Sunday, August 25, 2013

Summer '13 Vacation




Kate and I took a driving trip across the south a few weeks ago.  This is our first family vacation by ourselves in quite a few years and was a much needed get away for both of us.  We started in Charleston, SC where we had some good food did some shopping along the downtown main drag and visited Fort Sumter.



Nice view of Charleston from the top of Fort Sumter.  We ate at a local bar (with good beer) for dinner and drinks the first night. The second day we had some bar-b-que and had a nice dinner at Coast.  Kate's braised grouper was one of the best meals of the trip. 

From there we headed to Asheville, NC to eat some good food and see some mountains.  Well it rained most of the day in but we got to see a little of the Grove Park Inn and the area around it. 


We had dinner at the Tupelo Honey Cafe in downtown which was a good as we remember.  I don't usually order fried chicken but it was amazing and Kate's trout was great too.  The next morning we got adventurous and jumped on the Blue Ridge Parkway to find some waterfalls and some scenery.


As you can see the weather started out kinda dreary and we were in and out of the clouds and rain most of the ride up on the ridges.  We did find some drier hikes into some local waterfalls in Pisgah National Forest and Cherokee.












From Cherokee we headed north into Kentucky up to Lexington.  After losing my butt to Kate in darts at a local bar we got a good nights sleep to cover some ground the next day visiting some distilleries.






We started the next morning to a chilly 55 deg as they were having a summer cool snap which was great for us and headed to our first bourbon distillery stop of the day, Woodford Reserve.  Luckily for us they were actually making bourbon this morning so we got to experience the entire process to start off the day.








We grabbed a quick lunch and were headed off to make the second stop at Four Roses Distillery.  We made the tour just in time and got to walk around very interesting architecture and learn a little history of the bourbon and distillery.  The interesting nugget about this distillery is that until 2002 all the bourbon they made went overseas to mainly Japan but now they make a couple different bourbons for the US market.







From there it was on to Makers Mark.  The tour was great and although they were in the summer shut down mode they were actually bottling and hand-dipping the bottles as they came off the line.  In the gift shop you can try it yourself and although mine doesn't look professional, I think it looks pretty good on the tying desk. 



The next morning we got going early and with the help of the time zones we were able to visit Lincoln's birthplace and Mammoth Cave and get into Nashville the same day.  Apparently, Kate had visited something to do with our 16th president in Illinois as a kid and was convinced that Illinois was the "Land of Lincoln".  Well as usual she was right, and we got to learn a lot about Lincoln's early life in Kentucky and visit the location of his birth homestead.  Mammoth Cave was also great and we got on the first Historical Tour of the morning and got to learn about the history of the cave.  


We finally made it to a brewery, Fat Bottom in Nashville.  The bourbon barrel aged brew was amazing.  We also had a great tour of the Grand Ole Opry.  We got to see all the backstage areas and stand on the circle on the stage.  We saw where Hey Haw was filmed and some of the same locations that are on the show Nashville.  That evening we had drinks and dinner in the Hermitage Hotel at the Capitol Grille and Oak Bar.  Top 5 dinners of our married life for sure.  We started off with the onion bisque and I had the salmon special and Kate had the flounder and finished up with a chocolate dessert.  From Nashville we started our trip back home with an overnight stop in Athens to visit Amy and have some sushi and set up a lunch in Tifton to see Grandmother and have lunch at Pit-Stop with Mom and Dad.  We had a great trip and we are already planning our next one!






Sunday, August 18, 2013

Fishing with Greg, finally

Greg and I got out this morning at CRB to chase some August inshore fish.  We started working top water but the sun quickly came up as we had gotten a little later start due to a wreck on the way in and the wait for the shrimp truck. 

We made our way to one of my high water summer mangrove holes and though the bite was kinda slow at times we were able to catch some fish.  We started off with some mangrove snapper.  I bet we caught 10 mangroves this morning with a couple being really nice.  They were all released for someone else though.  Greg was quick off with a couple of trash can slam members and ended up needing a catfish and ladyfish to complete but he got the ray and pinfish checked off pretty quickly.  After what seemed like quite a while we finally started getting into some real fish. 


One nice overslot red can change your day.  It put up a great fight and was just a little larger than 28 inches.  That was the only solid fish until this snook showed up. 


It slammed a shrimp under the mangroves and actually jumped inside the mangroves but managed to keep itself out of the roots just enough for me to feather the reel and pull it back underneath the limbs into open water.   I didn't measure since I wanted to get it back in the water but it will probably be a keeper in a few weeks when the season opens back up.

We fished that hole a little more then moved down to a cut since the water was up higher later in the morning and caught a couple more smaller reds and on one of the last shrimp my cork disappeared with this underneath it.  Redfish tacos are on the menu tonight!


Friday, August 2, 2013

It wasn't a Lousiana redfish but it will do

Got out with Josh this morning at CRB to chase some inshore fish.  We had to wait quite a while on the shrimp guy so we missed our sunrise opportunities for big snook but we found a couple snooklets for the slam for Josh.

We started right away headed to the first redfish spot and when we got there the tide was moving by the mangroves as predicted and it didn't take long to pull in a nice red to the boat.



I caught mine on a free-lined shrimp.  The bite was coming on fast and it wasn't long before Josh joined with another keeper red on a shrimp under a popping cork.


 





Josh's first Florida redfish.  Then it was time to get serious and Josh got on the board with a huge snook.

                                          
Well ok not really.  But he got to cross that species off his list and there will be plenty of time to get a bigger one.  We ended up catching a few more small snook up to 16 inches or so on both the cork and the free-lined shrimp.  We also pulled in a few more reds and mangrove snappers.  We fished that hole for an hour or so before leaving those fish for the cut right down the mangroves.  The tide wasn't moving very strong but we were able to catch a jack, catfish and a couple of smaller reds before we decided it would be the perfect time to drift the flats to get that slam.  

We got out to the flats with an awesome view of the Skyway and of St. Pete and Josh finished up his Tampa Bay slam on his first trip out.


 

From there we were quickly out of shrimp and as you can see the bay was like glass so we ran out to some markers and a little south to run the big engine a little and then it was back to the dock by the the sun was way overhead and the temps were rising.  Looks like redfish tacos are back on the menu tonight!

 

Fish Taco Recipe

I though I would put up the recipe for the fish taco sauce instead of having to email it out all the time:


1/2 cup - sour cream
1/2 cup - mayo
1/2 tsp - cumin
1/2 tsp - ground coriander
1/2 tsp - dried dill weed
1/2 tsp - oregano
1/2 tsp - ground chipotle chili powder (I use the Ms. Dash Southwest Chipotle, and I add quite a bit)
hot pepper if wanted - minced
1 tbs - fresh cilantro chopped
1 - lime for some acid



Put it in the re-frig and let sit for a few hours and then put on some fresh pan seared fish.  Yum!

On the tacos we like a little carrots or red cabbage for some crunch, a little pepper jack cheese for some zing and some tomatoes and lettuce and maybe some fresh avacado to round out the taco.  Add some yellow rice and some beans and you've got a really nice meal.