Florida!

One of the great things about Phil's job is that they often have meetings at FANTASTIC places. Usually, they are so good that they count as an annual vacation. This year was no exception when we found out it was in the Florida Keys - Duck Key, to be exact - in the middle keys. Sounded pretty good to leave good ol' Idaho in February and be closer to the equator. My Mom and Dad agreed to watch Porter in Eagle for the week and we dropped Sloane off at Camp Dyer in Atlanta with Grandma and Grandpa.


I had never been to the keys and was excited to do all things "keysian." I wanted to drive the highway, see Key West, lay on the beach, etc. so we flew from Atlanta to Miami and rented a convertible (thank you, honey) and drove down.

Unfortunately, Phil had the flu and was miserable for the first part of the trip. He surprised me by booking a trip to go fishing in the shallow waters for tarpon and permit - something I have always wanted to do. He bucked up enough to go and we had a blast! In a flat bottomed boat, 6 miles out (still in 6 feet deep water) we caught tons of spanish mackerel, grunt fish, snapper and all sorts of fun fish I had never seen. When the guide told us that we were going to go shark hunting, I just laughed because I thought he was kidding. He was not. Turns out, the fish we caught early on had a more noble purpose - shark bait... During the last hour of our trip, we did just that and Phil caught a 50 lb Caribbean reef shark. Crazy. What a great time I'll not soon forget and can cross that off my list now.


Another new and fun thing I got to do was paddleboard. Our good friends Vaughn and Katie had rented a couple early on and since Vaughn was going to be in meetings all day, Katie needed a sidekick to kick their butt on a board. I'm always up for getting my butt kicked with Katie so off we went! It was suprisingly stable and we paddled all the way around the key in a waterway without ever falling off or really getting wet at all. Talk about a workout!


Finally, Phil got a little break in the meetings and we were able to drive down to Key West. We hit all the high points like Hemingway's House with the 6 toed cats, Southermost Point, Sloppy Joes and ate sloppy joes, Margaritaville, watched the sunset from the pier and ate oysters with our trusty guides the Olson's, who always know where the goods are. Great vacation, can't wait till the next sales meeting!