Anniversary Cruise from Key West to West Palm April-May 2021

I don't know how to reorder these photos on this computer so what you see is what you get.

This was our first trip by plane since Sundance in Jan. 2020 due to Covid. 

Taking the pics from the top, after the photo of us, there is the Bay of Pigs invasion monument in Little Havana Miami from May 4; Drew's version of a cheeseburger from May 1 in Key West; our peacock bass from May 5; sooty tern rookery at Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas from April 30; an alien that visited the SB in Key West on April 30; welcome to Little Havana in Miami on May 4; and our celebration of the anniversary itself on May 3. If one looks closely at my shirt you will see tarpon, bonefish, and permit, aka the flats Grand Slam, and wearing the shirt is about as close as I will ever get to it.

L&G and family were with us. G&T got in some golf at Ocean Reef and some fishing there too.

 

 

See my fishing journal for more on the fishing.

NOLA to Meet Maida Jo April 15-22, 2021

 C and I left on the 15th to drive to NOLA to see M, J, and MJ. I could not believe the traffic on I 85 in NC. We stopped outside Atlanta at the Chateau Elan exit for the night. Then on to NOLA, with more traffic getting through Atlanta.

In NOLA we visited the baby and the house construction. I visited with Barry and we all had dinner together at Paladar.

 

M, C, and I went to the French Quarter in the middle of a downpour to see the knitting shop and the Faulkner House Bookstore. We had a good lunch at one of the Brennan family restaurants, Tableau. I guess C and I were some help doing errands for M&J.

One day we had a picnic at the park at Coliseum and Camp near the rental and met up with Janet too.

One night M and I and some of his friends went to a Pelicans game. The Pelicans are impressive, with Zion scoring 36 points, Brandon Ingram another 30 or so and Lonzo Ball tossing in 25 or so but the Nets were better. They just had to give the ball to Kyrie Irving and points went on the board. Close but a loss.  

The photos tell the real story with the star of the show for this trip-

 Then it was time to head home. On the way we stopped in Montgomery to visit the Equal Justice Initiative Museum led by Bryan Stevenson of Just Mercy fame. Here are a couple of disturbing and moving pictures from that stop.

Our last stop was at the outlet mall in Mebane, NC. Even though the prices are discounted, I end up buying more than I need and sometimes in the wrong sizes so I end up spending as much as if I had bought them at full retail.

The long way to Maine July 14 -26, 2020

Richie, Rob, Rick H, Barry and I plus 4 of Richie’s California friends were supposed to be fishing week before last in Montana. On about June 30, as cases were trending up especially out west, I wrote the group and the outfitter that I had to cancel- I was going to be flying United and could see myself boarding a plane in Denver with a bunch of Yahoos from Texas or Arizona. United has been more lax than Delta on Covid stuff- its policy at the time was, if you check in and don’t like the looks of your flight, you can cancel and rebook. I was pretty sure the guy next to me on the plane would be wearing a MAGA face mask as his eyeshades for the early flight. Right after I cancelled Barry and the California guys did the same (one guy must have been typing his cancellation note at the exact same time I was). Rich, Rob and Rick went and had a great time but Rich just sent me an email saying if flying conditions were the same next year he wouldn’t go.

After fishing I was supposed to fly to Boston to meet C, and then we were going up to Maine to go to our niece's wedding and stay for a week for a family reunion on her side of the family. Well, Covid converted the wedding to a zoom affair and the reunion fell apart.

So C and I drove up a long way to Maine for a week to see her newly wed niece (another one by zoom) and one of her brothers.

The first stop was in the wrong direction, in Lexington where I got in a GREAT half day of fishing. 20 fish in 3.5 hours- all hard fighting 14 inch ish rainbows except one monster brown trout.2/3 on dry fly, wet wading in clear water. I only fell in once.

Next night at an inn near Hershey with a side stop at Boiling Springs Pa. Each room had a theme and ours was Africa. We had the whole place to ourselves due to Covid. The best breakfast of the trip!!

Next a night in Beacon NY with dinner with M and J, who were exiting their tick infested rental near the site of Woodstock.

Next a night visiting friends on the border between Maine and NH. The rules at this time were one needs a negative Covid test three days before entering the state. We got tested as we were supposed to. Two weeks to the day after we got tested, and 4 days after we got back home we got our results.

Then to Boothbay Harbor by way of Freeport and LLBean.

We had a great time. Our rental was very well appointed with a great covered porch. We watched Anne and Wesley's wedding via Zoom. I got some fishing in but mostly just lazed around reading. People believed in masks and you could not enter anything public without one on.

I had to search hard for public access fishing spots due to no local knowledge. I had one great hour or so of catching smallmouth bass and largemouth bass at Appalachee Pond near our rental. On another day I went farther afield and found the perfect place to wade in clear water where i could see fish jumping and rising. By the time I got my gear ready to go, a couple of cars with giggly teenagers and a unicorn float pulled up. End of fishing.

One night in a restaurant in Southport and a wonderful breakfast one day at Mama D's.

Connie has a 30 + day streak going of 6.3 miles per day walking. I joined her for about an 8 day streak of my own. On the last day I did my own run and had an unusual thing happen. I ran by one of those speed signs that tells you what you are doing in a speed restricted zone- you are going 45 in a 25 speed limit. Anyway the radar picked up my speed at 5 miles per hour. Not bad for an old man.

 On the way home, we were supposed to stop to break up the trip at a hotel in upstate NY. We decided to push on and when I called to cancel my hotel they said we were too late and I would forfeit $400 (weekend rate) for the night. Then C mentioned our Virginia license plates and they said they would cancel without penalty. The only good thing to come out of Covid so far.

When we left home, our air conditioner for one level was broken, we had sprung a water main leak, and the guys renovating our kitchen were supposed to start the demolition. We got back and the water and AC were fixed but no progress on the demo. At least we missed a week of 100+ degree temperatures here. It was only 88 tops in Maine.

Now it’s back to the heat, the demo, and not knowing where anything that was in the kitchen is.

Kiawah Island 2020

Kiawah Island Feb. 2020

C and I took a midwinter break and drove to Kiawah in February seeking warmer weather and some sun.

On the way down we stopped in Smithfield NC at the Ava Gardner Museum. It is small but very good. I enjoyed the introductory video on her life and then wandering around looking at the movie posters. I knew about her marriage to diminutive Mickey Rooney but I did not know she was a friend of Ernest Hemingway. It appears she and Frank Sinatra were deeply in love but they could not live together. 

In looking on the internet I picked up two interesting anecdotes. First she came home to NC often after she was a star and she enjoyed flipping burgers at a local eatery and swinging in a chair at the post office. They said when she was at the PO swinging the locals came in and bought stamps one at a time so they could look at her. The second one is that she supposedly went swimming nude in Ernest Hemingway’s pool at his casa in Havana. EH told the staff never to change the water in the pool.

After Ava we went over to the Outlet Mall, also in Smithfield.

Then the longer part of the drive started, straight to Kiawah.

It’s was cloudy and cool. We got in a couple of long walks on the beach, watched some movies and a terrible basketball game for Duke, saw a couple of gators, a flock of black skimmers on the beach and had a great dinner at the Fat Hen. It had lots of down home SC dishes and a wonderful peanut butter cup dessert.

On the trip back we ran into rain and then snow in the middle of North Carolina, got hung up for an hour and twenty minutes behind a horrible truck and car wreck, and ended up driving the last few hours at about 45 mph. I think I deserve a lifetime achievement award for getting us home safely but late under those conditions.