Marco Island is one of our favorite vacation spots.

I used to come here as a kid, as my aunt and her (much older children) also lived on the island.

As an adult, it just randomly happened that my in-laws friends have a house to rent on the island, and it turned into our family vacation spot.  Once a year, for at least a week, we join them on the beach.

We’ve been coming here now for 10 years, and I really just want to retire and live here full time.  When that happens, I’ll also need my own boat.

Each year we rent a boat from the Rose Marina on Marco.  It’s a great marina and we’ve always had great experiences with them.

We set out early morning on the pontoon boat toward our favorite little island spot, Keewaydin Island.

It’s this quiet little beach where there’s perfect fishing, shelling and swimming.  I even went into the water – as long as I can see my feet, I’m fine.  Until I see a fish, then I’m not.  I have a fish thing…meaning, I don’t like to swim with them.  I don’t mind eating them or looking at them, but I have no desire to share their space.

So we go and everyone does some fishing.  This year, we see lots of little crabs in the water.  Each year it seems to be something different.  One year it was all jellyfish – except they were jellyfish without the stingers.  The entire beach looked like it was covered in Silicon Breast implants.  That was the one year I didn’t get off the boat.

We had a couple of catches, not nothing big enough to keep.  Suddenly Papa’s line started really going crazy and he made a mad dash to reel it in.  Once he got his line close enough to shore, we all realized it was a Sting Ray!

This is about where I started freaking out.  My father-in-law was planning to grab it? Try to get the hook out and release it? It was heading straight towards Patrick and I started yelling about Steve Irwin.  I mean really – don’t mess around with nature.

The big guy turned a bit and suddenly broke the fishing line.  I was so relieved.

So fishing continues and everyone gets a few bites here and there.  My husband finally catches a “REAL” fish.  Earlier in the week he caught this very pathetic excuse for a fish…

So finally, he can say that he caught a real fish!

Now, Brendan, my oldest, is starting to get frustrated because he hasn’t caught anything yet.  He trash talks his shrimp while baiting his hook and throws it in the water.  He was convinced this was going to be his turn.  He waited…go board…turned around…and that’s when it happened.  He got his big fish.  Expect, he wasn’t holding on to the fishing pole.  So the fish took his shrimp, and the entire pole with it.  Now, I was just steps away from him and I didn’t see any of this happen because it was SO FAST.  The pole was gone.  You couldn’t see anything in the water – just gone.

Instant tears on his part and anger on our part.  Scott had already warned him this could happen, and he just didn’t listen.  He knew he was in trouble and was so mad, he just cried and cried and cried.  So Patrick just kept on fishing.  He threw his line into the water and a few minutes later, had a fish.  So I ran over to help him pull it out of the water…and WHAT THE HELL…..we had pulled up Brendan’s lost fishing pole.

I mean….WHAT ARE THE CHANCES???? Patrick, of course, was gloating that Brendan owed him big for saving his fishing pole.  I still can’t even believe all of that happened.  It was just TOO crazy!!!

When I finally got over that excitement, I fished for awhile and caught this guy:

After I finally caught something, it was time to cool off.  We walked over to the other side of this little beach to the actual Gulf of Mexico and I actually went into the water – about 20 feet from shore or something.  The only reason I did was because the water was shallow, crystal clear and I didn’t see a single fish.

Then, as I was heading to shore, we saw this big blob in the water and I started panicking.  I mean, internally freaking the hell out but trying to play it cool as to not freak out my son.  Then we saw it’s nose and realized it was just a manatee.  Still freaky, but at least I don’t it won’t hurt me.  Right?

Look at the water and that sky – what is not to love?  Someday when I get my beach house with a boat you are all invited!

This is my pretend house.  We drive by it every year in the boat and I’ve long claimed it as mine.  I like that it sits on the point of an island, it has great palm trees and a nice outdoor pool that is not enclosed.  It will be mine…it will be mine.

Enjoy these other boat pictures: