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952-902-2014
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by Sue Orsen

         From all hearsay accounts, the first day of spring this year in Victoria looked like the middle of winter with snow and ice everywhere.  We weren't here.  The first day of spring on Marco Island, on the other hand, looked and felt like the middle of a Minnesota summer -- 80 degrees and sunny with balmy breeze.  We were in that picturesque part of Florida for a week this past March with our daughter and her family and the trip was outstanding in many ways.

         Differences between here and there are stark in ways outside of weather, of course, but some things you might not think about until you actually leave home.  In Minnesota we dodge deer, for example, as they dart across the road at twilight, and we run over raccoons -- without malice -- because they travel at night.  We also feed popcorn to seagulls in the summer and pull sunfish out of our lakes using minnows and worms as bait.

         We soon learned that animal life on Marco Island is as different as people life in Minnesota.  For example, we saw dozens of alligators in roadside ditches of the Everglades.  It's appropriately called Alligator Alley.  Our granddaughter Addie Sue made me promise I'd hold an alligator, because she held one when they vacationed Marco Island two years ago and she challenged me to be as brave as she.  Now 10 years old, Addie started walking at the age of 10 months in this very location.  Her Mama Jenny has the pictures to prove it.

         Also on Marco Island, pelicans propped themselves on the bow of our airboat like oversized hood ornaments.  Other pesky pelicans hung around our deep sea fishing boat like the smart scavengers they are.  They knew that our captain wouldn't want us to keep the "little" fish which were, by the way, bigger than many big fish in Minnesota's 10,000 lakes, not to mention bigger than those big prize winners in the annual Victoria Ice Fishing Contest.

         We used shrimp for bait -- about the size we buy in grocery stores to dip in cocktail sauce.  We caught many good sized mackerel, keepers and nonkeepers, and enjoyed saying, "Holy Mackerel," every time we pulled one in.  We took enough of our catch back to the condo for two hearty meals.  When we asked Captain Randy how to make the mackerel, he replied, "However you make your favorite fish."  And so we did.  It was excellent.

         We didn't keep the shark that Christopher caught.  It weighed anywhere from 50 to 100 pounds, depending on the size of the fish story, and it was certainly a highlight of the week.  The shark was released back into the ocean and as he swam away I thought how he might now be a bit tamed.  Most of the shark attacks I had been reading about this year, prior to our departure, occurred on the Atlantic side of the Gulf; however, I kept a watchful eye as the kids played in the rolling ocean waves.

         From the 18th floor of Robin's luxurious condominium, we watched dozens of dolphins play in the ocean whenever we stepped onto the deck.  When we were fishing out in the deep, dolphins played alongside our boat as though they knew us.  It was exciting and exhilarating each time they flipped within sight, which was often.  Robin Kelleher is Christopher's aunt whose primary residence is in Minnesota.  Thank you, Robin, for contributing your home away from home to a wonderful family vacation.

 

Click here for more Magnificent Marco Island.

April 2013

Chris Norgaard, center, caught a shark off the southwest coast of Marco Island on March 23rd.  The bait was, in fact, a mackerel Jenny had previously caught that had been bloodied and tasted by, apparently, a shark.  See photos online.  Addie and Gunnar felt the shark skin as their dad held the jaws together.