Thank you, Glen Becker

Glenn and Emily Becker with the Glenns at a Bon Voyage party at Kirby and Roberta Mehrhof's home in Annapolis, MD

The new high-resolution website header image is a product of Glen Becker’s creativity.  He is the dear friend who designed this website for us.  Glen is a former Gemini owner and he and his wife, Emily, live in Annapolis, MD.  They used to have the boat slip right next to ours in Annapolis and that is how we got to know them.  Now they are family.  We call them “the kids”, which is a term of endearment to us, and hopefully to them as well.  (No offense to our real kids,  Sonny and Kyle Bloom and to our spiritually-adopted kids, Kelly and Tom Ousley.)

The weather is a little warmer here now and it has not been raining the past few days, so we have resumed our bike rides to the beach.  Yesterday, we learned about “sand fleas” from a fisherman on the beach.  He had a big heavy-duty rake and he walked into the water and raked the sand below the waterline at the shore.  Curious Jean didn’t hesitate to ask him the purpose of his action.  He was raking in sand fleas to use as bait to fish for pompanos.  I’d never heard of sand fleas or pompano fish and he told us about a restaurant specializing in preparing this “tasty” fish.  Sounds like a road trip to me…  One of the men that we met in the marina showed us where a fresh seafood market is, so we might see if they have pompanos there and prepare it ourselves. 

Yesterday for dinner we had “tile” fish,which is a local fish.  We saw it on the fish menu at the fresh seafood market and since we’d never tried it before, and it had just come in from the fishing boat, we purchased some.  It was a real meaty fish, light in flavor, almost too light, tasted okay with fresh mango accompanying it, but this fish is not one we will purchase again as there are too many other species that are better, in our opinion.  We used the leftovers for lunch today, making sandwiches with it to share with our boat slip neighbor, Ed.  He’d never eaten tile fish before either.  We were talking to him about different foods we have tried since we’ve been on this trip, like alligator.  We feel like trying different foods in different parts of the country is part of the fun of traveling.   

Speaking of food, it’s time for me to start making some garlic mashed potatoes to take to a dinner tonight with other boaters on the next dock.  We are having a Bon Voyage party for a couple who will be leaving this marina in a few days to continue their voyage to the Florida Keys.  As for our travel southward, we are going to stay here until February 5th since we paid for a month’s slip rental.  And we have to wait the arrival of a US Custom’s decal for White Swan that we will need to re-enter the US when we come back from the Bahama’s.  We ordered it online and it will come to this marina’s address.  By the way, until we leave here our address is:  Gary and Jean Glenn c/o Telemar Bay Marina, 1399 Banana River Drive, Indian Harbour Beach, Florida  32937

Also,  while we are here, Aunt Margaret Simpson is going to visit us.  There is a hotel one block away from the marina and the manager lives on a boat on our dock, and she is giving our guests a fabulous price of $45 a night.  So, if any other snow-birds want to fly south to get out of the cold for awhile, let me know and I’ll make reservations for you at this special price.  No, we are not going into the “tour guide” business… Just willing to share the warmth…