Day 114: Thursday, December 27, 2012
Port to Port: Fort Myers, Florida
Underway: 0:00 am Motor Off: 0:00 pm Miles Traveled: 0 Stayed At: Marina
First Things First: Saw our first horseshoe crabs; First time parasailing (for the girls).
Mile to Mile: After a quiet nights’ sleep, Cindy and I walked back to the boat – all was calm and quiet now – to pick up yogurt and fruit for breakfast plus we grabbed some coffee and donuts on the way back to the house. After a leisurely breakfast, we wandered over to the beach on a warm sunny morning so the girls could get in line to go parasailing. Sarah – aka “the Dealmaker” – found a Groupon for half-off a dual flight so they both were able to fly for $75 (plus tax and tip). Nice deal. Jess used to hate heights – we had to bribe her once to climb 50’ to the top of a fire tower. But she’s obviously outgrown that and they both had a blast. I was able to ride along on the boat to take pictures – Cindy stayed on shore to take pictures and soak up some rays. The most amazing part was the landing. As they approached the back of the boat (after getting dipped in the ocean for the second time) dolphin suddenly appeared riding the stern wakes on both sides of the boat. Now that doesn’t happen everyday. They were so excited they almost forgot their landing instructions.
After a strenuous morning flying out over the Gulf of Mexico and a long hike along the beach, we had an amazing lunch at Nervous Nellies right next door to the marina. Can you guess what Cindy had? (it starts with “shrimp” and ends with “boy”)? The food was wonderful (a rare event we have found so far), and the scenery across the water and live music made for another memorable experience.
Jess’ friend from high school, Steven, drove up from Naples to visit. We tried waiting for the trolley to take us off the island to go miniature golfing but they were way behind schedule so the kids decided to skip a trip to mini-golf to hang out on the beach and watch a Gulf Coast sunset. I’ll let you decide if this was a worthy decision.
Docktails with the kids on our boat for some potent Dark and Stormies, snacks and more live music capped (for us) another amazing day along Forida’s Suncoast. The kids had more exploring to do – something about chicken wings and margaritas or something like that.
