Florida and the Great Calusa Blueway

A few months ago, my step-sister Augusta sent me a link to this article, saying that she was sure I wasn't in need of ideas, but that this one made her think of me. I liked it, and for the fun of it sent it back to her and a few other friends. One of them - Javier - wrote back and said, "you know my family has a home there, right?" I didn't, I swear, but the end result was, well, this trip!

Our experience was somewhat similar to the folks' in the article as far as kayak rental went. The folks we rented from were friendly but astonishingly casual about sending us headlong into the wide ocean without wondering too much about who we were, how much experience we had, our level of preparedness, or pretty much anything beyond making sure we paid up front in cash. None of us had paddled in sit-on-top tandem kayaks before, but apparently that was the recommended way to navigate 3-5 miles of open ocean that separated us from our destination, Cayo Costa. The guy went so far as to inform us that you steer these boats from the front - a choice bit of misinformation that had one of our boats practically going in circles for 4/5 of the way out there, when we finally figured out the problem. For those of us used to paddling open water in sea kayaks, the sit-on-tops were miserably inefficient, unseaworthy, and DAMP! (There's a hole in the middle of all the seats that goes right through the boat, allowing for a continual flow of fresh seawater right, well, you get the idea! Not sure of the logic behind that design, but I've got to hope that there is some!). They're far wider and flatter than sea kayaks, and don't have skegs or rudders to help them track - essentially great boats for recreational river and lake exploration, but not designed for what we were hoping to do!

I am happy to report that in spite of the challenges presented by our un-seaworthy craft, four-foot waves due to strong wind, difficulty with actually aiming for the correct key island, and sea-sickness, we did finally make it to our destination. Jamie says it's the dolphins. We did run into a pod of 'em (woo hoo!) and while we had no luck at all in capturing them with the camera, we saw at least two mothers with their tiny babies surfacing right at their side. It really was neat.

Camping on Cayo Costa was pretty plush for being state park camping. They had clean bathrooms, showers, (ok, no electricity, and thus, no hot water, but hey, who needs it!) a gathering area with mendicant guitar-playing folk singers from the Catskills ("two things money can't buy / true love and home grown tomatoes"), picnic tables, fire rings, posts for hanging stuff (including hammocks!) and a shuttle to take you back and forth across the island.

Sunday we spent reading and hanging out, then paddled our way over a crazy surf-like wave shelf (supposedly shark-infested, but that can't be right, can it?) to neighboring Boca Grande for lunch. We did see heaps more dolphins with babies on the way back - and even saw some black dolphins! The birds were just amazing, with pelicans and osprey and terns of some sort wheeling up, and then diving straight down into the water. It never got tiring to watch - although it was funny...it seemed the osprey had the most success with pelicans and terns mostly coming up empty in spite of all the dramatic effort. We ended the day with a campfire and hot cocoa and take-out from the restaurant - let's hear it for good food in the wilderness regardless of the means by which it as acquired!

Monday was head back day, and we got off the island in plenty of time to really enjoy it. The water was far calmer, the weather far warmer, and the sun far, uh, sunnier than it had been on our way out.  We paused on several sand bars and explored around, looking for shells and other sea treasures and oddities. Then we headed to the inland canal system that follows the coast and used it to navigate our way to our launch point. Mangrove swamps and all sorts of crane/heron/egret things rounded out our nature explorations for the trip.

Tuesday was spent in more traditional "vacation in Florida" pursuits: we slept in, yawned our way to the beach, and caught rays for much of afternoon. Not a bad way to wrap things up before heading to the airport and back home. 

And now... can you say "Great Calusa Blueway" fast five times?! 

twirly whirly

k, aren't "twirl" and "whirl" both lovely words?

Hello from the air somewhere between Wisconsin and Florida! Tammy, Jamie and I are going to meet Tony there for a kayaking trip to the barrier islands for the weekend. Since I may want to post about our time there, I'm thinkin' it's high time I put an update out here covering the last few months!


Thanksgiving
For this lovely holiday, I headed to Raleigh to celebrate with Tom's family. We had fun fixing an incredible meal and just hanging out. I had met baby Elise before  Then we were joined by our friend Sam and his wife Hope, and took off for an exploration of some Civil War battlefields. Tom Sr. did the driving honors, and the five of us just really had a blast touring Richmond and learning about the characters and scope of the site of two major battles of the Civil War.

