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| Sanibel lighthouse |
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| Tarpon Bay - Wildlife Refuge |
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| Beautiful sky - almost every night! |
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| The day at the beach |
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| Beach pier |
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Looking out to the Gulf
from Big Hickory |
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| Little Nauti! |
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Beautiful beaches
at Big Hickory |
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| More beach pics |
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| And one more! |
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| Bonita Bills - open mic night |
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This guy could play
a mean sax! |
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| Taste of FMB - with "Laughter"! |
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| Look at the outboards! |
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| Yeah, we're still bikers! |
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Guy working on his sail
Osprey not about to move! |
We’ve been spending our time here in Ft Myers Beach
sightseeing, happy hours, eating and beaching.
Now that’s not bad! Below are a
few of the highlights from the last couple of weeks since my last post.
We found the Legion!
Big surprise, huh. We went to the
Rib Dinner one evening. It was really
good and they had an Oldies Band “The Classix” playing. I liked the music but Mike said it sounded
like car show music. Well, it pretty
much was! Anyway it was fun.
We spend the next day exploring in the dinghy. About 10:00 that morning it finally was calm
enough for us to go over to Sanibel Island.
Sanibel is a barrier island and is great for shelling. The beach is beautiful too! We dinked over to Tarpon Bay which is part of
the J. N. “DING” Darling Wildlife National Refuge. We had a picnic lunch and dinked in and
around the Island taking pictures of the famous Sanibel Lighthouse and other
sights. We saw several manatees,
dolphins and rays. We even had a huge fish jump higher than the bow of the
dinghy! I thought it was going to land
inside! Now that would have been a
catch! We got back to the boat about
4:00. What a big day!
On Sunday, May 1, we went to the “Taste of Ft Myers Beach”
at the beach. Tom and Jan Hines were here
on a mooring ball so we all went together.
Tom and Jan are on Laughter which is a sister boat to NautiNell. They are practically identical. We met them while on the Loop and they were
one of the boats that crossed the Gulf with us back in 2011. We’ve seen them a few times since – in the
Bahamas and in the Keys. It’s always
good to get to visit with them. The “Taste”
was great! There were over 20 local
restaurants that had booths. We checked
out several! Later on we all went to the
beach where the people watching is the best!
Later on we were back on the boat grilling burgers. Another big day!
We’ve hit several of the local hangouts for Happy Hour. But there are so many and so little
time! Still out of all of the places
we’ve tried, I think we like Bonita Bills the best. We’ve stayed there a few times before for a
day or two. There is always something
going on there!
Tuesday, May 3 was another calm day so we dinked our way to
Lover’s Key on Black Sound and on to Big Hickory Island. Beautiful beaches and still on the inside so
they’re not hard to dink to. Since Big
Hickory is at New Pass (opening to the Gulf} there are lots of shells. However, we were told that the on the other
side (Gulf side) of the Hickory Island is a nude beach! We didn’t go over there! We didn’t want to see nor participate! Ha!
Later after we got back to the boat we headed to the Lighthouse Tiki Bar
for Taco Tuesday! Yes, another big day!
On Wednesday we hung close.
Severe weather and strong winds were forecasted so we didn’t want to go
far. Mike added extra lines and it was a
good thing he did! When it hit that
afternoon, the winds howled through here and the bowl we’re in looked like a
washing machine on the heavy duty cycle!
We rocked and rolled! Some of the
smaller sailboats here were thrashing about something terrible! Luckily no one or nothing was hurt. There’s a long fetch of water to our marina. I can’t imagine what it would be like to be
here during a hurricane!
Happy Cinco de Mayo!
Still really windy so we hung out on the boat. However, we did make it to the Legion for the
Cinco de Mayo celebration! Margaritas
$3.00 and great Mexican food! Oh, and
more “car show music”!
On Saturday, I was so tired of the boat rocking due to the
wind that we decided to take the car and go to the Flea Market. There are several huge ones around here. We went to the Flea Masters Flea Market. It is absolutely huge! There is no way you could see everything in
one day – at least we couldn’t. Of
course, most of it is junk anyway, but we bought stuff! We picked up fresh shrimp at the market and
luckily when we got back to the boat, the wind had died. So we grilled it for dinner! Yum!
Happy Mother’s Day!
Mike (Calypso Poet) from Marathon lives in Bonita Springs which is just
a few miles from FMB. He invited us to
join him and his family at the Cottage for lunch to celebrate Mother’s Day. Of course, before we went there we had to
stop for “Church” at the Mermaid Lounge.
Every Sunday, they have Church (that’s what they call it) anyway, no
preaching but they do have Bloody Marys for a dollar! It’s pretty much a biker bar and we pulled up
in the parking lot on our scooters – loud and proud! Well, maybe not so loud but definitely
proud! Anyway it’s a great hangout! We met Mike at the Cottage (on the beach) and
had a great lunch and a great visit!
After that we did a little shopping and took a walk on the beach. It was a nice Mother’s Day. Still miss my family though…..
Monday morning we heard from our broker. He told us that he had several prospects from
the AGLCA Rendezvous this past week. SO
we cleaned the boat just in case.
Nothing scheduled yet, but we wanted to be somewhat ready. Later on we took the dinghy over to Bonita
Bills for open mic night. That’s always
a fun time. This one turned out better
than usual. Lots of blues! Can’t get enough of that! Good food – good music – and fun people to
watch!
We’ve also walked along the beach a few mornings. That does the soul good! There’s always a lot of shells and it’s not
really crowded at that time. We’ve found
a very cool place for a breakfast snack.
It’s the Heavenly Biscuit! A very
neat little artsy place with great breakfast sandwiches, etc. Always crowded but never a long wait. They say it’s a “little piece of
Heaven”. They’re right!
We’re planning to leave on Monday the 16th. Our month will be up. We’re trying to figure out where we’re going
next. We sort of had a plan but the
marina was full! So now we’re making a
few changes. Hopefully we’ll have it
decided before we cast off our lines!
Ha! Our plan of sort is to end up
somewhere near Clearwater Beach for a month or so and then head back down and
over to the east coast before it gets really hot. Clearwater is only about 140 miles away so it
shouldn’t be a problem. We also want to
work in a trip home to Joplin during that time. We’ll figure it out! Hopefully the next time I post, I'll be able to let you know!
Till next time!
Admiral “C
