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January means Gasparilla! Every year Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla (YMKG) invades Tampa and turns the city into a giant pirate-themed block party. Jack has the honor of piloting the Jose Gaspar during the Invasion as the ship is surrounded by hundreds of personal boats. It's very impressive!
We also traveled up to the "Forgotten Coast" of Florida to participate in the annual Apalachicola Oyster Cook-off and 5K. We both placed top 3 in our age group (it was mostly old people)!
Monica also joined Jack on a trip down the bay and watched him in action as he piloted an orange tankard into the port.
In February we enjoyed staying local to Tampa Bay. We took advantage of the cool weather and repainted the deck at Egmont as well as participated in local events like the Gasparilla 5k. Monica and her best friend Kat went to Anna Maria to celebrate 15+ years of friendship!
Monica and her colleague, Dhalia, were featured on a news segment promoting their program, Homegrown Hillsborough, at the state fair!
We celebrated Valentine's Day by spending the night in our camper at Swallowtail Farm near Gainesville, enjoying farm fresh food and other local delights. How romantic! Of course we had to visit our nephew, Jayce, on the way home.
March was another month spent close to home. We hosted a "Champange and Oyster" party where we had over 50 friends come by throughout the day. We tried to spend as much time on the water as possible... evening cruises as well as watching the MacDill Airshow. We spent Easter at the Yacht Club with our family and had fun helping our nephews search for eggs!
We started April by visting Lincoln, Nebraska to celebrate a friends 30th birthday!
Back at home we focused on some work events and tending to our "urban farm" (balcony garden) before heading to Hawaii!!
We were lucky to spend 10 days visiting with our friend Dan and exploring O'hau and Kaui.
We got right back to work when we got home to prepare for another big trip... this time to the Southwest! A friend of ours offered to drive our camper out to Utah so it could be there for us to use when we arrived; it was so generous!
After not-too-much-training, we started a 3-day, 150-mile bike trip from Grand Junction, Colorado to Moab, Utah. It was a semi-organized trip where we stayed in designated "huts" along the route which had pantry items to refuel and water to hydrate. It was an incredible experience but this Florida couple struggled to find enough oxygen and embrace the climbs!
June was full of food system work and exciting trips for Monica. She helped coordinate a group field trip to check out a new modern, urban farm in Orlando and then traveled to Ohio for a conference! After the conference, her and a friend and colleague Dhalia, ,traveled to Toronto where they met with more food system non-profits and visited with Dhalia's family. It was a great break from the Florida summer heat!
July was HOT. We spent the weekend at Egmont to try to beat the heat. We also had a quick weekend trip to bring our camper home from our trip across the Southwest. We flew into Kansas City and got to visit with Anne and Wes before they headed to Iceland to get married (!!!) and then visited with Jack's family in Innsbrook, MO for a few days before driving back home.
August was another low-key month at home. We spent a weekend at Egmont with some friends, participated in Thursday Night Sailing Regattas at the Davis Islands Yacht Club, and Monica hosted events for National Farmers Market Week. She earned a Proclamation from both the City and County to raise awareness of the importance of farmers markets and local food outlets.
A month of highs and lows. We had our first ultrasound to confirm our pregnancy and got to see our baby! We also hopped up to Anastasia State Park for a weekend camping with friends.
Sadly, September is also when Helene hit Florida. All three of our vehicles and our camper were totalled due to flood waters and salt water intrusion; no damage to our home tho!
The most devastating aspect was that our historic family beach house and pilot station was hit incredibly hard, experienced feet of flooding, and will likely not be rebuilt. Not only is it the end of an era for our family, but it also makes the day-to-day of being a Harbor Pilot much harder.
We tried to "get back to normal" in October and celebrated Monica's 33rd birthday between hurricanes but the loss of the Egmont cottage still weighed heavy on us.
We decided to evacuate for Hurricane Milton and visited a friend in Wilmington, NC. Luckily, Milton did not have the impact that was predicted and, outside of losing power for a few days, we didn't sustain any new damage.
In November we celebrated our nephew's 2nd birthday and our 3rd wedding anniversary!
Despite losing our camper to Helene, we still stuck to our plans and traveled up to the panhandle to visit state parks. We also went back to Anastasia for some live music.
Thanksgiving was spent in Tampa where we participated in a very foggy turkey trot and had a delicious dinner with our family. Lots to be thankful for!
What have you been up to this year? We want to know!
What have you been up to this year? We want to know!
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