Islands, beaches, shells & new color for the blog

In honor of all the beautiful blue water around me I changed the blog from green to blue.

On Monday we went for a drive to check out the beach and island scene.   Our goal was not so much to go to the beach but to see what was out there for a future trip.  We did pack our suits just in case but ran out of time.

We started with a stop at Lovers Key State Park in Bonita Springs.  It is rated one of the best beaches in Florida.  This is about 30 minutes from our house.  Pretty, quiet, bathrooms, rental of umbrellas, food available.   A definite yes to this one and we will return.

One thing we do realize is because this is off season there isn’t much traffic.   I can’t imagine what this must be like in the winter.

After that we meandered through Ft. Myers Beach which is a town with lots of beaches.  All we will see today is definitely old Florida, and I mean that in a good way.  Quaint 1 and 2 story beach properties in all those lovely Florida colors.  There are over 30 places to stop and sit on a beach.  We pulled off at stop 14 and did go wiggle our toes in the sand.  We are about an hour from home now.

A short drive took us over the bridge to Sanibel Island, famous for it’s shell collecting beaches.  This island is 12 miles long and 5 miles wide with 15 miles of beaches.   A large portion of the island is a national park.  The island has many people on bicycles and lots of shopping places.  The homes were nice.  We will return another day to see the park and go shelling.

The biggest surprise of the day was the Sea Shell Museum. I think it is the only one in the world.  Two things got us to stop in.   Is is designated as a Gem attraction by AAA and their brochure says it is on the list of 1000 things to see before you die.  We had pretty low expectations of being entertained but we were wrong.

I knew nothing about shells and mollusks.  They had shells going back to the 1700′s. The role shells play in land development and as food and tools and even furniture was very interesting.   The 30 minute video about the life of the creatures that live in the shells was fascinating – like learning about something from another planet.

This is an example of shells used as art.

The lady at the Visitor Center in Sanibel told us to make sure we went to see the exhibit in the basement.   It is not advertised so we would have missed it.  There were two people who made a circus of animals and people using tiny thumb nail or smaller size sea shells.   It was so CUTE!

We also learned that the actor Raymond Burr (Perry Mason and Ironside TV shows) was a huge fan and did much to raise money to get the museum built.

I’m glad we visited the museum before we went looking for shells.  When we return in the next few weeks it will make the shell hunting much more interesting.

After that we went to tiny Marco Island. It is 5 miles long and 1/2 mile wide and so cute, quaint and charming.  I wish we could have driven in to look at some of the many large homes.  We liked this island.  There was just something about it that was so loveble.  We opted for lunch at a quiet restaurant instead of a busy marina restaurant and had lunch at the Green Flash Restaurant, named for rare green flash sunsets.  Did you know —

From Wikipedia: Green flashes and green rays are optical phenomena that occur shortly after sunset or before sunrise, when a green spot is visible, usually for no more than a second or two, above the sun, or a green ray shoots up from the sunset point.

After that we made the 1 1/2 hour drive home and got to enjoy all the scenery all over again.  A very educational and fun day.

Almost made it to the beach today

We had plans to go to one of the Naples beaches today but phone calls and visitors kept us home until 11 a.m. so we got a late start.   We had to take the battery for the gate in to get checked out and by then it was 12:30 and we were hungry.  We went to beautiful old downtown Naples and had lunch at Tommy Bahamas Restaurant.  Bob and I both agreed it was one of the best meals we have had in a long time.  The island decor and music is very easy to enjoy.  We shared a fish taco entree (fish and cilantro and other wonderful vegies  and seasonings on a soft tortilla type shell) with each of us getting a taco, and a wonderful garnish of sweetened fried plantains with a wonderful sweet tropical dip.  We left room for dessert – pineapple cheesecake, smooth cheesecake with a crust of carmalized pineapple.  We will definitely be back.

By then it was after 1:30 and the feels like temperature was 104 so we decided to head home and save the beach for Friday.  Got home to take our afternoon nap  just before a big rain shower hit.

Had we gone this is what we would have seen at the historic old Naples Pier.

It was a beautiful day

We drove to Ft. Myers Beach, Sanibel Island and Captiva Island.  It was a beautiful day.   I will tell you details later.

Came home, took a short nap and it rained for an hour or so.  After a dinner of leftover steak and salad the rain stopped. The sun came out (8 p.m.) and I slipped into the pool for 45 minutes of water aerobics and relaxing.  Now heading upstairs to watch a movie.   It was such a nice day I wanted to post this before I got too relaxed to type.

Have a great day.

We got bored

Remember we have been down here several times to Naples and Ft. Myers area  so already did everglades, air boat trip, Alligator Alley, Edison Museum and also spent lots of time in Clearwater and Orlando so while FL offers many activities we have already spent about three months in Fl in the last few years.

