Candlewood Suites North I 75 Fort Myers

Today was a super nice day.

Had an easy morning, followed by a fun boat ride with Frank and his friend Jeff, to a restaurant. It was so cool to just put around the water and "park" the boat at the restaurant, to have some yummy fish.

Then we went back to Jeff's house and the three of us went out on kayaks around the mangroves for several hours. During one part we went through very narrow water ...

Just a quick entry to point out where I flew into...

Looong 10 hour flight from Germany. Then the bags took a while to come out, and the immigrations people were *******s. But I made it through, no problems, after they asked me loots and lots of questions... dumbasses.

Anywho, then I met Frank, my CS host who was nice enough to pick me up and take me to his house, where we are now... in a small, small town on an island, called Matlacha.

... with Claire at Olive Garden; took Agnes and Cliff for a ride to Captiva Island so they could see the Bubble Room Restaurant; swam in the Gulf and beautiful swimming pools at our RV Park and at their Condo, had a great dinner of barbecued ribs prepared by Claire on our last night here; and were lucky enough to see dolphins playing in the Gulf and a most amazing sunset over the water! Whew! packed a lot into a week, didn't we?

I've been visiting Cape Coral, Fl for what seems like my whole life. My son lives down there now and he's 22, so I frequently visit him and from now on I will stay at the Hampton Inn. I used to stay at the Casa Loma Motel, but after my last visit I realized that the place is going downhill. The old manager, Ray, was great, but there's a new manager who I'm not familiar with ...

... high for great shelling today on the sand, but Bri & Gabi went in the water and dove for shells, finding lots of nice treasures. Squadrons of pelicans flew low across the waves, and groups of White Ibises marched along the wet sand probing for food with their long, downward curving bills. We had a great time, but headed back to the condo by mid afternoon so we could pack up and get ready to leave early on Tuesday.

We ate breakfast at the hotel restaurant, Courtney's, then checked out. We drove to one of the public beach access areas and headed out to do some more shelling. We found more treasures! The girls went out at first in just shorts, but that didn't last long. There were signs on the roads to watch out for gopher tortoises...but we didn't see any!

We then drove on to Lake City to stay at the same Comfor Suites...still very nice!

We helped to break camp and then said goodbye to the grandparents. The girls and I then took a rainy drive to Sanibel Island...one of the best shelling beaches in the world!

We got right into our suits and headed to the beach. We picked up a bag full of different shells and Sarah was not feeling well. We then went to the pool for a bit then back to the room to rest before dinner. We ate at the Lazy Flamingo. Katie had fried oysters, Sarah had shrimp ...

Well it was absolutely fabulous to be at home for a good seven weeks.  We managed to spend a lot of time with family and friends catching up and enjoying the holiday season together.  We ate like royalty and loved spending Christmas with everyone at home.  To top it off I even convinced Megan to marry me!  I guess spending 24 hours a day together for a year and a half couldn't have been all that bad...  It was nice to be ...

... or friendships, which can´t increase their material worth. Obsession with personal well-being has nearly eliminated concern for human-kind, and people are ever becoming less likely to go out of their way for others - even if it´s just to brighten someone´s day with a "good morning" and a smile. I hate talk of this nature, so I´d like to interrupt to offer a contradictory, positive scene: I´m in the backseat of a speeding car heavily scented with marijuana ...

... in the week, and I didn't have a date. "So, what are you girls up to tonight?" I said. Johnny and I waited anxiously for their response. Amy was hungry, but would they go out to eat with us? Could the "Date of the Week" program be saved, or was it (sniff, sniff) all over? The girls responded. ... "If you're paying." Woohoo! "Date of the Week" lives on!!! Oh, glorious day! Praised be Johnny - 1-for-1 as "Date of the Week" savior. Dora wore ...