Florida- Punta Gorda, FT Myers, Naples 1/15-1/22/12

      Left the Tampa Rally on Sunday and traveled 105 miles to Encore Gulf View Resort in Punta Gorda. Four other members of our Carriage Club also came here. Didn't know we were all coming to the same park until we were packing up to leave Tampa.

 Monday we went to visit friends Diane and Marvin who live in Cape Coral, not to far from here. Diane has been Linda's friend since elementary school. Our kids went to school together. We went to Manatee Park. There were at least 100+ manatee's in the warm water pool below the power plant. We saw several babies. The weather was perfect, about 70 degrees. We had a great time seeing all the manatee's, and visiting with Diane and Marvin. We had a nice dinner at Mel's dinner. At Mel's we had a visitor at our table, he was quite the talker. 

       The next day we went to Bonita Springs to friends Abby and Nancy. We had a great tour of both Bonita Springs and Naples. Nancy is a great tour guide and driver. We had a great lunch at Doc's in Bonita springs and a super dinner at Kelly's in Naples. We spent the night at their great condo. The next morning we had a good breakfast Dot's and another great tour out to Ave Maria University. A very unusual church building. Quit nice, see photo's. A very interesting story about the development of the planned town and university. Tom Monaghan, founder of Domino's Pizza is one of the major partners. Sadly we had to say goodbye.

     On Thursday we called our daughter in laws sister Fran who lives in Punta Gorda. She was at the beauty parlor a few minutes from the RV Park where we were staying .. She stopped in to say hello. We made planes to meet on Saturday. We went to see her condo that she moved into a few months earlier. Its was on the second floor with a super view over looking the bay.  We went into town to the art and craft festival. Walked and walked and had lunch at an outside restaurant. Then we walked some more. Finally we came to the end and walked some more back to the car. Said goodbye to Fran and went back to the RV. We need a rest. BUT, no, we are off tomorrow for a trip to Everglades National Park.

See the backs of the many manatee's in the pool out of the current. The power plant in the background, the source of the warn water outlet attracting the manatee's.

Larger air plant(possible Lilly) growing in the tree branches.

Marvin,Diane, Linda and Bob.

Our table visitor.

Doc's beach restaurant. Above the upstairs dinning area. Below, looking out at the beach seating.

Bob, Linda, Nancy and Abby.

On the pier, Nancy, Linda, Bob and Abby.

Kelly's restaurant, the oldest seafood eatery in Naples.

A closeup of the beams and columns.

We always see some interesting signs were ever we travel.

The Inn On Fifth in Naples. Very neat old Inn.

Ava Maria Church at the Ava Maria Catholic university, just outside of Naples. See www.avemaria.com  .

Linda with Fran at the Ponce De Leon statue, on the water front.

 A really big tree dwarf Bob and Fran