Thanks to Pam and Bob Blasius for letting us spend Pat's Spring Break at their condo in Fort Myers, Florida! It's a lovely corner location on a golf course. Just a beautiful condo, in a beautiful setting! We left on April 22 for a badly needed break for both of us.
Friday - De-planed, and Hooray! It was Hot Out! (back home in Indiana it had been raining and cold since forever)
Our Garmin GPS took us directly from the airport to the condo. (although it was one building off.)
First order of business was to activate the condo, with good instruction lists posted on the fridge. Had a problem figuring out the "humidistat", but a quick call to Bob remedied that. The local radio station we discovered was 102.9 Bob fm, similar to JackFM.
Next, let's eat. Upon Jack's recomendation, we went to nearby "Skip One", and had a delicious lunch. I had the messy and not too spicy spiced shrimp, and Pat had a Grouper sandwich. Jack was right! Very tasty, (and messy).
Not wanting to waste any time, and armed with a folder of things to do, from Allyson, and our friends Ron and Kathy. we headed to along Bonita Beach, and Fort Myers beach. Yikes! Very crowded with no parking available.
We wanted to see a good sunset, but the only place we could park was the Bonita Doggy beach. So, we clomped along through a suspicious trail to the beach, and watched the sun set.
For dinner, we found a parking spot at the Gulf Grill and Cottage, on Fort Myers Beach . We were stressed and hungry, and this was just the spot.
We had a small table dockside, and had Grouper sandwiches and wine. A small band arrived inside the bar, and the bar folks began dancing in that had-too-many-drinks, wish-we-were-still-in-college way. Fun to watch! Exhausted from travel and watching the dancing, we escaped back to the condo.
Saturday - we headed toward the beaches. Bonita Beach was packed, no parking. On to Fort Myers Beach. Got into the middle of a giant traffic line, missed the beach but on the right there was a Marina sign, so we turned in. Place called the Parrot Key, on a Gulf channel. We enjoyed lunch dockside.
Headed for Sanibel , and Doc Ford's restaurant. I had a Sanibel Sunset, and Pat had wine.
With Pat navigating, we drove to Captiva, and I fished a bit at the lighthouse pier, and then raced to the Mucky Duck side to see a gorgeous sunset. Nervously, I parked illegally, since there was no parking available.
Sunday - Easter Sunday, so we chose the Church of the Resurrection. Packed, so we had to stand most of the service. After church, we tried to find a restaurant that was open. No Luck! Kept driving and went to Tin City. Closed! Kept driving into Naples. Nothing.
Finally drove to Marco Island, and found a place called Snook that was indeed open. The waitress got us a corner table, outside, facing the gulf. Great view, and food. I had Mahi-Mahi, and Pat had grouper.
Returned to the condo via the Naples beach roads, amazed by the giant Mansions. (What do these people do for a living, and do they need help?)
Monday - I went to the "Right Angler Bait and Tackle Shop" by the condo. Asked the owner if there were any good places to fish around here. "No, not really". How about by the condo? "No, too hot". What kind of live bait does he carrry? "We don't anymore. Used to. Have some frozen shrimp". Not knowing what else to say, I asked if they were just opening the store? "no, been here 6 years". I left.
Pine Island looked interesting so off we went. We had lunch at Bert's Bar, another outside, dockside meal. Met Ken and Carole and chatted a bit about where to fish. Following one of Ken's suggestions, I fished a bit off the North pier, until Pat called "Last Cast".
We drove back to the Bonita beach area and had drinks at the Pierside Grill, right on the beach, which were very watered down, but great view.
Rain falling so we headed to Docs for Pizza, upon Jack's suggestion. It's loaded with Chicago memorabilia. I had to park next to Docs and couldn't get the parking meter to work.
Used the now out-of-time ticket from the Pierside Grill. Felt guilty, Went out in the rain to try again. No Luck. Let the guy behind me try. Wouldn't work for him so he slammed the meter with his hand, like you would do to a pop machine, and it set off a whooping and beeping alarm like a car alarm. We said "let's get out of here" and quickly walked into Docs. No cops. Alarm stopped after awhile. Not having been arrested or towed we returned to the Condo.
Tuesday - is Beach Day. Thunderstorms forcast for the afternoon, but the morning looked sunny. Working from Allyson's list of fun-things-to-do, we decided upon Barefoot Beach. What a delight! The streets are flat pavers instead of concrete or asphalt. And the homes are from a movie set! Multi-story, big, interesting shaped mansions. We paid the 8 dollars, and parked on the road since the lots were already full.
At first, we just sat on the beach on a towel, and headed for the water. Beautiful, clear, green tinted water. Easy to float in. When we got a mouthful or nosefull, the water tasted like a Margarita with salt.
When we beached ourselves (me, looking like a beached white whale), we rented a cabana for 20.00 for the day. Very cozy inside - good for a quick nap. The waves were much stronger, so a second splash in the water, until we tired out. After we dried out again, headed home to the condo for a shower.
It was still early enough to get to Mucky Duck on Captiva, so we quickly drove to the islands. We shoehorned into the last parking spot in the Mucky Duck lot.
(We've learned that a sucessful visit to anyplace in Fort Myers is all about the parking! )
They only serve beer and wine so we had a plastic glass of wine outside, and enjoyed the music from a guitar player. Soon we were called in, and to the envy of everyone and the amazement of ourselves we got a beautiful window seat looking out at the beach and the Gulf! Food was delicious, wine was Kendall-Jackson. To take your un-finished wine outside, you are issued plastic glasses, so that's what we did! Went to the beach, sat on the sand, and waited for the sunset.
