Wednesday, Venice Florida

March 30, Day 26 starts out with trying to find Four Mile Cove Ecological Preserve and the Veterans Memorial.

It is tucked besides the bay next to the bridge going toward Ft. Meyers. You drive through residential areas to get there. This is a minimal trail, no guides or literature. An overhead map outlines where you will walk. A little over a mile wall.

The city takes care of the area and Kiwanis have provided benches to sit on and look at the scenery. Again we walk among stands of mangrove. Looking at this picture imagine that these are actually stick people from another world, slow walking but eventually take over the earth!

Along the way are placards that talk about your viewing area, nice touch.

We did not see much wildlife one white egret

and some fiddler crabs mucking around in the mud, a couple lizards and







our friendly crab out for a walk.

Close to the highway is a reproduction of the Iwo Jima statue in DC. It is a state of being relocated and repaired. Alongside is a statue to the Gulf War participants.

A lone black anchor sits on a black granite slab with a brass plate thanking all submarine sailors. The anchor is from the Gato class sub this preceded the Balboa class that the Blackfin was, it was my first boat. These are WWII subs, slow, sneaky and shallow diving, easy targets.

We start north and stop at the Portofino Waterfront Dining at Port Charlotte. We ate there once before but opted to eat there again because there is not much around and it is time. Shirleen had a great tasting steakburger with fried onions with fries; I the Grouper Crococante (fried fish) with vegetables and fries. Off to the Venice area.

We meander through the outback avoiding highways but back roads. Always a nice slower run to look at the local environment, these are real people housing. You can see areas where there was an area where housing started but stopped to a halt, probably due to the economy. Many houses for sale in all the areas we have drove through in southern Florida.

We decided to stay in Venice. Across from Café Italia where we had a quick dinner with wine, Shirleen a bruschetta and I pomodoro pasta with fresh tomatoes topped off with a couple of so-so meatballs. jerr

Tuesday, March 29, Day 25, Sanibel Island, Captiva Island

We started our day visiting Sanibel Island, a barrier island.

We then went to the Sanibel Moorings botanical garden. This is a large motel with walkways which are between the individual units with the beach in front of it and across the street is more of their units along the dock side.

This garden is different because of it not being an area that is within a garden setting but a commercial business.

Throughout these units are well signed plants and trees.

As we were going through the dockside area we stopped in front of a tree, large in size, few leaves and looking like it was on its last leg. A lady, Bette, came to her porch and started telling us about the Shaving Brush Tree. She was a semi-tour leader for this area. The blossom within 20 minutes goes from a bud to flower. She brought out some pictures and I asked if I could take a picture of her with the tree and Shirleen. She was a delight to visit with!




Hybrid Hibiscus

 

Orchids



We then drove up the line; this is a nicely designed island. There are no semaphores, no buildings over 45 feet – for a two story with a park under area. The designed quietness is a pleasure to experience, I can see why this becomes an island retreat. Nice quiet beaches, seashell hunters abound.

We ate at Doc Ford’s Rum Bar and Grill with a couple of rum drinks, Shirleen’s Sanibel Sunset with Blackbeard spiced rum and coconut Jack rum with a splash of amaretto, fresh squeezed Florida orange juice, pineapple juice and grenadine, I Doc’s special with lime, sugar and mint – refreshing.

The spinach salad was loaded with bleu cheese, spiced pecan, granny smith apples, caramelized onions and a smoked bacon dressing and I finally had a Cuban sandwich, ham, roast pork, Swiss cheese and a pickle on a  pressed and warmed bun.

I was wearing my Banff shirt and an older couple walked over to us and asked if we lived there? I said visited, he said they were married 55 years ago and had honeymooned there, both had a smile on their face as I am sure many happy memories flooded forth.

Touring the “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge was next on the agenda. We take the tram again was the way to go for us. Andrew our tour leader, closing in on 80, and a pleasure to be with,


Andrew with hat

  was a birder himself, he was able to tell us what birds we were looking at, history of the island and its original people - the native Calusa Indians who were the first-known residents of the island. The interesting point about these Indians was that they were all over 6 foot tall with some 7 footers. Famous explorer Juan Ponce de Leon five foot four inches found these giants with their boat 4 foot wide, 30 to 40 feet long, big enough to carry these big Indians. He was also believed to have discovered Sanibel Island – which he named “Santa Isybella” after Queen Isabella -- in 1513. We went to a boardwalk where had it not rained the day before we could have seen the mangroves exude the salt from its end leaf area, some were able to find some salt left on some of the leaves.

