Fort Myers, Florida: Miscellaneous

We left Minnesota very early on Saturday morning, February 26th and the temperature was -3*.  The temperature in Fort Myers was 87* and we had a 90* degree swing in temperature from morning until afternoon.  The weather was great except for one day it was cloudy and it rained a little bit, otherwise sunny and anywhere from 82-87* daily.  

You're probably sick of hearing about Florida but I have two installments left coming this week.  Then it's back to good old Minnesota life again. 

Flying over Chicago

Soothing my sunburned eyelids with cucumbers

Can you believe they still have cigarette machines?  We don't have these in MN.

Can you see the orange/yellow fruit in the trees?  That's starfruit. You can just pick it freely and here in MN, it's a $1.99 per fruit!  They were all over the ground below.

Cute little lizard with his neck puffed out

Spanish Moss on the trees

Palm Tree

Words illuminated all over the sidewalk

Cute little barrels for your wine corks

I bought myself a present while I was down there...

My first REAL Coach purse!  I'm so extremely happy with it.

Fort Myers, Florida: Downtown

Here are some of the things we did in downtown Fort Myers while were were there.

Music Walk- Music Walk is on the 1st Saturday of every month. They shut down a few streets and everyone is able to walk down the sidewalks and visit the businesses and bars while musicians set up and play on the streets.  

Art Walk- It's similar to Music Walk, however it's on the last Friday of the month so we were able to go to this also.  A lot of the art galleries stay open so you can go into them into the later hours.  There's also music being played on the streets.  We went into a few galleries and I bought a cheap ring in one of them. There was a sculptor who had a window on the corner of the plaza and every weekday from 5-9 pm, he works on his sculpture in the window so you can see his progression. 

The guy below is someone we saw at Music Walk actually but I thought he was more appropriate in the Art Walk section.  The purse that he is carrying is a fish and it is made of wood.  He is the artist and there are only 50 purses in existence.  They are all fish but all different.  So as you can see, it was a necessity to get a picture of this guy. M told him that he should give one of his purses to Lady Gaga.  He did tell us that she was coming in concert in April so I think he was going to try and see her.  He said he would never give one to her though and she'd have to buy it.  The cost of this purse?  $10,000.  Now you can see how much more of a necessity it was to take a picture of this guy.  

We also went out a few times in downtown while we were there.  Here's some of the rest of the evenings.

At Spirit of Bacchus with my Spicy Monkey the first night we were in town

We went to Red Rock Saloon on Wednesday night and met our friend Ryan there.  We had some drinks, ate, played pool and then headed over the Spirit of Bacchus for another quick drink.  

Fort Myers, Florida: The Beaches

We went to the beach three times while we were in Florida.  It would have been at least one more day if I didn't get a horrendous sunburn on under my eyes, on my eyelids and all over my legs the first full day we were there.  I used sunscreen but apparently it was not enough on my legs and I always forget about my eyelids. I have some pictures of how red my legs were and how swollen my eyes were after a night's sleep but I've decided it's best not to show them.  I did put cucumbers on my eyes the next day and that soothed them.

Sunday and Thursday we went to Fort Myers Beach.  The beach was completely packed on Sunday and it was very busy on Thursday.  There were three major colleges that had Spring Break that week.  I also found out that Fort Myers Beach is the 6th most popular Spring Break destination in the country.

I was trying to zoom in on the puppy but laughed when I realized how many butts I got in the picture

That's me out there

On Wednesday, we went to Captiva.  Captiva is an island that you have to drive through Sanibel Island to get to it.  The beach that we like on Captiva is low-key and much more quiet than Fort Myers Beach.  The water is more greenish-blue, it's saltier, which means that your more buoyant and it's colder.  Every single time we've been there, we've seen dolphins there and this time was no exception.  

Dolphin

Dolphin

Me

Ticketmaster

The nightclub, First Avenue, made ever-so-famous by Prince in the movie Purple Rain, is taking a stand against Ticketmaster.  First Avenue will be ending their contract with Ticketmaster on March 31st, 2011.  For those of us that go to a lot of concerts, this is HUGE.  They've partnered with another ticket provider called Etix and ticket prices will be 20-40% lower due to the decrease in service fees that Ticketmaster charges.

I've hated Ticketmaster for so many years.  With Ticketmaster, we would buy two tickets to a concert and end up paying for almost the face value of three tickets because the service fees are so outrageous.

Nice work, First Avenue.  This is a huge step in the right direction of making a stand against Ticketmaster as well as making the consumers happier.  I hope this catches on and more venues will do this also. 

