Venice

Venice

 

Left Shady Acres and headed to Venice, FL to visit our friends Mike and Sue who were getting ready to leave to up north. When we pulled in, we saw this really cute little RV that had been there the year before.  I made a comment on Facebook about the size as the site we were in down south had the site beside us that was pretty tight and I thought this would have been the perfect size, take a look.

 

 

We had dinner with Mike and Sue and a few other people then went to Nokomis Beach for the Drum Circle again.  It was an overcast day so sunset was not as spectacular as other times, but was a nice evening and Shaman Mic was there, had not been last time.  He is a fixture at this drum circle to set up the circle and give out good vibes – interesting note on him on Google.

 

 

Shaman Mic

Drummers

Crown (not very clear sorry)

 

Our RV site is right beside the Venice Rookery so we finally went over there this year.  They have an island that the birds are nesting in that is protected and they come back every year.  They had anhingas, egrets and great blue herons.  There are also a couple of alligators in the pond around them so I guess the birds learn how to fly really quickly so they don’t become lunch!!

 

 

Baby anhinga

Great blue heron

Nesting

Island of various nesting birds

Heron in the open

Alli

 

 

Final month in Florida Shady Acres

Tour of Naples

 

Went for a boat tour out of Naples, thought it was going to be a dolphin cruise but arrived and were told it was a site seeing tour.  The day was beautiful, the price and company was good so we did a tour on the inside area of Naples bay and got a chance to look at some amazing homes.  Our guide was telling us that the majority of these are only used occasionally as these people all had several different homes.  One side of the cut had the multimillion dollar homes as they could get to the beach easily, the other side had to drive a long way around and were only worth around half a million – as they say location, location, location!!!

 

A few shots of gorgeous homes and a boat or two…

 

 

 

 

Easter Sunday

 

Had a different Easter than usual this year.  We went out to Matlache on Pine Island and found that nothing was open; we figured the small touristy shops would be open.  We were going to do that and then go to a bar on the island.

 

Last year we went with other friends to Burt’s bar and this year, we ended up at the Ragged Ass Saloon further up the Island.  Quite a few bikers hanging out but others as well – several of the people from the park with bikes would head out here for a get together, music later in the day.

 

Ken & Sandra

Jon & Eileen

 

We had lunch and a pint or two (& wine) then headed back to downtown Fort Myers. 


They have been working on rejuvenating the area for a while and it was completed in December 2013.  It was very quiet down there as well.  Good part about that is no problem finding parking for large truck which is what we all travel in.

 

Headed home and had quite dinner at our house with Jon & Eileen.

 

This is end of March and just about everyone has left the park or is leaving.  We are staying a couple of extra days so don't get in the mad rush on the highway or out of the park.  As we are only going to Venice, a couple of hours up the road, it is no big rush for us.

 

So have been saying goodbye to friends down here until next time.

 

 

 

Winter down south continued

People often wonder what we do while we are here. There are many organized activities if you choose to participate, but sometimes things just seem like a good idea at the time.

The day before the Super bowl, several people were hanging around talking (and having toddy or two) and started a bear can regatta on our lake – the boats were built with beer cans and duct tape and set free.  Unfortunately when the wind caught the sails, they were promptly swept away.  This resulted in people from both side of our “lake” having to send them back to the starting point, to Captain Johnny.

We had several people watching as well as a few of the lake citizens.

 

 

Captains

A helping hand

Neck to neck

Intereference by in water citizen

The winner ??????

 

While this was going on, some people had been playing washers and a tournament was organized for the next day, so we had a pre Super bowl tournament and pot luck dinner, basically very impromptu by people on our street.

They started

Spectators relaxing

Ken & Eileen ready to start

Ken  shooting

The winners

Not winners

 

 

 Discussion was also on about possibly having a Mardi Gras parade the next week and it became so, along with music and drinks by the pool, put on by the park.  Amazing what people can do!!!!

One of the things we had always wanted to do was an airboat ride in the everglades so we went along with friends of ours, Jon and Eileen, for the day to Everglades City.  If was really interesting and quite a bit of fun.  It started out rather slowly so I was unsure what was happening, but once they passed through the slow zone (manatee area), our driver just let it all our and we were speeding through the mangroves and in and out of the maze of trees. 

Airboat

On the move

Hitchhiker



Between the mangroves

Mangroves

 

 

 We did not see alligators in this area, as they were further inland but we saw a colony of raccoons in a bush. 

I counted over a dozen of them as they came right out to boat when the driver slowed down.  They were very cute and quite a bit smaller than ours back home when fully grown. 

 

Look closely and count

This one is just hanging around

Another bunch

 

 

This particular company could take you through where the grasses were as well, which is what I thought the Everglades ride would be through, but this is now a protected area and very few can go into in now.

 

Through the grasses



From there we headed south and stopped for lunch and then to Great Cypress Park to see the alligators, the welcome center has a boardwalk that you can stroll along and see different birds and quite a few alligators nesting. The anhinga is a swamp bird common to Florida and we saw a nest of them when we were visiting friends up in Venice - they are huge birds.

 

 

 

 

Standing on the boardwalk, you can see dozens of alligators lying around, some moving, some just relaxing in the sun.  They move around in the area when they need food or something changes in their habitat.

 

Just lying around

Note the fish feeding off 'gators back - they don't go near his mouth though!

Fish jumping - these guys will jump right out of the water and on land and back - from the catfish family

Thinking about dinner

Really thinking

Great, there's dinner..

 

 

This is a very large area and a National Park that would take you most of the day to go through and on back roads.  This could be a trip for another day.