Fort Myers, FL. Oct 30th - Nov 3rd

Let's start by saying it's nice to be in Florida. No, this is not where the political commentary starts. This is definitely not a political blog. The weather has been fantastic and it looks like it's gonna stay that way for awhile. And people in Florida actually drive the speed limit. In SoCal, New York, Boston, and a few other places, you'd get rear-ended if you drove any thing less than 10 mph OVER the speed limit. It just feels like a slower pace here. I just started laughing as I'm writing this because I feel like I should be in the commercial: "We can't help you from becoming your parents". 🤣 Whatever. It's really fun to be retired.

One more thing before we talk about Fort Myers, FL. I posted about our last stay (Cedar Key) the night before we left. After I posted, the rain came and it poured. The wind came with it and it howled (25+ mph) for much of the night. I had no interest in driving in that weather so we decided to re-assess our plans in the morning. Figured that we'd just sit tight until the weather past. Well...we woke up to complete calm and I watched this beautiful sunrise before we headed out.

No issues with weather and an easy drive to Fort Myers, FL.

San Carlos RV Resort was definitely the right choice in Fort Myers. VERY clean and well maintained resort right on the gulf waters. It's actually a marina as well. Paved sites with full hook ups. Pool is heated to 86 degrees and hot tub is 99 degrees. Works for me! 5 minute bike ride to the beach and plenty of places to eat or enjoy cocktails at sunset. The only thing they didn't have was picnic tables at each site. Well, I found out why. They have 145 RV sites and all sites had picnic tables before Hurricane Ian hit a few years ago. 144 of the tables got washed away in the hurricane. Their main building (office, laundry, etc) was under more than 10 feet of water! All electrical in the entire resort was destroyed. They've done an amazing job of rebuilding the resort.

Fort Myers is a cool town with a lot of beach. The beach area is a mix of older beachy spots and new hotels. Several restaurants with cool names like Nervous Nellies and Wahoo Willies. Most places have live music throughout the day.

We did a day trip with the girls to Sanibel Island and Captiva Island. Both have beautiful beaches and a Florida coastal vibe. Sanibel is a little spread out with lots of bike trails. We did a nature walk and took the girls to Bowman Beach. Check out the video of the racoon in the "Pictures" section. Stella wanted to have a go with it but that would not have ended well for Stella. Captiva is more upscale with some HUGE beachfront homes. We enjoyed lunch there at Key Lime Pie Cafe and then strolled through town. The Bubble Room Restaurant is insane and decked out for Christmas. You gotta see it if you ever visit Captiva Island but until then you can check out my pictures.

We BBQ'd a few nights and had delicious dinners while we watched the days turn to night. The night skies were star filled, which I enjoyed before going to bed after some late night World Series games.

We celebrated Rita's 15th birthday on November 1st so her and Stella got pup cups, which are nothing more than whip cream in a bowl but they love 'em. Happy birthday Rita!! Man, I love that girl!!

Speaking of birthdays, Melissa's birthday was November 2nd so I made her breakfast and she went to a spa for the day while I found a local gym. Then dinner and drinks at Parrot Key Restaurant. Happy birthday Melissa!! Man, I love that girl!!

However, Melissa doesn't believe in celebrating birthDAYS. For her, it's more like birthMONTHS so we're gonna trade-in the laid back beach vibe for the next three nights and celebrate in Miami Beach. A totally different vibe! We dropped the girls at a Rover location, parked Betty, and checked into the Surfcomber Hotel. We've got dinner reservations a couple of nights. We'll do pool time and whatever else we find that seems fun.

Living life and loving life!