Palm Trees and Water..Ahhhhhhhhhh.......

This is our 5th day is Fort Myers,Florida. We are finally on the water(bay not ocean but nice) and loving the view of palms, mangroves, blue sky, fluffy clouds, greenish water,and bobbers from the oyster beds..ahhhh.
We went to Sanibel Island. Nice but where are the shells? Lot's of hype, not a lot of great beaches. One beach we went to was nice; gentle waves and a few shells, but nothing to write home about...



We have been having great weather here in Fort Myers, and Fort Myers Beach. Found an interesting store called Shipwreck with some pirate stuff..fun! We also found the cool place where the locals eat --Yucatan Beach Stand--yummy food and KARAOKE !! The kids loved it --very cultural! Lot's of talented people in FMB...

We stopped at a Fruit Market Stand--Lots of fresh fruit..yummy grapefruit, kiwi, plums and honeydew melon.8*P



Today we are driving to Orlando and then picking up David tomorrow am. Then Sat. we start the Disney adventure for a week. After that we might drive to Key West for a couple of days then back to Orlando to drop David off...
Jake will add some pics now..Love to all and a big THANK YOU to my girlfriends at home in Alaska..sorry about the snow guys.. ;*) Julie

Update from Crystal River Florida by Julie

Well, sorry it's taken me so long to update...no internet at Wal-Mart!! :^)

We have been having a fine time... It takes a while to adjust to sharing and being so close but I think we have it down now!

We liked New Orleans but it was pretty commercial--hard to find the history stuff. Cool music everywhere though, WOW!! I also went to Jimmy Buffett's Maritaville store(mecca for me-Julie)(since they were so good-waiting for me) (they also give you a coupon for a free drink to use next door) We spent about an hour there...ahhhh... then I took the kids next store to eat at the Margaritaville Cafe and Hanna was yelling/singing Cheeseburger in Paradise at the top of her lungs..I don't know where she learned all the words-David... They pretty much inundate you with all the songs you know on three huge screens..when you are done eating, they give you a coupon for a free bumper sticker next door at the store you just came from....wow..



Next we drove through Bayou Country on the back roads..New Iberia, Houma etc...the real Louisiana for sure. Nice folks along that road and some of the most beautiful scenery ever!! I'm at the library so I will update the pics later.. We also toured the McIlhenneys Tobasco factory--very interesting and cool..

On to Mississippi, and we went straight into the ocean at Gulfport or right around there-warm as a bath water..

Drove through to Mobile, Alabama-you have to hold the gas pump on when you get gas -hated it- glad it only took a minute to get through Alabama..!

Finally we got to Florida! Pensecola, Panama City, Tallahassee, Perry, tried to see the manatees at Manatee Springs Nat. Park but we are a month early:( On to Cheifland-pouring rain, Inglis and now Crystal River where we are going to camp overnight because we need our water pump looked at in the am at 815am no less!! wow my free time is up!! More later