Day 14 - Poseidon called us to Neptune

Four pack a smiles!

Had breakfast with Grandma Betty this morning at FirstWatch. Prior to leaving for breakfast we packed up to get ready for our next destination – The Neptune Inn at Fort Myers Beach. Wasn’t long after breakfast – really lunch – that we were heading to FMB. Got in around 1:30pm and quickly unpacked.

Kicking at the FMB - CLT style!

It wasn’t but ten minutes before we were all down by the water. LT got out the cast net and started throwing. He caught plenty of bait fish and we were off to the races. LT killed it with the Snook. He must have reeled in at least 10-15 snook alone. Caught several sea trout which we contemplated on keeping and cooking later, but decided otherwise. Also managed to wrangle in several catfish, which we had no desire to do so. Lastly, LT caught 3 snook, 2 mullet and several other species in the cast net. I tell ya – if we were on an island without food, we would not starve as LT has the fishing/cast-netting thing down.

Showcasing a snook. Would have looked better on the grill or skillet. Out of season - unfortunately!

Up and close on some cool finds. All were released back to the wild.

Olivia showcasing some of the recent finds. It's amazing how abundant the sea life is here.

Big Papa hooking into a Snook. Oli is off in the distance in the water.

Walks, ice cream and simply chilling made up the rest of the evening.

Day 13 - Family time

Everyone slept in this morning and not a lot of racket occurred until around 9am. The boys and girls all lounged around the house until around 11am. We met Lexi, Shelly, Derrick and Newn for lunch at the Miller Ale House. We all haven’t seen them for quite some time and it was nice to get everyone together. The kids all ate at one table and the adults at another. We all chatted for some time after the meal and ended up leaving around 1:30pm. Lexi and Derrick had an appointment they needed to be at around 2, so we simply headed back to the house.

Toby came by to pick up Lane and hung out for about an hour. Her and Anna spent some time looking at pictures and jaw-jacking. I ended up heading to Ocean Angler tackle shop and West Marine to pick up a new fishing rod along with some other necessities.

Tonight was Swedish pancake night at Grandma Betty’s and we were definitely not going to be late. We headed out around 4:15pm and hit the Sun Harvest store for some fresh orange, strawberry-orange and grapefruit juice to take over to Betty’s. When we arrived we were greeted with the biggest hugs. Pat, Grandma Betty’s daughter, was there as well and is now a permanent resident of Fort Myers.

We all helped a bit in the kitchen and within about 15 minutes, once Carla arrived, we were ready to eat. Wow! These Swedish pancakes are way too good. Anna and I powered down six each. No telling how many Olivia and Thomas devoured. It was good to spend some time with Grandma Betty, Pat and Carla – we simply do not see them enough.

Headed out around 8pm and took Olivia back to the house. Anna and Carla left and went to Aldi and picked up some things for the banquet next week. After we dropped Oli off, Thomas and I headed back out for a bit to one of the local canals. Neither of us managed to catch anything, but we had a good time.

Day 12 – Captain Wes and Snook wranglers

Today was the day that all Snook were to fear. LT, Lane and I went out on a fish charter with Captain Wes of the Fish Skinners Fish Charters. Wes met us at the Port Sanibel Marina around 1pm. I tried to get an earlier charter, but all was booked up. The boys and I shopped a little at Bass Pro and got some lunch in prior at Chipolte prior to arriving.

Wes took us on a ride out near Blind Pass Park. With poles up, lines out and bait in the water, it didn't take five minutes before - BAM! Lane hooked onto a Snook.  Once the seal was broken, the boys kept reeling in all kinds on fish for a solid 1.5 hours. We caught several Jacks, Catfish, Snook and Snapper. LT and Lane caught most all of the Snook. It was out of season, so we could not keep any of the Snook. Plus they have a slotted size of 28”-32”, so the likelihood of us getting one within that sizing would have been just a few.

Wes told me that the Snook had taken a devastating hit back in 2010. There was a freeze that lasted for some time and it decimated the Snook population. Apparently, there were hundreds of thousands of Snook along the entire coast of Florida that died.

It was unfortunate that we were not able to keep any or to be able to throw one of these guys onto to the skillet, but after hearing the 2010 story it felt good to throw them all back in the water.

The boys and I fished the last 1.5 hours until around 4:30pm with little success. We tried one or two more spots and threw several different baits, but nothing was biting except for a Catfish. We headed back on a beautiful boat ride to the marina. The water was free of vessels. Not much traffic out on the water. I would have expected more boats, but this is a little off season for Fort Myers.

The remainder of the day was spent relaxing at the house. Anna and Olivia ended up going out to see Jill. The boys played in the pool and went out to cast net for some bait fish. They ended up catching a cichlid and released it the pool. Crazy boys! They chased it and eventually after about ten minutes, caught it and put in back in the channel. I would have thought that the chlorine water would have just killed this fish within a minute or two. Nope! This guys was swimming in the pool as if it was his stomping ground.

Carla and I spoke on the back deck for an hour or so, while the boys swam and before long it was bedtime. 

