaves to go back to her seat. The rest of the night all Rick said was how tight the new shirt was, but the rest of us enjoyed it.

Rick's new awesome T-shirt!!

Although the music was really good at Smokin Tuna with Rusty Lemmon and company singing, we headed over to Sloppys. If you come to K.W it is a bar you must go to at least for a drink. Sloppy's was very very busy and when we got their the dj was playing club music and the dance floor was packed. We were not sure if anyone was going to be performing but alas the band came out. Again let me set this up, the bands name was "Juliano Brothers" (www.julianobrothers.net) and they were a band of three (or four) and they are older gentleman that look like they came from an Italian mafia. They are not small men, but they could play pretty great 80s rock. The next thing I know they are asking if there are bachelorette parties and birthday parties in the bar. Of course there were quite a few and one particular bride got on stage. She was petite, brunette, "innocent" looking girl but the longer she stayed up there the more the crowd got a show. She had her shirt up and her skirt hiked and there were hip thrusting and money flying up on stage. I thought the band members were going to have a heart attack...

Her husband to be is going to have his hands full - but most of the men said that  "he was one lucky guy"

She ended up not showing anything but her bra.. but I think both Tyler and Sherry may have been a little shocked. They have never been to fantasy fest.. After this bride was done with her debut another group of girls from a bachelorette party got on stage to perform - they weren't as fun - Rick did take a video and sent it to my brother and others to taunt them I think. Although this bachelorette party had t-shirts made and at some point they had given a shirt to a guy. He also got on stage after a few minutes and his strip tease was better than the first bride. It was all Magic Mike for a few minutes. After both shows we grabbed a cab and headed home because we still had so much to cram into the short time Tyler and Sherry were with us.

The next morning we went to Harpoon Hairy's for breakfast and walked Tyler and Sherry around the marina. We showed them Jimmy Buffet's recording studio and they got the joy of seeing the gigantic tarpon swimming in the marina. We also walked them down to see Kurt and Kim's boat. After getting a buzz from Kurt's infamous Bahama Mama's I took Sherry to the best sandal place in the country - Keno's. After Keno's we headed home to get ready for Joe's bday party at Higg's beach.

Cher had set up a wonderful Top Gun themed beach party. Complete with printed out Top Gun images and sayings that were used as decorations in the tree and on the food table. Phil was in charge of grilling some delicious burgers and hotdogs. It was a great day..and then volleyball started. We could not use a net because it was harder to get on a court then you would think. So we improvised by setting up our beach chairs, drawing lines in the sand and Phil was in charge of the height of the net. Although if there were any women across from him his net level lowered considerably :) We finally got a net right before sunset and had a really fun game. My next house will have a volleyball court for sure..either by pool, sand, grass, or corn I do not care I will have one. After our four hours of vball we took Tyler and Sherry to get the sand cleaned up and to Hog Fish for dinner and more wonderful conversation. The next morning before they left us we ended their trip at Old Town Bakery.

I hope Tyler and Sherry got a Key West experience they will not forget - we were so happy they came to see us:)

xoxo 
Rick and McKenzie 

Deep Sea Fishing.

I was not sure if we'd get an opportunity to go fishing when we lived down here. Mainly because to charter a boat is pretty expensive and well that is our only excuse. But luckily, Phil had been mentioning fishing during a couple of conversations and my happiness and excitement over the idea of ocean fishing kept increasing. So prior to our volunteering for the half marathon we had made plans to go fishing.

To refresh, on Sunday morning we were up at 4:45 AM to unload tons and tons of water for the half marathon. We had just finished with the water. We were sore and hypoglycemic, I may have had a Chuck the bear moment (grrr), and we quickly drove home to get our things for fishing. The weather had been very good over the past few days and so I was not expecting very bad seas that may make me sick. Fun fact about me is that I do get a little sea sick if the water is rolling to much. This is hard to embrace because we spend so much time on water in Iowa as well as here in Florida. In running around grabbing all the necessities I realized that my dad had prepared me well for this adventure. I packed: sunscreen, a Cabella's hat, long pants, long sleeve shirt, close toed shoes and water. We also stopped at the store for other necessities: sandwiches, chips and beer. We were on the boat and ready to go at 8 AM. On our fishing trip was our Captain Phil as well as Dave, Brad and us. I said Dad prepared me well, but in actuality I didn't use the long pants or close toed shoes. It is the Keys and I am pretty sure the only non-flip flop shoes I have worn are for work...

Leaving the Navy housing base we headed out to sea.. or so I thought but in actuality we had to get some bait. Brad got out a very large net. The net was weighted at the bottom and attached to the weighted end was a large draw string. The object is to use the boat like a herding dog to draw the baitfish toward the shore. Once near the shore the person with the net casts it out and over the baitfish. The weights sink the net  quickly to the bottom and you pull the drawstring to bring the weights together forming a closed net.  You then pull the net up and dump the baitfish onto the deck of the boat. Once on the boat you designate a man to gather the bait (Rick) and place them into the livewell for use later. Brad threw the net three times to collect enough bait for us to use.

