Day 159: Sunday, February 10, 2013
Port to Port: Fort Myers Beach
Underwayl 0:00 am Motor Off: 0:00 pm Miles Traveled: 0 Stayed At: Marina
First Things First: First time making Marilyn’s Special Chip Dip in the rice cooker.
Mile to Mile: We didn’t know it when we got up this morning but today was a perfect day to bike ride along the beach and over San Carlos Pass bridge to Lover’s Key State Park. Lover’s Key is the next island south of Estero Island. Most of the island is park land with bike trails, walking trails, kayak rental and beautiful, quiet, white sandy beaches all along the western shore.
The ride down was slow but easy since we biked along the beachfront in the hard packed sand along the high tide line almost 3/4 of the way to the bridge. Thankfully, there is a reasonably wide paved shoulder at this end of the island so biking is much safer and easier. We spent a couple hours biking around the park, eating a picnic lunch and exploring the beach before heading back home. We stopped at Publix on the way back to get a few essentials and were amazed that, on a Sunday afternoon, the traffic was already backed up, and almost at a dead stop, all the way down to here from the bridge up by the marina – almost 3 miles of solid cars. It was kind of fun to go whizzing past the stopped traffic all the way back to the marina. And it will only get worse next month when the Spring Break season starts. Yikes!
As I mentioned, we have had to start some long range planning for later this year. This morning I ordered and paid our fees for using the Trent Severn Canal System next summer. The price for a one way season pass including mooring fees was $384 The price is supposedly going to go up significantly so it makes sense to get the season locked in early. We will be spending at least three weeks transiting all 44 locks and exploring this wonderful area in Ontario Canada. Our pass includes the cost of tying up at the locks at night if we want too.
After cleaning the grime and sand off of us, we made taco salad and strawberry margaritas for dinner and enjoyed the second part of Avatar for movie night. We should sleep good tonight.
