Dad and his girlfriend arrived to take us home. He dropped Juanita off at her house then took us to his home so we could get settled before heading for Juanita’s for dinner.
We had a nice dinner and my sisters were able to get to know Juanita. Denny and I had been here a year ago for a few weeks.
We were ready for bed when we got home. Dad took us for a drive to Fort Myers Beach. Diana strained to see the gulf. Dad was on a mission to get us to Joe’s Crab Shack for a late lunch.
As we drove over the bridge leaving Fort Myers Beach and dad didn’t turn Lu and I looked at each other and said, “where is he going?”. I asked Dad why he didn’t turn and he said because we are going to Joe’s Crab Shack in Fort Myers. OK.
We drove by the Edison and Ford Winter Estates but Diana didn’t get to see much because Dad was on his mission. I think he was hungry and when he is hungry, nothing stops him. We couldn’t even get him to slow down to take a picture.
We got to the crab shack and it was worth the wait. Diana and I had to wear bibs because of the food we ordered. Here we are wearing our bibs and Lu is on the left, Diana on the right and me in the middle. LuAnn ordered something less messy.
The restaurant is right on the water and it was lovely to look outside and see the boats and pelicans.
Dad took us to his favorite place to order oranges. We all had the soft serve orange ice cream. It is very tasty. LuAnn bought some Florida grown peaches and Diana ordered oranges to be sent home.
After taking Juanita home we headed to Dad’s and visited for a while before he went to bed. Lu slept on the hide-a-way bed in the living room and Diana and I shared the master. Lu asked Diana and I what we were giggling about the next day. We couldn’t tell her. We always have such a good time together. Of course that cuts into our sleep time but what are vacations for?
Thursday, we visited with Dad’s neighbors, Les and Lynn. They spend the summers in Alaska and winter in Florida. Great couple and they shared some fresh Alaska salmon with us. Lynn told me how to fix it on the grill and we were set for dinner. We invited Juanita over and had her bring some marinated salmon Dad had purchased at Omaha Steaks to have with the fresh salmon.
The food was delicious. Lynn told me to thaw the salmon and place it on a foil tray with lemon slices, soy sauce and butter and cook it uncovered for about 30 minutes. It was great and so different from the frozen marinated salmon Juanita brought. They were both good but the fresh was fabulous. Thank you Les and Lynn.
Friday – was “Clean out the shed day”. Lu, our motivator, got us going somewhat early. She had Dad and I sit on the patio to look through the boxes and decide what to keep, donate and throw away. It was hard for Dad considering he had been hanging on to these things for many years. He did get into it after a while and understood what we were trying to do. We told him not to fill the shed again and felt it was a job well done. There was certainly a lot to put out for the garbage men on Monday night.
Saturday – LuAnn was going to spend the day with her friend Karen and Diana, Dad, Juanita and I were headed for Shark Valley. I had been there last year in March and enjoyed it thoroughly. It is part of the Everglades and was beautiful with lots of birds. Well…. we were there in the dry season and there were no birds to speak of, no water in the swamp but lots of baby alligators. It was still interesting and I think Diana enjoyed it but we were ready to leave. Too bad it started to rain. So we waited out the shower before heading to the car.
Now Dad had said he wanted me to drive home but decided to drive to Everglade City for our seafood lunch and have me drive from there.
The City Seafood Market has great fresh seafood and it was Diana’s first taste of cracked crab and the season is almost over so she was there in time.
It started to rain just as we were about to leave and there was even some small hail. I felt sorry for the people coming in to the dock from the air boat tours. They sure looked cold. Thankfully the company provided them with rain ponchos at least.
The wind was really blowing as this picture of the trees across the water shows. We were sure glad to be under a shelter.
When the rain slowed down Dad went to get the car and I drove home. It rained until we crossed the Lee/Collier county line. Then it just stopped. Weird.
Diana and I took Juanita home and dropped dad off at his house. We decided to drive down to the beach so Diana could walk along the beach. We were able to get access and parking near downtown Fort Myers Beach and saw a beautiful sunset with pink clouds in the sky.
Diana west shelling a bit, just for the fun of it.
We also saw an osprey nest with a baby. He’s in the center to the right of the pole.
Sunday – We took Dad to Juanita’s so they could go to church and went out on our own again. Juanita wanted to fix dinner but we weren’t sure we would be able to make it and told her we would call.
We walked along the Lover’s Key Park beach. We were early enough that we got a great parking place. The beach was beautiful. Diana and I had our hats on to shield the sun but it was still hot.
But it is on an inlet and there was a lot of wake from the boats.
We called Lu and left a message saying we were there and asked if we could meet her and Karen somewhere. We arranged to meet them in Fort Myers Beach and we headed for the bar/restaurant they were at. They had great seats with a beach view and we enjoyed a few drinks and got to know Karen.
We saw people parasailing, a pirate cruise ship, dolphins and beach vendors like the one in the picture above.
Karen took our picture so we could give a memento of our visit to dad and we went shopping. We are seated left to right oldest to youngest (me, Diana and LuAnn).
Monday – we talked to Dad about his finances. LuAnn will be his executor and we had to get things in order. Dad is nearly 84 and he wants to make things easier for us when he passes away.
I want to put a picture of Dad in this blog. Here is one taken this week with his girlfriend Juanita.
We packed our bags and headed to bed earlier than usual. I set my phone alarm for 5:15 and we went to sleep. We were gone from the house by 6:00 am because our plane leaves at 8:09.
We had a good flight home but it was cold. Florida at 6 am was 70 degrees. Moline, IL was 35 degrees. Burrrr!!. LuAnn was in shorts. Good thing she had a sweatshirt handy.
We had a great trip and plan to have a sisters trip again next year. I have wonderful sisters and I love them very much. I am blessed.
Well, Denny and I will share more adventures down the road. Check back again.
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