Traveling down memory lane...

I was born in W.P.B. and lived there till I was 10 years old when we moved down to Coconut Creek, Ft. Lauderdale. I loved my childhood neighborhood; I have so many awesome memories. We lived on a tiny street with about 10 houses but loads of kids. We played constantly in the streets; kickball, baseball, tag, superheros, hot wheels cars, etc. This is something my kids don't get because there are no kids in our neighborhood at the present time, and I wish they had it my way. We have the perfect cul-de-sac to do all those games.

Well anyways, on Monday, Devin had a check up at his Neurologist for the E-coli episode. We decided to make a day of it. My mom, sister and me with the kids drove down for lunch and the doctors visit. While there we took a trip down memory lane. We drove by my Grandfathers house in Palm Beach, and drove by the bike trail paths that my parents took us on, "Oh so many times". We went to the end of the road to see the inter coastal of Palm Beach and told the kids about the witches cave and drove by honking our horn to hear her scream. (just a little thing our parents would do to us, of course it is not true...)

Finally we went over into West Palm Beach to see the house that I grew up in. We lived in Belvedere Homes, which is not far from the Dog Track. Our road was called Pine Rd. and I was so excited to be able to visit the area. Well, it is not the same. It is not a great area to be in, very run down.

It is so funny how when you are little you think the things around you are so big. That is what I thought about our house on Pine Rd. but boy was it tiny. Everything was tiny, even the road that we use to play ball in and walk around the block thousands of times.

Even though it is so different now and not the same as it was when I was little, I still have all my precious memories of a glamorous childhood. I would not change one bit of it. Here are some photos from our day.


Mom, Ashley, and Monica at Duffy's in West Palm Beach


Devin, Me, and Dalton at lunch


Dalton, Ashley, and Devin by one of the beautiful Banyan trees in Palm Beach by the water near the bike trails. This is just a couple of blocks from where my grandparents lived.


This was the witches cave, in the wall on the right, about halfway through there is a drainage pipe that is behind bars and that is where my parents would tease us that a witch lived in there and we believed them. Well, my kids did not fall for it.


My house that I grew up in. Now keep in mind, it was not yellow and there were no trees in the front yard and no fence around the front yard. It was a nice clean beautiful house and yard. Our driveway,as my child mind remembered, was huge and all the neighborhood kids use to meet in our driveway to do roller skating. I have photos, I think I will search for them and post.

A Relaxing Day of Fishing

You know one of my favorite things to do is fishing. I grew up fishing. I can remember the times my dad would take me out on the dock down in Jupiter and show me how to bait the hook and cast a net. Being a tom boy growing up, I loved it. Fish guts, dead bait, getting down and dirty never bothered me. I love gutting a fish. If I could have it my way I would fish all day and every day. My husband shares a love for fishing but he prefers fresh water while I prefer salt water. Since we live so close to the beach I usually get my choice way to fish and that is heading out to the ocean and finding an empty beach doing the surf fishing thing.

This past weekend we went out to Hutchinson Island right past the FPL plant and found a nice quiet beach for a relaxing day. Spending 4 1/2 hours on the beach fishing was not enough time for me but my husband was very happy when it was time to leave. Of course he was happy because he was the only one who caught anything. It does not bother me much, at least I got to sit out there with pole in hand and feel the tugs. I had two near catches, but of course that starts to lead into fish tales. So I won't go there.

Mike caught a bonnet hammerhead shark. The kids danced around shouting while daddy reeled that bad boy in. Once he got it on the beach the kids were so exciting and praising daddy for catching a shark. It was pretty cool. We decided to keep it, hearing that hammerheads are good to eat. We had to bleed it right away so it would stay good. We got it home and I cleaned it and cut it into 10 good sized steaks. After marinating in Italian dressing we grilled it for about 15 minutes. Let me tell you something, that was the best I had ever eaten. I never have tasted shark, and it was awesome. The kids are hooked too. The shark steaks tasted just like fillet mignon.

Needless to say we are ready for another fishing trip, but this time we hope to hook another shark. It was well worth the trip out.