 

Fort Myers, Florida: Nature

Last Monday, it was bright and sunny in Fort Myers so we decided to go to Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve to walk around and look at wildlife.  We had been there at least once before but you never know what you'll see when you're there. We saw plenty of birds, turtles, a couple of snakes, lizards and a couple of alligators.  My favorite to watch were the birds because we were able to get so close to them. If you are scared of snakes, consider this your warning that there are a few snake pictures below.  Enjoy the nature and as always, click on the pictures below to enlarge.

I Tricked You

While you were reading my blog posts from Monday, Wednesday and Friday last week, I wasn't here at my computer to write them.  I wrote them in advance for those days because I was in Florida.  M and I left on Saturday, February 26th and came back Saturday, March 5th. I've already uploaded my photos to the computer so I'll have to sort through them and this week I'll be blogging about our trip.  We didn't do a whole lot but it was relaxing for the most part.  The best part was getting out of the Minnesota cold and trading it for some warm days with lots of sunshine.  I'll be back soon.

Dexter

I'm not a TV junkie by any means but given the chance to get into a good show, I could watch plenty of TV.  I just don't allow myself to get into any shows on purpose for that reason.  My life is better suited not watching TV as I feel it can be a waste of my time and life.  I do love cable television series though.  M and I rented the whole Deadwood series from HBO a long time ago and it was so entertaining.  I also really like Sons of Anarchy.  Because we don't have cable, I am only able to watch these series after they've already been released on DVD. That's where Dexter comes in.

I've had the first couple of seasons of Dexter in my Netflix queue for probably two years.  I bought a blu-ray player with built-in Wi-Fi back in December that allows you to stream Netflix from your computer to your TV instead of only having to watch it on your computer.  Once that was set up, we started watching Dexter shortly before Christmas and as of last week, we had completed all four seasons currently on DVD.  The show wrapped up its fifth season in late 2010 so we probably won't be able to see Season 5 until it's released in September unless I can find a way to see it before then.  And there will be a Season 6 starting later this year.

I completely love the show and you come to love and date so many of the characters. In case you don't know, Dexter is a series on Showtime and in a nutshell, it's about a guy named Dexter (whom I love!) who is a forensics expert but also a serial killer to those who he thinks escaped justice.  His rule is he kills people who have done harm in this world and killed others.  As to why he does this, you'll just have to watch the series.

Do any of you watch Dexter?  If so, are you caught up to date through season 5? Don't tell me anything that's happened in Season 5!  Do you know where I can see Season 5 before it comes out on DVD?

No More Shoe Rental

As you've seen in my previous posts, we've been going bowling lately and I always hate renting and wearing the bowling shoes.  There's just something gross about putting on a pair of shoes that hundreds of other people have also worn.  Yuck. I decided to buy a pair of bowling shoes.  I am far from a bowling professional and I don't take bowling that seriously but it was worth buying a pair.  I wanted to find something that was cute.  I figure all the shoes fit relatively the same so I purchased them online without being able to try them on.  So here's the new shoes I'll be wearing for bowling.  Do you think they're cute, considering they're bowling shoes?  I took one picture with a flash and one without.  Now maybe someday I'll get my own bowling ball.

eReaders

I finally made a purchase that I have been stewing over for months.  I bought an eReader, specifically the Barnes and Noble brand, the Nook Color. I went back and forth whether or not I was the type of person who needed to feel the paper and turn the pages of a paper book.  I realized I'm not.  Not only that, I do not keep my books after I've read them.  I sell them or donate them, giving me all the more reason to collect and download books on the Nook Color.  I have had it for about a week and a half and I've already finished two books and I'm currently reading my third.  There are many books you can download for free, including public domain books.  I've downloaded about 25 eBooks, of which I've only paid for two of them and they were $5 each.

I ultimately decided that I would get the Nook Color vs. Amazon's Kindle or any of the other eReaders out there.  The Nook Color is first and foremost an eReader, however it's also like a tablet, like the iPad.  It has a web browser (it has built-in Wi-Fi) as well as has some applications on it such as Pandora for listening to music and games.  I can also download or subscribe to a variety of magazines and newspapers, some for just $1 a month. You can also download eBooks from your local library, however I haven't looked into doing that yet.  

I'm very excited to continue to use my Nook Color and see how much more I end up reading versus having a paper book.  I even bought a cute little cover for my Nook Color. 

Do you have an eReader?  If so, which one?  Are you interested in getting one or prefer to read books the old fashioned way?