Day 119: Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Port to Port: Fort Myers Beach

Underway: 0:00 am      Motor Off: 0:00 pm      Miles Traveled: 0      Stayed At: Marina

First Things First: First fireworks laying on the beach; First Chinese lanterns floating into the night sky.

Mile to Mile: Wow! What an amazing way to start the New Year. We (along with thousands of our closest friends) found a soft piece of sandy beach to lay out our towels and we watched the moon and stars as fireworks danced, boomed and whistled out over the waves. The soft glow of the Japanese latterns floating by on the breeze only added to the display of light. It was one of those nights we will remember forever. The only thing missing was the girls – we wish they could have stayed to share the experience with us. We miss them already.

The New Year dawned bright and sunny so we ate a light breakfast and walked the beach – our new daily ritual. This is the beginning of the busy winter season here but the beach was relatively quiet this morning after a very busy night last night. Even though there were thousands of people here yesterday, the beach was clean and ready for thousands more people today. Fort Myers Beach does an excellent job keeping the community clean and safe for all the visitors that vacation here – now if they only could spend a little money on sidewalks and bike paths, life would be perfect.

It was a lazy day. We did finally get around to making a batch of chili using ingredients we brought from home nearly 4 months ago. We have a little celebration every time we can get rid of 3 (heavy) cans of food we have been carrying for many, many miles. The chili was delicious too so that was an extra bonus. Plus we have leftovers for the next cool day. Life is tough out here but someone has to do it.