Naples, FL and The Everglades: Mar 8 – Apr 1, 2018

Naples, FL and The Everglades: Mar 8 – Apr 1, 2018

After four days in Ft. Myers we made our way to Pelican Lake Motorcoach Resort in Naples. We spent 2.5 weeks there. It is a beautiful resort in a beautiful area. We enjoyed site seeing, shopping and dining in Naples and Marco Island. We met up with friends from Mountain Falls and met new friends. We spent a bit of time simply relaxing, which is unusual for us.

Our favorite restaurant in Naples was a small place called USS Nemo (https://ussnemorestaurant.com/). I was skeptical about it, considering that it is a small restaurant in a strip mall along Tamiami Trail. It was difficult getting a reservation though, because it is so popular. You even need reservations to sit at the bar. Well, it was FABULOUS. I highly recommend it. I’m very thankful to our friends Don and Sherri for suggesting it.

During our stay in Naples a fire in the Everglades area affected us. Ash would blow into the resort and rain upon our car. A couple of days it was difficult to even go outside. Visibility was very limited and breathing was tough with the smoke ridden air.

We loved our stay at Pelican and look forward to a return visit in the future.

Our final destination for our winter trip was Outdoor Resorts of Chokoloskee, just south of Everglades City. Our friends, Van and Jane, from Mountain Falls, and whom we visited with in St. Petersburg, are owners at the resort. They are photographer hobbyists, as am I, so we were looking forward to a week of shooting in the Everglades.

We spent a couple of early mornings along the Loop Rd Big Cypress National Preserve Rd, just off of US41 looking for good photography opportunities. We were excited to spot a few Roseate Spoonbills, along with a ton of alligators.

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We passed a very strange residence, a closed down service station:

At the Everglades National Shark Valley Park we spotted many more alligators, including babies.

In the parking lot we spotted this. I told Charlie we need to step up our game and pull this set up behind the RV.

One evening we decided to capture sunset in the Big Cypress National Preserve. I was pretty nervous about walking out into the field to take the picture. I kept envisioning stumbling upon a large python. YIKES! But, all went well.

We travelled back to Marco Island a couple of times to seek out and photography the burrowing owls. I had no idea that their burrows were throughout the neighborhoods. We also spotted a busy woodpecker.

To top off our week at Chokoloskee we played in a Euchre tournament. Being from Michigan, I love Euchre. Not a lot of people know this card game, but they play it at Chokoloskee because many of the owners are originally from Michigan.

On April 1st we ended out Winter RV roadtrip and headed back to Atlanta.

Until next time…..

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