See ya later Alligator...

It's our wedding anniversary this weekend, so as we had some leave booked we decided to hop on a plane somewhere warm and sunny. We booked to go to Naples in Florida earlier in the week and Thursday morning saw us getting on a plane at Reagan National airport bound for Ft Myers. It was an easy 2 hour flight and then an easy 45 minute drive down to Naples. I had forgotten how much I like Florida!! Sunshine and palm trees always makes me happy!

Naples is gorgeous! Very upscale! We were staying on 5th Avenue at Bayside and had a room overlooking the marina. We did a quick change and walked down 5th Avenue stopping off for a coffee and sandwich (got to have Starbucks!) and later on a beer in the Irish bar where we sat on the patio and did some people watching. 5th Avenue is full of little boutiques and restaurants and there were quite a few Ferrari's and Lamborghini's cruising up and down.

Before we wandered back down for dinner we stopped off at the terrace bar overlooking the marina. I was sitting there sipping my wine when I spotted Flipper in the marina. There was a dolphin swimming about beside the boats, which we took pleasure in watching for about 15 minutes before it disappeared off elsewhere.

We had dinner in a super restaurant called Bistro @ 821. We kicked off with a killer G&T - there was not a lot of T in the G that's for sure! The food was really good, but the portions were huge which was a little off-putting. My pasta dish would have fed 3 people, and it seems such a waste to me. Of course Americans would box it to go and have it later. This really is something of a cultural divide!! Ask most Europeans if they want a to-go box and they will go "Eeeeeeuuuugghhhh". The thought of eating last nights dinner for lunch is not appealing! And there is the food safety issue (my mum is rolling her eyes here - I just know it!). One waitress we spoke to said she keeps and eats her to-go boxes for several days. Think of the bacteria...having had bad food poisoning a few years ago, its not a risk I'm ever going to take!!

Actually, there was a certain someone who looked like they wanted to share my dinner. I kept seeing a shadow out of the corner of my eye, and down in the shrubbery was a little mouse who kept popping out have a look. I immediately moved my handbag onto the seat and my feet off the floor. If little mousie had run across my feet you would have heard my screams all the way back in the UK!

The Bayside complex and marina

On the terrace bar at the hotel

The shirt...

At dinner on 5th Avenue

We headed down to the pool to catch some rays first thing in the morning. We were having a lovely time reading, snoozing and luxuriating in the sunshine. Then both of our Blackberries burst into life. There was a problem with the IT system in work and they needed a Brit to reset something in the server room. Good news was Paul B was there and available to do it. Bad news was he needed the code for the safe (which I set 10 months ago). I had to search deep into the recesses of my brain to remember what it was!!

We went off exploring in the afternoon. We took a run down to Marco Island just south of Naples. It is another exclusive and expensive place! We passed street after street of huge houses which all have their own boat mooring on the network of canals leading out to the Gulf of Mexico. The beach was lovely - totally deserted and pure white sand. It would have been perfect if not for the high-rise apartments building built right beside the beach. WHY?????!!!!! We stood on the shore and watched the fish leaping high out of the water. It was very peaceful.

We also did an air boat tour in the Everglades. It was $20 more to have a small boat to ourselves so we decided that it was worth the extra. Carl was our captain and he gave us a choice...slow and dull or fast and fun. Of course, we opted for slow and dull....KIDDING! We went for fast and fun and it was certainly that!!! I should explain that Carl was a mountain man from the depths of deepest, darkest West Virginia and I suspect that he learned to drive evading the sheriff on the Moonshine run!!! He likened driving the air boat to driving a pickup on sheet ice. Wowee - it was a fun ride!! Skimming over the water at about 30-40mph, doing handbrake turns...what a rush! It was educational too. He knew a lot about the wildlife - the plants, the birds (we saw Egret and a Great Blue Heron) and of course, the alligators! His first job at the centre was wrestling the alligators (a popular Florida tourist attraction), and he was showing us the scars on his hands and arms from the times when one would get the better of him. He was great at spotting them in the water and we got pretty up close and personal with a few! We came across one at the edge of the mangroves and it moved off a few feet as we drew up so, to get it to say hello he was throwing bits of stick onto its snout. It completely ignored this - which I'm kind of glad about!! These beasties can apply a huge pressure (3000 psi) with their jaws and even though we were with the gator wrestler I wouldn't have liked to find out just how painful that was. If gators find Scottish ladies as tasty as the mossies do then I was in trouble!

We stopped in to see Naples pier on the way back. This was nothing like Blackpool I can tell you!! Its used mainly as a fishing pier, and as a spot to watch the sunset. Its set on white sand beaches as far as the eye can see. I had a totally senior moment when we were parking the car! Stephen asked if I had any quarters for the parking meter and I said "No, but I loaded up the compartment with about $10's worth the other day - there are loads in there"....he looked at me as if I was dumb (which I was!) and pointed out that I had loaded up OUR car with change and not the rental car. D'oh! My grey must be showing again!!

Naples beach looking north

The famous Naples fishing pier

Naples beach looking south

The deserted white sand beach at Marco Island.
A prime example of how a high rise can spoil a view!

In an air boat made for two

This is the gator Carl was throwing bits of stick at!

In the driving seat beside Captain Carl

A gator

Saturday was definitely hotter that Friday had been. We lasted a few hours by the pool, but I had to wave the white flag of surrender when I turned into a hot, sweaty thing. It was time for a shower and some lunch! For the first time on the trip we wanted an inside table so we could luxuriate in the air conditioning...and we certainly appreciated it!! Afterwards we drove along to 3rd Street and had a quick wander round. It was very pretty, but "quick" was the key word. It was so hot we had to seek shade! Ahoy Starbucks! Iced green tea certainly hit the spot. I could probably have drunk about 5 gallons of it though!!

3rd Street S

5th Avenue, Naples.

Naples in the evening

As it was our wedding anniversary on the Sunday when we were travelling home, so we decided to celebrate a day early. We went on a sunset tour round Naples Bay and out into the Gulf of Mexico. I mentioned that Naples was pretty upmarket? Well it seems that being a millionaire doesn't cut it these days. The Billionaires have squeezed out the millionaires! The houses (occupied only part of the year) were pretty spectacular! There were one or two of the original houses - large but nothing too spectacular compared to the hotel sized properties that were built more recently. I wonder if they suffer from house envy? One sight that we didn't really need to see was the 50-something bloke wearing nothing but a cowboy hat and a thong swimsuit riding past on his speedboat waving at us!!

The cheaper end of the luxury houses!

A fairly modest little pad. The cost of these houses ran to around $20M!

A compact and bijou holiday home

A two boat family!!

On the sunset boat tour of Naples - looking a little windswept!

Our anniversary dinner (a day early, but we were travelling on the day itself - not so romantic!)

We were up at 5am this morning as our flight was at 7:45 and the airport was 45 mins drive away. I'm getting better at getting up in the middle of the night! I had to give directions as it was taking too long to programme the satnav. It was a simple route so I wasn't worried...but did have to shout at Stephen when he saw a sign for an airport and began to move over to take the exit....I had to point out that we had driven for 30 minutes down the interstate to get to Naples on Thursday, that we had only driven for 15 mins and that was the sign for the local airport! I guess he doesn't do early mornings too well!! The other minor panic was getting gas for the hire car. We were supposed to fill it before returning but we tried 3 gas stations and couldn't find one that was open!! Arrggghhh!