Gone Fishin'!

Hi all and welcome to another installment of the blog!

This weekend, Glenn went online and bought us some fishing licenses, and on a grey and overcast afternoon, we headed out to a little pond in the middle of nearby Chautauqua Lake Park to try our luck with some worms.

Sadly, almost as soon as we got there, the clouds went away and it was full on sun and blistering heat. Not the ideal fishing conditions, but it was a pretty little spot. (And the fish were pre-cooked!)

Glenn had some luck, while I had my worm stolen about 20 times in a row. Jerks!

It's a shame it was a catch and release pond, or we would've had these babies mounted! ;-)

Continuing with our fish theme, we went to dinner Saturday night at RumFish Grill in St. Pete Beach. This is a new restaurant and has garnered a little fame because it has a giant 33,500 gallon aquarium that encompasses an entire wall of the dining room. The aquarium was built by the guys on  Animal Planet’s TV series “Tanked” and was featured in their hour-long season finale.

Also, surprisingly, the food was excellent.

Plus, I had some better luck fishing...

The restaurant is right on the beach, so we went out and walked around a bit.

We started to drive home but I insisted Glenn pull over because we had stumbled across perhaps the most amazing sunset either of us have ever seen. Forgive this deluge of photos but we were both taking pictures and couldn't help ourselves.

Just breathtaking!

Sunday was a WILD day.

Sunday morning, I woke up hearing the dogs barking their heads off. Turns out they were responding to some coyotes behind our fence. Glenn taped the coyotes howling to give you an idea what they sound like. This time, there was only two of them, but a few nights now we've heard a whole pack howling and it is the eeriest sound - it will make your hair stand on end. (Video for sound only)

He also snapped a pic over the fence and saw a grey coyote and a black one. The photo is not very clear though - I've circled them for you.

Our friend Pat sent us this Photoshopped version, which is much easier to see.

:-)

So Sunday morning, we decided to use the rest of our worms and try to fish again while it was still cool and grey. We headed over to John Chestnut park which is on Lake Tarpon.

 

 This was a much better place to fish. And again we had some minor success.

 

We had some "reel" excitement when I caught a pretty decent sized catfish - over a foot long! But as I brought him up out of the water, my line snapped. (Note to selves, we need a net!)

We also saw this guy swimming across the lake. Clearly, a large fellow.

After a while, we walked to a nearby stream to try our luck there. We found that a little alligator (we called him Gary) was in our spot. He was about the size of a beagle.

Anyway, we thought he had swam away, but after we cast our lines in, he came back. We became a little alarmed because he tried to eat our bobbers.

No, Gary! No!

So, with that, we decided to call it a day. We went to Cooters in Clearwater to watch the Steeler game with some yinzers, and I won a free t-shirt in a raffle. Plus the Stillers won, but just barely.

All in all, another great weekend in the sunshine state. Hope you all are doing well too!

A Strange and Wonderful Labor Day Weekend

Hi All -

I hope you all enjoyed the holiday weekend. It is said that Labor Day marks the end of summer, but we are happy that is not the case for us Floridians.

On Saturday, we decided it would be weird and perhaps blog-worthy to go to GeckoFest in Gulfport. First of all, you should know that the tiny brown and green lizards that are everywhere down here (the same ones that Mojo likes to murder) are actually called Anoles. But I guess AnoleFest didn't sound catchy enough.

So we went to Gulfport, which is a cute little town, with a bunch of nice little shops and restaurants.

Glenn explained to me that sadly, in this case, "Casino" just means a pavilion or gathering place.

Here we are!

The festival itself was not very photo worthy, however. Just like all the other festivals - tents, crafts, sno-cones etc. WHERE ARE THE LIZARDS?!

The other thing was, and again, I am not complaining, it was FIREY HOT. So hot that we thought we might just melt into the pavement. So we did not stay very long.

That night we drove into Tampa for dinner and were rewarded on the drive home with a bright & beautiful double rainbow. The pics don't do it justice, but here are a few.

Sunday morning, we returned to nearby John Chestnut Park to walk through a trail we hadn't been on yet. It was very pretty.

Observation Tower

Woo-hoo!

We also found this silly turtle who is either trying to fly and be free, or is doing some sort of turtle yoga. Perhaps a sun salutation.

That night we went to St. Petersburg for dinner, and afterwards, quite accidentally, we stumbled upon a dog fashion show. (I told you it was a weird weekend!)

This is Diamond, wearing an original creation.

We were kind of at the "tail end" (hahahaha!) of the runway, but you get the idea. It was funny because the outdoor cafe having the show was packed with people and dogs. Every table had a dog at it, and the waiters were walking around with bowls of water and plates of bacon.

Afterwards we walked down again to their marina. I'm not sure why, but the water and the sky in the St. Pete marina are always amazing.

Us again!

Anyway, that's about it for our adventures. On Monday, Glenn and I did some work around the house but mostly were just lazy slobs all day, which is how it should be. 

Hope you all were lazy slobs too! Love you!