Attending a couple spring training games wasn’t the only thing on our my agenda…I wanted beach time!
Our second full day in Florida, we drove down to Marco Island and headed to the beach in front of the Marriott Crystal Shores hotel. The beach is technically public, so we accessed it through their pool area after parking about a block down the road. We spent the next four hours there soaking up the sun, having a cocktail and looking for seashells.
We headed back to the condo and relaxed by the pool for a bit before we needed to get ready for dinner. We drove down to 5th street in Naples and had dinner at HobNob. (My salmon was good, but not the best I’ve ever had.) I love how cute that strip is with restaurants and shops lining both sides of the street. Most of them are more expensive, but then there are places like Adelheidi’s, where the boys stopped for gelato after dinner.
On our last day in Florida, we woke to a very gray and gloomy sky which bummed us out because we were wanting to hit up the pool. However, Florida’s weather is about as unpredictable as the Midwest’s so by late morning the sun was coming out. We headed to Coconut Jack’s Waterfront Grille to have lunch with Tim’s aunt and uncle who were also down there. It’s a tiki-themed restaurant right on the water surrounded by mangroves, which is great because you don’t see any of the developments around the restaurant when sitting on their back patio. Of course, we had to get cocktails with umbrellas. Because that’s what you do when you’re on vacation. Oh, and I was super excited to see that they had a giant chair at the restaurant! I have a love for giant chairs.
After lunch we made one last stop at a nearby beach for about an hour before needing to head back to get ready to fly out. Once we got back to the condo, we learned our flight had been delayed two hours, which stinks because we could have stayed at the beach longer. But we still had to say goodbye to Tim’s brother’s beagle puppy and head to the airport.
Since our flight was delayed, that meant having to fly through a storm moving through the St. Louis area. The last 30 minutes of the flight was the scariest, roughest turbulence I have ever experienced. I seriously thought the plane was going to fall out of the sky at one point. We were getting tossed around in our seats. It didn’t help that Tim and I got stuck sitting in the last row. The further back you sit on a plane, the more you feel turbulence, which is why I prefer to sit as close to the front as possible. Normally I’m the calm one when we fly, but not that time. To say I was happy when we landed is an understatement. So now that our spring vacation is over, I’m counting down the days until we’re in Mexico…71 days!
—m.