Well, it has been more than four months since we’ve posted any activity on the blog. How appropriate it is to be back at Snook Bight Marina for the initial posting of 2011! We spent a wonderful six weeks in Ft Myers Beach enjoying the beach, the river, new friends, old friends and life in a marina. With a Publix grocery store in our backyard and topnotch facilities at the marina for laundry and showers, our periodic off-boat chores were a pleasure.
Thanksgiving was celebrated with our dear friends from Iowa, Nick and Jane Ong and Gary and Marilyn Huffine, who live on Sanibel Island during the winter months. It was wonderful to share this very special time with them. We took about ten days in early December to fly back to the Midwest to visit our kids, grandkids and parents in Iowa and Illinois. Christmas Eve found us near the Pier at Ft Myers Beach for our second annual candlelight service on the beach. The New Year brought our youngest son, Kelle, to Florida for a visit. After his arrival, we moved the boat to the dock at Nervous Nellie’s where we could easily walk to Times Square for the New Years Eve festivities. Instead of staying on the beach for the fireworks display this year, we opted to go back to the boat and watch from there.
On Sunday, January 2nd, we left Ft Myers Beach bound for St. Petersburg. After lunch at Cabbage Key, we continued on to Stump Pass near Englewood where we dropped the hook and anchored overnight. At sunrise the next morning, we were accompanied by no less than twenty dolphins that played in front, behind and all around the boat as we motored out of the anchorage, away from the inlet and back to the ICW. What a treat! The second night of our passage was spent in a popular anchorage off Longboat Key. Gale and Kelle dinghied to shore and checked out the area by trolley. They found Bradenton Beach, Holmes Beach and Anna Maria Island to be quite interesting and worth exploring further. The next morning, we pulled up anchor and traveled the short distance to Bradenton Beach where we went into town and boarded the trolley. We stopped at the Holmes Beach Fitness Center and met some friendly snowbirds who were very excited about the area where they had chosen to buy property.
On Tuesday, January 4th, we arrived at the Renaissance Vinoy Resort Marina in downtown St. Petersburg and tied up in our assigned slip just before 5 pm. For two months, we enjoyed the wonderful facilities at the marina and the resort including a fitness center with all the latest equipment, dozens of group fitness classes and luxurious locker rooms. The hotel also had tennis courts, a golf course, large
swimming pool and three restaurants. While in St. Pete, we did a lot of walking and became quite familiar with the downtown area. We also got to know Ron and Marie, aboard s/v Molly Bloom, who were preparing to cruise the Caribbean for the next several years. It will be interesting to monitor their progress and adventures. In January, Gale boarded a plane for Seattle to visit our son, Casey, who is currently stationed there aboard the US Coast Guard Cutter, Melon. It was Gale’s first visit to Seattle and Casey showed him many of the sights. In February, Maureen met our daughter, Jessica, in San Francisco for a mother-daughter wine tasting tour of Napa and Sonoma Valleys. Since Jess is in “the business” of selling wine, they were treated to some very special tastings and even spent one night in a little cabin up in the mountains that one winery reserved exclusively for its special guests. While Maureen was in San Francisco, Gale spent his days at a nearby boatyard where we had the boat hauled out of the water and the bottom painted, a chore that should be done every two years or so.
Other highlights from January and February include the Superbowl party at Russ and Cindy Varney’s in Tampa where we watched the Packers beat the Bears. We were also able to spend time with Maureen’s brother and sister-in-law, Craig and Dawn Jacobson, who live in Clearwater. We enjoyed driving around some of the St. Pete neighborhoods one afternoon and even took in an open house in the section called “Old Northeast.” Another brother and sister-in-law, Mark and Marge Jacobson, stopped in on Valentine’s Day on their way to the beach house they had rented on Englewood Beach from February 15th to March 31st. They stayed with us on the boat that night and we had a great time laughing and telling stories. On March 3rd, we left the Vinoy and headed to Anna Maria Island to meet our friends, John and Susan Spragg, for dinner.
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