Caitie's Visit

Our daughter Caitie flew down to spend a week with us. She is such delightful company! We toured the Edison and Ford estates on a breezy but gorgeous Monday. We were long overdue for good weather. Fort Myers averages 2 inches of rain in a typical January-- but this year we had 13 inches. No wonder Lake Okeechobee is spewing water into the Caloosahatchee and desalinizing the coastal waters around here! Caitie picked the best weather week to be here- sunny and around 80 each day.

Tuesday we waited out early morning fog before refueling and heading to Pelican Bay and Cayo Costa State Park- 40 miles or so from FM. Pelican Bay is our favorite anchorage, and this was our third visit there.

The dolphins showed up just for Caitie!

Love to see dolphins!

The sunset was spectacular.

Caitie and social media

Sunrise on Pelican Bay after a peaceful night on the hook

A beautiful morning for a walk on the beach

You never know what might wash up on the beach!

A sand shark??

We left our anchorage just as the ferry and its load of day trippers arrived from Pine Island- perfect timing! Back in Fort Myers, we drove over to the nearby power plant to see manatees taking advantage of the warm water discharge. The few animals we saw were even more lethargic than usual, so it was not exciting.

We walked over to the nearby Famers Market on Thursday to buy fresh produce and fresh caught Gulf Shrimp, which made a delicious meal of shrimp and wild rice with spinach and tomatoes.

Our Chicago friends Bob and Kathy spent Thursday with us. I unfortunately forgot to take a photo of them, but they brought me a framed sock. This is relevant (and funny) because not once, but twice they recovered a sock of mine that I accidentally left behind. The first time was at the marina laundromat in Leland, MI, in 2013. Kathy found the errant sock in the dryer and brought it to our boat, leading to a great and lasting friendship. We visited them in their home the following year, and the very same sock somehow became entangled in the bedding. How does that even happen?? A few months later that sneaky sock disappeared in the laundromat in Dunedin, FL. Sadly, Kathy was not there to retrieve it, so it is gone forever. I now pin my socks together while doing the laundry!

There will be no losing this baby!

On Friday Mark attended the chart review at Legacy marina presented by Robert Creech. We then met our dear friend Patsy at Pinchers for lunch.

Caitie flew back to Des Moines on Sunday afternoon- the week was fun and went by all too quickly!