Day 11 – Chillin’ in the boiling pot

Not much happened today, but relaxing and enjoying everyone’s company.

I took LT and Lane over to Parker Lakes, mom and dad’s retirement community, where they wanted to fish their ponds. They had fished there on their last encounter and caught many a bass. Needless to say, they were hoping for the same result. 

LT managed to hook into quite a few fish. I let them cast for about 1.5 hours before heading back to house. When we got home, we pooled it!

Olivia and Anna went to Goodwill to shop and see what they could find. They ended up bringing back a cooler and rug. If we keep adding and acquiring we will need to get a bigger truck.

At around 5pm we all went to Kumo, a sushi restaurant. Fire Starter roll was the best in my opinion. Stuffed and full of fish we headed to Josh’s to relax for the remainder of the evening.

Day 10 - Fort Myers, here we come

Spent the time yesterday just enjoying Aunt Donna’s company. We hung around the house, played cards and chitty-chatted. The day ran away from us and before long it was dinner time. Alexander’s was the decided restaurant for supper. The prime rib was on point!

Left Aunt Donna’s this morning and rumbled down the road towards Fort Myers. We headed out around 9:30am and planned to make it to Josh's by noon. Josh was kind enough to let us hang at his place until Friday. Aunt Carla greeted us with big smiles and opened arms when we arrived. She has been staying with Josh and helped him renovated the house - beautiful home! Everyone was excited to see her. Josh, however was not there. He is out in California on a new business adventure, but we will see him in the beginning of August.

After visiting a bit, we headed out to Toby’s and picked up Lane. Lane was going to hang with us for several days. Anna and Carla also picked up a Jeep for use of an additional vehicle during our stay. After leaving Toby's, we drove to Fish Eating Creek Park to check out the camping location where we will be camping in August and to give the boys some time to fish.

Aunt Carla had taken her camper out to Fish Eating Creek about a week ago and camped there a night with Lane, so they were eager to show Thomas all the hot fishing spots. The boys headed straight to the Depot, a pond near the back of the property. Within about 15 minutes, Thomas managed to wrangle in a non-fish species on his rod. Never seen that before, but what a thrill for the boys!

We hung out at the camp for about another hour until we headed back to the house. Since it was about an hour away, it wasn't until around 7pm that we managed to get home. Everyone was a bit exhausted from travel and the day in general. We stayed up a bit and caught up on life and the family happenings before heading to see the sandman.

Day 8 – Datz Crazy

All that artwork earlier in the day really got the bellies rumbling. Datz was the restaurant of choice by the locals. We tried to get in before the LEGO exhibit, but the wait was 1.5 hours. No way were we going to wait that long, so we decided to go to the museum first. This time, there was only around a five minute wait. Much better!

Aunt Donna, Cole, Wendy, their kids and the Schiffers family all munched down on some pretty darn good eatin’. We had a Buffalo Cauliflower appetizer, which sounded better than it tasted. Donna, Olivia and I had the Tuna Poke Salad, Anna has a French Onion soup, which Donna and Olivia had as well as an appetizer and Thomas had the Bacon BIG BIG Burger. Hands down, Thomas’ was the best! Cole behaved good like Daddy and had a Cobb Salad and Wendy had a BLT sandwich, I think.

The nice thing about Datz was that they had a dessert bakery on the bottom floor, along with an adjoining place called Doughs, which served ice cream and coffee. Before we left, we managed to grab some cupcakes and Anna brought a black charcoal ice cream. Can’t really describe the flavor, but it tasted pretty good.

We didn’t get home until around 5pm, so needless to say we didn’t go back out. Cody, Wendy and the kids stayed until around 7pm and then we simply relaxed. We all played cards for a bit and then Thomas and Donna played a game of Cribbage. It wasn’t much longer before we all headed to bed.

Aunt Donna, Cole and Anna - I called this a Punisher Sandwich!

From Left - Nathan, Olivia, Tyler, Thomas, Conner

Day 8 – The Art of the Brick

Woke up around 8am this morning and got Thomas up to do a little fishing before 10. Cole, Wendy and their three kids (Conner, Nathan & Tyler) were coming by to spend the day with us. Cole is Anna’s cousin and they haven’t seen each other in a couple of years. The plan was to take the kids to a LEGO exhibit.

Made with over 75,000 pieces

The Art of the Brick was an exhibition brought to Tampa by the owner of the Tampa Bay Bolts hockey team for the public free of charge. When we arrived at the museum there was a line several 100 yards long. It did not seem to move – at all! Must be good, we thought! We parked the cars and got in line. Luckily there was a food truck for us to grab a little snack while waiting to get in.

We entered the museum and watched a short movie about the artist and off we went to see some amazing artwork. Nathan, the artist, only used the medium of LEGOs to make all his art. The pictures I took do not show the true size and complexity of most of these pieces. 

After we walked through the exhibit they had a playroom for the kids to build and explore with LEGO pieces. We hung around for about 30 minutes and moved on to the next adventure.