This is what a new mangrove looks like, it looks like a nut, the root is coming out of the bottom and will detach itself from the branch and can float for a year beofre it will die if it does not to\ake root.The mangroves are cleaned by little crabs that look like spiders and the size of a quarter. Before the 2004 hurricane, the trees were crawling with these, but they have not rebounded as fast as one would expect. Again the three types of mangroves, black, red and white, the leaves produced the colors for the Indian clothing and paintings.

Again we were able to see an alligator, a couple feet off the tram. An interesting point was a group of white pelicans with black underwings which were out in the lowlands. These are supposed to migrated by this time, but were determined to be young ones liking the warm weather.

These pelicans can be sighted in Minnesota. I have spotted them high in the sky travelling in a tight formation.

We have an hour before the Seashell museum closes, off to it. This museum is really nice, not like the one postings ago. The displays are done well, here are some pictures.



Sea Shell Art

 We thought we would take in the sunset – known as the greenflash. This is where at the last minute of the sunset when it just about sinks into the gulf there is a wavelength that flashes green. The gulf having no islands in the way, allow one to see this flash, if it is not a red sunset or cloudy, like ours. Far north on Captiva Island was where we decided to try and catch it. We have time to eat at the Greenflash Restaurant. Shirleen had some nice delicate coconut shrimp, cauliflower and broccoli with a au gratin potato; I a pan seared scallop with a light lime sauce with spinach and spaetzles – a different form, looked like the were sliced thin like a coin and boiled in water then fried in butter.

Shirleen mailed the grand daughters, Danielle and Abby, in the northern most mailbox on Captiva Island.

As we could not get to the only parking lot at the tip of Captiva we went to the church by the Sea and its cemetery. Well no parking permitted, so we visited the old cemetery,

this one goes back to the turn of the century to recent burials. Marked with seashells even on some of the old graves indicates visitors make an effort to remember.

Got to our room at 8:30pm, pooped out so I waited to write-up the days activities. A great day!! jerr

Monday, March 28, Day 24, Bonita Springs Ft. Meyers Beach

On the elevator ride down to the car was a man wearing a baseball cap with WWII, Korean and Vietnam embroider on it. I said all three? He said he was in 41 years and was in all of them. I shook his hand and thanked him for that. He smiled and said thanks.

We decided to go for a walk at, Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary,

maintained by the Audubon society. It is 17 miles to the east of Bonita Springs and Naples out in a sparsely populated area. We took it a couple years ago a 2.25 mile boardwalk through it. There are many areas where you can sit and look at the scenery.

There are many signs along the way explaining what one can see. The boardwalk meanders along with having two paths in case the wood storks are nesting you bypass some areas. They were not there this year, this happens every once and a while. There was a marker standing in the mud of the forest floor, the bottom marking was 16.5 feet above sea level. A couple steps down the line there was water, so I would guess it’s around 16 feet. This is winter down here and the waters are not evident like during the summer. We saw many small birds, herons, egrets,

ibis - center of this picture, hawks, heard a barred owl,



Shirleen's Alligator shot



saw an alligator, and spider’s with their webs.

The fern thickets I saw reminded me of mushroom hunting with Grandpa Izzy and Grandma Jeanette in the bottoms of Cobb’s creek. We found a mother load of mushrooms in and amongst the ferns.

There were a couple places where the boardwalk was modified for the vegetation.



Egret hunting



After 3 hours it is time to leave the quietness of the sanctuary and back to the other forms of life, getting gas for the old buggy.





