Florida Christmas Spirit and Naples at Night

Since the only snow we can have down here is the snow white sand on the beaches, everybody gets in the decorating spirit in different ways in Florida...you gotta wear your Santa hat, you gotta decorate your palm trees in your front yard, and you have to decorate your vehicles, all of them! This guy decorated his cycle AND his tow trailer...we've seen him twice now, two nights in a row downtown 5th Ave. Naples. That's the spirit, buddy!

Last night we were driving back from Corkscrew Swamp (story coming soon!) and we were crossing over the Tin City bridge, when I glanced over and saw a bazillion people gawking at something under the bridge. Sensing a photo opportunity, I yelled, "STOP THE CAR!" If you've been reading the blog, that's Jeannie's code for, "Stop the car NOW!" or as soon as safely possible, so I can get my photos of something, God only knows what! says Eldy. Being the great guy he is, Eldy never questions, "Why?" or "What now!?" He just stops. And here comes an incredible Christmas lighted boat parade...all sizes, little boats and big yachts all decorated for the holidays.....Elvis was the popular theme for this year...at least two yachts had Elvis guys, pompadour(that's the poofy slicked back black hair style in Elvis' early days), white sequined suit and all, blasting Elvis's songs from the boat. One guy had a LIGHTED blue suit, a lighted guitar, and the boat was decked out in all blue lights!  and guess what song was playing? "Blue Christmas" by Elvis. Cool!

The yacht on the left had Elvis lip syncing to popular Elvis songs, and a go-go dancer in a short red sheath dress a boppin'. That got Eldy's attention! Another yacht had a guy with a great voice karaoking.....the sidewalks, bridge and restaurants on the water were crowded with onlookers. Everybody clapped and whistled for their favorites. What was really amazing is these big yachts had to turn on a dime down by the bridge and go back from the direction they came. Aye, aye, skipper! They had some good pilots on those yachts! The parade was great!

During my bike ride this morning, I saw and heard quite a racket of sirens and police cars. You hear sirens a LOT on route 41, Tamiama Trail, right outside our park, but this was more than normal. I thought, oh, dear, I'm going to see a bad wreck in a minute. But what to my wondering eyes should appear, but SANTA! Here he is again, folks...being escorted to the local malls, coming down highway 41!

For the last photo of the day,  you need to see this photo of downtown Naples beautifully decorated. There's one part of the city block on 5th Avenue that beckons everyone to stop and gawk at the lights and take photos.  Including moi....this is in front of the local theater on 5th Avenue, Sugden Theater. Isn't it beautiful? The rest of the streets have the palm trees decorated with lights around their trunks, and some of the palms have lights clear up in the top fronds....beautiful! Even though it's Florida, it feels like Christmas! See you tomorrow.....

in front of Sugden Theater