Brad looking for bait

The cast..

The catch!! 

After collecting part of our bait for the day we headed out to sea. The area we were going to fish was about 10 miles off shore and very very deep. Phil decided to take us to a little honey hole first so we have our best chance at catching something. The ride out to the honey hole was comfortable - the seas were about 2-3 feet with rolling waves. I have seen the deep ocean one other time in my life, I forgot how indigo blue it is and images do not really do the color justice. Once to our spot, Phil gave us the low down on how the deep drop works. First, you string your line with about 6 hooks. Each hook is attached to an eyelet and are about 5 inches or less apart. Then, you add weights to the end of the line. Brad brings out two very large round weights, each weighing about 3 lbs. Finally, you bait the hooks. The bait we used on the stringer was squid and some other bait fish I had never heard of. The fishing pole was not like any I had seen before, the reel was massive and the line was 300 pound test.

The rig

Once the line was ready we dropped her into the honey hole and waited. As the line kept going and going out I started to pay attention to my surroundings. We were so far off shore that you could not see it, and at one point an empty freighter came within a mile of us - they are huge vessels. I also noticed that the waves were in the most perfect rolling succession and they were large enough that you could pretty easily lose your balance if you were not anticipating the roll. FINALLY, the line hit the bottom of the ocean and it was time to fish. According to prior stories Phil told us that you do not see the reel thump like you would at a lake because the line is so deep, but you do get a feel for the very small change the more times you deep drop. About that time both Phil and Brad were pretty sure we had some fish on the line--let the reeling begin!!

After both Brad and Phil took a turn reeling in the fish I took a crack at the last 200 feet or so. The boys were nice enough to move the reel into a position along the edge of the boat that would be easier to reel in. I am not going to lie I completely understand why someone created an electric reel to do all the work. Phil said that he will not purchase one of these until he brings in a sword fish. He once reeled in a shark- what kind I have no idea but apparently it was not as cool as a sword fish. Anyways.. I am reeling and reeling and reeling and REEELLLINNNG and my arm is super tired. The fish on the reel had better be so huge.. the last 50 feet I swear my shoulder had never been this tire and I hear the distinct sound of disappointment from Phil and Brad- NO FISH!! All that effort for the 6 pound weights on the end of the line. I need to start lifting, YIKES! That was the only drop we did where we did not catch any fish. The remaining drops we would bring up 2-5 fish. There were a couple of times that we lost a hook due to something large taking them. The fish we caught were Tielfish.

Phil reeling in our catch

After we caught our first fish it was time to have a beer because the pressure was off Phil to put us on fish. I grabbed a delicious cold beverage and took a big gulp.. we dropped our third time.. I took another gulp. I remembered Brad saying when I got onto the boat "Either of you get sea sick" to which I replied "yes" .. I was semi- reassured that the ocean was going to be fairly calm because of the direction of the winds and I made the command decision to not take dramamine because I didn't want to sleep through our trip.. my third gulp of beer this thought came to my forebrain and I cursed myself because I felt the beginning of nausea. Oh no oh no oh no.. I am the only girl on this fantastic boat, this is my first fishing trip I am NOT going to chum the water! I continued to carry the half full beer around.. I took my turns on reeling up some fish... I took a tablet of dramamine (what a baby) and I did my best to stare at the horizon. By the last drop I was grasping onto the edge of the upchuck cliff.. when I heard the greatest words out of Phils mouth "Lets do some trolling" In my head the clouds parted and angels were singing Phil's praise because I was that close to losing it.
For the first 40 minutes of our trolling I sat cross legged in the front of the boat breathing deeply trying desperately to gain control of my stomach. Success!!! I was back to normal. Phil said he had a pretty good idea that I was maybe not feeling the best because I got pretty quite.Which we all know is really weird.  The remainder of our trip we trolled and then attempted to use the baitfish we had captured this am. We fished lake style with the baitfish but unfortunately we were not successful. I was really glad we ended up trolling, but it kinda hurt to know we left a honey hole.

Tielfish and Grouper

Dad always makes us kiss our fish to appease the "Fishing Gods"
Maybe I need to figure out away to appease the "please don't let me get sea sick gods" 

Thank you to Phil for taking us fishing!! I loved it, even when I felt terrible.

xoxoxo
Rick and McKenzie 

Is this January?

January was a very busy month and we did a number of new things. First, Dave and Annette invited us on their boat and took us to a locals favorite called Boca Grande. Boca Grande is approximately 9 miles east/northeast of Key West within the Key West National Wildlife Refuge. The boat ride there was very pleasant and I realized very quickly why people talk about how lovely this beach is. The north side of the island is a beautiful sandy beach. The boats that make the journey do not bother with throwing an anchor... Instead, they beach their boats and set up for a day of lounging in the sun.. I told Dave and Annette numerous times that it was one of the first times I felt as if I was in a Corona commercial. Here are some images from our day:

Corona view...

Your welcome. 

