The sunset coast...

We ventured out again this weekend for another weekend away. We went to what I'm starting to call the "Sunset Coast"! We headed due West on Saturday morning on Interstate 75. It's kinda funny because we were on I-75 North...(go figure).

From Fort Lauderdale straight West is Naples, Florida (and the Sunset Coast) -- in under 2 hours we were in downtown Naples staring at the blue water of the Gulf of Mexico. We were also caught in this... The trip to Naples (from Fort Lauderdale) takes you straight across the Big Cypress Swamp and the route is also known as "Aligator Alley"...because you really see a lot of Aligators!! -- I was driving and Lisa lost count!!!

** Breaking News ** 

The space shuttle just lifted off and we could see it from our Condo!!

** Back to Blog **

The beach in Naples was awesome. We ventured out on the pier and saw several dolphins jumping, playing and enjoying the day. We ventured North from the quaint downtown and found the Ritz Carelton...A nice neighborhood!! -- then we headed South for Marcos Island and our hotel for the night. We enjoyed the pool, took a walk on the beach and made dinner reservations. We wandered out to the pool about 7:15 and saw an awesome Sunset!! Two Saturdays in a row...Dinner was just mediocre, but topped it off with ice cream cones...yummy...Mint Chocolate Chip is always my first choice.

Sunday morning was Starbucks for coffee and a newspaper which we took back to the hotel. Another walk on the beach and we packed up the room and checked out. The beach on Marcos Island was all Shells...crushed shells, with little sand. It was hard on the feet, but unique. We've found these differences in Florida...sugar sand to shell beaches all within miles of each other.

We wanted to get on the water, so we found a marina that rented boats. We chose the small deck boat versus the party barge. We passed the navigation test and were checked out on the boat. We were underway within 45 minutes, for our 4 hour rental...we suffered through the no wake zone and then were in the open water!! We made one small mistake and found us in very shallow water. We managed our way to deeper water without to much of a problem. (so much for the that prop) -- We found "party cove" but did not stop...took a few passes, ate lunch and then headed back. -- we docked without incident, checked out and returned to Starbucks for our afternoon fortification!! -- we the zipped back across the "Aligator Alley" and made it home in under two hours! (Lisa was driving ;-)  )