Hull’s Seafood Restaurant and Market
Posted on December 11, 2022 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.
We picked Hull’s Seafood for our first dinner in Florida. Why? Because you gotta have seafood when you’re in the coast!
Unless, of course, you are Brian. Then you will probably get chicken.
Ramon was, at least, adventurous and got shark bites.
I had the shrimp dinner thing that was on special.
This was such a nice surprise because I didn’t think Ramon was arriving until Thursday. Since he arrived on Wednesday, we got to have dinner and hang out after. Brian and I taught him how to play 13 (the card game I learned this year while waiting around at the ICT tournament) and I promptly kicked both of their asses. JK. I think Brian won the first game and then he retired (so he could watch Wednesday, the Netflix series about Wednesday Addams that he had been binging) so Ramon and I played the second game with just the two of us and I won that one. This will probably be the only game (and the only time) I will beat Ramon because he is good at everything. Well, maybe except for that one time at Smash. LOL.
Anyway, after dinner and cards, Ramon went back to their rental, which was conveniently located just a two-minute drive from ours, before he had to go pick up Kendra and Ryan at the airport.
I’m going to write a bit more about Ramon in this post because he has appeared on the blog several times but I don’t think I’ve said much about him. I mean, I wrote an entire treatise on Steve Vetter at one point so Ramon deserves at least a few paragraphs, specially since he is one of my most favorite people (and for the longest time was my #1 most favorite pickleball partner).
Brian and I like Ramon so much he even has a permanent room at our house whenever he’s in town. Because of this, people assume we’ve know each other forever, but I’ve actually only known him maybe a year and a half (two years at best). Friendships are weird, pickleball friendships most specially. Well, maybe just for me. When I meet people I like, I just kind of latch on to them and am like, “You’re going to be my friend whether you like it or not.” LOL.
The first time I met Ramon was at open play at Nahola. I think this was sometime last year. I believe he was in town for a bowling tournament. I have no idea because we didn’t really speak. I just remember playing against this guy I had never seen before in open play. I played against him every time, which is pretty much my MO at open play (I always want to be across the net from the best person there because it helps me get better), and I lost every single time. Also, when I meet someone new, I always want to play against them because I’m trying to figure out how good they really are. I didn’t know this at the time because I wasn’t playing as many tournaments back then, but it was also a way for me to find potential tournament partners. I’m not playing in open play as much these days but the same thing is happening at the tournaments. I meet people across the net and the people who kick my ass as the likely to get an invitation to partner for the next one.
Anyway, I didn’t really see him again after that but he made an impression so whenever I saw him at the tournaments I always remembered him as that random guy I met at Nahola that one time. He was part of a close knit group and he had a set partner at the time so, even though I thought he would be super fun to team up with, I didn’t really ask him to play any tournaments with me. I remember being super excited the first time he asked me to play in a thing with him. It was the same feeling I had when Brooke Ayala first invited me to come play and when Debbie Fanning promoted me to permanent (instead of a sub) in the Friday night pickleball group and when Chris Wilson first asked me to play (even though I was half insulted that he thought I was old enough for the senior games).
Here was this really amazing pickleball player who I’d been dying to partner with and it was finally happening. I didn’t even have to think about it. I didn’t care what was going on that weekend. This was a “drop everything and rearrange your schedule” situation and I was perfectly fine with it because this was going to be my audition. I didn’t even care that we were going to play against a bunch of really tough teams with players far better than me. I was going to rise to the challenge and make him like me. I must have passed my audition because I got invited to play with him a few more times after that (Great Bend, Middle States, Newport Beach, and some other smaller events which I don’t even remember but I can dig all the details up if you really want to know).
I actually did so well at my “audition” that I picked up another future partner at that same tournament. I didn’t realize it at the time but not only was I auditioning to play in future tournaments with Ramon but I was pretty much auditioning for every single person I met or came into contact with that weekend.
Shortly after, Chris Wilson picked up Ramon’s previous mixed partner because they wanted to play 50+ events together, which freed Ramon up to play with me in 35+ in Middle States Regional. I’ve also traveled to Newport Beach to play with Ramon, even though I didn’t have a women’s doubles partner and had to pick up a blind date. For most of the past year, Ramon is probably the only partner that I would be willing to travel far and wide and rearrange my schedule for, so when I say he is one of my favorites, I really mean it. If he asked me to play in anything, I would find a way to make it work.
Over the last few months, I’ve also had the opportunity to play against him several times and it’s almost as much fun as playing with him — maybe even more so because of how much I respect and admire him as a player. I think he is so amazing that I relish the challenge of actually being across the net and coming out on top in battles. I mean, he’s going to win 99% of these but it is so much fun and so very satisfying whenever I get one over on him.
There are so many more stories I can share that I am regretting throwing all this in here with the Hull’s Seafood post. I feel like Ramon deserves his own entry. Come back next time for an entire post just dedicated to my friend Ramon.
Until then, GNG.
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