 

We drove along the Little Hickory Island and Ft. Meyers Beach. There is only one straight line through this area and all I could see is cars and vans, no pickups, ahead of me. The people on bikes were making more headway than we were; well even four guys who were sauntering down the sidewalk were going faster than us. It is midafternoon and we have not eaten. With this line of cars it is time to find a place. Well we go for miles and nothing. Then as we can still not see the end of the line in front of us we find Junkanoo On the Beach restaurant. We were seated by a sliding window and got the fresh breeze of the Gulf. We split a Mama Mia pizza with pepperoni, sausage, fresh tomatoes, mushrooms and onions on a thin crust. They had a Sicilian style, turns out to be a thick crust variety.

Tonight we have a place to stay so no hurry to find a place. Turns out I dined in, ate two leftover pieces of pizza.

Tomorrow Sanibel Island and Captiva Island. jerr

Sunday, March 27, Day 23, headed a little north Coral Gables

The day started with church at St. Williams in Naples. A wealthy church, 7,200 perison ers and a collection of $47,000 last week. For the New Ulm group, there are building a new church for about the same as a new diocese is going to cost. The visiting monsignor from New Jersey was humanistic, mentioning that we all believe in the same God, Baptists, Lutherans and the Jews the first 5 books of the bible in their Koran. He said to make sure we acknowledge our friends in their religion. Looked like 1,200 people or so, filled to the brim, up in the balcony and against all the walls.

We hurry off to the Naples Museum of Art, of the four directions I could have went, it took me three of them to find the right road. This museum is was worth the stop. No pictures of the material.

The gate behind the reclined lady was by Paley a nice piece of art, the man who made it also had other structures on exhibit, not my cup of tea. It did turn out that a foursome from Miami, the art expert I would call him, had a small 18 inch piece of this artists. Turned out he had a couple other artists pieces on exhibit. He had come to see the works of Rauschenberg but it was off exhibit last week.



Two Nuns sitting outside Museum



There was a Chihuly overhead piece along with two hanging chandeliers of his; the light striking the blue one was beautiful.

The lightpaintings by Stephen Knapp, this was a first, http://www.lightpaintings.com/

 he would sandwich a prism between two pieces of glass metallic coatings, shape the lense with curves or corners, angle them to the light with stainless steel brackets. The single light shining thru would give a multidirectional colored beam to the wall behind, pure glowing colors. Just stunning.

Rembrandt and his etchings were on exhibit and it was there last day, about 35 of them. This was a loaned collection. It consisted of beggars from men leaning on canes,

A rat catcher (my favorite) found this online,

 a man making water – you guess what he was doing, lady’s leaning on stick and the strolling musicians. Even a self portrait and one of his father. The detail in these copper etchings, these are original ones, not the ones made from plates of his found and re-engraved. The artist in those days tried to eek out a living by doing small pictures like these, postage size to a 5 by 5 inch couple of pieces. Oh, to even have a copy of one would be neat.

We are in north Naples, well lets drive back to south Naples and take in a

botanical garden. Again well worth it if you like gardens. The temperature reached 27 degrees this year at one point in the garden and had damaged some of the vegetation. We had just an hour before closing. A young man, as we were buying a beer – yes sold beer in the garden – don’t miss the Brazilian, Caribbean and Asian gardens. From a young man, this was a first.

The Brazilian garden was high above the rest and had an attractive water fall, one of those that just sheets off the edge.

At the top were a number of lily ponds,

with curved walkways (similar to the ones we saw in the Amsterdam Floriada in 02).

Walked the labyrinth, some of us did it the right way and another did it her way. We walked thru the gardens which had many seating areas in it. Benches within houses built as they would have been built in their country.

The Caribbean had a scene of a natural influence of the area.

The Asian garden demonstrated the cultures from Bali to Vietnam;

temples, ruins, sculptures and

distinctive water gardens. Where we sat and watched the quiet nature of the garden.

Off for dinner. We drive up highway 41, pass some steakhouses but not many cars. We gave up and stop at a grill, were seated, and I said this is not what you are looking for. We got up and walked out, as we did there was a couple our age walking in, I asked where there was a good steakhouse. He said 4 or so miles back “Andre’s Steakhouse”, we had seen it but not many cars and we kept going. This time we pull up as a gigantic blue Royals Royce pulled in.

I parked to the edge of the parking lot. The owner, Andre, welcomed us and seated us the waiter described the experience we were to have. The steaks would be fired in a 1,400 degree oven, somewhat standard for nice places, brought out on a sizzling hot plate, pre-sliced and floating in hot butter.

