Florida Road Trip 2018

Yesterday we drove to Chokoloskee, which is an island just south of Everglades City. This really is the southern-most inhabited place before the Everglades. We had a two hour trip with Captain Dan, a master naturalist, and three other tourists. We had some great views of Ospreys on their nests as well as other birds and dolphins. The highlight of the trip was seeing a large flock of about a hundred white Pelicans resting on a beach. These are migratory and nest in northern MN, as well as Canada. I got some good pictures, but they're on my other camera and I can't access them until we get home. Today was a pickleball day (of course). Lyn has taken a couple lessons while we've been here and is enjoying it, too. Now we're starting to get a little organized for packing up tomorrow. We leave Thursday morning, but we hope to come back next year. After driving back to Marco, we headed right over to Sunset Grille, which was pretty packed inside and out. Luckily, we got the ...

For the last week or so we've just been enjoying being here. The temps are in the 80s every day and mostly sunny. We've been playing pickleball, walking on the beach, reading, and relaxing. Our friends, the Jensens and the Leslies drove down from Fort Myers to join us for lunch at the Sunset Grille. It was great to see them and catch up. We've also seen some burrowing owls, which are fairly common here and live here year-round. They are small (8-10") ground nesting owls that are active in the daytime. We went to a concert at Mackle Park on Sunday afternoon. Tonight we're going to a concert featuring Broadway show tunes. Just having fun! We also have started planning our trip back home. Only six more days to go...

Today we took a short road trip over to Everglades National Park. We entered the park off Tamiami Trail at the Shark Valley Slough entrance, where we got to put our senior pass to good use. We went on the open air tram tour that follows a 15 mile loop road into the heart of the Everglades.  At the halfway point is a 45 foot tall observation tower with a great view over the glades. We saw a lot of cool birds and quite a number of alligators. The naturalist on our tour, Philip, was quite knowledgeable and the tram driver, Allise, was a good wildlife spotter. A very fun trip! On our return to Marco Island we took the Loop Road off the Tamiami Trail. This is a lightly trafficked road for people who want to look for wildlife. Saw many more birds and gators along the drive. All in all, it was a fun day.

Yesterday we had dinner at the Sunset Grill overlooking the South Marco Beach. Saw a beautiful sunset over the Gulf of Mexico. Today we drove inland to visit Audubon's Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. It's a great place with about 2.5 miles of boardwalk through the cypress swamp. This is the oldest Audubon Sanctuary in the country. It was established to protect the birds from plume hunters who were killing the adult birds during breeding season to collect their fancy plumes for hat makers in the big cities. This was back when women wore big, fancy hats. Glad that was ended!

Yesterday was a Sunday and we mostly took it easy. Lou did pick up a rental bike so that we would have two ways to get around. Mostly he will use it to ride to the pickleball courts. It's a somewhat rusty Huffy single speed with a coaster brake. Luckily it's pretty flat here on Marco Island. After getting it to our condo he looked up the model on the Internet. It costs $120 brand new and is rented for $50 for a week or $75 for two weeks. Daily rental is $12. Those guys are making a killing! Today was a busy day. Lyn did yoga and Lou played pickleball in the morning. This afternoon we had a real fun adventure. We took a jet ski out into the Ten Thousand Islands south and east of Marco Island. We went with Avi's Water Sports and he is highly recommended. He guides up to three jet skis maximum. It turned out that we had a private tour! We were out on the water for about three hours and had a great time. Neither of us had ever been on one before, but Lou found it easy to driv...

Yesterday we drove up to Naples and took a tour on the Old Town Trolley. The driver/guide was quite good and gave us a lot of info. He was pretty funny,as well. After the tour we walked to lunch at The Dock at Crayton Cove near the city dock. Good food and a nice view of the marina, which we like. Just took it easy after getting home in the late afternoon. Later we walked to the beach to see the sunset. Made our favorite chicken and veggies for dinner. This morning after breakfast we took our folding chairs and went to South Beach on Marco Island. We spent several hours people watching, walking, reading, etc. Lou went swimming for a while. The water was cold, but tolerable. Much warmer than Lake Superior in the summer! Did some shopping this afternoon and then got some takeout Thai food for dinner. Yum!

Well, we've been here almost a week now and are having a good time. We spent our first full day just exploring the island and finding grocery stores, a racquet club for pickleball, the YMCA, beaches, etc. We had a lunch at Snook's Inn on the waterfront and a dinner at Pinchers. Had a nice beach walk at Tigertail Beach the other day. Yesterday afternoon was our first big adventure. We went out on a boat trip in the islands on the Dolphin Explorer. Besides the captain, there was a great naturalist on board and nine other passengers. The main purpose is to identify dolphins by their fin patterns to see how they are doing and where they are. We saw a lot of dolphins, Ospreys, and other birds. The best part was twice we saw dolphins knock a fish about 10 feet into the air to stun them! Very cool! We also stopped and walked over a barrier island to the gulf for some great shelling on the beach. A great afternoon.

After fighting heavy traffic for about 300 miles we are finally at our destination! We have a nice one-bedroom condo not too far from the beach and a month to explore the area. High temps should be in the 70s for at least the next week. Let the fun and relaxation begin!