A Warmer and Sunnier Place (than MN)

I've been slacking on my blog lately but I was doing so well and posting each day up until this past week.  This post isn't about this past weekend but the weekend before.  While you guys were experiencing cold and snow that weekend, M and I were again in Florida.  Not to rub in the weather but we laughed down there when we heard it was snowing up here in MN.  Not because we weren't there (ok, maybe a little) but mostly because when you are in the midst of hot sunshine and temperatures pushing 90 degrees, it doesn't seem possible that it could be snowing. 

We arrived in Fort Myers on Thursday around 5:30 pm and went out and walked around downtown and sat at a couple of establishments including Red Rock Saloon where I was able to get that Ahi Tuna that I had stuck in my head since the last Florida trip.  I like the tuna this time but I'm over it now.  On to the next addiction whatever that may be.

Thursday: 

Fort Myers Beach from the airplane

Our hotel room

View of downtown Fort Myers from our hotel balcony

Awesome musician on the balcony

Hotel Lobby

A couple of musicians sitting on the street corner.  The very tan man had a great voice.

Loved this picture of the grandma and grandpa sitting on the bench at the arcade.

A bar we went to

My yummy breakfast at the hotel--Veggie Frittata

Friday:

We decided to drive up to St. Pete's to see the Twins play the Rays. We figured they would have to have Twins shirts at Wal-Mart since the Twins play down there and they did so we bought shirts since we didn't bring any with us.  We also bought markers and tag board so make a Circle Us Bert sign and a sign counting down Bert's days to Cooperstown.  Both M and I calculated the number of games until Cooperstown but then realized the count was for home games and not road games so that sign got scrapped but we still took a picture of it.  We were able to buy tickets easily and at a good discount from a scalper that were 12th row just at the edge of the net behind home plate by the Twins dugout.  Tropicana Field is an odd place.  It doesn't seem like a place that MLB is played.  It's not in very good condition for being relatively young but apparently there is no money to maintain it.  I almost felt like I was in a mall or something. There seemed to be a lot of wasted space in some areas and not enough room in others.  The game itself was pretty bad.  Twins lost 5-2.  It was Jackie Robinson Day so every player was wearing number 42 and we received Jackie Robinson t-shirts at the gate.  We drove back to Fort Myers Beach after the game.  

My favorite, Jason Kubel

Saturday: 

We hung out around the beach on Saturday.  We ate breakfast at our hotel across the street at the beach and then wandered over to the beach and took a very long walk, mostly barefoot that took us from just about San Carlos Pass Bridge to the very tip of Fort Myers Beach and back all the while sweating to death from the hot sun but there was a good breeze.  We saw many stingrays in the water on our walk.

This is the cat section.  This cat was all over the grounds of the hotel.  It wasn't until breakfast and we saw multiple cats did we know it wasn't just one cat.  The pictures below are of at least three different cats, maybe four. 

Our hotel room/kitchenette

Our balcony

Look to the top left of the shower curtain---There's a lizard on the curtain.

Sunday: 

We left bright and early on Sunday morning, barely making our flight but we arrived back in MN about 10:20 am and we took the rest of the day to relax and get ready for the work week.  It was a good, fun relaxing long weekend!