A Little Bit of the Beach

When you've been a midwestern girl all your life and winters consisted of slush, snow, shovel, sleet, cold, and winter's version of slip 'n' slide, you REALLY can't get enough of ___________(Florida, Arizona, California, etc. --your choice) sunshine. So every day, Eldy and I, one or the other or both, bike down from the RV park to the center of town in Naples and more often than not, down to the pier, to see what's happening. Here's one of several beautiful parks you can stop and sit for awhile on your way down to the pier.

When we get to the pier, we usually don't sit on the beach and soak up rays. We aren't beach bums, neither one of us really likes to sit and bake in the sun, especially me, with skin cancer in my family. I've spent YEARS baking myself in the sun, lifeguarding every summer and teaching swimming lessons. Back in college, Sparky tried to get an early start on a tan by going up on the dorm rooftop with metallic reflectors and baby oil working on that tan when it was still in the fifties in early spring! The years of sun baking have really done a number on my skin, so now I slather on the sunscreen and hope that all the moles and brown spots don't turn into something worse as the years go by. And yes, every couple of years I get checked by a dermatologist. But still, it's wonderful to be outside in bright sunshine when winter is hammering hard lots of other places. But, JUST IN CASE Eldy thinks Sparky is changing her tune about not minding missing winter, I have to say, I STILL MISS SNOW AND COLD AND SHOVELING!! (Darn! says E. But I'm sending her to go visit her sister in Detroit in January for four days-HA!) But geez, it sure is beautiful here in Naples....And especially at the pier, with the beautiful foliage and three mosaic turtles at the entrance to the pier. Here's one of them.....

The weather can't be any more perfect. Seventies and low eighties, a breeze from the gulf almost every single day...it doesn't feel hot at all....And this is what Sparky saw at the beach today down at Naples Pier....LOTS of pelicans, hundreds beyond just the few here....fishing for mackerel, I guess?

LOTS of fishermen catching LOTS of mackerel, fishing outside and yakking inside......

Trading fish tales?

But NO dolphins today....just the pelicans and terns and gulls.....

Time to go see another beach, Eldo! How about Marco Island? (Sounds good to me, we'll go when the weather warms up a bit....) WARMS UP???? We're in a "cool spell" right now...temps in the 60's this morning...he's gotta have it warmer to head to the beach..looks like Sparky might be headed to the zoo instead! We'll see.......