Wednesday, March 8, 2006

Great week.  Weather has been beautiful.  On Monday Don and Shirley came down in their boat with Candace and Dan and met us for lunch at the Parrot Grill.  Had a nice visit.  Alan worked on the generator today.  Did 100 hour maintenance, change oil, zinc, etc.  Been talking long walks over the bridge to the beach just about daily.  Yesterday we met Rosa, the office manager at the trailer park across from the marina, and her tiny dog, Diablo.  Rosa is quite a character.  We were walking down the sidewalk when she came up behind us in her golf cart (a favorite mode of transportation down here)  and offered us a ride.   I rode up front with Diablo and Alan hopped on the seat in back. Of course, everyone we met along the way knew Rosa and stopped to talk to her!   She dropped us off at the bridge and we walked over to the beach and Rosa headed on down to the Goodwill store!

       View from the mooring field of the bridge we walk over every day                              View from the mooring field of the shrimp fleet

Friday, March 10, 2006

Walked over to the Farmers market this morning and had coffee at Wahoo Willies on the beach.  Saw a sea turtle on the way over but he appeared to be having problems.  Learned later that someone picked him up and took him over to the Coast Guard station where they could get him to the local environmentalists for help. Had Ken and Kathy from "Coco Nut" over for cocktails last night.  They're getting ready to head over to the Bahamas for  a couple of months so they've rented a car for a week to go shopping.  Today they gave us a ride to the Nissan dealership so we coulde pay for a key we had made for Fritz, one of our friends over in the Bahamas (he lost is car keys and wasn't having any luck getting a new one over there).  Also made a stop at (Wallyworld) aka Walmart, while we were out. 

Saturday, March 11, 2006

This weekend was the Fort Myers Beach Shrimp Festival (in addition to one of the big spring break weekends).  Lots of activities.  We walked over the bridge to watch the 5 K run and the parade at 10:00 am. Stopped for ice tea and some shade.  Then walked around all the craft booths and food booths.  The seafood was terrific and everyone was handing out samples.  We bought a beautiful basket that's carved out of cypress. 

Watching the Annual Shrimp Festival Parade on Fort Myers Beach

After checking out the craft booths we  took a long walk on the beach to watch all the silliness going on - boats up on the beach, kids partying total craziness, etc.  The first scene we came across was a Formula 31 foot (expensive boat) on the beach with Sea Tow trying to get them off.  This boat wasn't kids - they were our age!  Why in the world were they anchored on this beach - go figure!

What Were They Thinking?!

Further down, the beach was packed with boats.  Guys brought boats in to the beach, anchored them, and sent one of their buddies ashore to the beach to invite girls out to the boat.  If the girls didn't want to get wet the guys would carry them on their shoulders out to the boats!  One boat had a waterslide on it and the guys were offering the girls beers if they'd go down the waterslide - it was insane!    Some of the boats had 20-30 kids on them at a time.  Local law enforcement guys were working overtime!.  I don't know how someone didn't get hurt. 

                          Spring Break on Fort Myers Beach                                                         The Lani Kai on Fort Myers Beach

On the way back to the Shrimp Festival booths we stopped for a soda and some shade - had to get out of the sun every so often.  Very warm day.  Bought jumbo fried shrimp on skewers for lunch.  Took another walk on the beach and then back to the food booths.  Alan had strawberry shortcake (warm biscuit, ice cream, strawberries and whipped cream - the best ever according to his report).   I had ice cream with strawberries - pretty good too.  Then we did the long walk back over the bridge to the marina.  Got  to the boat around 4:00 pm and had ice tea.

The evening news had a good clip on about college kids making a difference during spring break.  These kids were in New Orleans helping rebuild and having a great time.  It was such a sharp contrast to what we witnessed this afternoon.  Think what could be accomplished if all that energy could be channeled into something constructive. 

Sunday, March 12, 2006

Alan has been working on the generator all morning.  It was overheating.  Had to replace the impeller and he's been adjusting the belt.  Think he's got it fixed but we need to order some replacement parts.