2008 Florida - Marco Island

We arrived to Beth and Ed’s place late in the evening, as planned. It was about 12:30am by the time we got there and dropped Mom off. Luckily, the flights had gone well, and there’d been no snafus with the luggage or car rental. After staying the night at the fancy-looking, but not-really-so-wonderful Best Western Admiral’s Inn, we met Beth, Ed and Mom at IHOP, and then said goodbye. It was off to Marco Island.

The 3-hour drive down there wasn’t too bad. The check into our condo was extremely confusing – we received 5 keys and at least 10 pages of instructions. And that was just with the rental agency - we still had to register with “the building” for a parking permit (and another $20 fee). One more complaint, and then I’m done. It’s about a half-mile walk to the beach. Actually, that’s a lie. It’s a one-foot walk to the beach. It’s just a half-mile walk to the water. Ok – enough complaining.

I did want to get those toes in the sand right away, so we managed to make the long trek. It really ain’t that bad; it’s actually kind of fun. But.. What to do for New Year’s Eve? How ‘bout a take-home-and-bake pizza from Winn Dixie? Debbie wasn’t thrilled, but we managed. Some people had fireworks on the beach, but I couldn’t make it till midnight. Maybe that had something to do with staying up till 1am the night before. It did enable me to get a good night’s sleep and to get up and do a long run the next day.

Besides the long walk to the ocean, there’s an estuary – an inlet – that’s much closer. It turns out to be miles long, and impossible to completely circumnavigate. Dave and I did discover that you can wade across the thing. And speaking of the beach, I ran the length of it today – all 5+ miles of it. All the time I was getting battered by the extreme wind. There is a myriad of shells on the island, but of course I would up carrying some, including a large conch during part of my run. That’s not all I carried: a pair of flip-flop sandals for Debbie, a Frisbee, a boogie board, and a large, heavy coconut. I had stashed the boogie board and Frisbee, but I did carry the coconut for 2 miles. I thought Dave would consider it a challenge to crack it open, but we never managed to do so.

On another walk, Dave and I observed a fascinating sight: dolphins were on the hunt. We spotted several of them circling what must have been a school of fish. At a couple points in time, the fish went bonkers and were flying up out of the ocean. That must have been their best attempt at escape from being eaten.

Those tremendous winds had brought a big change in the weather. Whereas it had been well into the 80s when we arrived New Year’s Eve, it rained some on New Year’s Day, and turned much colder (40s and 50s) along with the wind, on the 2nd. It was even colder that night – a near record 30F.

Since it wasn’t exactly beach weather, we went to Everglades Gardens in Bonita Springs, a sort-of nature center/garden/zoo. We saw plenty of gators and American crocks, along with Florida Panthers and all kinds of birds and snakes. Did you know that the endangered Florida Panther is the largest cat that purrs? They are trying to breed them with pumas - necessary because the gene pool is too depleted with only 50 animals remaining. Only concern: the pumas are much more agressive. Debbie and Carol got to shop till they dropped at Best of Everything – a costume jewelry store.

The Audubon Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary was a highlight. There was a 2.25 mile boardwalk through swampy wetlands, including a bald cypress forest. There is abundant wildlife there; we saw plenty of interesting birds.

The Edison/Ford Winter Estates in Fort Myers was also interesting. There is a lot to see and experience there, and the gardens are nice, but IMHO, Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village are much better.

We hung around the beach for the last day, but it never got warm enough (after that first day) to really enjoy it. We did do a lot of walking, and enjoyed watching the birds, especially the pelicans. And did I mention the shells? More than you can imagine. More in one square foot than *all* of Shell Island (off PCB). There are areas where there are mounds of nothing but shells, a couple feet high, several feet wide, and several hundreds of yards long. Hard to believe.

Too bad Dave, and especially Debbie were under the weather for this trip. And too bad the weather wasn't warmer and sunnier. We still had a few interesting experiences.