Sitting next to a French couple, we were alerted to a Dolphin siting. There he was swimming 30 yards out horizontal to the shore. Arching out of the water.
And amazingly again, it was a perfectly beautiful sunset! The sunset people all clapped when it disappeared into the Gulf.
A perfect day!
Wednesday - rented a pontoon boat for 4 hours at Bonita Beach Boat Rentals. I was very nervous about driving a boat since this is my first time without an experienced Captain aboard.
The ancient desk guy assured us it was user friendly. The routes were marked with little triangle shaped markers. Green markers are to be on your right hand side outbound, and Red markers on your left.
On the homebound trip, Red, Return, Right - the three R's. Sounds simple enough, right! With 2 dozen shrimp in a little blue bucket with a red top, we backed up, and nervously headed out.
Shakily, we idled along until I got into the Estero river, and TRAFFIC! Boats zooming along as though they knew what to do! After getting the feel of the channel markers, we realized we would have to pull out of the lane in order to fish, and park the boat.
Nobody told us how to do that. Well we pulled out, dropped the anchor, and started to fish. Baited up with a shrimp. Casting with a bobber and a second rod. Pat poured us a wine in a plastic cup. No fish here.
So we pulled up the anchor and merged back into traffic. We were aiming for a location suggested by the boat guy, but what happens is that the markers got really far apart, and there were a lot of boats, so we turned around and finding the markers, went a different way.
We again parked the boat, dropped the anchor, and saw a lot of Pelicans slamming beak first into the water. They look like they are just crashing! I went to the front of the boat and I realized that I hadn't pulled in the bait bucket! No bait left. That's why the Pelicans are falling from the sky around us. They're eating my bait!
Nothing left the one shrimp on my rod. No little red top to the bucket either! I broke the bucket!
Pat and I started casting. After a while, I noticed something red under the front Pontoons. It was the top to the little bait bucket! I re-assembled the bait bucket.
Oh well, let it go. I had one rod in with a bobber and the one remaining shrimp on it, and was casting a fake shrimp lure on the other. Suddenly the bobber rod started pulling into the water, and I grabbed it! A Catfish! Kept him in the water until I could get my Orvis gloves in to protect against getting spiked. Hauled it in, about 8". (this would be the only fish I would catch)
We decided to boat around a bit, so we headed into a wavy area with no boats it site, carefully following the markers. Suddenly, we were lost. The marker numbers didn't match where we should be on the map!
Pat is a great navigator, but we couldn't see the numbers on the little tiny markers until I pulled up close because I had water on my glasses. So, we'd pull up to a marker and read it, and look to our left for the other side of the pair, and try to match that combination to the map.
Pat suggested it was like Gilligan's island theme song about getting lost on a three day cruise. The last thing you want to hear from your navigator is "I have no idea where we are", but she said it.
Peering closer at the giant map before us we noticed that the numbers on the very tiny channel markers were not unique. They repeated themselves, depending on what area you were in!
So, you could be here, or you could be over there! We decide to triangulate by getting 3 sets of markers on a row, and matching to the map. It worked. We were no where near where we thought we were.
Now properly aimed in the right direction, we headed back to the rental site, to return the boat.
There aren't any brakes on a boat, so I idled into the slip with a guy on each side, and realized I was going to bang the left side. The guide calmly said "REVERSE". so I slammed it into reverse, and backed up. Aimed it again, hard right, and parked it. Like I said, parking is a big deal in Fort Myers!
We had a very tasty dinner at the Fort Myers Doc Fords, and found a parking lot on the North end of Fort Myers Beach.
As we were standing in the high tide water waiting for the sunset Youlanda came over, introduced herself to us, and we had a delightful conversation. My cross was visible and she thought I was a Minister! While we were conversing, she jumped back and reflexively, we did too as sting ray came flapping by where we just were standing, looking like a piece of cardboard floating by.
Youlanda left for other parts, to be replaced by Leroy, with a pre-school T-shirt on. Started talking, and he is from Chicago Heights, lives in St. John, Ind. Met his whole family.
Beautiful sunset over Sanibel, and we wearily headed back to Condo. Another Perfect Day.
Thursday - Went to Sanibel to try fishing again. I bought a little packet of frozen shrimp at the Bait Bucket, and we headed to the pier by the lighthouse. I picked the only open spot on the end of the pier and started fishing, while Pat went down to the beach. The lady next to me caught a catfish, and then a small hammerhead shark! Me, nothing but water.
A guy named Dan came along with a giant fishing rod and a clamp, and asked if he could use the corner. Sure! So he clamps this rod to the railing, blows up a baloon, and casts with half a catfish as bait. He's fishing for Tarpon. Meanwhile Pat comes back and we see dolphin swimming around. She headed back to the parking lot to pay for another hour of time, and gets lost coming back to the pier. Finally she showed up pretty red in the face, and tired, but safe! This time we see dolphins, and a manatee comes swimming by.
No catching for me, so we headed to the Green Flash for lunch/dinner on Captiva. Another outside meal, facing the Gulf. Back at the Condo, after a nap, we headed for the pool to cool off. Beautiful pool and view.
Friday - Another beautiful morning. Headed for Lover's Key, and fished on the bridge. Walked on the beach until we got to Captain Charlies, and rested with cold bottles of water. Charlie asked where my fish were, and recomended that I walk another half mile down the beach toward the South. That's where the fishing is. But in the 90 degree heat, we decided to just take the Tram back to the parking lot.
We had another tasty dinner at "Skip One". We finished the day by going back to the Condo pool!
Thanks again Pam and Bob!
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