Day One of our trip to the Naples area

My last blog mentioned our trip to Everglades City with Brian and Lynn.  Well I guess it is about time I got around to posting some of our adventures.  

We made a trip down to Naples and Bonita Springs to visit Alf and Lynn's aunt and uncle and Lynn and Brian's friends.  (They our friends now, as well!!!)  And we had enough time to make a side trip to Everglades City, which is the most northerly/westerly part of the Everglades.  Hoping to see some gators and such, and we were not disappointed.  First off was a trip to a boardwalk and river where we were promised some good views.  

This river was full of gators, we lost count of how many but every time we stopped the van there were more, and more and more.  Swimming upstream, 

swimming downstream 

and sunning themselves in the sun.  

This guy was quite close to the road, and I thought I would  give you a close up of his handsome profile.  

Now gators we are told can go faster on land than humans, so I stood on the edge of the van doorway to take some pics, but there were lots of people standing around taking pics.  They did mention they were planning on jumping in the van if the gator starting moving.  (Not sure if they would have made it, I probably would have shut the door before they got in.) But Brian was brave, and actually walked along the road for awhile.  I think he figured he was big enough that the gators would think he was a predator, not dinner.  

At one point we saw all these splashes in the water - there must have been fifty fish flopping around in the water - not real big ones, but very active, that is until the gator came along.  But as soon as he/she got out of the water they were back to their merry ways.   I tried to post a video I took but it wouldn't upload.

We then made our way to the boardwalk, which was six feet or so above the river.  The river was dark but the water was very clear and you could see all kinds of fish. Don't know the names of all these guys but many of them were spawning live fish. You can see some of them in this pic but there were all kinds of little guys swimming around.   

Plus many many more.  No wonder the gators like this river.  

 

 Can you see the fish in this pic? 

There was a water moccasin sunning itself on a pillar underneath the boardwalk.  I have zoomed in so we were not that close, but you can see its markings.  

We stopped at a little restaurant, called the 

Camilla Street Grill and Restaurant

 
for a bit of lunch.  
No we didn't eat in the bug - but this was the roadside sign for the place.  










Nice little place with unique decor.  
They had marker buoys all over the place.

  We ate lunch on the deck overlooking the harbour/bay and while we were eating we spied a SHARK!!!!!, 










Oh, no it wasn't  --  it was a dolphin.  There were lots of dolphins out playing and were causing quite a stir with the tourists on the airboat tours.  

We then toured around the area a bit, and saw some pelicans posing for the camera.  

 









This is Lynn in the foreground, 
pelican in the background.


 And a closeup.  

And some delightful real estate - here is Paradise, and it was for sale, 

 

don't know if the decorating in the side yard would be included in the sale price or not.  





We then made our way up to Naples to visit Aunt Rosemarie and Uncle John.  We went to dinner at this little restaurant and waited almost two hours for a table. It had a outdoor bar where you could sit and wait and consume some liquid refreshment.  There were out of sate licence plates all around the place for some light reading. 
 It was a busy little place with very good food.   

Soon though it was time to return to the hotel room and day one was done.  
 I might get around to posting day two - our trip to Bonita Springs and Fort Myers Beach.  

So good-bye for now from Brian and Lynn and Mary and Alf