March Madness

It's been over a month since I've written and I apologize for not updating y'all, but its been a pretty hectic month.

The beginning of February was spent traveling. Aaron, Elphie and I went to the Washington coast (Newport and Ocean Shores) and had a very wonderful time. We stumbled upon a little Irish pub and had dinner there before heading back inland. I also realized that living away from water is a big mistake for me. I don't know how I lived in land-locked states most of my life. This picture is of Aaron saving Elphie from the wave surges. (Elphie looks like a pig!)

The following day, I left on a jet plane to visit Christen in L.A. and had an AWESOME time! I got to see all the hand prints in front of the Chinese Theatre, saw the Hollwood sign (it's really just a sign-nothing special), went to a flea market at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, and saw Coraline in 3-D (it was pretty cool, but the 3-D didn't do much for me).

All-in-all, LA was a really fun trip, but definitely too short. After a few days I was headed back to the keys to work back at Sea Base. I got to set up Big Munson Island a bit before our first crew of the season came through. Had a blast with my crew and the week flew by (as it usually does). Our fishing day was alright but it was so cold. I'm sure you're thinking, "60-70 Degrees in Florida is NOT cold", but you have no idea. On land it's usually very nice, but out on the water, that northern wind will suck the breath right out of your lungs and makes fishing days rather difficult. We got ourselves two nice sized mackerels and a yellow jack but we definitely worked for our dinner that night. Once we got set up on the island for our fishy dinner, it was a very relaxing night on the island. We sat around the campfire and just chatted, and munched on our day's work. The next day we kayaked around the front of the island and took a nice tour. It was probably the most relaxing and enjoyable time I've had on the island. Man I love my job. 

The rest of the week was a real good time. The wind was whipping for sailing day but it also stuck around for snorkeling, making it a very chilly boat ride back to base. Key West day was a fun time to wander around and I took my crew to the Lighthouse, where I had never been and it was a real good time. The view was beautiful and I even saw a pretty little yellow house right by the light house for sale (if i was rich I'd buy it in a heartbeat!) I also got to see a cruise ship push back from the dock, which I've always wanted to see!

After all the scouties left, some of the other mates and I went out, checked the crab crates we have set up and found lots of stone crabs which we later feasted on (DELISH!) and then went fishing for bait fish (ballyhoo, pinfish, etc.). Before we started fishing for the fishies, we made a bet that whoever caught the biggest pinfish, got to eat the biggest stone crab and guess who won the bet? ME of course! (Booyah!) In fact, there was only one other person who caught a pin fish and it was the smallest pinfish in the bunch.

Now that the crews are gone, I've been working P-force and have weekend off so Aaron flew me up to Montana before I have to get back to staff training and more crews and it has been a WONDERFUL weekend so-far! I arrived in Great Falls late Friday night and yesterday we drove to Helena to see the Helena Symphony perform. We got all fancy and dress up and I even wore high heels! (shocker, i know!) The symphony played Mahler's Ninth and performed very well. Today we visited the Brewhouse in Helena and then came back to Great Falls. Tomorrow's plans are still up in the air and then I head back to the Keys on Tuesday. Hopefully I'll be able to better keep up the blog and if so, it will probably have quite a lot of fishing pictures because who doesnt love posing with their catch of the day?

Anyway, I hope all well with my few blog readers. I hope you all are good and well and are staying out of the winter cold. Until next time...