Destination: Florida

The time has come once again for the annual sister trip to Florida. My sister and I have decided to travel to Panama City Beach to see our Mom and Steppop. In less than three weeks, we will be on our way. Why we have decided to travel at such a crazy time - spring break - is because my sister is now a teacher and that is her vacation time. (My sister is a teacher! How crazy is that?) Spring break in PCB is always interesting. It takes 3 days to get to the store. It usually takes about 5 minutes. Our intentions are to stay far away from the West end of the beach and hopefully most of the crazyness. We just want to relax. Ah....

I think we will have a wonderful time. Our parents have been planning the days for quite some time now. We are going to go surf fishing for Pompano. You catch these with a little crustacean called a sand flea. In reality, sand fleas are small squishy crabs. Apparently a mouthful of joy if you're a Pompano. We are also going to go deep-sea fishing. What we will catch out there is always a surprise. Last year it was Triggerfish, black grouper, redfish, and sea bass. This year, it looks to be spanish mackeral, redfish, and jacks. It all depends on the fish. We are going to go fishing on the pier at night for some interesting catches and perhaps back in the lagoon as well. Yep, gonna be doing a lot of fishing. With any luck ,we will be having a lot of fresh fish dinners. If not, we can always go to the pier and buy someone elses catch. ha ha.

We are also going to snorkel the days away. This is one of my favorite past times. Just on the other side of the jetties in St. Andrews Park, there are huge fish to see. I mean shark huge. The water there is very deep so the fish get a lot bigger and much more interesting. With any luck, I will find a few creatures to bring home for my aquariums. Last year, I found many hermit crabs, various snails, a purple urchin, 2 file fish, sand sifting clams, pink and yellow shrimp, bright yellow nudibranches and other large crabs. The large crabs, the shrimp and the nudibranches were all returned to the ocean. I didn't know enough about the shrimp to care for them and the nudibranches and the crabs are murderers of other things I already have at home. All that I brought home is still alive and doing well. The filefish are three times the size they were at capture. They are complete chow hounds. I hope to have some new creatures soon. Then I can bore everyone with new pictures. ;)

We will also be taking a boat to Shell Island. Yep, just shells and beach there. Still, a lot of interesting areas to go snorkeling. On one side of the island, there is a bunch of turtle grass in the shallows. Many a seahorse and pipefish can be found here. The other side of the island is mostly for swimmers with the exception of the jetties for snorkeling and swimming.

And if all this gets boring, I will be found lying on the beach reading a book. (With gobs of sunscreen.) Nothing like the sun baking your skin to a crisp to ruin your day. *Shudder* Stay tuned for further updates.