A Perfect Day???

Allan wrote...

After all, what is a PERFECT day?  Is it one where everything goes right? Where everyone you meet loves you? Where you love everyone else?  I don't know. I suppose a "perfect day" is different for every person.  Yet for me, today was indeed perfect.

These guys have everything. From tackle to bait to advice.

Up at 6:30 AM and off to the bait store where I bought a bunch of live shrimp.  A quick stop at BK for breakfast -- eating fast food is something I rarely do, but it just seemed like a good idea today. I wore my old sneakers, a shirt and a bathing suit. With my son's remarkable, collapsible heavy duty spinning rod and reel outfitted with 30-pound test mono-filament line, plus a dozen live shrimp from the Fishing Headquarters (along with some advice on where to fish, how to rig the line and what's been running lately), I headed off to Jupiter beach.

There was NO ONE on the beach at 7:30AM today. I waded out to waist deep water with a 1.5 ounce sinker at the end of the line, a two-hook rig about two feet upline from the sinker and casted -- oh, maybe 20 to 30 yards out into the surf. I noticed the waves break at a couple different places, each due to various sand bars beneath the water. According to what I'd read it's best to cast between the sand bars because that's where the fish hang out, waiting for the "rip" current to carry food to them.  And there was food a-plenty.  Minnows were darting around me in gigantic schools. "Hey," I said to myself, "this is the place and the day I'm gonna catch some fish."

Nothing like getting out into the water about waist deep
and waiting for that big one to bite!

The guy at fishing HQ said I should cut up the live shrimp and put about one-third of a shrimp on each hook, just enough to cover the bottom of the "J." OK.  He said, "Don't worry, just toss your line out there and you'll definitely catch some fish this morning. The tide is right and the time is right.  If you wanted to catch snook you're about an hour late, but you'll get all kinds of pan fish.  No problemo."

I did cut up the shrimp. I put them in the leftover Burger King coffee cup, which I stuffed into my shirt pocket so I wouldn't have to go back to shore each time I needed to re-bait the hooks. I casted. Re-casted.  Jigged the line. Tossed it out to deep water. Tossed it parallel to the shore. The fishing prognostication at weather.com had said the best time to catch fish in Jupiter waters was between 7AM and noon, peaking at around 9AM.  With no fish biting I finally waded back to shore to check my iPod: It was 11AM.  Not a bite. No fish. And now the bathers were everywhere, laughing, playing, surfing and having fun.

The June pier is 990 feet long. Four bucks and you can fish
from it all day long. Locals say the snook hang out beneath
the pier but I've yet to see anyone catch snook in spite of
all the talk about them.

"Hey, it's still early. I'll go to the Juno pier."  So I did. It's about five miles down the road and costs $4 to enter and fish from the pier. Done. There were about 8 or 10 other people fishing at that hour. A couple guys at the end of the pier were all excited about snook, but never did catch any. A woman from Massachusetts (my best guess based on her accent) pulled a tiny fish out of the water. After a couple hours of trying this side of the pier, the other side of the pier, the end of the pier, the part of the pier where there were big shadows cast upon the water, casting my line under the pier as best I could -- I finally met my objective when a 10-inch fish grabbed onto a shrimp and allowed me to haul it 20 feet from the water up to my tackle box. "What's that you pulled out?" asked a bystander.  "I don't know, but I hope he'll send his big brother along soon" I replied as I tossed him back into the water.

The "fisherman's eye view" from the Juno pier. Nothing
but blue. Water and sky. Beautiful!

Hey. I caught a fish. I'd been on or in the water now for about six hours. The sun was blazing down on me and I kept adjusting my hat to keep that burning feeling off my forehead.  Ain't life grand?  I don't care if I catch fish or not. It's just about being outside in the sun feeling the breeze against my body. The water washing me in/out/in/out with each wave that comes to shore.

Finally around 2PM I headed back to the car and drove over to Rosetta's Produce where I picked up an amazing amount of food for $10 and change. Then to the ABC store for a bottle of Menage a Trois for Becky and a spiced rum for me.

