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Adventures & Stories
Page 2 of 4
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| “Round
‘Em Up” was selected by the Boca Grande Chamber of
Commerce’s 2009 Ladies Day Tarpon Tournament (for the second
year in a row!) |
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| In
May, 2008 Brendan received the President’s Call to Service
Award, an honor given to him by Mote Marine Laboratory, Sarasota,
for his many hours of volunteerism with the sea turtle and dolphin
rescue programs. It’s not too often The White House comes
calling to give you something positive! Here’s Brendan with
Kumar Mahadevan, the President & CEO of Mote. |
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Teddy Look-Alike
Sept. 2008. Brendan models for world renowned wildlife artist
John Seerey-Lester for one of his ‘Historic Hunt’ series
paintings depicting Teddy Roosevelt on an African hunt. |
Chicago Visit
Oct. 2008. Nicole at ‘The Bean’ in Chicago during an
impromptu trip to visit the Coudal family. |
Summer visit with family in Upstate NY
Aug. 2008. Here they are, all our 12 nieces and nephews –
man, they’re growing fast! |
Dinner with Coudal Siblings & Dad
Here are all the adults. . . don’t we look peaceful and
relaxed without the kids?!? |
‘Boca Belle’ was selected by jury to represent the
annual Chamber of Commerce’s 2008 Ladies Day Tarpon Tournament
on Boca Grande. It was a great turnout, with a lot of interest
in the artwork, especially. Here’s a pic of Brendan with
the winner of a donated print at the tournament. |
‘Emerald Water Kings’ was selected to represent the
Sarasota Sportsman’s Tarpon Tournament for 2008. The tournament
is the longest continuous running tournament in the state, this
year celebrating its 78th year. |
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Newest Fishing Adventures |
These days it’s a rare occasion for Nicole and Brendan to
fish together, but here’s a fun pic of Nicole with a flounder
(which she later unknowingly proclaimed a ‘fluke’ because
she wasn’t really going after it [and for those who don’t
get it, a flounder really is in the fluke family!]) |
Brendan recently volunteered in the annual Venice Special Olympics
Fishing Tournament. Here he is with Nicole’s brother David
as they readied for their big day of fishing, along with one
of their big catches. |
It’s tarpon season! Here’s Brendan with one of the
many tarpon he caught/released this year. |
Here’s Nicole’s biggest of the season (about 140 lbs),
lovingly named ‘Helga’ for her strength and meanness.
Nicole fought the fish for 1.5 hours and finally got her to the
boat. Prior to release, Brendan took a DNA sample so it could
be analyzed and tracked by the Florida Fish & Wildlife Research
Institute. |
| Nicole
and I traveled to the tip of Pine Island called Bokeelia –
a beautiful island where we stayed at the Bokeelia Tarpon Inn.
During the relaxing visit, we got a head start on tying some
flies for tarpon season – here’s Nicole putting the
finishing touches on hers. . . |
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and Brendan (the old pro) finishing
up his. |
We thought our little bait &
tackle shop (Dockside Store) was small, but gee whiz, take a
look at this one on the Bokeelia Pier – that’s right,
it’s a lounge chair! |
On our way to deliver paintings to the Redbone Gallery, Nicole
and I stayed at the Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo, enjoying some
much needed R&R. Here’s a view from our room overlooking
the Atlantic Ocean – we just never get tired of that beautiful
Florida sky. |
In Islamorada, we stayed at Cheeca Lodge, which has a really
cool adventure to snorkel with some well-sought gamefish, and
even hand feed them! Here’s Brendan – snorkeling while
bonefish and tarpon surround him. If it were only this easy to
catch one! |
Some of our buyers on Boca Grande asked us to bring some prints
so we thought we’d deliver them a bit unconventionally.
. .We took our flats boat for a spin, got some fishing in –
here’s Nicole trying to catch a trout, |
and Brendan with his first catch –then made the deliveries
by water. We really ‘filled the well’ that day and
had a lot of fun. |
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