We are just wrapping up another week and it's kind of h
ard to remember exactly what we did all week! But working backwards: today we put the kaya
ks in at the community canoe/kayak launch in Matlacha and paddled around for about 3-1/2 hours. Dave caught a number of flounders, but wasn't sure of the legal size so he threw them all back-but I did get a couple of pictures of him with one of them. One picture shows his smiling face, but the fish is turned sideways and is almost invisible. The second picture is not so good of him, but is better of the fish. While he fished, I paddled around and found a couple of the markers along the Great Calusa Blueway. I don't think I've mentioned this before, but the Blueway is a "Lee County Paddling Trail" for kayaks and canoes. There is a nice map that you can pick up almost anyplace and there are markers in the water to tell you that you are on the trail. I'm posting a picture of one of the markers; but it is really hard (for me, at least) to spot them and actually FOLLOW the trail-they're pretty far apart from each other so it's hard to find the next one. I THINK you can go online and get more detailed maps of the individual markers, and also the GPS locations so you can find them with a GPS (or smart phone) in your boat. The entire trail covers a huge area and includes 97 miles of marked trails-so someone like me i
s only going to hit a few of the markers. But it is kind of fun to hit one, even though it's a teensy, tiny portion of the whole trail. I think it is extremely "cool" that the county has put together this trail for people who are seriously into kayaking and canoeing, and I hope to hit additional parts of the trail, if not this year, then maybe next year. Either way, it was really fun and peaceful and pretty to be out on the water this afternoon -high 70's and perfect weather. After we pulled the boats out of the water, we drove about a mile and had a late lunch at Berts, the bar/grill I mentioned in my last post. Dave had a pound of peel-and-eat shrimp, and I had a shrimp platter with broiled shrimp, a salad and homemade clam chowder. YUMMY!
ard to remember exactly what we did all week! But working backwards: today we put the kaya
ks in at the community canoe/kayak launch in Matlacha and paddled around for about 3-1/2 hours. Dave caught a number of flounders, but wasn't sure of the legal size so he threw them all back-but I did get a couple of pictures of him with one of them. One picture shows his smiling face, but the fish is turned sideways and is almost invisible. The second picture is not so good of him, but is better of the fish. While he fished, I paddled around and found a couple of the markers along the Great Calusa Blueway. I don't think I've mentioned this before, but the Blueway is a "Lee County Paddling Trail" for kayaks and canoes. There is a nice map that you can pick up almost anyplace and there are markers in the water to tell you that you are on the trail. I'm posting a picture of one of the markers; but it is really hard (for me, at least) to spot them and actually FOLLOW the trail-they're pretty far apart from each other so it's hard to find the next one. I THINK you can go online and get more detailed maps of the individual markers, and also the GPS locations so you can find them with a GPS (or smart phone) in your boat. The entire trail covers a huge area and includes 97 miles of marked trails-so someone like me i
s only going to hit a few of the markers. But it is kind of fun to hit one, even though it's a teensy, tiny portion of the whole trail. I think it is extremely "cool" that the county has put together this trail for people who are seriously into kayaking and canoeing, and I hope to hit additional parts of the trail, if not this year, then maybe next year. Either way, it was really fun and peaceful and pretty to be out on the water this afternoon -high 70's and perfect weather. After we pulled the boats out of the water, we drove about a mile and had a late lunch at Berts, the bar/grill I mentioned in my last post. Dave had a pound of peel-and-eat shrimp, and I had a shrimp platter with broiled shrimp, a salad and homemade clam chowder. YUMMY!Yesterday was fun for us too-we went to another of the FGCU basketball games. Actually, two games: the men played first (and lost in overtime) and the women played second and KILLED their opponents. We very much enjoy going to these games and have another double-header tomorrow-then we're done with these games because there are no more home games before we leave. While we were at the game, we got a text message from our friend Mary, telling us that she and Brian were at the Hope game back home in Holland, so we texted back and forth a few times, updating each other on scores and stuff. I told Mary it was ALMOST like being at a game WITH them, but not quite the same!
Ealier in the week (was it Tuesday? Wednesday? who knows....) I did my fifth AVA walk of the trip-this time to Fort Myers Beach. I don't have a lot of pictures, because I did this same walk a year ago and put in some pictures then, and didn't want to repeat myself. But I am sticking in a couple that I took from the bridge that I walked over (and Dave biked over) to get from Fort Myers over to Fort Myer
s Beach, which is on Estero Island. At the foot of the bridge, o
n the mainland side, is a bar we liked from last year, called Bonita Bill's. I'm including one picture taken from the top of the bridge and looking down into the bar-we love these quaint waterfront bars with boats "parked" in front. The other picture was taken as I was walking up toward the peak of the bridge and shows the parking lot in back of Bonita Bill's, with my TINY little Toyota Camry sitting in the first parking spot with it's kayak cradles on top and the bike rack on the back. The AVA walk itself was nice, but I've learned that it's probably not a good idea to repeat the same walk two years in a row (unless it was an especially nice walk OR if there aren't any other AVA walks in the area). It just wasn't quite as much fun nor quite as interesting to go back and repeat the same walk-I think it would be better to skip it for a couple years and THEN do it again. But it was a beautiful day and we both e
njoyed the afternoon. When we were done, we met back at Bonita Bill's and had a great conversation with a nice couple named Bob and Carol (so of course we had to say our names were Ted and Alice, which of course they've only heard a MILLION times-they said people our age recognize the reference but younger people don't). Anyway, it's always fun to talk to people who are RVing like us and moving from spot to spot over the winter, primarily staying at state parks like we do. They were from Indianapolis and were both retired teachers and this is only their second year of retirement traveling-and they are LOVING it. We were able to refer them to a couple of our favorite parks, which is always kind of fun for us. After seven years down here, we feel like true "gurus!"
s Beach, which is on Estero Island. At the foot of the bridge, o
n the mainland side, is a bar we liked from last year, called Bonita Bill's. I'm including one picture taken from the top of the bridge and looking down into the bar-we love these quaint waterfront bars with boats "parked" in front. The other picture was taken as I was walking up toward the peak of the bridge and shows the parking lot in back of Bonita Bill's, with my TINY little Toyota Camry sitting in the first parking spot with it's kayak cradles on top and the bike rack on the back. The AVA walk itself was nice, but I've learned that it's probably not a good idea to repeat the same walk two years in a row (unless it was an especially nice walk OR if there aren't any other AVA walks in the area). It just wasn't quite as much fun nor quite as interesting to go back and repeat the same walk-I think it would be better to skip it for a couple years and THEN do it again. But it was a beautiful day and we both e
njoyed the afternoon. When we were done, we met back at Bonita Bill's and had a great conversation with a nice couple named Bob and Carol (so of course we had to say our names were Ted and Alice, which of course they've only heard a MILLION times-they said people our age recognize the reference but younger people don't). Anyway, it's always fun to talk to people who are RVing like us and moving from spot to spot over the winter, primarily staying at state parks like we do. They were from Indianapolis and were both retired teachers and this is only their second year of retirement traveling-and they are LOVING it. We were able to refer them to a couple of our favorite parks, which is always kind of fun for us. After seven years down here, we feel like true "gurus!"The rest of the week was just filled with this and that-biking, fishing, going into town to the different bar and clubs, eating WAY too much, drinking too much, but loving every minute of it. But when we leave the "island" it will definitely be time to return to doing more of our own cooking and getting used to just "hanging out" with each other. In the meanwhile, we fully intend to enjoy every day of this last week on the Gulf.
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