600

I never keep track of how many posts I've done and then I looked a month or so ago and realized I hit 500 posts somewhere back last November so I wanted to remember to celebrate my 600th post and I just looked again and realized that my post on Florida yesterday was my 600th post so I'm going to celebrate my 600th post on my 601st post.  Yay for you and yay for me. :)

Florida (Again) Day 4

For our final day in Florida, we woke up and checked out of our motel and played with the cats on the premises and then went to a cafe and ate breakfast outside.

We didn't have a plan for the day as our flight was leaving at 6 pm so we decided to drive to Sanibel Island.  We stopped at a place that we read had the best ice cream and over 130 flavors.  We arrived at the ice cream place called Pinocchio's and first thing we thought of is that this place does not have 130 flavors.  We then realized that all the flavors are not all at one time.  They rotate about 20 or so at a time.  I ended up just getting chocolate and it was just average ice cream.

We were headed towards Captiva Island when we saw a sign for Bowman's Beach.  We decided to check out this beach since we hadn't been there before and it turned out to be one of our favorite beaches.  The walk from the parking lot to actually get to the beach is very long, probably a 1/4 mile.  The beach itself is very similar to the last beach on Captiva.  The waters are clear blue turquoise and the waves are bigger.  This day was the hottest day of our trip.  It was 92 degrees but the heat index made it feel like it was 107.  There was no adjusting to the temperature of the water.  We just walked in and it felt warm like a big, giant bathtub. 

This sand crab was roaming around the beach.  He was very nice and let me get up close to take a picture of him.

I stepped on one of these in the ocean and it cut my foot.  Salt water in a cut doesn't feel too good.

There are tons of seashells on this beach

We left the beach around 3 pm and stopped at Firehouse Subs for M and stopped at Cheeseburger in Paradise for me.  I truly just love their food and I had the best steak salad there.  We made our way to the airport and despite leaving 10 minutes late due to a power outage at MSP's airport, we arrived 30 minutes early.  I'm pretty sure this will be my last trip to Florida for quite awhile.  Now I hope it will start warming up in MN and I can enjoy summer weather here!

Florida (Again) Day 3

On Friday, we woke up and decided to get breakfast at a place called Junkanoo for breakfast.  The windows were all open so we had a great view of the beach while ate.

After breakfast, we drove to Marco Island.  Neither of us had ever been there before and I'm so glad we made the trip.  On Marco Island, we first stopped at Caxambas Park where we saw dolphins swimming.  We enjoyed watching them, seeing the beautiful colored water and the pelicans up close and admiring the beautiful houses on the water.

We then went to South Marco Beach and hung out for a couple of hours.  The water was nice and warm and there weren't that many people around.

See Michael out in the water?

We checked into our next place to stay as there wasn't availibility at the last hotel for Friday night.  This was the first time we stayed at this place and it was pretty quaint and cute and the room was HUGE. (Not really)

Our last night in Fort Myers we went to Lani Kai to the rooftop for a drink.  We walked down to the beach where a guy was doing a fire show.  Guess who was picked out of the audience to join him?  See for yourself. 

A storm was supposed to be coming in so we stayed on the beach and looked out to the west over the Gulf and listened and watched thunder and lightning for over and hour and a half.  It never ended up raining and we just watched the storm move to the north northeast across the Gulf.  I so badly wanted to get a picture of the lightning and after a few attempts, I finally succeeded.  Not bad for a digital camera. 

  

Florida (Again) Day 2

We walked to breakfast at the Yucatan and went mini golfing in the afternoon.  It was so burning hot that my head felt like it was going to explode.  Mini golf turned out not to be the best idea for how hot it was.  There was only one other group there.  M ended up winning and I didn't take any pictures of actual golfing except for this Hibiscus. We were literally dripping with sweat when we were done.  They also have alligators in the water there so we fed them so chunks of meat you can buy there. You put the meat on a bobby pin that connected to a fishing pole of sorts and dangle it into the water and they come up and grab it.  They're strong!

After cleaning up a bit, M and I dressed up, drove to Naples and went to Shula's as in Don Shula. We have wanted to go there a while and we finally prepared for it on this trip.  When they seat you at your table, they put down a football signed by Don Shula that has all the steak choices printed on it.  I had a fantastic tomato and mozzarella salad and we both had the filet mignon.  They say their standards for their beef are better than USDA (which truly isn't saying much) but that their meats are in the top 1% of the beef industry.  And after tasting the filet, I highly agree.  It was the best cut of meat I've EVER had.  Not an ounce of fat or grizzle or anything.  Just perfect meat that I describe as so tender it's pillowy.  It was not the most seasoned or flavorful meat I've ever had but you just can't beat that quality.  So good.

My extremely strong blueberry martini

After Schula's, we drove back through Bonita Springs and stopped at one of the beaches and took a couple of pics before it got too dark.  The camera was on the wrong setting so these pics are grainy.

We went back to the hotel and M changed and we headed to the world famous Tiki Bar at our hotel.  We laugh at that every time we're there because we want to know what qualifies to call or declare something world famous?  Does that just mean that someone from another country has come to visit it?  We then went to the beach in the dark and enjoyed a beautiful full moon.  I'm not sure it was actually full but it was so orange.  Of course you can't get a good pic of the moon with a digital camera so you'll have to settle with this one of us.

Florida (Again) Day 1

M and I went to Fort Myers, Florida last Wednesday to Saturday.  We actually did stuff we've never done before in Fort Myers and here are some of the highlights of our first day there.  By the way, it was burning hot there.

We took an electric pedal boat and went out in this area of water where there were plenty of different kinds of birds.  There are alligators in the water but we didn't see any.  They told us not to go too close to the islands all over the water because you'll get stuck.  So what do we do?  We go too close to the island and we get stuck. I mildly started freaking out but after a couple of minutes we get out of there and do not get close enough to another island again.

I was taking a picture of this bird when another couple of birds flew into the picture.

Blurry but a cool picture

We ate at our favorite Florida Mexican restaurant.

We went to the beach and walked around a bit.

We took a nap at the hotel and woke up with just enough time to walk fast to the beach to catch the sunset.

We ate and sipped at Nervous Nellie's on the water to conclude the evening.