Happy St. Patrick's Day!

It was much cooler this morning with a temperature of 60F (16C) and a wind rather than a breeze but still bright and sunny with not a cloud in the sky. I got the laundry done this morning. It was a busy morning in the laundry room. I was lucky I got there early!

This afternoon we dumped the tanks and then got ready to go for St. Patrick’s Day dinner at Betty & Garth’s Country Club at their condo complex. We had drinks at their condo first and dinner was at 6:00 p.m. It was a buffet and was very well-attended. They had live music and dancing. We sat at a table with a couple from Chicago that were very nice, interesting people. This is their sixth year staying at Kelly Greens. They had just arrived at the beginning of March. We had walked from the condo to the club when the sun was still shining but our return walk to the condo was quite a bit cooler especially since I was only wearing a light jacket and had sandals on! It’s supposed to warm up a bit by Monday.

The photo is of the four of us after dinner. Note all the green. Gordon doesn’t really own a green shirt, maybe we’ll have to buy him one!

Flea Market Shopping

Today Gordon dropped me off at Walmart and Betty picked me up there and we headed off to Fleamasters a giant fleamarket here in Fort Myers. There are two buildings and we only managed to get through one of them so guess where we'll be going next Friday? The fleamarket is Friday, Saturday and Sunday but Friday seems like the best day to go.

I managed to pick up a few items that I needed like a new pair of shorts. I also got Gordon a baseball cap with an alligator on it that also says Florida for $5.00. Two years ago I bought my Florida baseball cap at a Beall's Outlet store for $5.00 and he's always wanted a $5.00 Florida hat so now he has one (actually mine was $4.99).

We arrived there just before 11:00 a.m. and Betty dropped me off at the RV Park around 3:30 p.m. so we had a full day. My back can attest to it!

Just after I arrived home we had a bit of a thunderstorm and some rain so the temperature has gone down quite a bit. It's supposed to be quite a bit cooler (mid 70's F) here for the next few days. I'm glad too. I don't like it to be too hot although there have only been a couple of days that really bothered me. Usually the breeze makes up for the high temperature.

My blogging friend, Susan is in Desert Hot Springs and their temps have been in the 90's this week so I guess we're lucky.

The photo is one I took of Betty at the fleamarket.

Strawberry Social

Here are the strawberries

This is our table - you can barely see Gordon (only the back of his shirt) nearly at the end

This turtle is in the yard near the shuffleboard courts and is made of painted rocks

Although the temperature wasn’t as high today it seemed warmer due to the humidity. I felt tired today and I think it was from the humidity.

At lunch time today the campground hosted a strawberry social, free to people in the park so we went up to partake. Gordon was able to get just strawberries and cool whip while I also got the cake. It was very good!

This afternoon Gordon wanted to go and check out the possibility of getting into Lakes Park before it opens at 8:00 a.m. in case he wants to go for sunrise so dropped me off at Walmart to do grocery shopping.

Not much else to report today!

We Visit Sanibel & Captiva Islands

This morning we were at Betty & Garth's for 10:30 a.m. and Garth drove us to the Sanibel and Captiva Islands. We drove to the far end of Captiva but there's really too much traffic and it's so built up you can't see much. It's also difficult to find a place to park. We stopped at one place and walked to the marina and the beach but didn't stay long as we were parked in a restaurant parking lot and shouldn't have been there.

We stopped at Doc Ford's Sanibel Rum Bar & Grille for lunch. It is owned by Randy Wayne White who is a local author.

After lunch we went to the Ding Darling Wildlife Preserve and spent a couple of hours there mostly driving the road through the preserve but also stopping to see birds. I saw my first night heron up close as you can see above.

On our way back to Fort Myers we stopped at a hotel where Betty and Garth stayed fifteen years ago and I took their photo on the bridge that goes from the hotel to the beach.

We didn't get home till around 6:00 p.m. so it was a long day!

More Sightseeing in Our Area

Gordon went out for sunrise photos again. He hadn’t been feeling well since we arrived here so today was the first day that he went out early. I did my usual walk. When Gordon got back he said he had almost stopped next door in the little mall for breakfast so we walked over there and had breakfast at Talk of the Town.

When we got back I sat outside and read for a while and also did a computer backup and deleted my 2004 and 2005 photos from my computer as my hard drive was bordering on full.

We had to go and get fuel so we did some driving around the area and ended up at a park called Lakes Park that is very close to us. I got some good photos of birds and wildlife which you will see below. None of these photos have been cropped so that’s how close I got to them with my little camera. This park is a beautiful park for walking and is quite scenic as well with little islands in the water. We have to go back there and do the complete walk around the lakes but we didn’t have time today. It costs $1.00/hr to park and we had only paid for one hour.

Tri-Colored Heron

A little alligator

An Anhinga sitting right below me on the bridge drying his wings

Another Tri-Colored Heron

A Little Blue Heron

Some pretty palms along the road

After we left the park we drove to a little fruit and vegetable market out near where Betty and Garth are so I could get some oranges. The ones in the grocery store didn’t look nice. These looked nice but I’ve had better. I have a nice big bag of them now. I also got a really good looking tomato.

Tonight will be our usual night of TV.

Visitors

Betty and Garth at our RV

Dinner at our place

It stays dark later in the morning now with daylight saving time so I didn't get up till nearly 8:00 a.m. I needed a few things at the grocery store as Betty and Garth were coming for dinner and I decided to change the menu last night. There is a Publix just across the canal from the RV Park so I walked over and picked up what I needed. It's a nice little mall with a health food store (I'll have to check to see if they have any gluten free stuff) and a restaurant that serves breakfast all day. There's a Mexican restaurant, dry cleaner, hair dresser and a bunch of other shops.

This morning and early afternoon we spent preparing for our dinner company and sitting outside reading. Betty & Garth were to arrive around 3:00 p.m. so I biked up to the office and they were just pulling in as I got there so they followed me back to the RV. We spent a nice afternoon chatting and we had dinner outside at our picnic table as there’s not a lot of room for four at our dining room table. We walked around the park and a tri colored heron was nice enough to show up at the canal while we were there.

Arrangements were made for us to see them on Wednesday and Betty and I are going to the flea market (Fleamasters) on Friday.

YEAH!Daylight Savings Time is Here!

There is a side street beside the park that has a furniture store on it and then goes into a 55+ housing park. There’s also a road which runs parallel with Hwy 41 and goes by an elementary school, Arby’s and Dunkin’ Donuts so that’s where I walked this morning just for a change.

Another 86F (30C) high today with a nice breeze. I met Betty at Walmart this afternoon and we went shopping. Unfortunately neither of us found anything we couldn’t live without. I picked up some more groceries when I picked up the truck at Walmart and headed home.

Since it was late when I got home and I hadn’t left anything out nor purchased anything for dinner (I’m trying to clean out the freezer so I can defrost it), we went to Taco Bell for dinner and then drove around downtown Fort Myers. It’s not very impressive but looks like they are trying to rejuvenate it.

Today’s photo is of a very large banyan tree that is in downtown Fort Myers.