I'm vertical

UGH what a week.  I'm finally vertical and moving off the club soda (with occasional yogurt) diet.  Lost a little weight through this (certainly not a bad thing, just not a fun way to do it!).  Doctors appointment Monday, then outpatient procedure on the 22nd!  Delightful ;-(

Anyway, I mentioned in my last, very brief post about Bubba Gump and the Great chefs ...

Every few nights or so the "group" of us 12 or so "campers" here at the Lodge get together at the "tiki" down at the water to watch the sunset.  Sunset watching in the Keys is a major event.  Well after the sunset we all stayed down there and chatted and whatever.  There is one gentleman here who is quite an outdoors man - fishing, killing animals in Alaska for food, all sorts of outdoor kinds of things (not Rick nor my thing for sure, but it works for this man) ~ well when it got dark Lee came down to go shrimping.  I'd never even considered how this is done, other than Run Forrest Run ....  In these parts (probably anywhere, but what do I know about it) a "sport shrimper" goes out with a flashlight and a net.  I learned how to shrimp ~ sorry no pictures (you know my issue with night photos to begin with, not to mention the camera was back in the coach).  When you shine the light in the water the shrimps eyes glow and you put the net in and the rest is history.

This gentleman brought down a pot of shrimp he'd cook up from the previous nights catch.  In fact Rick thought perhaps this was how I got so sick, but I didn't have any of them and besides that, it had nothing to do with food poisoning.

Now for the Great Chefs part of the blog .....

I think most people have read that one of the most fun parts of this journey has been volunteering at Lodges we've stayed at (if it is a friendly Lodge).  Well the day we arrived here Rick signed me (us) up to cook a pasta dinner (for 35, then it changed to 50) during an auction the Lodge was having on the 7th of January.  Unfortunately as it turned out my hospital stint was Monday night (into Tuesday) and the dinner was Wednesday.  Yeah, I was not in great shape for it .... but check this out ....

Here is himself, stirring the sauce.

And herself stirring the sauce.  My stomach wasn't really too happy about me tasting the sauce to figure what it needed, and Rick was certainly able to taste it but he couldn't really tell me add more basil or oregano or whatever because he didn't know - he could tell me yeah it's good or not so much.  It did seem to all work out however, and we served 63 that night (not to mention a few to the auction volunteers) pasta, salad, garlic bread and pie or ice cream for desert.

Below are just a few random photos I took yesterday and today ~ it's good to be back among the living these days.  I don't know, however, if people really want to see these warm, sunny pictures (especially those dealing with snow up to their butts and freezing temperatures).   Some input would be greatly appreciated here!

The two photos above were taken in Key Largo and Islamorada respectively.  The one below was taken from our "front yard".  I so wished these boats had had their sails up.  Mind you I am not a boat person at all (unless it can carry 4000 people and you can eat and play on it 24 hours a day), but I thought this was kind of pretty and peaceful looking.

Rick came in from walking Sir a while ago and was telling me that while we were out today, during the sunset celebration here, a couple of the people saw two flares go up.  They called the Coast Guard and watched as the Coast Guard was dispatched (is that the correct terminology Chester?) to see what the flares were all about.  Well, the host here is a kayak guide, among other things, and he realized that the Coast Guard wasn't in the correct area so he got his GPS out and called back and guided the Coasties to the "scene" where a boat was having an issue of some sort.  So, our host is a "hero"!