After our day on the water Dave and Annette invited us over for surf and turf. We had steak, crab claws, and oysters. It was probably the best surf and turf I have ever EVER had. The crab claws were taken from Dave and Annette's traps only 20 minutes before we ate them. We also had oysters that were shucked ( I have no idea if that is the term but I feel like it is - or it is my cornfed vocab making an appearance) placed on the grill using half the shell as a little plate and using only herb butter for some flavor. Rick even liked the oysters. His palette is so grown up :)

I am not sure if I have mentioned this or not in prior post, but our landlord(s) are in charge of the Key West Half Marathon. I know I have multiple friends who enjoy running and besides the 7 Mile Bridge Run in April I think the half marathon is probably the best. The route takes you through all the good parts of Key West so I believe the scenery would be a nice distraction and the best part is that the island is FLAT! There is no mile #10 hill that you have to dread like the Dam to Dam.... and if you happen to get hurt you would not have to wait for the sag wagon(this may or may not have happened to me).. you could just hobble off to a bar, snag a seat and watch the rest of the race. I am mentioning this because Rick and I have done our first good deed for 2013- we volunteered to help set up for the race. Starting on Friday Rick helped to load up the pallets of water from Publix, and then Saturday morning we loaded all the race baggies, t-shirts, cups, tables, chairs etc.. for the packet pick up day.

We got a break Saturday afternoon for some fun in the sun and wind. We got onto Phil and Erin's fishing boat and headed toward Snipe. Due to the direction of the wind our initial journey out toward Snipe was so calm, like bath water calm. And it was slightly overcast so at one point you could not tell where the water ended and the sky began. I wish I would have captured that image but my phone was safely tucked away. The ride was smooth until we got closer to Snipe. This is where we hit some large rolling waves.. but it was still fairly calm. When we arrived at Snipe there was no one there.. let me remind you what snipe is :

This was taken on our first boating weekend.. Snipe is not a terrible place to hang. 

This Snipe day was not quite as Corona commercial as our last Snipe day.. but it was beautiful in other ways. As Phil turned the boat towards the sandbar we were going with the large rolling waves I had mentioned before. As these waves met up with the sandbar they were probably the best boogie board waves I have ever seen. We were able to get the boat anchored safely.. and then we all had to brave the waves to get to the shallow beach. At this point there was no sun and it was a little chilly in the water. We (and by we I mean Phil..) had the idea to build a fire. The boys gathered what dry firewood they could find and we had ourselves a little fire on the beach. Here are some images form our day:

Erin, Carolina, Cher (in spirit) and myself. 

Classic

Phil and Erin's fishing boat bobbing in the waves. The water around the boat was about three feet deep (ish)
I am not sure these images really capture what was happening but the waves would hit Rick about mid abdomen, lower chest. 

Erin's future painting... 

Erin and Carolina's son on a mission to make it back to the boat 

Phil pulling up the anchor

Phil gave me the responsibility of driving straight while he messed with the anchor which may have been a bad idea because Erin, Carolina and I took that as a photo shoot opportunity

I at least looked to see where I was going once.. 

On the ride back towards Key West the sun came out just in time for a sunset cruise and crabbing..

Just grabbing dinner 

Needed two Ziploc baggies for the haul :) 

We ended up with 11 crab claws (quite a haul) and then we went to Carolina's house and we boiled them and ate them. For whatever reason I was placed in charge of cooking our catch. I have learned to different ways to prepare stone crab. The first way is to get a small amount of water boiling and steam the claws above the water until the claws turn red/pink. This may take three minutes or less. Once they are done you take them off the water and crack them with a hammer. The second way I have learned is to bring a pot of water to a boil and then dump the crab claws into the water. Again you cook them until the claws turn pink (maybe three minutes) and then take them out the of the water and break them with a hammer. Both ways I think work perfectly. The challenge, I think, is the cracking of the claw and obtaining all the meat. What is the most difficult is trying to pick out all the delicious crab meat without putting little pieces of shell into the bowl. I learned I am bad at this... BAD. My giant bowl of crab had more little pieces of shells then I care to admit. Luckily, the crab meat is so good and sweet that the shells are over looked because you are literally drooling and eating so fast you absolutely do not care if you have to pull out a piece of shell. YUM... my mouth is watering for sure. Anyways.. this was a good day on the water. After eating we drug our tired butts to our apartment because our first good deed of 2013 was not over...

At 4:45 AM the next morning I get a little pat on the shoulder to get out of bed... we were apart of the water team. This means that we were involved in dispensing all the water Rick had obtained on Friday night to all of the water stops for the half marathon. So.. after being sore from the loading and unloading the day before Rick, myself and three other guys delivered 6 palettes containing 40+ crates per palette and each crate held  4 gallon jugs in them.. (my arms were so tired) We also delivered tables, chairs, and cups. The half marathon started at 7 AM, we just slid across the finish line with delivering the water. (Whew). At 7:15 we hightailed it to our apartment to get ready for.. DEEP SEA FISHING!!!

To be continued...because the Walking Dead is starting.