Been a long time coming, but I need to catch up on some of my trips for bluepalmtree.

Currently I am in Madison, WI this week – and will probably post something for Madison soon.  Then next to Freeport, IL this weekend for my cousin’s wedding.  Freeport is the town I grew up in, hence I will definitely be taking many pics and giving an update on here.

However, I figured it best to back up a bit to some of my adventures earlier in the year.  I need to ad some posts on my trips to California, Captiva Island, Phoenix.  But this time, I will share a bit about the 3 weeks I spent in Ft. Lauderdale.

As many of you know, my long time friend Josh Edler & his family have lived in Lauderdale.   It’s been fun visiting Josh over the years (last 20 or so) and meeting some great people.  Also fun to watch Josh become a father.  Will leave it at that, but will say that it is a good thing he found Sabrina!  Without her, i probably would have already joined Josh somewhere on some yacht in a much warmer climate.  Wait, thanks Sabrina!!  Another person that Josh introduced me to has had a significant impact to my journey.  While I was searching for a short term rental to stay in Lauderdale,  Josh took me over to his friend Frank’s house on the water, just over the bridge on the beach.  Frank Gernert has been a good friend of Josh’s for some time.    Through that intro, I was invited to come live at Frank’s place for the 3 weeks I was there.    I could not have asked for a better place to stay.  Was able to keep the boat right out back and even use some of his tools to do the needed work.  I promise i put all the tools back, Frank.  Had some great times at that house!  Even had a built in bar right outside my room.   If you have ever seen the golden girls, it felt kinda  like that (except for the obvious) – Myself, Frank & his brother, Chris all lived there.  Both really great guys!!  Always great finding new friends – the good kind!!   And great guys to just sit on the dock with and try to figure out life.  Although, i am not sure we every really did figure it out.  Did we?  I can’t recall.  But i do remember many great drinks and cigars – and great conversations.

Hold on, maybe we did figure it out!!

(left to right – myself, Josh, Stella, Chris & Frank)

All single guys over 40 (or 50)  sorry Chris.  And probably the best part – the house came with a built in dog. Lucy is probably one of the best trained golden retriever’s i have come across.  Although, she did make a habit of overseeing the construction down the road.  I do know that she was fully aware of what she was doing down there.

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While staying at the house, I was able to accomplish much with boat.  Most of work i needed to do was all done there.  Can’t thank Frank enough for the opportunity to stay there.  And thanks to Josh, Chris and the others that helped.

 Frank’s place.

But as you would expect, it was not all work on the boat.  All the boat pics on this post were taken right near Frank’s house.  Loved taking many cocktail cruises around the waterways.  My opinion – the best place to stop on the water is Coconuts.  Great seafood!!  But overall just a great vibe!!!  Along with it’s sister bar, G&B Oyster Bar next door.  Ok, i admit it – we probably spent more time in G&B’s.  Must have – get the salted shrimp or the Philly lobster cheese steak.

http://www.coconutsfortlauderdale.com

http://www.gandboysterbar.com

And to be fair, i don’t think we even came close to stopping at all the places on the water.

I could go on & on about my time spent in Lauderdale, but I will just include some photos with brief descriptions.

l  Had to pass all these boats heading out of the house to the main waterway.  The boats in Lauderdale are simply amazing.  It fun just cruising the waterways checking all the different boats out.  Sorry, i probably should be calling these boats yachts instead.  The blue one is Stephen Spielberg’s boat.  Had to lend him a few bottles of rum, because he kept running out.  It became rather annoying passing his boat every time we would go out as they kept stopping us for more rum!!  I mean i always carry enough rum, but come on Stephen – if you can afford a boat like that – you should always carry enough rum.  I know i do.

    the Grady White docked at the house.  kinda looks small now.

   Sabrina, Stella & Finn on the way to Finn’s Bday party.  Finn’s favorite present was the pringles – as you can tell by his excitement in the pic.

  Front yard at Frank’s house.  The car made it all the way from one corner to the other corner of the country – without any problems. I love my rack and basket on the car !! Can’t tell you how many people had to comment on my rack.  In all honesty, it was awesome be able to throw anything up on/in the basket –  beach chairs, fishing poles, coolers or anything with sand on it.

Sidenote – So far, I have driven it from Portland to Palm Desert, CA to Phoenix.  Then shipped it from Phoenix to Naples.  Most recently have driven it from Naples to Chicago to Madison. Overall, i have put a little over 2500 miles on the car so far.  It has been a great car to drive long distance!!  But thinking my next car might have to be a VW Eurovan or a mid 2000’s Caddy.  Yeah, i know.   You would understand if you spent any time in these cars.

    This pic was taken my first time taking the Grady out on the ocean.

From the world famous Treasure Trove.  I would bet that between the Gernert’s and the Edler’s, the owners were able to put all their kids and grand kids through college.  Must stop when you are in Lauderdale.  Great wings!!  Also great Taco night!!  i can’t really remember what day they had it, but i think i am safe to assume it was on Tuesday??  The days all kind of ran together on this journey.

p.s.  Spielburg did not really run out of rum.  Story sounded good though.

Spending some time at TC’s place in downtown Chicago.    i recommend you come visit him at his place!!  42 floors up with incredible views.  Not to mention his wine collection.  Rivals most winery collections that i know of – and I have seen some good ones.

Took a walk around downtown Chicago today and got lost.  But go figure, i found the water.  Thank goodnes for the adirondeck chairs along the Chicago river. Had to take a break!!  note the color of the river – i was convinced it is dyed to look that cool.  TC tells me is is natural.  I think he is drinkng too much of his wine.

