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