So it has been a busy couple of weeks. This may be a longer post and I will try not to forget anything. So Mark and Deb and Jim and Sarah did drive up on Saturday (10/17) and met us at the boat. The guys sat up on the bridge with a cigar and a couple of Bloody Mary's. The gals stayed inside and Marcia made Moscow Mules. We had fun catching up and then drove over to the Bradenton Yacht Club for dinner. Mark was able to get us all in to the club from his reciprocity from the Punta Gorda Yacht Club. Service was a little slow, but we were looking forward to dinner. Mark, Jim and I all ordered the special which was a ribeye steak. A half and hour later, the waitress informed us that they were out of the special. Odd given the place was almost empty and it was 6:30 on a Saturday night. We ended up getting the strip steak but did not get the special price. By the time dinner came we were starving. We all ended up having a good time.
After dinner we tried to go up to the rooftop for a nightcap, but it was too crowded. Instead we walked over to Pier 22 and had a nightcap. We said our goodbyes and made plans to see them again the next Saturday.
We spent the next few days cleaning and washing the boat, preparing for Tony's visit. On Tuesday afternoon, we picked Tony up at the airport and then back to the boat. We decided to go simple and go to Caddy's for dinner. They were out of the grouper - not having a good track record for ordering or at least getting the specials.
After dinner Tony and I walked up to Corks (cigar bar) for a cigar and drinks. On Wednesday we drove to St Armand's Circle to show Tony the sights, shops and bars. While having a drink before lunch, but after 12:00, I received a text from the fishing charter guy that he was having boat issues and needed to cancel our trip on Friday. I will spare all of the details and cuss words, but we went into problem solving mode to find another charter. Turns out that we could not get another off shore charter but we did book an inshore trip. We ate lunch and walked around a bit before driving back to the boat via Longboat Key and Anna Marie Island. We went to dinner in Sarasota at a place called Captain Brians. Not much to look at from the outside, but the food and service was outstanding.
After getting back to the boat, Tony and I walked up to Cork's again for a nightcap, and a cigar. On Thursday we decided to go the beach. We drove over to Bradenton Beach and spent a few hours there.
After the beach and back to the boat, Tony and I left to pick up Don (brother) from the airport. After a quick tour of the marina, we all walked over to Oak and Stone to have dinner on the rooftop. After a short wait we had a great view for dinner. There were quite a few trips to the self serve beer taps. After dinner, Tony, Don and I walked up to - you guessed it - Corks for a cigar and beer.
On Friday we had our inshore fishing trip. Don, Tony and I drove over to Anna Marie Island and met the charter. Nice that it was not until 8:00 instead of 6:00 like the Lake Erie charters. It was a great 4 hour trip. We started out in the gulf about 100 yards off the beach. We were catching Maceral's like crazy. After we had about 6 in the cooler, we were just catching and releasing. Then we started catching some small black tip sharks. After about 3 hours, we went inside and fished the mangroves for Snook. They were also fun to catch, but we could not keep them due to regulations. We got back to the dock around 12:00 and felt like we had a full day of fishing.
We did get a couple of videos from all of us catching a shark, but I was having issues getting them to upload to the blog. Back at the dock, the captain fileted all of the fish for us. His past experience as a chef ensured that we did not have even 1 bone in any of the fish. Back at the boat we went to the pool and relaxed a bit. For dinner we took over both grills and cooked up a TON of fish. Felt kind of like Forest Gump. We had blackened fish, fish on the grill, fish on foil, lemon butter garlic fish, you get the idea. We gave it the old college try, but there was no way that we could finish all of the fish, even after sharing some of it with the boat behind us. After dinner we tried to walk it off by walking the docks, but we were all exhausted. Ended up being an easy and early night on the boat.
On Saturday we walked up to Robin's for breakfast. Great food with a hometown diner vibe. After breakfast, we packed up and headed South to spend the day in Punta Gorda. We stopped by Jim and Sarah's house to say "hi" and have a Bloody Mary. They had not met Tony before and it had been a while since they had seen Don. After there, we drove over to Mark and Deb's house. It was a beautiful day and we had made plans to take his center console over to Boca Grande beach for the day. Leaving the canals, we joined up with John and Beth Roepke who had Jim and Sarah on their center console. John and Beth are friends that we used to boat with at Rivertowne that have recently relocated to Punta Gorda as well. It was the 1st time that Don and Tony had been on Mark's boat and it did not disappoint. We cruised over to Boca Grande at 45mph, even hitting a top speed of 55mph. Both boats anchored at the beach and we had an awesome day. Not sure how we ended up not getting any pictures though. Guess we were having too much fun. When we got back to Mark's house we packed up and said our goodbyes. With an hour drive back to Bradenton we had plans to eat dinner at Tom's Bad Ass Bar and Grill. Was an interesting ride back as Indiana (Tony) was playing Penn State (Marcia) in football. Tony was quite excited and vocal about the IU win. The burgers were good I got talked into the ribs which were excellent. Don and I finished the night on the back of the boat with a bourbon and a cigar. Tony fell asleep on the couch. Think he might have been overserved on Tito's.
On Sunday morning we drove Tony to the airport said goodbye. We all think that he had a great visit. After the airport we decided to drop the dinghy in and go for ride on the river. Surprisingly we stopped at Woody's for fish dip, wings, and grouper fingers.
After lunch we cruised up the river another few miles. Was neat to see as we had not been up that far before. Back at the marina we put the dinghy away and decided to go to the pool. It was a relaxing day with a few cold beverages and yet another cigar. For dinner we decided to pick up and grill out some steaks at the marina. After dinner we decided to take a walk on the Riverwalk.
Monday, after a few chores on the boat, we took a drive to Siesta Key. We walked around the shops for a bit and then stopped at the Siesta Key Oyster House. We just had to try the oysters and of course a Bloody Mary.
After Siesta Key, we took the scenic route back to the dock, via Longboat Key and Anna Marie Island. Don and I decided to go to the pool again for a few hours before dinner. We walked over to Pier 22 for dinner.
With it being Don's last night, we walked up to Cork's to have a cigar and then called it a night.
Don was heading out on Tuesday afternoon. He and I walked up to Robin's so he could get his coffee and had a quick breakfast. It had been a long time since I had corned beef hash. He and I decided to drive back to Siesta Key because someone forgot their credit card at the Oyster House. Not the first time that this has happened to me. I think someone needs to invent a chip that if you are more than a mile from you credit card it would text you. Would surely save me a lot of time. We had a few hours before we need to drive Don to the airport so we did one final trip to the pool. We dropped Don off that afternoon and then back to the boat.
It was a solid fun week with both Tony and Don visiting. We were looking forward to just taking it easy for a few days. We had decided to drive home on Sunday and began packing and cleaning up the boat. The rest of the week was somewhat non eventful. With everything pretty much packed up and ready to go, we made plans to go over and watch the game with Marcia's niece Alyssa. We ordered takeout from her community club house and went back to Elaine and Glen's house to eat and watch the Penn State game. We drove back a halftime and spent our last night on the boat for a couple of months.
On Sunday, we did our final checks, flushed the AC units, flushed the water systems, and closed everything up. With the boat secured, we headed North around 9:30am.
The drive home was not bad. We broke it up into 2 days again, stopping North of Atlanta. Even the cat seemed to be content with the ride home this time.
We are back home now and enjoying the extra space and our king size bed. Our plan is to be home for the holidays and then to head back to Florida in January.