Christmas
Christmas was drawn out and lovely with one highlight being that a group of game night folks and my college roommate Jocelyn went to a Handel's Messiah performance at the PAC. We had a great evening kicked off at an Indian Restaurant and ending in a snow bank. Well, nearly ending there - there was a big blizzard that left me and Jocey in a snow drift until some enthusiastic college kids helped us out!

The next weekend saw the congregation of Amy's side of the family the week before Christmas. Nine of us (me, Tom, Amy, Tim, Grandma Beth, Augusta, Chris, Grant and Margo) crammed into my 2-bedroom apartment and really just had a blast. My friend Katie and her daughter Annabelle stopped by on Saturday (Amy and Augusta hadn't yet met little Annabelle). And then Korean food, talking, sledding, x-c skiing, playing with Margo, presents and games - what could be better?! (side note: I received a camera for Christmas last year and took it kayaking this summer. I bought a dry bag for it, but somehow enough moisture collected in it to kill my camera. I was sick about it! I tried to get it repaired locally and online and nothing could be done - the repair cost more than the value of the camera. So imagine my delight when my fabulous boyfriend gave me a camera as a Christmas present: this time one that is WATERPROOF and shockproof! He's been testing the shockproof side of things - I think he's dropped in on solid ice twice now and the camera still works great :). We'll see how it does kayaking in Florida!).

Christmas proper was spent with our families, Tom in Raleigh and me in Eau Claire. My nieces and nephews are just the best small people out there (sorry, everyone else!) and we really just had a lovely time being together, eating great food, laughing, and playing games with the kids.

New Year's
It's become a tradition! New Year's with Jen and Mustafa in the Twin Cities. This time around, the group was me, Tom, Jonathan from CA, Jen's brother AJ, and Jen and Moosie. Friday we did a guided tour of the Guthrie theater that was just fascinating, and we had fun exploring the city, playing games (ever played Ra? It's a board game that you can play on the iPad!), running around, eating many marvelous things that Jen cooked, and just having a good time with friends we see far too infrequently.

Happy News
In early January, Tom's boss asked him if he'd like to work on a short term project in Neenah, Wisconsin! Once he confirmed that it would work, he had about three days to pack up his life for the next 6-8 weeks and take off for the northern hinterlands. And golly have we been having a blast. We've used weekends to hang out and catch up with friends within a 7 hour radius. Tom grew up and went to school in Iowa, so one weekend we went down there to see family and friends and get a tour of his college campus and home town - that was the 7 hour one! We've really just had a great time catching up with friends and family. The time has also been filled with game night, church small group, cross country skiing, racquetball, game playing, and...Wednesday Night Date Night. You wouldn't believe how much more fun it is to date someone who lives 15 minutes away vs. 15 hours or whatever it is.

As grateful as I am to the project for bringing him here, I must say that I am NOT grateful for the fact that its intensity kept Tom from being able to join us on this FL trip. Boo! I'm definitely looking forward to the relaxation and good time with awesome people, don't get me wrong. But it sure would be nice if he could be enjoying the warmth and sunshine too.

Well, I believe we're beginning our descent. Au Revoir!

Da tirty point buck

Javier (yes, it's an alias), Marc, and I were the deer hunting contingent from the Appleton area this year. Things actually started a couple of weekends ago, though, with Tom, Jason, Marc and I heading over to Uncle Dean and Aunt Dar's place to check out the situation with regard to deer stands and get the lay of the land. We had a great time with them, tromping around the family farm, hearing stories, playing cards, and just generally having a nice time. Don't you just love that when different sets of people that you love get to meet each other?

So this Friday afternoon, Marc, Javier and I headed west. We got there pretty much at the same time my cousin (Dean & Dar's son) Keith did. I hadn't seen him for a couple years, so it was great to hang around, play cards, catch up, and look over a map of the land to figure out the trail network. Unfortunately Dar just found out that her brother Rich has been hospitalized with a serious case of walking pneumonia... so that meant things were a little more serious than they might have been. (He was doing ok - at least not worse - when she visited him on Saturday, so we're all hoping he pulls through.)

