Ft. Myers Beach

Our first two days were spent shopping as the weather here had been raining.  Craig purchased a Mac Mini for developing programs and I am looking at purchasing the Nikon D7000.  Craig & I took  Spencer, Jade and Reece shopping two nights ago.  We set the ground rules, ladies first, then the youngest and finally the oldest.  The boys were getting a little bored when Jade was shopping for clothes so we told them we would meet them in the toy department of Target.  They were all good and kept under their $30.00 limit.  Jade bought clothes and a couple of small toys, Reece bought Lego (surprise, surprise haha), and Spencer bought ear candy and a case for his ITouch.  We topped off the night with a visit to McDonalds for ice cream.  We did a big grocery shop yesterday for a birthday dinner for Craig's sister Laura.  I made a jambalaya for the birthday girl, mental note do not buy the "Southern" sausage.  Can you say HOT!?  Other than the sausage I think the dinner turned out alright, it was nice to cook for the family again.  Laura, Todd and the boys left early this morning so we had to say our good-byes to them last night.  

Today Craig, Mom, Dad, Jade and myself headed over to Ft. Myers Beach, Ken stayed home to do errands and Andrea had to work.  The tide was really low today and we found some interesting creatures on the beach.  One was a relative to the squid, a local woman told me that she had never seen so many of these stranded on the sand.  We tried to save as many as we could but the surf kept on bringing them back on the shore.  Every time we would move one with a stick it would release it's ink. We also seen alot of starfish, horseshoe crabs, and smaller white crabs, oh and one lonely sea urchin.  Craig and I walked through the park at the beach and come across a gopher turtle.  As I was taking it's picture I was attacked by some fire ants.  It was only about 1/2 a dozen but that was enough to put my foot in flames.  I did get some relief when I walked in the ocean.  The weather was still on the cool side especially if you were on the windy side of the beach.  I was just happy that the sun was out and it was warm on the skin.

Tonight we were invited over to Mary & Troy's home for dinner, they live across the street from Ken and Andrea's.  The also invited Jennifer and Mark who live two doors down.  Mary's mom & dad were  also there visiting so all in all they fed about 12 of us.  The food was southern, gumbo, Troy is from the south and both him and Mary are great cooks and hosts.  Conversation and food was fantastic, it was the first time I had gumbo. It was wonderful to see everyone again.

Tomorrow it looks like we are heading to the Everglades to get on an airboat and explore the glades in style.  Craig, his mom and dad and myself had not done the Everglades by airboat so I am hoping that the weather co-operates and we get some good pictures of some gators. 

The pictures today are all from Ft. Myers Beach.

Talk soon!