Fort Myers Beach

Everyday is so unique, that at the end of a week it's almost hard to recall all of the fun events that took place.  I'll try to let the pictures tell some of the story and hope that our memories stay sharp as we journey onward.

San Pedro and Cayo Costa State Park were great anchorages and beautiful pristine beaches full of shells and wildlife (weather was perfect). 

We had a great anchorage in Cape Haze and when Morgan picked out this cute little crab she named it Hazle after our anchorage spot and our friend Hayden who has a similar middle name! 

It was a hot morning and we weren't dressed appropriate...but improvised!  This use to be the style when we were young.

Cabbage Key was a fun stop by our busy anchorage in Pelican Bay.  The Cabbage Key restaurant was supposedly the place where Jimmy Buffet was inspired to write the song "Cheeseburgers in Paradise."  There were a million one dollar bills hanging around the entire place.

This was just the beginning of yet another fun pretending playing time on the bow!

My mom called me again to watch this sunset together over Fort Myers Beach. My parents are currently staying at a condo in San Carlos Park for a few weeks before they leave for a cruise on Sat.  It was fun to spend some time with them.  

Waiting patiently for a dinghy ride to shore.  Can't leave home without his Mario backpack from Aunt Shell filled with Bakugans.

My parents, Art and Yvonne, took the kiddos for a fun over nighter at their condo.  The kids loved their time with them and we met up at Cape Coral the next day for a great art festival.

This picture is a view of the Fort Myers Beach mooring balls.  If you look back almost to the island waaaaay in the back, you'll see the Negotiator!  It was a fun port and we stayed 5 nights.  

Miss Cape Coral thought the girls should be in a beauty contest.

Jaxon going to sleep in his "Blue Anchor Bed" as he often refers to it. 

A perfect morning for Jaxon consists of a cherry pop tart, roaring waters drink box and the ipod watching "How to Train Your Dragon."  If I keep this up, I won't be getting any "good mom" awards! 

At my parents condo the girls LOVED playing shuffleboard.  They played many many games over a three day period.  By our last game they drew quite a crowd and Morgan was even asked to join a few of them in an upcoming tournament. 

 After a delicious dinner at "Five Guys Burgers and Fries" we walked the Fort Myers Beach town and ended up at the park with ice cream.

 Saying goodbye to my parents.....it was a cool evening as we drove over 20 minutes to our anchorage in the harbor in the dark.  This is our life now and we love it....just like it's our car driving to our home. 

 We left early the next morning and made it down to an anchorage in Everglade City for a great evening with our friends, Pete and Anna in Blue Yonder. 

 We hopped in the dinghy's and hoped to make it to town, but after a few turns around a bend it was quite evident that the mangroves ALL look the same and the probability of losing our way increased.  We turned back and enjoyed catching up and eating dinner on the aft deck.

 This looks like a really bad picture, however, it thoroughly shows how bad the fog was on this perfect traveling morning.  The fog was so thick for so long as we left at 8:00 am.  We traveled 1/2 mile away from Blue Yonder and could not see their boat until 1:30 in the afternoon.
At one point there was a nineteen foot boat that was traveling at a very high speed across our wake so fast 100 feet behind our boat that he only stayed in our radar for a short time.  It was very scary to think that he didn't have radar and for sure didn't see us until we were very close.  Fog can be very intimidating, but we had calm seas the entire day and hot beautiful traveling conditions.

Craig and Pete had a great day chatting on the VHF.  Pete is full of really good, interesting stories and is very quick witted!  This is Craig's usual position when at the helm....majority of time in a bathing suit (so he's ready for anything...hahaha) with his feet doing the driving. 

One crab pot....

 Surrounded by thousands of crab pots!!!  It was truly a land mine to traverse through and once the current set in you had to factor in their line extensions of about 15 feet not to hit any.  They were thick the ENTIRE trip from Everglade City to Marathon.  The water depth never reached over 16 feet. 

 Still the best crab pot finder on the boat!

 A milestone event.....crossing under the "Seven Mile Bridge" not only got us to our southern most point of the trip, but we also crossed into the Atlantic Ocean for the first time. 

 Marathon Marina will be our home for the next month (located just before Key West).  We're excited to be here and look forward to settling down for awhile.

This misplaced picture is of a train bridge near Venice.  There's a man standing on the bridge that opened it for us.  Right after this passage (south of Sarasota) we came upon a friend, David Eaton, that was bringing a boat from New Smyrna Beach back to Fort Walton (where we met him).  The timing was perfect that day for us to see each other.