Saturday morning light quickly found us in our tree stands and ready to go. I was in the same stand as last year, and I just love it. It's placed right at the junction between a lake and a swamp, so there was all sorts of activity when I was there. Maybe 20 minutes after I was in and settled, a black bear came from the facing hill and between the bodies of water, crossing in front of me and heading back up the Big Hill. Not much later, an otter came up from the swamp, meandered to the lake, and then also pattered its way in front of me. Marc even got to see it, as he was using the next stand up that my cousin Scott used last year! Maybe half an hour later, a big buck came down the opposite hill and I took a shot, missed, and then got him with the second shot. He's the biggest buck I've ever gotten! Since this was Marc's first year hunting, he came over to help me field dress it so he could get an idea of how that works (unfortunately, when you do it as seldom as I do, it just isn't as neat or straightforward as it is in the hunting manuals!). I helped Marc drag it closer to the trail, and we returned to our stands.




Maybe an hour later, a smaller buck came down from the Big Hill, passed Marc (but not close enough for a good shot), and came in front of me. It was moving at a pretty strong pace, and in retrospect I should have waited for a better shot myself. I ended up wounding it - but not badly enough to slow it down. So for the next three or four hours I tracked that deer. At one point, I thought it was done as the trail crossed another one where a deer had been taken and field dressed. I looked around a bit, though, and figured out that my deer had merely crossed the path of the other one, and hadn't been taken himself. I suppose that makes sense in retrospect, but trying to figure that out from the trail was pretty non-straightforward! Maybe half way through Uncle Dean came after me as we weren't sure which direction it was heading and he was worried about me ending up wandering forever in the hinterlands of northern Wisconsin. That deer had a sense of humor though - it ended up, after much wandering, looping back around the end of that swamp, coming back along the Big Hill, and essentially crossing it's own trail from where I had originally first seen it! Eventually the trail played out, and Uncle Dean was pretty sure it wasn't hurt that badly: seriously wounded deer generally only go down hill, and this one had no problem going up and down and all around - and even buddied up with a couple of does along the way! It makes me sick to my stomach to think of a wounded deer suffering, so I sincerely hope that deer is fine, or else is taken by another hunter soon.

As we were following the trail back along the Big Hill, Marc saw us and came and joined in on the end of our tracking adventure. We headed back to Dean's cabin to warm up, chill out, and regroup before the last push for the evening. Javier joined us for a bit, and then the three of us headed back to our stands. Maybe an hour before sundown I got cold, and decided to do a loop to see if I could kick anything up for Marc or Javier (who was now in my stand). And sure enough, I think that's what happened! A big buck - bigger than the one I had gotten earlier! - surprised Marc as he was starting up a hand warmer. He took a quick shot and missed, but his shot alerted Javier. Javier saw it running into view, and then stop - behind a group of trees. He waited and it stepped forward...and he dropped it.



He field dressed it as the sun was setting, and Dean brought out his ATV so he could drag both of our deer out for us. And so ended a big but exhausting opening day. We headed in to warm up, went out to eat, played more cards, and hit the sack!

Things were unfortunately much quieter this morning. We had hoped to get a deer for Marc, and another deer for Amy. But we only saw two deer between the three of us, in spite of standing quietly for roughly five and a half hours. Have I mentioned before that hunting really isn't a sure thing? If nothing else, it sure made us grateful for all the fun we'd had and deer we'd seen yesterday. Thankfully, Keith had helped bring in a doe that had been wounded yesterday, and since he didn't need the meat, they gave that one to Marc. So we'll all have meat in our freezers this year!



(picture of me, Keith, Aunt Dar and Uncle Dean - I think we were all pretty zoned out!)
We took off around noon, hung around the house for the first half of the Packer-Viking game, and now are on the road back to Appleton. So, who's coming over for venison?

Healthcare Financial Management

Yep - it's that time; time for me to take another class toward the MBA-Healthcare I've been working on for a while now. I love that my job reimburses me $2500/year for tuition, but it means it behooves me (financially, anyway!) to progress through the degree as slowly as possible. I do like that the slow pace enables me to absorb the content and apply it to my professional life as I go. So far, this one is looking like it will be no exception: we're starting by learning about why health care is so stinkin' expensive, and only getting worse over time - timely, right?

If you're interested in what I learn, let me know. Otherwise I won't bore you! (screen shot from my text book)

Rollin' (Senior High Fall Work Trip - Day 1)

I'm happy to report that we've arrived in the Twin Cities with the same number of folks we began with. Unfortunately, that can NOT be said of our tires. Just as we neared Weyauwega (half hour out of town), one of the tires on the trailer started spewing bits of itself across the world. So with that, a run to Fleet Farm once we reached Steven's Point for a new tire, and a bit of a late start to begin with, it was 1 AM before we were in the church with the trailer unloaded. So, *yawn* I believe we'll turn in!