We got bored toward the end of last week so I am busy planning places we can go to a couple times a week.  I know it seems like we have been doing things but we are here for along time.  We can only sit by the pool so long.  We are getting pretty tan. We have watched many many movies. I do like the water aerobics and Bob goes to the YMCA 2-3 times a week.   I have a facial and massage scheduled for Tuesday when he goes swimming.  I have read many magazines and books and he has poured over magazines and woodworking How To books.  I can tell you feel really sorry for us.

We know our attention span is pretty short and we aren’t very energetic in this heat so these won’t be 12 hour activities.

So far on the planning list as possibilities are:

Sanibel and Captiva Islands, about an hour away, for beach, shelling, museums, boat tour to a private island, island food.  Probably  two trips.  We start on Monday.

Ft. Myers about 45 minutes away for  beaches, museums.

Marco Island about 30 minutes away for beach,  trolley tour, maybe dinner watching the sun set.

Naples boat tour to see homes, probably at sunset.

Naples beaches of which there are many.

Naples museums and art galleries.  We already found out the art museum and one other museum are closed right now.

Naples maybe a train tour.

Thanks to AAA books and the many tourist magazines we have picked up for all these ideas.

Stay tuned.

Ava Maria Community

Ave Maria  Oratory

Yesterday Bob and I took a short drive (less then 20 miles) to the brand new town of Ave Maria FL.  I can’t quite get my head around the fact  that planning came together in 2002, construction started in spring of 2007 for  a community to hold 11000 people and built a University that opened in 2007 that will eventually have 5500 students, graduate and undergraduate. There are also plans for many stores, health care, school, etc.  It is a community with very strong and deep Catholic roots. There are many homes built in 4 developments that focus on retirees  and families and everything in between.  I think homes were $100,000 to $400,000.  Average house price os $205,000. There are about 350 homes sold , a school, water park and golf course (eventually to be 54 holes) and several shops, a gas station, parks, bank and a grocery store that opened a few weeks ago.   It is in the middle of nowhere.  Click to see map.

Back of Oratory

The lights inside

The Oratory or what I call a church has strong influences of Frank Lloyd Wright which while beautiful just doesn’t seem to fit the architecture of the rest of the community which is very Florida. The Oratory is on Pope John Paul II Blvd.  No kidding!  It cost $24 million.  I could make a couple comments on how else that money could have been spent  but will restrain myself.

The visitor center at the University was extremely helpful in providing information to us.  There are residence halls, student union, Library, academic buildings.  A law school is supposed to open soon.

At the left corner you can see a part of the look of the rest of the town and then a part of the university.

Tom Monaghan from Michigan and owner of Domino’s and the detroit Tigers sold Domino’s in 1998 for $1 billion. (He sold the team to the owners of Little Caesar’s Pizza).  News articles say he has already contributed $400 million. He wanted to build Ave Maria on land he owned in  Michigan but Michigan would not change the property he held and was paying taxes on to be non profit and no taxes so he built his city and University in FL.  Of course there is much more to the story. He is still living and this was his way of being able to give back to the community, strengthen family values for generations and build the local economy.  The other big partner is the company of Barron Collier Companies. Barron Collier was the person that single handed build SW FL in the early 1900′s.    His is a fasinating story that I will probably tell you about later.

Bob and I found it all really fascinating.  We drove around for quite a while and tried to figure out who would want to live here.  While nice, not for us.  I tried to find demographics on religion, age, ethnic background for the town but it is so new nothing is available yet.  One of the most interesting places we have been so far in FL.

Read more at this link.

Bob 61st Birthday

Yesterday we celebrated Bob’s 61st birthday.  At 9:00 we called to see if our river cruise had reached the minimum of 4 people.  YES so at 10:30 we and another couple boarded our pontoon for an hour and a half  nature cruise down  the Cocahatchee River http://www.cocohatchee.org/ to the Gulf of Mexico.  We learned about Mango Groves, saw lots of birds, especially brown pelicans, a few dolphins and a couple manatee.  The manatee are shy but we could see them when they came up for air.  There were also beautiful cloud formations.  A delightful ride.

After that we went to Randy’s Fishmarket and Restaurant for lunch.  We had fried shrimp and scallops and of course Key Lime Pie.  After that home for a dip in the pool and a short nap to rest up for our big night out.

We went to the Seminole Casino in Immokalee, 17 miles north of us. Bob and I are not gamblers but we had nothing else to do and we had not been on this stretch of road.  I also want to mention that Immokalee is in the middle of nowhere.  See this link. We couldn’t imagine who would be there at 7 p.m. on a Thursday night.   Not to worry, there were people there.  The casino was having “Talent Night” for their employees so that was the “entertainment” and there were people at the slots and card tables but not very busy.   I just don’t get the draw of putting money in these new slot machines.  You could even place 2 cent, 3 cent and 5 cent bets.  Yes that’s right – cents not dollars.  Bob put  a few dollars in the slots and lost 25 cents.  I should also mention it is a smoking facility.   I saw the first cigarette vending machine that I have seen in about 20 years.   They were $7 a pack.  It was different.   Dinner was Ok.  We were home by dark.