Back to the house and it's time to build a rollup with all the wondrous veggies Rosetta sold me. For me there are few things that taste better than avocados and tomatoes. Toss in some jalapenos and onions and it's Heaven on a tortilla.

Rosetta's Produce store, just down the road, has got the
BEST veggies around. Tomatoes are sweet and soft and
ready to eat. Brussel sprouts are gigantic. Jalapenos are
available in green or red, along with many other peppers.
This whole load of veggies was just $10 and change. 

Now, fully fed and ready for another adventure, it's off to the pool.  No one is there. Wonderful! Jump in to deliciously warm water, swim around for a while then migrate to the shallow end a meditate for a long time. The sound of my breathing is all I can hear as my ears are under water, my eyes are closed and only my prayers and thoughts exist.

Now...mellowed out...communing with All That Is...I return to the house to find Becky has returned from a phenomenally successful shopping trip where she bought me a new shirt and SEVEN items of apparel for herself for just over $20.  What a shopper!  Designer labels and not even a dent in the budget.

Tomato, avocado and jalapeno. Nothing better, especially
where everything is fresh, locally grown and just ready to eat.
Nothing left to do but roll it up and chow down!

I guess this day teaches me that for guys it's all about getting out in the wild, catching wild things -- while for the ladies, bless their hearts, it's about finding beauty, finding bargains and sharing them with their loved ones.  Ain't life grand?

My sweet Becky bought me a new shirt today!
I love it :)

Memorial Day Weekend

Allan wrote...

We began this long weekend on Thursday by reconnecting with Jim and Jill D, old friends from Atlanta back in the 1980's when Jim and I both worked at that amazing computer company, AST Research.  It was really great to talk with them again. Jim suggested we eat at Guanabanas and I'm so glad we did. It's exactly the kind of restaurant we had been looking for in vain since we arrived in Jupiter. It has no windows; it's open to the air; it serves seafood; it's got live music in the evenings (Julian Marley, son of Bob Marley, played with no cover charge on Friday night!)  Just an amazing place.

Jim and Jill - we reconnected after almost 20 years.

This restaurant looks like it's in the rain forest somewhere,
and that's exactly the feel we'd been looking for. 

No windows. no doors either! It's all outside just as it "should be" in a
tropical setting like Florida.

The have live music almost every night, often with no cover charge.

Outdoor seating for everyone

It's right on the intra-coastal (on A1A) in Jupiter.

Cool place !

Friday we rode over to West Palm Beach to meet the homeowner who wants a house sitter for six weeks in late November through early January. We thought it would be nice to come back to South Florida in the winter season and spend Christmas here. We met the owner, a very nice and interesting guy who will be going to the Philippines with his wife for those six weeks. We enjoyed our time visiting him, touring his property  and meeting his dogs, but decided to forego that assignment.

Saturday was not memorable except that we worked on our computers much of the day. Sunday, however, was a gorgeous day that reached 90 degrees, so we decided to go to the beach. The parking lot at Jupiter beach was overflowing so we drove down to the pier in Juno, pitched our umbrella and soaked up the sun.  Beautiful.

The 990-foot pier at Juno Beach, just south of Jupiter. Memorial Day weekend brought everyone to the beach.

The condos in the distance rent for about $1700/month if you live here all year long. Some are rented only during
the winter season and can go for as much as $5000 per month! Apparently the snowbirds from New England, New
York and other places where the snow falls fast and heavy find those rates affordable.

Fishermen on the pier were catching panfish all afternoon.

 As I was jogging the beach I came upon a group of people standing at water's edge screaming, "Shark, get out of the water!"  I looked and, sure enough, I could see a dark shadow just a few feet off shore. It wasn't a big shark -- maybe three feet long -- but within about one foot of the shark a little girl, maybe 5 years old, was splashing and playing, oblivious to the screaming or the shark.  I jumped into the water, grabbed her up and put her on dry land.  Then, looking at the shadow in the water, I realized it wasn't a shark at all; it was a manta ray flapping his "wings" in all his glory, looking like a giant, beautiful bird floating through the waves.  I hollered out, "It's a manta, not a shark" and suddenly everyone wanted to get close to it.  Funny how the fear turned to excitement and big smiles appeared on everyone's face. I followed the manta along for about a hundred feet, watching as his "wing" broke the surface over and over again. Finally he headed out to deeper water.