Going to put another post up after i leave here to fill in the remainder of the details of my Chicago trip.  Already had some great dinners and expect to have another tonight.  TC & I are going out on the town.  After all, neither one of us have a wife or any kids to be responsible for.   ‘Till then.

After leaving Ft. Lauderdale, i decided to take the boat to Matlacha on the Pine Island Sound for the St. Patty’s day holiday.  It is a sleepy little fishing village.  This would definately be considered “old Florida”.  The reason I visited here is that a good friend, Brad Kaiser, was staying on the island for a week.  The pics are mainly from the the little hotel i stayed at for a few days.  It was VERY cool.  Basically just a dock with 8 rooms on it.  parked the boat right outside my door.  Dolphins swam and played right off the dock.

Check out the website for the hotel if you like –

http://www.bridgewaterinn.com/

I have to admit it was the tamest St. Patrick’s day I have ever had. This is mainly thanks to Brad not being able to handle his cocktails the night before.  Oh well, i must admit it was a very welcome change.  If you know me well, you know that i lost my spleen in Florida back in 1989 on St. Patrick’s day.   And it wasn’t just a simple spleen removal!  I would have to say it might have been my first brush with meeting my maker.   For that reason, i have always been able to justify pushing the envelope a bit on this day every year.  My mother loves it!

But on this year, i spent the entire day sitting on a fish shaped Adirondeck chair reading an entire book.  The book – The Ultimate Gift.  I do recommend reading it.

Needless to say, we spent much time fishing.  I guess they call the bridge right by the hotel the “most fishingest bridge in the world”.

From here, i boated down to Ft. Myers beach for a couple nights.  The trip down was rather uneventful, although it was my first time out in open water by myself.  Furthermore, the channels were quite challenging -winding all over the place even though it appears you are in open water.  Without my Garmin chartplotter it would have been quite difficult.  I did see many dolphin and other sea creatures on the trip, but nothing unexpected.  All in all, it took me about 3 hours.  I did not push it though – even stopped to just float and make a whitebread ham & cheese sandwich with an ice cold corona.  I think at this point, i was finally able to sit back and realize – ” I am actually doing this!!”

Once i arrived in Ft. Myers beach to Fishtale marina, I met up with Sylvia & Kris Landers.  Had a great time with them.  Thanks to Sylvia for an excellent dinner!!

Next stop – boated to my next home for about a month – the Naples City Dock.  Was about a 2 hr cruise.  But was a great time. Scotty (Scott Anderson) went with me.  Stopped and fished a bit.  Caught a few, but nothing great.  fyi – the boat has never not caught fish when we have went out.  Great track record!!

Come see Rob Longo at at Harolds place in Naples. Great tiki bar with great food. Best burger in Naples , voted  Best burger by pretty much everyone.including readers choice awards.

A day in the life.  At Harolds place in Naples. Scotty actually has a job but stopped for lunch.  Still trying to convince myself it is ok to have a cocktail before 5. 

Off to the Snook Inn on Marco Island. Scotty spotting the fish

Sunset was absolutely gorgeous this night!

Off of pine island with Brad Kaiser

Some of you have asked about the boat, hence i would add some info about the boat. i guess that is why i started a blog, so i could record more info than i would ( or even should be) normally posted on Facebook.

The boat is a 1984 Grady White with a 1986 Yamaha 200HP motor on it.

I picked this boat up in December 2014 for $2,800!! The guy i bought it from was wanting to get rid of it before he left for Asia to find his next wife (seriously). He was going through a divorce in his mid 70’s and had been interviewing about 4 woman from Asia ( I am assuming via the internet). He was traveling there to meet them in person. Do know what actually transpired, but he did leave me a message a few weeks ago about grabbing a beer. Will update if i find out more.

Back to Boat –

My objection before this journey was to find a project to keep me out of the tiki bars during this journey. Well it worked and I could not have asked for a better project.

Bought the boat sight unseen, but did have it inspected to make sure the hull and transom was in decent shape. It was in great shape and it didn’t even have much salt water exposure. Typically on boats this age with outboards, they can have soft transoms. it is fixable, but more of a project than i was looking for. Furthermore, i was looking for something i did not have to throw too much money to. I did spend about $2500 to have the motor rebuilt with new pistons. Given that i wanted to get out in the ocean, i wanted to ensure it was in good running condition. Plus, it would be that much easier to sell with documentation of a rebuild. These Yamaha outboards (1980’s) are incredible pieces of machinery. I have had a couple of them and they are amazing – reliable, very little maitenence and great tourque!

So, upon my arrival to Florida in Feb – I had it dropped in Ft. Lauderdale while I was staying at a friends house. Will go into that at a later time, but i was fortunate enough to be able to stay at Frank’s place right near Ft. Lauderdale beach on the intercoastal. Boat was in the water, right behind the house. Would have been very hard to complete this project in a timely manner with out Frank (and his garage). Thanks Frank!

In short, what I did to the boat –

– removed all trim wood, sanded down and revanished.
– fixed all electrical ( lights, livewell, bilge pumps, dash instruments)
– repaired & replaced bilge pumps
– installed new electronics (Garmin touchscreen GPS chartplotter, Fishfinder & Sonar combo)
– added some blue lights to the interior (had to pimp it out a bit!)
– installed a amplifier and speakers. included a bluetooth reciever to the amp. (no need for head unit)
– installed some cheap carpet.
– and obviously much cleaning

After about 3 weeks, i made great headway. I actually did get up every morning and spent most of the day working on the boat. it worked! i stayed out of the bars (at least before about 7 pm).

Had to add a little flavor.