Catching Up With Friends - An Anniversary to Celebrate

Date             January 29 - February 19, 2012                              
Day              236

Departure     No travel today                              

Arrival          Legacy Harbour Marina, Ft. Myers, FL
Miles                 0.0  
Cumulative   4043.6

We closed on our new home on February 13th and have been shopping since!  We plan to move some items from Connecticut to Florida, but decided to decorate with some new things too.  This past weekend was the busiest we have been since arriving in Ft. Myers, with the exception of our visit with my mom and sister.  Friends Jill and Glen on "Last Dance" arrived, along with friends Barbara and Ken on " Loop Dreams".  We spent some time catching up with them.  We hadn't seen Jill and Glen since Thanksgiving and Barbara and Ken since just before Christmas.  That is what is so great about this trip, you meet folks, travel with them for awhile, and them meet up with them again further along the way.

Bob and I, along with our dogs, Tucker and Willow, spent most of Friday at our new home-waiting for deliveries.  You know how deliveries work, they promise early in the day and finally by mid-afternoon they arrive!  First the patio table and chairs arrived.   While Bob proceeded to assemble the chairs, UPS arrived with our new Select Comfort Mattress!

Bolt "A" goes into slot "B"

Oh my gosh, so many boxes!!

Then the doorbell rings again, and the bedroom furniture arrived!  Fortunately, the delivery men brought in the three pieces and set them up, so we continued working on the patio furniture.

Here's the new bedroom, doesn't it look great? 

Now we have a place to sit, since we don't have a couch or kitchen table yet!

Another friend of Lynda's (formerly from Connecticut, now in Florida!) came for a short visit on Saturday.  Barbara Fackelman and her husband, David live in Mt. Dora.  Barbara is a former co-worker and housemate of Lynda's and they hadn't seen each other for over fifteen years.  We enjoyed their short afternoon visit and they headed off to Estero to celebrate their 15th wedding anniversary.  We hope to visit with them more often as we will be in Florida more frequently now!!

The weekend is the celebration of the "Edison Festival of Light".  Just after dark on Saturday evening we enjoyed a fireworks celebration from the flybridge of our boat with Barbara and Ken from "Loop Dreams".  We were so close, the percussion was outstanding! 

  After the fireworks, we walked into town and enjoyed the nighttime parade.

On Sunday, we again walked into town to enjoy the craft fair and car show which was also a part of the festival celebration

OH NO!!!

Looks so real, but only an imitation!!!

Nicely restored Studebaker

Remember when?

After the car show, we visited the Edison and Ford Winter Estates.  Within walking distance of the marina is the winter homes of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford.  Thomas Edison purchased his property in 1885.  Edison's friend, Henry Ford, purchased the house next door in 1916, providing him the opportunity to vacation with his good friend Thomas.  The good friends and their families enjoyed exploring southwest Florida, fishing, boating and square dancing during their trips to Ft. Myers.  The Edison family enjoyed stays here until 1947, when Mina Edison (Thomas' wife) deeded "Seminole Lodge" to the City of Ft. Myers for $1.     

Edison's Home

Living Room

Edison's friend, Harvey Firestone, gave a four foot banyan tree to Thomas in 1925.  Edison, Ford and Firestone were working on research in pursuit of a domestic source of natural rubber.  This type of tree, Ficus benghalenis, produces a white milky sap (latex) that can be used to create rubber.  This amazing tree is now about an acre in diameter and is understood to be the largest in the continental United States!

Bob and Lynda with Mr. Edison in front of the enormous tree.  (it is all ONE tree about an acre in diameter)

Not to be forgotten, today is our 30th wedding anniversary.  I guess you could say we had a day long celebration!.  We hope to enjoy many more in this wonderfully warm winter climate!!!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO US

Family, Friends and a New Home

Date             January 18 - 28, 2012
Day              214

Departure     No travel today                              

Arrival          Legacy Harbour Marina, Ft. Myers, FL
Miles                 0.0  
Cumulative   4043.6

(picture from the Manatee Center)

Wednesday, January 18th - In our journey, we have yet to see any manatees.  Mom and Nancy also wanted to see them, so all of us, including Bob, took a short drive in the car and visited the Lee County Manatee Park across from the power plant on the Caloosahatchee River. The average adult manatee is about 10 feet long and weighs between 800 and 1,200 pounds. Manatees can be found in shallow, slow-moving rivers, estuaries, saltwater bays, canals, and coastal areas — particularly where sea grass beds or freshwater vegetation flourish. Manatees are a migratory species and are gentle, slow-moving animals. Most of their time is spent eating, resting, and traveling.  West Indian manatees have no natural enemies and it is believed they can live 60 years or more.  Most human-related manatee fatalities occur from collisions with watercraft. Other causes of human-related manatee mortality include being crushed and/or drowned in canal locks and flood control structures, ingestion of fish hooks, litter, and mono filament line, and entanglement in crab trap lines. 

We (Bob and Lynda) have decided to relocate to the Ft. Myers/Cape Coral area and have been searching for a new home.  Working with a realtor, we have viewed over 30 properties since December 31st!  On Wednesday afternoon, Mom and Nancy joined us as we viewed another condo.  Finally, we have decided to make an offer on a property and it turns out it is the very FIRST one we looked at.  Now we wait -
......YES, they have accepted our offer, we will close on February 13th and will become the owners of a 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath town home in Cape Coral!

Our new home!!

Our plan is to finish the Loop and cross our wake in New York, spend the summer on the boat in Connecticut, hopefully sell the Connecticut home and then make the move to Florida in the fall.  We will continue to keep our boat in Connecticut and then spend summers on the Erika Lin in New England.

Thursday, January 19th - Nancy wanted to see the beach, so Lynda, Mom and Nancy made the short drive to Sanibel and Captiva.  

We first visited the Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge.   The refuge consists of over 6,400 acres of mangrove forest, submerged sea grass beds, cord grass marshes, and West Indian hardwood hammocks. Approximately 2,800 acres of the refuge are designated by Congress as a Wilderness Area.   The most popular place to view wildlife on the refuge is Wildlife Drive. This 4-mile, one-way road leads you through the heart of a mangrove forest.  Along this route, we saw many species of birds in their natural habitat.  

 

Next stop, Sanibel.

Mom and Nancy enjoying Sanibel beach

Friday, January 20th.  In Ft. Myers there is a huge flea market that is open Friday through Sunday.  Mom, Lynda and Nancy are fans of the flea market, Bob, not so much.  So on Friday morning, the three of us head off to Fleamasters Flea Market.  We spent hours there, each of us picking up a few couldn't live without purchases and walked our legs off!

Saturday, January 21st.  Unfortunately, it was time for Mom and Nancy to leave and return to the snowy north (six inches of the white stuff is expected to fall today!!).  A wonderful visit and a good time was had by all.

During the next week, Lynda and Bob started to compile a list of what furnishings to bring to the new home and what we need to purchase here.  We rented a car a and visited a lot of the local furniture stores to try and help with the decisions.  We also heard from our friends, Jack and Carol on Irish Rover.  They too, are traveling by boat to Ft. Myers.  They arrived on Thursday, revisited a condo that they had viewed last spring, made an offer and it was accepted!!  Looks like we will have friends from home with us here in Florida!!

Saturday, January 28th, Bob and I, along with Jack and Carol, were invited by a mutual former Connecticut friend and co-worker to her home for dinner.  Thanks Donna and Bob for a terrific meal and your hospitality.  Once we are all settled, us in our new home and Jack and Carol in theirs, I know we will have many more times together!!

Donna, Jack and Lynda (long time friends!)

Donna and her husband Bob