Fort Myers Beach 2010 - Seventh Week

We decided to take a couple of extra days on our way back to Iowa and see the panhandle of Florida. Pictured below is the dock area of Cedar Key, a little island that sticks out into the Gulf where we stayed overnight.

My grandson, Justin, loves sharks, so we thought a picture of Grandpa with his hand in the Cedar Key school mascot would be appropriate. We ran into him during our afternoon bike ride around the island to see the sites.

On the trip we passed through a number of neat little towns. Here is a picture of the Suwannee River that the famous song was written about.

The town of Steinhatchee is a quaint town on the gulf that features a deep water marina. Kathy's sister's nickname was Sea Hag, after the witch on the Popeye cartoons. She couldn't help getting her picture taken there and had to buy a shirt as a souvenir.

Here is a picture of Steinhatchee as you come over the river. It features a deep water port so there are a lot of boats here.

Our next overnight stop was in Apalachicola, a wonderful little town with lots of quaint stores and Marinas. This picture is for our granddaughter Emily.

One of the stores featured lots of nautical items. Gary couldn't help but ask Kathy to take this one home with him, but it wouldn't fit on his bike.

We rode bikes around the city of Apalachicola and found out one of the early pioneers of the city was the inventor of artificial manufacture of ice back in the 1800's.

There were a number of beautiful homes on St. George Island, about 30 miles west of Apalachicola. The homes are quite elaborate and very expensive from the information in the brochures that Kathy picked up.

We made our last stop for two nights in Panama City Beach. Every Friday night, Panama City hosts a classic car show on the square. Here is one of Kathy's favorite cars.

We took a picture of this car because our friend Steve Klinkefus likes early 50's classic cars. This, I believe is a very rare 1950 Oldsmobile.

Panama City Beach is much larger than we imagined it to be. It is at least 10 - 15 miles long and covered with high rise hotels and condominiums. It was Easter break this weekend, so the beaches were overflowing. At the end of the new pier at mid-island is a fancy shopping mall complete with a Jimmy Buffet restaurant where we ate lunch.

The shopping area was very upscale and one could surely spend a whole day in this area.

We leave you with this parting shot of a beautiful young lady on the beach, where we spent most of our time at Panama City Beach. Tomorrow we head back to reality where we understand the temperatures are now in the 70's and all the snow is gone.

Fort Myers Beach 2010 - Sixth Week

This afternoon, we headed south on Estero Island on a bike ride. We stopped at the Red Coconut Campground to check out their beachside campsites. We would love to stay there, but the price of $100 per night for a campsite is too extravagant. As we neared the end of the Island, we walked our bikes out on the beach to the ride the last mile. In total, we rode over twenty miles and got our much needed exercise.

Thursday evening, we met with a group of boaters for a pizza party at the local pizzeria. We met a recently retired couple from Wapakoneta, Ohio (Dan and Bobbie Thompson). During our conversation, it came up that they had sold their Pearson to a fellow in Iowa. After a few questions, we discovered it was John Leindecker's latest boat "Lienheart."

For the last month and one half, we have been picking up fresh local seafood at the market across from our campground. We couldn't leave without taking advantage of the great deal on shrimp, so we and Spyksma's both picked up 5 lbs of shrimp to bring back to Des Moines.

Sunday was Palm Sunday, so we attended the services at the Fort Myers Beach Catholic Church of the Ascension. This beautiful old church stands on a large track of land in the center of the island. As usual, the church was packed on Palm Sunday.

Our last night at Fort Myers Beach, we met up with friends at the Tiki Bar at the Lighthouse Resort. Gary is pictured here with Gary, a power boater from Waverly, Iowa. Gary and Barb winter at Matanzas Marina with Keith and Betty. Gary has not shaved or had a hair cut since he left Waverly in November.

For dinner that evening, we joined Bill and Kathy for a stuffed Grouper dinner at Parrot Key Grill. We have ventured here several times in the past to enjoy the Frank Torino show. Frank was joined by the Fort Myers Beach "Female Vocalist of the Year" - Tammy (below). It turns out that she is from Davenport, Iowa.

For the past month, we have had wonderful neighbors who spend their winters here in Fort Myers Beach. Maryann and Wally Matthews are from Eaton Rapids, Michigan. Even though they were Michigan State fans who had cheered against our UNI Panthers, they treated us like long time friends. They even let us use their kayaks for one of our ventures into the Mangroves. Hopefully, we will have a chance to be their neighbors again in the future.

As we left on Tuesday, we said goodbye to our home for the last 5 weeks, Oyster Bay RV Park. Hopefully, it will not be turned into condos before the next time we visit Fort Myers Beach.

Following our departure from Fort Myers Beach, we headed to the New York Yankee Spring Training site in Tampa. Our grandson, Aaron, is a big fan of the Yankees, specifically Derek Jeter. We know he will enjoy the souvenirs we picked up for his birthday.

We had little mishap along the way. Our bike carrier worked its way loose from the back of the jeep spilling out onto the highway. Nobody was hurt, but one of the bikes is a complete loose, while one of the others needed repair.