A fob story

Once upon a time, there was a girl. One day this girl who was walking with her friend Linda, when she realized she badly needed to use the facilities. As luck would have it, it was after dark, and their path was in the middle of nowhere, so there was little option but to use the facilities as nature provided: a tall patch of grass near the side of the path. Unfortunately for our protagonist, she happened to be holding her key fob in her hand, and somehow let it drop somewhere in the grassy patch. There was no hope of finding it in the dark without a flashlight, so Linda and the girl finished their walk.
The next day, she returned to the spot, and spent about an hour looking for the fob and mourning her carelessness. No good. A week or so later, Linda had pity on her, so they again walked the path. This time they searched more accurately, as Linda had a better idea of where it had been dropped. Still no trace.
A month later, our scatterbrained hero found herself with an unexpected afternoon off work. She decided to use the time to price out a new fob ($60) and a metal detector rental ($14). Armed with that information and 2 hours before the rental place closed, the girl rented a metal detector and made her way up the path to the fated site. This time, after 20 minutes of searching (and nervously watching the rapidly dropping battery indicator), she heard the joyous signal that all was soon to be well with the world. Sure enough, there it was, partly hidden in the grass right next to the path.
And our story draws to a close: the metal detector is returned to its shop and our hero and the adventuring fob are happily tucked in for the evening, all set to live happily ever after.

Boston love

Hello from somewhere up in the air between Boston and Chicago. I don't always like to blog about what I'm up to ahead of time because, well, this IS the internet. And while I have the hardest time ever imagining that any "bad guys" would ever find me - or find me attention-worthy if they did - it still probably not a bad idea to be a tad bit cautious. Right? I suppose my tweet updates saying "hi from Boston" might mean I come home to a robbed apartment... but it would have to be someone who knows pretty well who I am. And in that case, well, mi casa es su casa. Make yourself at home and take some some frozen venison from the freezer while you're there - it's good stuff and I'd like to make sure it's appreciatively used before this hunting season comes around!


So, Boston. Boston played host to a huge conference this week on Microsoft Sharepoint. My co-worker friend Wendy and I got to go because they say you always install Sharepoint twice: the second time because you screwed it up so badly the first time. Wendy and I went to try to prevent just that scenario: hopefully to save our organization thousands (if not hundreds of thousands - literally!) in rework and employee frustration. What is Sharepoint? Jeepers. It's basically a software platform that allows you to do all sorts of web based things. Document management, content management, workflow automation (think getting away from paper-based forms and processes), searchability, reportability, and electronic collaboration and knowledge sharing. It will be SO COOL if we do well, and SO NOT COOL if we don't.


All the above meant that the two of us really kept our noses to the grindstone for the three days of the conference. (Except, of course, when we paused to get my photo taken with a random vendor dressed as a ninja. You know, the usual.) As we stayed in the hotel that hosted it, we probably wouldn't have known we were anywhere in particular until we actually ventured into the city on Saturday. Ok, ok, we did make it to Legal Seafood Thursday night (golly was it lovely to have good lobster!). That almost counts, doesn't it?


Saturday found us trucking downtown on the subway, taking the Freedom Trail - first with a guide, then on our own - stopping for lunch at Cheers (even though nobody knew our names... k, sorry for that!), wandering around historic houses, burial grounds, and churches, and then meandering a bit out around Harvard just to see what that was all about.


All in all? I liked it! I liked it a lot. Both of us talked about how much we'd like to come back again when there'd be better opportunity to see and experience more.
And now for re-entry! We both have mountains of work to catch up on as well as the challenge of assimilating all this mad Sharepoint stuff into how we move forward. No problem, right?!

Three days in the wilderness with an axe murderer

So, Tom and I have been on many backpacking trips before, but this was the first one with Tom's friend, Michael - who we're pretty sure is an axe murderer. This is not based on any data, mind you, but more of a strong, "feels too right NOT to be true" sort of way. We did not mind, though, as one of Michael's friends assured us that it's been a long time since he struck, and we figured he'd be useful since he offered to knife any bears that became too threatening. It was only later that we came across a sign that assured us, "garbage kills bears". Man! If only we had known that at the outset we could have had a few granola bar wrappers at the ready and dispensed with Michael's services altogether.


