Matlacha - February 2002 for my 50th

Matlacha is a small island west of Fort Myers and just east of Pine Island. To the west of Pine Island is Sanibel, Captiva, and Caya Costa Islands.

For info on the Pine Island area.....
on the Lee Island Coast area

Some of the things we did:

• rented a canoe at Lover's Key State Park and paddled inland water
• took a guided boat tour around the islands, stopping on North Captiva for lunch. Just after lunch it started to rain - the first rain since we'd arrived 6 days before. We stopped on Cayo Costa Island - a state park - and walked with our raingear on. We saw a large number of dolphins swimming near or in front of our tour boat.
• took a drive on Sanibel Island but found it too crowded and although the beaches looked white, the sand was very rough, nothing like the soft sand of the Florida panhandle. We did watch the sunset on one of the beaches and saw a baby dolphin in the water.
• Babcock Wilderness Adventure - we took a guided mountain bike tour on very undemanding and flat terrain. We saw alligators in the wild, simply floating in the water under a wooden bridge. They looked completely unthreatening and came closer to the bridge to check us out - looking very curious.
• took a guided kayak tour of the mangroves on Matlacha and saw manatees. The canoe and kayak rental and guided tour operator located on Matlacha is Gulf Coast Kayak
  

Matlacha - February 2003

We did a return trip to Matlacha because it was such a pleasant trip the year before for mid-winter sunshine. This year the weather was even warmer (but not uncomfortably hot). Temps during the day were from 75-85F (23-29C). It rained one night and that was it -- otherwise it was sunny or mostly sunny. What's really nice is that at that time of year there are no mosquitoes and only a very few no-see-ums (similar to Scottish midges).

This year there were a few stressful and almost stressful moments. With terrorist threats and the threat of war, everyone is on edge. Two days before we were due to depart, London's Heathrow Airport was partly closed due to terrorist threats. London Gatwick, our departure airport, had a terminal closed the day before we left due to a passenger being caught with a live grenade! The day after we arrived in Florida (which was a transfer through Philly) a huge blizzard hit the northeast, closing Philadelphia airport (among others) for a few days. Whew!

We rented kayaks for 5 days and paddled in several local places off Pine Island, and a couple of times off the dock behind our accommodation. Kayaking in that area is unique due to the shallowness of the water (we ran aground a few times) and the number of mangrove tunnels to explore. Birds are a prominent feature of this area. We spotted dolphins a couple of times but not from the kayaks.

For links to information on this part of Florida, see the above blog for 2002.

Bonita Springs - December 2004

We spent the month of December in the US and since we had multi-stop airline tickets we chose to spend two nights in Philadelphia before heading to Florida. We had one full day - 5 Dec - to spend in the historic district of Philly. The weather wasn't good before or after, but on the day we chose to tour the weather was sunny and 53 degrees - how lucky!

We took the Independence Tour starting at the Visitor Center seeing Independence Hall, Ben Franklin's grave, Betsy Ross house, Elfreth Alley (the oldest neighborhood in Philly), the Liberty Bell, etc. We were impressed with the areas of Philly we saw.

On the 6th of Dec we flew down to Fort Myers, spending the next 15 days in Bonita Springs which is just south of Fort Myers and north of Naples.

A lucky break for us.....there was a blizzard that hit the northeast including Philadelphia the day after we flew down to Florida - closing airports. We could have been stuck in snow-filled Philly for days instead of being on sunny beaches.

We visited most of the nearby beaches as well as visiting Everglades National Park and taking guided boat tours, canoeing and beach strolling at Delnor Wiggins State Park, touring Koreshan State Historic Site, canoeing in Lovers Key State Park, and renting a bike from Bonita Beach Bike riding from US41 all the way to Fort Myers Beach - over 20 miles roundtrip.

Weather during the first 5 or 6 days was in the low-mid 80's, then in the 70's, and towards the end of our trip hit the 60's and even had a high in the upper 50's one day. Rain was rare and only one day was windy.

One of the highlights of our trip was while canoeing from Lovers Key into Estero Bay I spotted a couple of fins and knew they were dolphins. We quickly paddled over to where they were and ended up in the middle of many dolphins. Quite a few of them popped up to look at us - some very close to our boat. After we left this area we paddled over to Hickory Pass which goes out into the Gulf and landed on one of the beautiful white beaches to have our lunch. While sitting there several dolphins swam through. As a yacht went past heading out to the Gulf, they spotted the dolphins and stopped. A small dolphin jumped straight up and out of the water thrilling everybody especially ourselves!

We enjoyed 2 or 3 meals at Doc's Beach House which is on the Bonita Beach.

Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island was another stop for us. We drove the loop, getting out and walking occasionally. We also visited Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, a 2.25 mile boardwalk tour. Bird watcher's heaven and has gators, snakes and other wildlife.

Caribbean Gardens and Zoo in Naples was also on our agenda. It's a smallish zoo but extraordinary because of frequent wildlife shows and gator, kangaroo, etc feedings and demonstrations.

Danny went on a Swamp Walk at Fakahatchee State Park - a 4 hour walk which includes occasional wading through waist deep water - a description which didn't entice me to join him. I spent time at a nearby state park while he was there. He enjoyed the walk but didn't see a lot of the expected wildlife like snakes and gators. However, the insect repellant he used didn't help and he was covered in mosquito bites.

On the 21st of December we flew up to Michigan leaving behind sunshine, shorts, tshirts, iced tea and fish dinners outside on the beach for cold, snowy weather. Christmas with the family!

Oh, and one more highlight of our trip - shopping! The exchange rate was between $1.89 - $1.93 per pound. It was like getting nearly 50% off everything. Woohoo!!