skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Florida: Naples and Farewell
Wednesday, May 23--Our last day in Ft. Myers dawned clear as all the others; no sign yet of the rainy season although everyone is eager for rain (but not looking forward to humidity.) Matt had to work but Doug went with us and we drove our rental Mazda 5 ( a mini-mini van) to Naples, about 30 miles south of Ft. Myers. We went to the Old Town shopping district, which is quaint and..um..upscale. And beautiful.
Almost everywhere we went, from Sanibel to downtown Ft. Myers to Naples, we saw these brilliant coral flowered trees. The leaves look like a mimosa, but they are hugely tall and the flowers are very different from the pale pink puffs we know as mimosas in our part of the country. I finally got close enough to one to take a picture as we walked some three blocks from the shops to the beach.
The beach is sugar fine sand and dazzling white; the photos I took were so overexposed they really won't show up here. But on the beach we finally got a good look at a plant that is protected: sea oats. Here they are pluming against a backdrop of the ubiquitous sea grape that grows everywhere. It is against the law to pick sea oats and some plots of it were cordoned off on the beach, to encourage it to grow.
Brown pelicans are far from endangered but their antics amused us as we walked out on the historic Naples city pier. In this group, one was apparently sleeping; two were digesting and one was thinking about taking a short flight and then a dive for a fishy lunch. The water was filled with swarms (I know, fish are in schools but these were really thick and roiling) of small fingerling fish of some kind. It was almost blinding to look down at them.
Watching the pelicans dine made us hungry so we ended our tour of Naples by having lunch at a charming outdoor cafe. The view was reminiscent of some parts of the old French Quarter or Garden District restaurants in pre-Katrina New Orleans. Or Italy, maybe, but we haven't been there yet to make a comparison. Later that afternoon we returned to the condo, bid Sam, Matt and Doug farewell and drove to the airport which was covered by a thick pall of smoke from a big brush fire. Our flight to St. Louis arrived a little early and we were snugly home by 10 p.m. CDT. We are already looking forward to our next trip; there are more nature preserves and historic sights to see. Now we are catching up on laundry, bills, errands and local meetings so we can go to Kansas for the Linville Sibling reunion in another week!
Wednesday, May 23--Our last day in Ft. Myers dawned clear as all the others; no sign yet of the rainy season although everyone is eager for rain (but not looking forward to humidity.) Matt had to work but Doug went with us and we drove our rental Mazda 5 ( a mini-mini van) to Naples, about 30 miles south of Ft. Myers. We went to the Old Town shopping district, which is quaint and..um..upscale. And beautiful.
Almost everywhere we went, from Sanibel to downtown Ft. Myers to Naples, we saw these brilliant coral flowered trees. The leaves look like a mimosa, but they are hugely tall and the flowers are very different from the pale pink puffs we know as mimosas in our part of the country. I finally got close enough to one to take a picture as we walked some three blocks from the shops to the beach.
The beach is sugar fine sand and dazzling white; the photos I took were so overexposed they really won't show up here. But on the beach we finally got a good look at a plant that is protected: sea oats. Here they are pluming against a backdrop of the ubiquitous sea grape that grows everywhere. It is against the law to pick sea oats and some plots of it were cordoned off on the beach, to encourage it to grow.
Brown pelicans are far from endangered but their antics amused us as we walked out on the historic Naples city pier. In this group, one was apparently sleeping; two were digesting and one was thinking about taking a short flight and then a dive for a fishy lunch. The water was filled with swarms (I know, fish are in schools but these were really thick and roiling) of small fingerling fish of some kind. It was almost blinding to look down at them.
Watching the pelicans dine made us hungry so we ended our tour of Naples by having lunch at a charming outdoor cafe. The view was reminiscent of some parts of the old French Quarter or Garden District restaurants in pre-Katrina New Orleans. Or Italy, maybe, but we haven't been there yet to make a comparison. Later that afternoon we returned to the condo, bid Sam, Matt and Doug farewell and drove to the airport which was covered by a thick pall of smoke from a big brush fire. Our flight to St. Louis arrived a little early and we were snugly home by 10 p.m. CDT. We are already looking forward to our next trip; there are more nature preserves and historic sights to see. Now we are catching up on laundry, bills, errands and local meetings so we can go to Kansas for the Linville Sibling reunion in another week!
No comments:
Post a Comment