Tuesday was a perfect day for the beach. 85 & sunny, another beautiful day in Southwest Florida. We spent the day at Carl Johnson State Park, a natural beach south of Fort Myers Beach. The day was spent relaxing in the hot Florida sun, enjoying cold beer and the cool Gulf breeze. At the end of the day the group of us headed up to Fort Myers Beach to find a good place for dinner. Typical Florida meal; fried Oysters, baked Grouper & cold beer. After dinner we found a local pub that was truly a gem. Düsseldorf’s, a German pub that has a tremendous selection of the best European tap beers. If you ever make it to Fort Myers beach, make sure to stop in Düsseldorf’s.

Monday we spent the day fishing on the Caloosahatchee. The fishing has been slow as of recent, but the tides were perfect and the temperature was 85 degrees. I mostly caught undersized Mangrove Snappers and some Blow Fish. I also had a chance to try out my new saltwater flyrod. Fly fishing can be tough in this area because of the trees and wind. I mostly fished the bottom with live shrimp on a medium weight spinning rod. Can’t beat fishing in Southwest Florida, especially on a Monday. Below is my Uncle and myself on the North Shore of the river.

Friday I spent the afternoon back out on Lake Minnetonka. I was ice fishing for northern’s on about 12 inches of ice and 22 feet of water. It snowed the entire afternoon with temps around 25. The wind chill was definitely a factor. Beautiful views from the lake at this time of year.

Wednesday I spent most of the afternoon ice fishing on Lake Minnetonka. We set up 4 tip-up rigs in different areas based upon water depths. Beutiful views of the area from the frozen lake.

I flew into Minnesota early Sunday morning. I’ll be spending the week in suburban Minneapolis for Christmas. As expected, the temperatures are cold. Sunday night I went for a 3 mile walk near Lake Minnetonka. The wild chill was -17 last night. After the walk we got back to grille venison burgers in the back yard. Officially my coldest BBQ. Tonight is Christmas eve, the plan is Joe’s Crab shack for dinner. Sounds fancy.

The InterCounty Connector (ICC) is a proposed 18 mile roadway that will link existing and proposed development areas between the I-270/I-370 and I-95/US 1 corridors within central and eastern Montgomery County and northwestern Prince George’s County Maryland with a state-of-the-art east-west highway. The project consists of 5 contracts at cost of $2.4 billion.

Many of you know that I am working in Rockville at the ICC Project Office. After several years in downtown Baltimore I have been relocated to Montgomery County. Suburbia is such a different experience. The traffic here is crazy. It really does not matter what time I leave the house, it takes 1 hour to drive 18 miles. Most of the engineering staff in this office are based in the Baltimore area and often share horrible traffic experiences.

Other than complaining about the commute this project is very interesting. I work in the role of Maryland State Highway Administration’s Traffic Engineering Team. I review plans related to traffic for both interim & ultimate design. For now Contract A is the only active contract and will keep me busy until August of 2010. Of course I can expect to be involved in subsequent contracts as then are advertised and awarded.

Some of the more interesting elements of this project are related to environmental responsibility in constructing this roadway. For example, The State is studying and tagging box turtles in the project vicinity as well as evaluating endangered shiners that inhabit Rock Creek. There are many efforts to salvage wetlands, stream beds and maintain green areas in the project corridor. I have been to environmental awareness training on several occasions, it is quite impressive to see what is happening behind the scenes on this project. Most of the environmental programs conducted by the State are not required but voluntarily performed. The Maryland SHA website has a page dedicated to environmental programs associated to the ICC project, I recommend taking a look.    ICC Project Website

I made it home without incident today. I spent all my Czech Koruna’s at the Prague Airport on overpriced Pilsner Urquell.

I met so many cool people from so many places all along the way. Very memorable trip. Big smiles all around. Now I get to sleep in my own bed. I may play my guitar for a bit first, the one thing I missed from home. Good night. Dobrou noc. Gute nacht. Goedenacht.

Last night was my last night of the trip. Brett and I walked all over the City for the second day. We went inside St. Vitrus cathedral, walked the Charles Bridge, waited for the Astronomical clock to change, and ate more Czech cuisine. In the evening we visited the Czech National Theater to see an opera. It was a good day. Below are a few pics I took during the day of the Cathedral, Prague Castle and inside the Theater.

I’m headed home today. See most of you very soon.

Brett and I arrived early Friday afternoon to Prague. We walked the city to all the normal sites. The Charles Bridge, Prague Castle, St. Vitus Cathedral, The Town Square, The Jewish Quarter and the Astronomical Clock. We also visited a few pubs along the way. I had more goulash & dumplings for dinner along the way. The beers of Prague are much different than the beers of Ostrava. Many of the Prague pubs have Budweiser (not of the St. Louis variety). Friday was a very tame day for Brett and me. No stories involving drunk Czech girls and arrogant police. I plan to make the most of my last day here. Tomorrow is the long trek back to DC.

Below is me at the Town Square and The Czech National Museum.