Wind Surfing at "Kite Beach"

Whatta Day!  We got a very leisurely start today that began with just that first cup of coffee. We spent the morning and mid-day hours just enjoying being alive until Becky said, "Hey, it's almost 2 o'clock. We haven't eaten anything today. Let's go have dinner!"

We had picked up a menu for the Thirsty Turtle restaurant in Juno Beach and liked the looks of it. Lots of really fresh seafood. Hop in the car and a few minutes later...a feast of 50-cent wings for an appetizer washed down with a margarita and bloody Mary, followed with a platter of fresh oysters for Allan and a Seafood Silva for Becky: Sea scallops, shrimp, dolphin and calamari sautéed with diced tomatoes, mushrooms and scallions in a vodka marinara sauce served over pasta. So much Seafood Silva we had to pack the overflowing plate into a go-box and head for home.

The Thirsty Turtle is in Juno Beach, FL. What a great place for fresh seafood! The wait staff was more than
excellent and the food... OMG delicious.

It's getting ready to rain here for the next several days, maybe for the next week, due to a big front coming up from the Caribbean. The skies are a bit gray and winds are coming in from the East, which means the waves breaking along the coast are going to be a bit bigger than usual. That weather front led up to the balance of our day.

On the way home from the restaurant Allan said, "Let's go walk the beach for a while to let our dinner digest." So we headed over to A1A and stopped just North of the Juno pier.  Here's what we saw as we parked the car and headed toward the beach access point:  A huge "kite" of some kind blowing and flying like a crazy dancer gone wild in the wind.

Wow, someone's flying a really big kite over there. Let's check it out!

We walked over the ridge and down onto the beach to behold...a couple dozen wind surfers, aka kite-boarders, racing across the 4-5 foot waves like juggernauts looking to find the opening point so they could cross into some kind of nirvana. 

Oh my!  Dozens of wind surfers blasting like race cars across the waves. A bystander told us this section of Juno Beach
is also known as "kite beach" and is one of the ultimate wind surfing beaches in the area. With the "steerable" kites, each surfer can choose to turn his/her kite into the Easterly wind to go North or South along the beach. Most of these amazing athletes would ride the waves and wind from South to North, and then turn around and go back the other way. Just amazing!

Here's a video and a few more pics of our wonderful, amazing day as we walked and loved being alive and in love. 

Father's Day Fun

Allan wrote...

Father's Day today found us in Miami again, this time touring the Lincoln Road Mall area.  Here's one of the latest fashions for ladies who want to make "an impression" (although I'm not sure what the impression would be!)

Hmmm, let's see:  a spiky purse on the left, spiky shoes at top and some other unkknown spiky accessories.
Can't imagine who would wear them...or why. LOL

 

After Lincoln Road we walked our feet off snapping pics of some of the old art deco buildings on Collins Avenue in the South Beach area. Art deco was an architectural style popular in the 1920's and 1930's and at that time was considered ultra modern, cool and exciting. Today it's considered retro and still cool. The city of Miami Beach at one point wanted to demolish many of them because they were just too old. A team of women got together and managed to have some 800 of the old buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places, effectively protecting them from the wrecking ball. Architects were brought in to renovate them and voila ... now we have the permanent art deco district of Miami Beach.

Arriving back in Jupiter I went to the beach to do some surf fishing, but found the tide was approaching its highest, which mean two to four foot waves crashing to shore.  I quickly found out what "rip tides" are about when I waded into the water to cast my line.  Almost getting knocked down by the water rushing back to sea I got out of the water and turned the beach trip into a photo opp.  Here's a little video that nicely shows the Jupiter Inlet where the ocean pours inland and creates hundreds of channels, canals and streams that criss-cross the entire Jupiter area.

Waves crashing over the Jupiter pier as high tide came in.

Surfers were catching a few of those high tide waves this evening.

Amazing House Sit Opportunity...

We're always on the lookout for an exciting new house sitting opportunity. Here's one that tops the list for "excitement" but, unfortunately, it's a bit too extreme for our taste.  Nevertheless, it's a fantastic opportunity for someone.

What a amazing opportunity for someone to enjoy a VERY different environment!

Here's what the home owners asked for:

Adventuresome, self-reliant, financially sound, physically fit, boat and navigation savvy, jungle-friendly, off-the-grid-everything familiar couple needed to take care of "Cerro Velero," our 5 acre waterfront jungle property and home. 