The plate, as you can see, is tipped so that the hot butter goes to the bottom of the dish. The hot butter can be spooned over the steak in case it was under done. As you can see it was different, Shirleen had her filet and I a veal chop, both were juicy, hot and tender. We shared a plate of German fried potatoes. These potatoes are half inch cubed and roasted with onions. This rates as one of the best meals we have ever had. To me it looked like what I had seen on Food network at Peter Lugers in New York. Andre sat down with us and I mention what a nice experience, it reminded me of Luger steakhouse, he said I worked there for 8 years before starting this place.



Shirleen and Andre

Calling it a night, will post this tomorrow. jerr

Saturday, March 26, Day 22, Touring Naples

Off for a tour of Naples, we have been here before but a structured tour gives you a good history of the place. We got there 10 minutes after a tour started so we had 45 minutes to kill.

The downtown art fair is today and tomorrow and only two blocks away from where we need to be. It was going to be part of our day so we start early.

This is a nice looking fair, right down the middle of the town. Stretching over 6 blocks on two sides of the street, the tent they used gave you the name, state, and type of art.

We made the first two blocks and felt we needed to go back for the tour.

At least the tour bus is not packed, again it is a tour of the rich and super wealthy.

The homes are big, well manicured lawns and vegetation. It was nice to get to areas we would not have found ourselves. The tour takes two hours, not the best we have had but decent. We always recommend taking these as you get a general layout of the town. Toward the end of the tour we stop in front of The Dock At Crayton Cove, looked like a good place to eat lunch as it is after noon. It was time for a cool drink, Shirleen a Monkey’s Fist Bacardi Select rum, banana liqueur, banana puree, and Florida orange juice; I a Dock Slider a frozen mixture of Kahlua, vodka and Bailey’s Irish Cream, I ordered the wrong drink I got brain freeze with this one, nice to see I still have one. I was not ready for an ice cream drink. (this is the one I wanted: Dock Walloper A Dock original some light and dark Puerto Rican rums, Galliano, triple sec, a dash of banana liqueur, and some good ol’ Florida orange juice. Not recommended for the faint of heart) Shirleen meal a Baby Spinach and Blackened Day Boat Scallop Salad, gorgonzola, toasted macadamia nuts, warm smoked bacon and caramelized onion-mango vinaigrette;

I Mahi-Mahi Tacos, fried served with flour tortillas, shredded cabbage, spicy yogurt sauce, pico de gallo, black beans and rice.

Shirleen raved about the luscious taste of the scallop, I would have liked hers better than mine, but mine was OK.

Another walk back to the art fair, about seven blocks. Today it is again in the mid 80’s and the sun bearing down on us. The art is some of the best we have seen on the street, of course the people who live/winter here have the money to drop on it. Pottery, acrylic painting, watercolor and



String Art



string-thread art oriental style,



Linoleum Art



linoleum carved art similar to Wanda Gag’s style, she said that she is self taught, carves the linoleum and black inks the piece, uses an old print press to lay down the outline of the work, then paints the work, Also metal sculptures, glass wall metal art – much of the fine art was $500 and up. There are food stands and music, not lot of it but some.

This old style painting grabbed us – Gary Sisco (http://www.siscoart.com/) is doing a small piece that will be auctioned off in Ocala next month he described his old masters style as up to 17 layers of paint. Starting out with a black drawing that outlines all he wants to put in it. He ends up with the light colors on last, giving a real feel to the picture, his were expensive also.

Walked past this and Shirleen said - "that's for Mary Ann"

Time is winding down, a half hour to go, we want a beverage. We find a spot at the open front of The Jolly Cricket restaurant. We both got a beer and split a potato flat bread, as we were not hungry I thought we should at least order something. No stand out flavor with tomato backing?

We walked back to the Tin City, all buildings have tin roofs and are some of the original buildings dating back to 1920. It is dinner time and bustling with people. We go to the dock in front of the restaurants.

Some of the fishing boats are in and cleaning fish, you can go to many restaurants and have them fry it up for you.

Back to the room. jerr