Friends, etc.

Location: Fort Myers Beach, Florida

Position: 26 27.275 N 081 56.374 W

After our last posting about crossing the Okeechobee we received lots of emails and calls from friends who were either in Western Florida or would be there in the next couple of months. They all wanted to get together with us while we were over here. So even though the weather has been cold and windy we have been warmed by this outpouring of friendship. We managed to connect with almost all of them over the last 2 months. Some of them we hadn't seen for quite a few years.

All the visiting was interspersed with some great places. Here are the highlights:

Cayo Costa State Park, an awesome, quiet, and beautiful anchorage. A lovely beach on the Gulf of Mexico, up close and personal with several manatees, we saw our first crocodile, and spent hours here walking the trails (when it wasn't cold and windy).

Crocodile

After sitting for a long time snapping away we managed to get this great picture of a manatee

 In Don Pedro State Park we ran across an alert "watch pig" guarding the building behind it.  Yes, it really is alive...but asleep!

 In Punta Gorda, we got to visit friends we met in Honduras who are now Cruisers Living On Dirt (CLODs).  

 We dinghied around the canals, checking out all the cool Christmas lights, attended a performance of Scrooge, and visited the Octagon Wildlife Sanctuary, an awesome, kitschy, and up-close wildlife rehabilitation center for exotic animals. Lions, tigers, and bears! Oh my! 

 They even drove their powerboat down to visit us in Cayo Costa for the day and brought lunch (on a day that wasn't windy and cold)!

 We celebrated our 16^th wedding anniversary – we're still best friends, and still in love.

Banyan tree 

Friends from Virginia now living in Florida, invited us to spend Christmas with them and their family. We had a wonderful time (we were inside when it was cold and windy).

 While in Sarasota we went to the Ringling Circus and Art Museums which were both amazing. Even though the circus is closed down now there are apparently still many circus families living in the area.

 Did we mention that the weather was really cold and windy? We decided to head south rather than go any further north, where it would be even colder and windier. Now we are at Fort Myers Beach on a mooring. 

We're enjoying walks on the beach, walks in parks, lots of Happy Hours in the plethora of bars here, and a great bus system to assist us in our efforts to explore and shop. Several old cruising friends are also in the mooring field for us to hang out with and more land friends keep popping in for lunch from nearby locations. What a fun couple of months!

We are so blessed to have so many good friends. The weather has also taken a turn for the better and now, (FINALLY) it's around 80 every day, 60 at night and not so windy. Woohoo!!