On Sunday the first tropical storm of the season, Beryl, made landfall near Jacksonville. By Monday morning, as I write this, the storm has traversed about half the width of Florida, heading West, and is weakening. Here's a half-hour video of its path as it ambles toward Tallahassee.

So today is Monday, Memorial Day. We have no plans but will probably go to the pool later. I've been reading "Spirit Junkie" by Gabrielle Bernstein and might finish it up today. It's about her life and how it changed when she began studying A Course in Miracles. Becky is reading a book about a man's life with his Sheltie; she said it brings tears of happiness and remembrance to her eyes because it reminds her of our wonderful Sheltie dogs we loved for 13 years.

Our beloved Sunny Rose and Bonnie Blue

This past week has given us its fair share of rainy days, some even with nickel-sized hail spotted and winds up to 60MPH. We spent a good part of the week quietly working on our computers. Allan's been writing articles and book reviews and Becky's been creating art and working on her novel.

Here's a quick recap of what we've been up to in the last week or two.

Stuart, Florida - Marlin Capitol of the World



Becky learned about an arts and crafts fair in Stuart, Florida so last Saturday we drove about 20 miles up the coast to check it out. As we walked from our parking spot we passed the city hall with two huge marlins mounted on the roof and a sign proclaiming that Stuart is the marlin capital of the world.  Imagine that.

Marlin capitol of the world??

We discovered that Stuart has a very walkable downtown filled with shops and restaurants of every description.

The main street in Stuart is lined with shops and restaurants
that make a great shopping district. For the craft fair they
closed the road to traffic. Vendors of every imaginable craft
line the street under white umbrellas. Nice!  We had fun.

The city of Stuart is right on the water. We found a small amphitheater with a huge multi-colored fabric roof that fronts on the bay. It's a gorgeous view looking out into the Atlantic.

Ahhh, fresh sea breeze and sunshine. What a feeling!

City Place in Downtown West Palm Beach


We've discovered that West Palm Beach, WPB as the locals refer to it, is where it's all happenin'.  It's quite an upscale community that is surrounded by all kinds of cities with very similar names: Palm Beach Gardens, Royal Palm Beach, Royal Palm Estates -- you get the idea.  Lots of BMW's and Mercedes there. If you travel across the A1A Flagler Memorial Bridge heading East, you'll find the island known as Palm Beach. It is a very wealthy place to live. According to Wikipedia...


"The Intracoastal Waterway separates Palm Beach Island from the neighboring cities of West Palm Beach and Lake Worth. As of 2000, Palm Beach had a year-round population of 10,468, with an estimated seasonal population of 30,000.


"Many of Palm Beach's residents are affluent, with a median household income of $124,562 and a median family income of $137,867. The town's affluence and its "abundance of pleasures" and "strong community-oriented sensibility" were cited when it was selected in June 2003 as America's "Best Place to Live" by Robb Report magazine."



We have not been to Palm Beach island, but on Sunday we drove to WPB to visit City Place. It's a 72-acre shopping, entertainment and restaurant area laid out much like an old time European village with a central plaza that spins off into over 100 shops and businesses. It even has some very upscale condos which would allow one to live without ever needing a car. It has a Publix grocery, Macy's, a 20-screen theater with IMAX, in Improv Comedy Club and lots more.

Checking out the goods at Anthropolgie

Yep, they still have happy hour here in FL. At some places happy hour runs all day long!
Atlanta killed happy hour decades ago because people were driving drunk after downing
a few too many after-work cocktails. No such problem here in Florida apparently. BB King's
blues club and many others all do the two-for-one. We stopped for lunch at
Brewzzi for a sample of their microbrew and some great eats.

The plaza at City Place

Vegetation and beautiful landscaping is the order of the day in Florida,
including this avenue running through City Place.

Taking a minute out from shopping to rest on the ceramic stairs.

