Florida | Winter 2019

Bob and I were able to spend a week in Southwest Florida in February (Fort Myers area) and honestly could not have timed this trip better.  We flew out in a major snowstorm - honestly we weren't even sure we'd be leaving that day let alone on time.  We ended up being delayed a couple hours but all things considered that was not a big deal.  At all.

Unfortunately when we finally landed the car we were supposed to have rented was no longer available and our luggage was missing.  After some phone calls to get us no where, off to the Fort Myers WalMart we went at 2AM to pick up essentials.  And bright and early Friday morning we headed back to the airport to attempt to locate our missing luggage and turn in the minivan for something more to our liking.

                                                                                                                                                                 Random field of cows off Daniels Parkway

                                                                  Luggage found!

                                           Let vacation truly commence now.

After a stop at Publix to fill up the cooler and a little breakfast from Dunkin Donuts, we jumped on 75 South (after spotting a Twins semi) to head to Vanderbilt Beach in Naples - one of our favorite spots.  The beach wasn't even quite in our view yet as we were hauling all our stuff (beach essentials) and I stopped and kind of shrieked, Do you smell that?  Can you feel that?  The salty air!!!  Not even kidding but it felt like every ounce of tension dissolved right there.

We spent a perfect day at the beach and then headed back to Fort Myers to get ready for dinner out on Fort Myers Beach at Nervous Nellie's.

 

As we sat enjoying a fabulous dinner outside and waitress from Eagan, Bob looks at that boat with a slide and poses this question:  Imagine your sliding down that and a shark pops up, what would you do?  😂

Not long after that we took a stroll out on the FMB pier and Bob's imagination starts getting the best of him, envisioning the pier falling into the gulf while sharks lie in wait for us.  😆

                                And I think open-air DQs need to be a thing here in Minnesota.

We also need palm trees in McDonald's drive thru's. 

Another glorious day at Vanderbilt Beach in Naples.  

                                      
                                                 We found a retirement home...!

Another perfect day at the beach which is followed up by another perfect night out.  Back down to Fort Myers Beach for dinner at Yucatan and a little music and drinks at

Attempted this as a group of four kids walked by.  They offered to help us out if we'd take a picture of them, too.  A little chit chat with them and they asked why we looked so nice, we joked we were just enjoying vacation without the kids.  So they asked how old our kids were.  LOL  Um, 24 and 20 (as Bob tried to say 19 and I had to correct him and they he was in absolute disbelief that our baby is 20 now).  So, we shocked the kids by informing them our kids aren't quite as little as they were anticipating.  Nice, polite, friendly kids that we floored.

 A little stroll through Times Square listening to a little music and a night cap at La Ola.

Sunday brought us to Lover's Key State Park.  It was quite a bit different than Vanderbilt, expansive, quieter.

                                                                 Hammond Field!

                  Would you rather have ginormous snow piles in your cul de sac or palm trees??

                                                   Dinner Sunday night was at Junkanoo:

Monday we road-tripped to Siesta Key, an hour and a half north of Fort Myers.  Bob was floored at the beauty of this beach.  And it was another gorgeous day and actually a little hot (yup, I said it).

A little action was found on the beach and Bob took a little inadvertent dip with them!

And a little late lunch at Gilligan's!

Back to the Fort for dinner!  We at at The Whale on FMB, rooftop, and another gorgeous night.  No photos from dinner because we got a text from the daughter that the furnace wasn't working at home.  That put a little damper on the evening.

On Tuesday after the furnace stuff was worked out we headed back to Vanderbilt Beach in Naples.  The weather was calling for some rain up and down the coast but thankfully Bob decided for us that it didn't matter and we headed out anyway.  Such a smart decision because not a single drop of rain fell!

                                                                     Directing... lol

 A beach house for sale!

 The pelicans were putting on a show at sunset this night.

Dinner Tuesday with with friends, Mary and Ross, back at Nervous Nellie's and somehow the night went by and no photos!

Our last day in the Fort ended up being a lot cooler and a bit rainy.  I still can't decide if it was better to not have a nice day for our last day or not...
We stopped at Hammond Stadium to catch some pre-spring training action and then we drove over to Sanibel Island to have lunch at the Island Cow (soooo good!) and then walked the beach a little.

And sadly our trip ended but not before Florida kissed us goodbye at the airport.