Dolphin Inn Resort Fort Myers Beach

... always watching beautiful birds, and we saw some dolphins as well.

Beautiful, beautiful, day with super blue skies and a bright sun. Temperature was perfect, with a light breeze to keep cool at all times. As close to perfect as you can get. Finished with a nice walk to a restaurant nearby ON the water, with some locals playing music in the background.

No complaints... next stop: New Orleans.

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.

We've had such a fabulous week in Ft. Myers! Spent lots of time reconnecting with Greg's Uncles Cliff and Steve and Aunts Agnes and Eleanor, who have a really nice timeshare condo on Estero Island, looking out onto the Gulf. Mid-week, Greg's Cousin Claire arrived, after her long drive down from Toronto.

Greg got in a couple of bridge games with Cliff and Steve and Eleanor; we celebrated Agnes and Cliff's 59th ...

Så er vi ankommet til Florida. Vi ankom igår og fandt et billigt motel med pool. Så efter en lang køretur, var det perfekt at kunne tage en svømmetur i poolen. I dag har det været ca. 35 grader, så jeg har sat pris på aircon idag. Vi var dog ude på stranden og fiske og bade lidt. Lau fangede en babyhaj, men ellers har der ikke været noget held. Det er helt rart at have en lidt mindre proppet tidsplan nu, så er der mere tid til at komme helt ned i gear. I morgen står den på køretur til Miami

... faster, most of the US smaller roads have a 45 mph limit so getting places does take 5 hours, but i pushed up to 70 here and Nic had to cover her eyes and scream inside everytime I overtook someone. But we managed to get by ok and made naples before 3pm. 

Naples is considered to be playboysville and it certainly seemed to be a clean and polished town. We pulled into our hotel, The Naples Grande Resort Waldorf Astoria ...

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 ...

We got up early today and drove to Sanibel Island. For those who haven't been there, Sanibel & Captiva Islands on the Gulf of Mexico have some of the nicest beaches around, and Sanibel is known for fantastic shelling.

While walking over the inland waterway to get to Bowman Beach, the girls spotted a manatee and watched it amble under the foot bridge we were on and swim off into the distance. The tide was ...

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!

... I had a half-dozen oysters on the half shell and a grilled grouper sandwich. It was tasty.

Katie and I went back out to the beach at low tide and found some real treasures. Sarah was still not feeling great, so she watched cartoon network.

We had planned on going back out early for the next low tide (it was at 5:30a.m.), but it was storming. Which was actually a great thing because it meant the shelling even at high tide was going to be good.

... TO THE RANGER STATION AND GET ICE AND TOMORROW WILL RIDE THE TROLLY THROUGH THE ISLAND TO THE GULF BEACH AND HAVE A NICE WALK.WE DISCOVER THERE WILL BE 20 MORE BOATS COMING AS A GROUP SO WE WILL HEAD TO FT MYERS AND SNAG A MOORING BALL AND ENJOY MORE QUIET AND THE FT MYERS BEACH.THERE IS NOW A NEW DINGHY DOCK THERE AND SALTY SAMS MARINA WHERE WE WILL MEET MY SISITER PAULA WHO IS FLYING IN.HAVING A GREAT TIME AND ONE WEEK OF ANCHOR.