It has been two years since I’ve seen John, Cathy and the boys. So I decided to go to Florida for Christmas and spend time with them. Well kind of spend time with them. I arrived on the 22nd, they went to Park City, Utah on the 24th. I left on the 27th, and they came home on the 28th. So we celebrated Christmas together on the 24th before they left, opened presents, etc. Basically I spent more time without them than I did with them. It was still wonderful seeing everyone.
On the day I arrived, John made his famous pizzas for dinner. The weather was a bit chilly but we sat outside around the fire pit and watched him cook shrimp appetizers and between 5-7 different types of pizza. The pizzas took two minutes to cook, and were absolutely delicious. I didn’t get any photos, but it was getting dark and eating was just our primary focus. He even made a dessert pizza with Nutella and marshmallow – OMG.
On the 23rd, we took the boat out to check on job and stone crab claw traps. Between him and Cathy they have 10 resident traps they can set. Some traps had three crabs some traps had none. It was an interesting process and quite messy too.
1) Pull up the trap, 2) grab the crab 3) measure its claw to make sure it meets minimum requirements 4) rip off one of the claws 5) throw the crab back 6) throw the trap back in the water if it has enough bait. The crab will grow another claw to be eaten later. We got 2.5 pounds worth of claws, that combined with the 2 pounds that we ordered from a local seafood store, we had 4.5 pounds to eat Yum.
Marta and Bill planned on spending Christmas Eve until the 28th at Billy and Raquel’s, until they found out Billy had Covid. So we invited them to John/Cathy’s house for an untraditional Christmas lunch. Mom and I planned a fondue extravaganza on Christmas Eve, however after gorging ourselves on 4 1/2 pounds of stone crab claws, we had no room for anything else. So we decided to do cheese fondue for Christmas lunch. No leftovers from Nochebuena (roasted pig, yucca, garbanzos con chorizo). Bill described it as the most unusual Christmas feast he’s ever had. We tried a new cheese recipe that included beer instead of wine, but I’m more fond of the wine flavor in a cheese fondue. For dinner we had lobster tails and fillet. Both were delicious. Yes I ate my entire way through my visit in Florida.
On my last day there, I was a lazy bum. Went into a very cold pool, then quickly moved over to the hot tub. Got mom to watch the Matrix Resurrection, went to dinner at Salt Rock and had a delicious meal. Mia, Ryan’s dog, is my new friend and enjoyed both sleeping with me and playing.
May everyone reading this have a happy and healthy 2022!
Traveljunkies 