Captain Bob's Adventures

Woke early and had some breakfast followed by some great time talking business strategy and taking care of some paperwork tasks. We decided to break from show activities and do something a little different. Temperature was 48 degrees this morning, so like any good snow bird, we better migrate further south. Key West! We drove all the way down, stopping on the way down at Island Grill for some Tuna Nachos and sandwiches. We drove past Earnest Hemingway's house, past the southern most point of the continental 48 and stopped at this little beach area with a pier. At this location was quite possibly the funniest thing ever at the time. Along the drive down, Jerry had been routinely "checking in" on Facebook to track our route, etc. So I popped open Facebook app on my phone to see if he had checked in at the southern most pointer just passed. Upon looking I find he has checked in with the following "Jerry Bruggeman is with Brad Beaird at the Southern Most Mote...

Today we ate breakfast and then took off for the other marina to check out power boats. We got there early and wasted some time walking across the bridge over to the Venetian Islands. It was fun to look at the houses and well manicured landscaping. We headed back to the Sea Isle Marina for the start of the power boat show. Tons of power boats and lots of testosterone haha. We walked around and then decided to take the water taxi back over to the sail marina and get another peak at the sailboats we were most interest in. Upon arrival, we decided to grab lunch at Mambo. I had a fantastic churrasco steak with beans and rice. Jerry had a Cuban sandwich and salad. We washed it all down with a couple of mojitos. We left lunch and viewed the Lagoons, the Fountaine Pajots, and the Leopards. After looking at the various sizes and manufacturers, we simply both liked the Leopard 44 better than anything we else we looked over. We took the water taxi back over to where the car was a...

Day 2 started by getting up early and heading over to Miami Beach area and locating the parking garage for the convention center. After finding it, we had plenty of time so we went over to the beach and even though it was cloudy and rainy, decided to walk a little by the water. Ocean sound are always relaxing and appealing :). We then headed to the convention center and hit the show. Tons of boats and equipment inside out of the rain to be checked out. We had a great lunch inside the convention area from this little Mexican stand with some outstanding tacos! Then it was back to the show. We took off from there to head up to Hollywood Beach area to have dinner at Billy's Stone Crab. We had Clams Casino for appetizer then all you can eat stone crab. Topped off with melon mojito and key lime martini. Oh my it was delicious and definitely worth the money.

Day 1 was awesome. We parked at Mariners Park and took the trolley over to Bayside Marina to the Strictly Sail show. We got the early but it allowed Jerry a chance to catch up in some faxes ad phone calls. Once the show opened, we got a opportunity to see some terrific sailboats and board most any one we wanted. It was interesting how many of the models which I thought I might like weren't as appealing once seen in person. Likewise, many were more appealing once in front if you. Great amount I fun today.

Last night we went to Chesterfield to a wedding for one of Nan's High School friends. It was held at the Butterfly House, which I had never been to but it turned out to be pretty cool. I'm not sure I'd go there as a fantastic destination but all the tropical butterflies were neat. After the wedding, we went to PF Changs and had dinner. Nan had stir fried rice. I had Sichuan Scallops. We had wonton soup and a delicious appetizer called Tuna Tataki Crisp. Pics following

We slept in.  Didn't get around till almost noon.  We decided to eat left overs around the cabin for lunch then headed into town for mini golf and gem mining.  I've determined that perhaps someday, I should start one of these gem mining places as this is the greatest scam of all time.  They give you a bag of sand with a few "gem" stones mixed in and charge you $7.  You run the sandy mass thru a screen and some water and SURPRISE! you mined some gems!  Kids begged to have another $7 run at it and I said no way!  That was a high priced 5 minutes!  Instead we opted to hit the general store and stock up on candy, haha.  We headed back to the cabin, changed clothes, and for the 3rd time, hit the tubing place.  We had to wait a bit to get our bus ride down to the launch location.  It was probably 4:30pm by the time we got there, but it was still 90 degrees outside.  We jumped off the bus, hit the launch location AND!!!     ...

Today, we decided to give it another shot of heading up to the Amicalola Falls and check out "the highest falls in Georgia" at 729 feet of beautiful cascading falls.  We started at the top of the falls and I have to say looking down from the top down that long drop gave me a bit of a funny feeling inside.  I'm usually pretty good with heights but it was oddly an uneasy feeling haha.  We went a ways down the steps of which there are over 400, then came back up and drove down to the other trail which takes you to a nice viewing area.  Landon started out strong on the steps and on the way back was getting tuckered out on us :)  After hanging out at the falls for a bit, we motored back to Blue Ridge and went to Joe's BBQ.  Now Joe's had been recommended as the best BBQ in town, but you know....it was ok......having had some better BBQ from southeast Missouri.  I had a sampler platter (pic below), Leam a pulled chicken sandwich, Landon a half rack of ribs (...