I Wanna go Back to Florida

The favorite wine of a Minnesotan has been said to be, " I wanna' go to Florida!"

Well I want to go back to Florida! The Florida Keys that is! I got a little mental health break early in March when I took off on my own (sans kids and wonderful husband) to spend a long weekend with my parents who have a condo from mid-January to mid-March in Islamorada. The best "key" in my humble opinion. The are at about mile marker 88 I believe. At the Palms situated right next to one of the best Keysie restaurants, Lazy Days and one of the best deep sea fishing outfitters Bud and Mary's.

It's hard to beat the temperatures and sunshine and the gorgeous view of the Atlantic from the Palms! Situated right on the water, I spent most of my time working, literally working on my tan. I was focused on sun therapy! Although I did get up every morning and enjoy a walk and/or jog to start my day.

I did get to go out one day fishing with my dad and Uncle when the waves weren't too huge! What a treat that was!! Caked on the 30 SPF and headed out hoping I didn't have to use the toilet while I was out there!

Less than 60 seconds after anchoring we had fish on! They didn't stop much for the next half-hour! What a hoot! Gorgeous multi-colored, multi-shaped tropical fish. No, murky greenish, greyish fish like we catch here in Minnesota. If I remember right, here are some of the names of the beautiful fish that we brought in or saw where: Yellow Tail Snapper, Grouper ( know we missed a few of these huge ones since our lines were snapped) Porgy, Permits, which I don't think we kept, Mutton and some other grouper types, Ballyhoo, Blue Runners which were especially fun to catch but we didn't keep them, a Hogfish that was really funny looking, Mackarel and another beautiful fish that I can't remember the name of. I know there were more, but I can't recall their names right now. Oh yeah, we saw Portugese Man-o-Wars floating by. Definately do not touch these!

I really wanted to see a sea turtle and a dolphin. We did get to see a couple of sea turtles, which was a real treat considering it was quite wavy that day. They were swimming at the top, and as soon as they saw us, they vanished. But no dolphins. Something fun though were some flying fish that I caught out of the corner of my eye while we were changing fishing spots.

My dad and my uncle are really terrific fishermen! They usually can catch more keepers than some of the charter boats bring in! We did catch a meal full that day and took the catch to Lazy Days the next night for an incredible feast!!! Wow! Incredible! We had them cook it up three different ways and they brought out this HUGE platter! My mouth is watering just thinking about it again!

Around 4 o'clock each day it was fun to walk down to Bud and Mary's to see how the charter boats did. White flags hoisted on their fishing poles out the back of their boats marks the number of sail fish caught that particular charter. Then they start unloading the catch of the day! I'm not sure who is more curious to see what they caught. The tourists or the pelicans!

On the first afternoon we walked over, we saw nurse sharks swimming around and a particular treat, a manitee, popping his head out of the water behind a charter where the hose was dripping down. He was drinking the water coming out of the hose. I learned that they need fresh water for drinking! I had never seen a manitee in the wild before, so I was thrilled!

The think is that here in Minnesota, the last week of March, and it is still in the low to mid 30's, which for this time of year to me for some reason is feeling like 10 degrees. There is still plenty of snow on the ground when I should be looking for tulips coming up and I wanna' go back to Florida!

What a blessing it was though to go and rest and reenergize! I'll look forward to my next trip!