There are two easy dogs who also need tending to. Reasonable facility with Spanish needed for communicating with the gardener.

The home is in a roadless area, so there are no roads. It is a 30 minute boat ride (you drive the boat) to the nearest town with supplies. The small house is on a hill with good breezes, and has a knock-your-socks-off view of the water and mountains and sunsets. Lots of kayaking and walking and hiking opportunities on the property and nearby.

While it is paradise in many ways, it is definitely not a resort! You can't go out at night because it's not safe to take the boat out where there are no lights or aids to navigation. (There's nowhere nearby to go, anyway.) There is no television unless you set up a Slingbox in the states to watch over the internet.

Yes, at least there is good, fast internet!

The nights are 12 hours long, dark unless the moon is out, and often loud with howler monkeys, night birds, insects and frogs. And there are bugs. It really is a jungle.

While there are good Gringo neighbors nearby, there is no grocery store around the corner. Bocas del Toro, a half hour away by boat, is the nearest town. Everything has to be schlepped around Bocas on foot (or taxi), stowed in Cricket, our small launch, and then schlepped up the hill to the house. Unless you want to lug it all yourself, you have to get back before our worker goes home for the day.

Most folks in the area go into town no more than once a week. If you forget something, you just have to do without until the next time you go to town. Or borrow from the neighbors. 

And, it rains a lot. Like, oh, close to 140 inches a year. But that is what makes it a jungle!

So, if that doesn't put you off...it really is magically, wonderfully beautiful! TONS of birds, including toucans and oropendolas. Also, sloths and howler monkeys, and dolphins and turtles in the bay out front. 

We have a site with lots of photos if you want to take a look and learn more.

I Do require Pet/Animal Care   Pet/Animal Types:  Dogs,  

No Such Thing as "Blue Monday"

Allan wrote...

Sunday was a lay-around day for the most part, but Becky did stir up a fantastic papaya and avocado dinner.

Romaine, almonds, beets, papaya, avocado, ginger and just a splash of EVOO. Good!

Today, on Monday, Becky got up and said, "When you're retired there's no such thing as 'blue Monday.' Let's go to the beach!"  So we did. A gorgeous day in the mid-80's with a nice breeze and blue skies.

Under the Boardwalk -- actually under Juno Beach pier. 

At 7PM this evening we'll attend a teleseminar with a five-times New York Times Best Selling book author to learn a bit more about writing.

Sawgrass Mills, Lincoln Road Mall -- It's All About Shopping

Allan wrote...

It's been raining here for a solid week with very few breaks for the sun to peek out. Nevertheless, Becky made plans to visit the Sawgrass Mills outlet mall in Sunrise, FL on Saturday with the excellent logic "Hey, if it rains I'll be inside, so it won't matter."  We made the 70 mile drive down to Sunrise and found what is actually the sixth largest shopping mall in the USA. The mall was built by the Simon company, the biggest real estate company in the world. It's got 20 anchor tenants (!) and is twice the size of Town Center in Cobb County with over 2.3 million square feet of shopping. 'Nuf said. The place is huge.

I dropped Becky off at noon with a promise to return by 6PM for dinner with old friends who were to meet us at the Grand Lux Restaurant. I headed over to Miami Beach and the South Beach area to investigate Lincoln Road, the famous art-deco area of the city and what some have called the "social hub" of Miami. Lincoln Road runs from the Atlantic Ocean to Biscayne Bay and is almost entirely closed to vehicular traffic.  It's been renamed the Lincoln Road Mall, and what a mall it is!

The entire area was awash with people speaking English, Spanish, French, German and a couple languages I couldn't identify. Besides those walking the streets I saw people go by on segues, on roller blades, bikes and skateboards. A true international gathering place just lined with restaurants to satisfy every conceivable taste from pizza to sushi to shepherd's pie.

Restaurants line each side of the Lincoln Road Mall, as it's called.
Most people choose to eat outside under the umbrellas.

Lincoln Road Mall. One of the many outdoor seating areas.