My weekend really began Thursday night when Tom picked me up from the airport in a Miata with the top down. He had borrowed it from a friend for the week and after we had dropped my stuff off I got to take it out for a spin. Wooooo hooooo! I worked during the day on Friday (let's hear it for remote meeting software) which was ok because I got to break up the day with lunch with Tom's family: Tom Sr, Mary, Nancy, and new baby Elise. Tom Sr. treated us to Schlotsky's and we sat out on the patio catching up and enjoying the beautiful fall weather. I got to hold Elise for quite a while and she ended up falling asleep in my arms :). After Tom was done with work we went out to eat at a nice little restaurant with a ridiculous name: the Irregardless Cafe. The food and live music made up for it, though, so it was in good spirits that we headed to the Walnut Creek Amphitheater and joined maybe 15,000 other folks to hear The Avett Brothers in concert. Have I mentioned before how much fun they are as a band and how genuine their music is? It was just fantastic to be there.

Saturday morning found us picking up our axe murderer friend (whose spirits, we were happy to note, were high) and hitting the road. Michael is a ER nurse, so we whiled away the 5 hour drive hearing stories, talking healthcare and politics, sleeping, and arguing about whether it would be interesting to see a video of all of earth's history. Thankfully, the drive became increasingly beautiful as we entered the Smokies. Fall is just beginning here, and the weather was sunny and clear all weekend - which means we actually got to SEE the Smoky Mountains.


Our path, after a mile or two, joined up with the real live Appalachian Trail! I was pretty excited about this, as of course I've heard the stories and read enough of _A Walk in the Woods_ to get a sense that it's a pretty big deal. No one dubbed us with trail names in our short time there, bit we did run into others who had 'em. Our first night was spent in a shelter on the trail near Davenport Gap with a mother-daughter pair who went by the names Mama Monkey and Baby Monkey. They were able to share a few trail stories and give us the low-down on shelter etiquette. They also informed us that the crazy calling noises that were a continual backdrop for the entire weekend came from tree frogs. Good to know.


Michael had been up all night so was pretty shot, and the monkey pair wanted an early start, so Tom and I were the only ones to stay up playing Pass the Pigs. This is a game requiring incredible skill, strategy, and intelligence, as you will quickly see if you take a good look at the score sheet after the third game.

Sunday involved a LOT of hiking, with maybe 2000 feet of elevation gain, not counting the ups and downs in between.


Thankfully, there was good return for all that hard work: we hit the peak of Mt. Camerer at the peak of the day, and it was just beautiful. It was pretty much clear as far as the eye could see, and all of the hills were just... well... just beautiful. We dawdled around the Mt. Camerer lookout tower for maybe an hour, taking pictures, climbing around, and generally enjoying how smoky the Smokies *weren't* for the moment.

Then it was time to don our packs again and starting heading down to our second site for the weekend. It was a long way, so we were pretty shot by the time we finally rolled in. Site 37 is a big group site, so we got to know a few fellow campers (Kyle and Rich - air force dudes) as we set up and began cooking. We had fun joking about the folks in the next site over and chilling around the campfire they built.


After it got dark, we decided to try to find the stars. The tree canopy was heavy, but we figured that if we could find an opening it would be worth it because there would be so little light pollution. After walking around for maybe 20 minutes, we finally settled on jumping out to rocks in middle of the river near our tent. The trees still really blocked our view, but we DID see enough open sky to be able to see the main stars that make up Cygnus the Swan. Pretty stinkin' sweet.

For the second night in a row, our axe murderer was too tired to contemplate any deed more dastardly than simply going straight to sleep, but what with the beautiful rushing river sounds and the long hike, I don't think either of us was all that far behind him.


Our trip wrapped up on a lovely note. Another fellow camper, Will, accompanied us on the trail along the river as we headed back to the car. And Will had been camping/hiking here before. He pointed out Mouse Falls, which we would have missed completely had we been on our own. Better yet, he knew of this great swimming hole that was on our way. Tom and I couldn't resist. So we ended up plunging in, splashing around, and eventually working up our courage to climbing up the rocks taking a huge jump into the swirling water. Ahhhh! That alone turned the entire weekend trip from a 9 to a 10.


By the time we returned to the car, Michael must have decided we weren't worth the trouble, for he showed no more evidence of his violent pastime than he had for any earlier part of the trip. Good thing we knew who he really is, for we never would have figured it out from his behavior on the trip itself.

We got back in time to drop Michael off in time for work, grab dinner at an Indian restaurant, and get me to the airport (unshowered!) in time for my flight. I wasn't ready to leave!