Thursday, March 17, Day 13, Port Charlotte/Punta Gorda

Started the day going downtown to visit a small art studio, SunArt studio, in a small house with local art flavor. Then off to the Visual Arts Center, http://www.visualartcenter.org/, it is the place to go with its three studios’s, even a room that had seven or so people practicing drawing with two old guys sitting for the artists. The artists were really accomplished. Most art was Florida oriented, again good for here, not so good for southern MN. There were some pictures, paintings on silk, one with a scene of the sun sitting on the bay, with beads sewn on to accent the waves and sunshine. There were carved stone animals, a jade with heads and hair flowing on all four sides of the sculpture. One studio had an exhibition by Guy LaBree at http://www.guylabree.com/, use link to view the brilliant reds and blues in the Seminoles dress, greens of the trees and blues of the skies. He has a couple of pieces in the Smithsonian. This is an impressive place to visit. I didn’t take pictures as they requested.

Time to lunch found Laishley Crab House restaurant overlooking the bridge on the harbor.

Here is a slightly modified paint job on a C5 Vette. On the second floor next to the railing for a nice look at the boat slip area, some awful big yachts. One came by that sounded like he had a 454 Chevy engine in it. Shirleen had grouper fish and chips, I a charred grouper with sweet potato fries. My fish was on a 1 to 10, a 3. Shirleen had some good pieces of fish, which she shared, but not her French fries, which she asked if I wanted some.

Also a Guinness, look closely at the label, they mis-spelled my last name. They also didn’t make a shamrock in the head of the beer.

Wanted to go for our walk, went to a pier along the boating slips and out to the bay where there were a couple chairs. We sat for a couple minutes and travelled to the left where there is another pier, all of these are about 150 feet out to a T for fisher-people.

The first threesome fishing, she had just caught a stingray about a foot in diameter.

Right on top of the next pole going taunt again, this time with a channel catfish. Both swallowed the hooks, and with the ray he just cut it loose, afraid of the stinger. The catfish never made it swallowed it deep and took a pliers to remove the hook. Looked like the gal was the only one fishing the two guys were putting on hooks, sinkers, and bait. Sounded like home.

On the next pier I asked one of them how things were going. He showed his catch for us to silver some things and two nice sized crabs. This fisherman was originally from Massachusetts, owing two homes there that he is trying to sell and two down here. One across the bay in the Ponce De León area where we saw the wildlife yesterday. He said, even if he is off a hundred thousand or so it looked like a good deal. He bought a 600K$ unit he rents out for 150K$. He as most on the pier fishing were drinking beer. It was two, 90 degrees, open skies, great way to spend a day walking the piers.

Walked past the boat slips and up toward the next pier. Stopped by a retired guy and asked how things were going. He said it was coming to slack tide and that fishing went bad then because of no water movement. He would only fish off the side of the dock that was away from the slips, he said the boat movement has caused him to only once catch a fish. He was going for an ocean trout, the slot was from 15 to 20 inches and four allowed and one over 20 inches. That was the one he was fishing for with shrimp, way off the dock. This walk sure was fun!!!

We had spotted a ice cream shop off the dock and Shirleen went in for a small vanilla cone, I water, it is HOT. Went back to the hotel for a rest b4 dinner.

On the way back Shirleen spotted a restaurant right off of 41 going north out of Punta Gorda. Turned out to be the one we ate at, Portofino-Waterfront Dining a Mediterranean cuisine with its focus on Italian foods with outside seating. It sits on Port Charlotte harbor with a striking sunset. The tables are made of Italian marble and granite and do not blow off the deck. All we had was a light breeze, with fish jumping a foot or so high and three feet forward, not sure of the fish. Waitress had said maybe skate? The beer was green tonight, but finished off the beer with a Czech style beer, Lagunitas Pils, actually flavored like a Doppelbock. The food great, Shirleen’s filet was thick, tender and tasty; my veal with marsala and mushroom sauce over fettuccini noodles hit the spot.

                                         We then sat and watched the sun set into the bay.

We left with the odometer getting close to a milestone. Tonight on highway 41 in Port Charlotte the old girl spun her odometer to 100,000 and she keeps on rolling.

jerr