Jupiter Beach

On Friday (5/18) we hit the beach after spending the last few days indoors while the rain continued to fall. The day dawned sunny and bright so around noon we headed out to the sand.  The water was warm, the waves were small, the sun was bright and it all felt just soooo good to be alive. 

Jupiter Beach at low tide. This could be paradise.

Nothing like a good book to pass the time while cool breezes keep you comfortable.

Taking a break from swimming

This poor fellow landed on the beach with monofilament fishing line tangled around his leg and a fishing hook
caught in his shoulder. He just stood there, a foot or two away from bystanders until someone found a pocket
knife and cut the fishing line free and removed the hook. This magnificent bird spent quite a while grooming himself
before eventually flying off. He didn't seem to mind at all that Becky stood just a step away from him in taking this picture.

We had a great time on the beach, worked on our suntans and -- on the way home -- stopped at Rosetta's Produce store to pick up some bright red tomatoes and veggies for dinner. We're loving Florida so much that we applied for another house sit in WPB for November and December. We'll see what happens...if we are chosen...

Beach Cleanup & Loggerhead Turtles

Today Becky and I helped 160 other people collect 445 pounds of trash from Jupiter Beach. Then we visited the Loggerhead Marine Center.

Beach Cleanup

The first Saturday of each month volunteers meet to pick up trash others have left behind, as well as what has washed ashore. The event has been underway for 20+ years and has many sponsors.

Keep America Beautiful and these companies and organizations sponsor
the monthly Jupiter Beach Cleanup. It is organized by Friends of Jupiter Beach

Our backs thank
this handy pickup
tool.

The organizers supplied gloves, plastic bags to carry the trash and one of those handy pickup tools (see pic) that lets you deftly pick things out of the sand without bending over, and over, and over.


We organized into teams of 8-10 people and each team was assigned a segment of beach to cleanup. Just like "police call" I remember from my Army days, we walked along the beach picking up cigarette butts, every kind of plastic -- hair barrettes, bottle caps, plastic bags, plastic forks and spoons, shower curtain rings, you name it -- as well as broken glass bottles, beer cans, Dunkin Donut and Taco Bell debris and so much more. We learned later that plastic doesn't biodegrade. It photo-degrades and eventually breaks into small pieces that are ingested by marine life.

Highway A1A is a Florida State Road that runs along the Atlantic Ocean. The Southern-most end terminates at  Key West, while the Northern terminus is at Fernandina Beach, just south of Georgia on Amelia Island. It is designated the A1A Scenic and Historic Coastal Highway. (Last week Becky drove us about 65 miles South on A1A so we could have dinner in Ft. Lauderdale). Jupiter Beach runs along A1A with a dense strip of mangrove separating the road from the beach.

Mangrove trees act as buffers between the land and the sea. They prevent soil
erosion and because they grow aggressively, they can actually "reclaim"
land area as they grow toward the sea. 

Headin' toward the beach...

In about an hour of picking and grabbing junk and trash from the sand we reconvened for coffee, bagels, all kinds of baked goodies, lemonade and conversation with people we'd met. It was a nice way to spend the 8-10AM segment of the day. Hey, we even got some great T-shirts!

Loggerhead Marine Center

The LMC is a hospital for turtles that have been injured and need rehabilitation before being released back to the sea. It has a fully equipped veterinary hospital authorized to treat endangered loggerhead, green, hawksbill, leatherback and Kemp's ridley turtles. We saw turtles that had been injured by boat propellers, bitten by ocean predators and tangled in fishing line. A few had flippers amputated due to their injuries. Others were being treated for problems ranging from diverticulosus to anemia.

Here is a typical case, Anna Belle, who was brought to the Marine Center with propeller wounds. And below is Anna Belle's "turtle cam" that updates every ten seconds.

Anna Belle's "turtle cam."

Along Jupiter Beach you'll find pink wooden stakes randomly driven into the sand. Each one marks a turtle nest filled with about 120 eggs. The turtles hatch between May and October. We're told there are night-time vigils where people gather under the moonlight to watch the baby turtles head across the sand to reach the sea. Male turtles never return to land for the remainder of their 80 to 100 year lifetime. Females return only to lay eggs.  It's quite an amazing story.