After that Bob watched TV and I finished my latest book “Confederates in the Attic”.  A work of non-fiction by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tony Horwitz. Horwitz explores his deep interest in the American Civil War and investigates America’s lingering ties to a war that ended more than 130 years previous.

Fantastic book about a truly horrible war.  It had been recommended to me as a good read to start to understand how Southerners view the war. A real eye opener for this northern girl.  There were at least 620,000 casualties in the war.  Most died from disease, not battle deaths.

After that I started to read Alice Cromie’s book  A tour Guide to the Civil War. The complete State-by-state Guide to Battlegrounds, Landmarks, Museums, Relics and Sites.  I will tell you more about that later.

It was a fun day.

P.S. I stepped in another fire ant hill on Wed. so am itching like crazy.  Two bites on right hand fingers, one on my arm and lots on both ankles.  They are way worse them mosquito bites and last much longer.

Up – the movie

If you haven’t seen the movie UP with Ed Asner you have really missed something.   Don’t let the fact that it is an animated film fool you.  While it is definitely a movie kids will enjoy it is one every adult should see.   Bob and I thought it had a very thought provoking message and had us talking long after the film was over.

I’d like to hear from any of you who have seen it.

Technology and movies

In SC we don’t have really nice high speed internet service.  The  Verizon air cards are much better then dial up but not what we were used to in MN.  What we do have is the ability to record TV shows and play them back and zip through the commercials.  I HATE COMMERIALS.

Here in FL we are loving the high speed internet service but missing the ability to watch our recorded shows or even figure out when some of them are on.  We have been watching lots of Netflix movies and yesterday it occured to us that maybe we could use Netflix’s service of downloading movies and not have to wait for them to keep sending physical movies.  Bob got that figured out last night and it is GREAT!  Not all movies are available but certainly a good enough selection to keep us entertained.  The only thing he hasn’t figured out is why no red color comes through on the TV so these movies are lacking a little color but still very watchable.   I’m sure he will figure it out.

It was cool enough today to have the air conditioning off and the windows open.

An unexpected visitor

Yesterday afternoon kitty and I were sitting in the living room relaxing.  I turned to look at the door and saw a racoon on the front porch.  Kitty went to the window and put her paws up.  Our visitor stayed a couple minutes and then ran away, unfortunately before Bob could get there to see him.   He looked like this:

Boating, Movie, Trolly Ride, Zoo and a Fosa

On Wed morning we took the boat out on the lake.  It is a perfect size lake.  Most of the gators were staying hidden and cool.  In the afternoon we went to see the new Harry Potter film.  Of course like every good Harry Potter fan, we loved it.  We are listening for the second time to the last book on cd.

Friday morning we took a 1 1/2 hour trolley car tour of the Naples area.  We were the only ones on board.  It was relaxing and especially nice for Bob because he could watch things and not drive.  I will tell you more about our impressions of Naples in another post.

After that we had an early lunch at a little Italian restaurant.  See photos below.  We ate outside and it got a little warm toward the end of the meal so we were really beat when we got home.  Of course then had to take a nap!

The trolley driver told us there was free admittance to the Naples Zoo on Sat. from 8-10 so we went there early this morning.  A nice zoo, not crowded.  We saw one year old lion cubs playing and took a pontoon ride out to Money Island.  Here is a photo of the adult lions.

It was 90 degrees by 9 a.m.  so we didn’t move to fast.  The regular price would have been $20 a person and we don’t think it was worth that. It’s most like the Como Zoo.  I have not seen the zoo in Greenville yet.

What was a surprise is they had a new animal I have never heard of much less seen – A Fosa.  Less than 40 of these rare creatures are found in the nation and Naples Zoo is the only zoo in the Southeastern United States where you can see one.

Photo and info from the Naples Zoo website.

The fosa looks like a dark brown, short-legged cougar, albeit much smaller and stretched out. Fosas weigh around 15 to 30 pounds or more and measure around 5 ½ feet long. Fosas live in forests ringing the coast of the island. Like Madagascar’s more popularly known lemurs, fosas are endemic to Madagascar meaning they can be found nowhere else. This also describes about 90% of the island’s mammals and plants along with over 95% of its reptiles and over 99% of its amphibians.   The diverse life on Madagascar resulted from over 160 million years of isolation from both mainland Africa and people who only arrived about 2,000 years ago.

It was behind glass and there was quite a bit of glare from the sun so we couldn’t see it very well.  It was beautiful. Very sleek with beautiful fur and a long tail.   That’s all for now.   Have a great weekend.