Saturday,
February 3, 2024/Sunday, February 4, 2024
Hilton Garden Inn
12600 University Drive
Fort Myers, FL
Rain,
then Sun, 73F
Fort
Lauderdale/Port Everglades on Saturday: Fastest time ever getting off the ship!
Luggage in hand, no passport needed (just facial recognition now), by 6:50 a.m.,
leaving Park ‘N’ Go (it was a sunny 58F) in our white GMC Sierra truck at 7:27 a.m.,
and on the road to Fort Myers! By the way,
I asked the attendant at Park N Go how many cars were in their parking lot—about
2000!!
The
highway to Fort Myers is called Alligator Alley—the original highway connecting
Fort Lauderdale area to the Fort Myers area was built in 1928 as a two lane
road. In 1968 the four lane toll highway was completed.
In
past years I have seen between 20 and 30 alligators of all sizes sunning
themselves along the waterway that the highway follows. On Saturday, I only saw
one big alligator, perhaps two others in the water. It is fun to look for the alligators in the
100 mile stretch that follows the highway. There are so many waterbirds to see too—some I
saw were the White Ibis, many seagulls, Black Vultures (sunning themselves
because there was no wind to soar on TK said), Great Egret, Great Blue Heron,
many Frigatebirds, and Wood Stork. This area is a wonderful
habitat for the birds and alligators.
Our
first mission was visit the Fleamasters Fleamarket in Fort Myers-- 4135 Dr Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard to be precise!
I’ve written about this market many times over the years, 400,000 square
feet of shopping (900 shops) with “everything from fresh produce to hundreds of
bargain-packed booths that specialize in unique items - an eclectic mix of new
and old - arts and crafts, antiques and collectibles. Kitchen products,
clothing and shoes, luggage, jewelry and watches, 20 snack bars serving yummy
treats.” https://www.fleamastersfleamarket.com/
So what on earth are we looking for? Fresh made apple fritters, licorice
(https://licoriceguy.com/), brand name
shoes, Kettle Korn, used books 6/$5, and I do like looking at the colorful
Florida clothes. We don’t really buy much (books, licorice, apple fritterss, arepas, Kettle Korn) we sure do like looking.
After several hours we headed to another favorite, Miromar Outlet Mall—more shoes, a deal at Travelpro because everyone knows we need more luggage, and that is about it.
Soon enough we were ready to meet friends from Erie, Mike (TK’s
neighborhood friend for life) and his wonderful wife Maria at a new restaurant,
British Open Pub in Bonita Springs. The décor
is obviously like a British pub and the food was phenomenal—another highly recommended
spot! I ordered fish and chips and TK had
chicken and mushroom pie. (https://www.bonitabritishopen.com/index.html
) After dinner we went to their condo
for Greek dessert that Maria had bought at her church’s bake sale that morning—think
delicious baklava.
Today we were ready for TK’s favorite Bass Pro (their shirts are very nice), and then to another mall, Coconut Point Mall in Estero, Florida. I do wonder what our readers might think about all the alleged shopping we do. I can say it is a really great way to get steps on my Fitbit and TK’s Samsung watch. Today’s total was about 10,000 each, yesterday was over 11,000.
Today’s ultimate highlight was meeting the Koenig family for dinner at
Miller’s Ale House near our hotel, including sister-in-law Carol, nephew Thomas,
and nieces in law Carmel and Brenda. We
hadn’t seen them since before 2019, and the passing of TK’s brother and two
nephews. They all live in the area, and it was really really good to see them
and catch up. They were really happy to
see us too.
We are headed home tomorrow morning, hope to be back by Wednesday, February 7. It will
be really good to see our Erie/Jamestown families.
Thank you for coming along with us!
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