After walking the area for a while I drove over to the beach, jumped in the 85-degree surf, soaked up some sun and drove back to Sawgrass Mills to meet Becky for dinner. That's when I knew something strange had happened. With those two million square feet of shopping and over 300 different stores Becky had only managed to pick up a couple small items! She said she finally got tired of looking at merchandise and just "burned out" on shopping. I didn't know that could happen to a woman! LOL

Sawgrass Mills Outlet Mall. Just the place to get your 10,000 steps for the day. And then some!

Later that evening we learned that people fly to Sawgrass Mills from all over the Caribbean, from Puerto Rico and even Central America to shop. And shop they do! We saw people pushing luggage carts like you see in airports, except here at Sawgrass they were filling their empty suitcases and roller bags with the merchandise they were buying. There was some serious shopping underway. 

We had a great dinner with an old friend of Becky's -- a man she knew as one of her son's playmates almost 40 years ago -- the headed back to Jupiter and to bed. A great day after the week of rain that had kept us close to home.

The Kindness of Strangers...

Allan wrote...

Today was "free fishing day" throughout Florida. That means anyone can fish without a license.  I do have a saltwater license but did not buy the freshwater license, so today was an opportunity to go to Lake Okeechobee to catch some freshwater fish: crappies and bass.  The write-ups I've been reading on the web tell of fishermen who catch 30 to 50 bass in a day! The bag limit for black (large mouth) bass is five per day and they have to be at least 18-inches long, otherwise you've got to release them immediately. In fact, Okeechobee is such a phenomenal bass lake that many professional contests are held there every year. Needless to say, I had been looking forward to this 40 mile ride and a day of fishing and sunshine all week.

The people at the bait store were very helpful, explaining that the 20 or so "shoreline fishing spots" on the Corps of Engineers map of the lake "aren't quite right. There are only really two places you can do any worthwhile fishing from the shore.  And neither of them are actually in the lake. They're in the rivers, canals and wetlands surrounding the lake. Why don't you try the Kissimmee River?"

A highway  runs all the way around Lake Okeechobee. While the

maps show several places to fish from the shoreline, most of the lake isn't 

really accessible. This picture shows a berm just beyond the line of palm trees.

That's the berm the Corp of Engineers built to hold the lake in place. 

If you could park and get to the other side of the berm I suppose you 

could fish from the shoreline. But I wasn't able to find a single place 

to cross. Either there was no parking available or the berm was on private

property. 

OK.  I headed toward the Kissimmee River spot, took a wrong turn and stopped at a gas station to ask for directions. A local man said, "Just follow me. I'll show you where to go."  So I did and he did. He was so kind to go out of his way! I drove a few miles down a sand road that had little trails leading to the river every quarter mile or so. I found the one in the video below and settled down to "go fishing."  

The river is on the right, through the

trees and bush. This sand road ran

on for miles and miles along the river.

With no action underway I closed up shop and drove to another bait store. The man there told me of a pier and  a place that's "filled with bluegill and bass." He even took time out to draw a map that showed me where to turn, where to park and where to fish!  So I headed that way. So helpful!

View from the pier. These are the wetlands and canals that

surround Lake Okeechobee.

Just as I was settling in to make my first cast a pontoon boat floated by. Richard (from Kentucky), one of the fishermen on board, asked "Would you like to have some bluegill?  I've got four of them and we won't be able to eat them tonight."

"Sure! And thanks so much."  The kindness of strangers once again. I fished until late afternoon, caught nothing, got no bites but did enjoy watching the alligator approach my bobber, then veer away when I tweaked it.

Arriving home I cleaned the bluegill, breaded and fried them and chowed down. Not bad.

That was "free fishing day" and, again, I enjoyed "going fishing" -- would have preferred to catch fish -- but had a wonderful day in the sun regardless. Thank you for dinner, Richard!

Bluegill with avocado and tomato.  Good!

Gorgeous Day :) It was probably close to 90-degrees, but the breeze made for a comfortable day!

Two gators off in the distance

As this couple and I approached one another I said, "It looks like a special occasion with all the balloons!" The man

replied, "Yes, it's our son's birthday today. He died last July and would have been 25 today. We thought this was a fitting way to remember him."  We talked, I expressed condolences and they made their way to the end of the pier where the man video'd his wife speaking before she released the balloons.  Very touching. 

As I drove back into Jupiter I saw this car, apparently driven by a 72 year old man. I can't imagine what the police did

to earn his "advertisement" but there's got to be a story behind it!

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 :)