3 days

My bad.  Haven't posted for almost three days.  Need to report on Saturday, Sunday and today (Monday).

Saturday

Left Bob and Diane's place about 9:00 a.m. and headed to Spring Lake to see Lynn and Debbie.  Arrived a little eary (Debbie was preparing lunch) so I tried to download a bunch of of pictures from the camera that you saw on the previous post.  Kept screwing up, finally discovered the camera battery was almost dead and kept quitting.  Gave up and drove on to Lynn and Debbies.

I didn't get a picture of their house, but Lynn and Debbie have really fixed up the place.  They remodeled and added a bedroom which is about 50x50 and a living room about the same size (lol) and a big office for Lynn and a closet the size of most peoples' bedrooms.  Great job, you two.  Debbie fixed a terrific meal straight out of Texas.  (She's a Texas gal.)  We all really enjoyed the meal (including the fried okra and tomatos from her garden).  After filling up on peach pie (Georgia peaches of course), we took a tour of Lynn's garage and saw his '65 Chevy pickup and 65 Ford hardtop.  The Ford is in perfect shape (and runs too).  He has another one outside that is ready for the restoration process.  Three hours flew by and the time arrived that we needed to hit the road.  Thank you Debbie and Lynn for your great hospitality and wonderful conversation.

Leaving Lynn and Debbie's, we drove on down I-75 to Naples.  PJ and I lived here for about three years while working on a software project here.  I forgot how nice the place is and we started recalling memories (like old folks do) of things that we did here and what a great time of our lives.  We are staying at the Cove Inn (on the water on Naples Bay and connected to the Municipal dock). 

The view from our room

Another view from our room

This was PJ's only request for the trip -- to be able to stay here.  We are really enjoying it.  There are so many places we want to take Marcella, but there is no way we can do them all.  We took a motor tour of some of the high points of Naples and I think she was pretty impressed.  She got to see the Gulf and beach here.

Sunday

First thing Sunday, we contacted Cathy and told her we were ready for breakfast.  She suggested we forget her fixing any kind of meal but she would meet us at IHOP.  (lol)

Had a great visit with her.  Cathy is one of the programmers we worked with here in Naples and is always good for a fun time!!  It was great visiting with her.

Then we went to check out the boat.  It had sat in storage about 2 1/2 years without being run.  Not good for a boat.  I had the marina get it out, tune up the motors and generator so they worked, but they wanted an outrageous price to clean the boat.  Instead, we got a local person who wanted to rent us his dock behind his house, to get the boat from the marina, take it to his house and clean it.  We are renting his dock and he will take the boat out every week to keep it in good working order.  So, we worked on cleaning the boat, testing it out, etc but did not take the boat out for a long run yesterday.  We left Cape Coral and on the way back to Naples (about 40 miles) the car just pulled into our favorite Mexican restaurant in the world!!  So we had to get out and go inside and have some great Mexican food, drink margaritas, listen to a Mexican marache band senerade us, and have a few laughs.  It was grand. 

Monday

Today (Monday) we got up and went directly to the boat.  We loaded up, backed out of the small canal, turned into the main canal and headed out to the river, then the gulf.  Marcella got to see Sanibel Island and Captiva Island from the water.  She had been there many times, but this was a new look at them.  The old drawbridge to the islands has been replaced with a 'sailboat' bridge (fixed bridge with the centerpoint with about 60 feet clearance for sailboats).

The new Sanibel bridge from the Calooskahatchee river headed to the Gulf.

We took Marcella to one of our favorite marina restaurants for lunch.  She had conch chowder (manhatten style).  Outside the restaurant was a 'pirate ship' that can be rented for parties, cruises, etc.

The pirate ship from our lunch place (Parrot Key)

Seems like I mention eating a lot doesn't it.  We do a lot of things, but we always wind up eating somewhere !!

We were out on the Gulf (off Sanibel Island) and on the Caloosahatchee river for about 6 hours.  Sure felt good.  I think Marcella (and PJ) enjoyed it.

Here is a shot of some of the shimp boats we passed on the way to lunch.

Shrimpers

Here is a shot of Marcella riding her yacht on the Gulf.

Marcella Relaxing

We are back at the Cove Inn now, recovering from the sun, wind and water.

Later,

Bob

P.S.  PJ wants everyone to know he's fine!!