More family fun

We were excited about our grandson, Jordan coming to stay with us on the boat.  The plan was for him to stay with us or as I like to call it "we take possession" for a few days.  He arrived in the middle of the night because his flight was delayed due to some thunderstorms.

We gave him a little time to sleep in then we took him to see the beach at Ft. Meyers.  Since he is from the northwest, he loved the sun and warm temperatures.  The beach was full as their are many schools and colleges on spring break.  Here is the typical tourist picture along the sidewalk.  Isn't he cute?

We also had won a free paddle board lesson at one of the local gatherings.  Well neither of us wanted to have that kind of adventure so we saved it for Jordan.

This is at the beginning of the lesson.

This was two hours later with no falls whatsoever as he is crossing the bay back over to the canal he started out in.














We also took in a local event called the sand bash which featured international sand sculptors from as far away as Italy and Latvia.  It was a great afternoon adventure.

Amazing detail.  Here is a picture of the mouse on the side of the castle.

We were at the beach a day before the official judging so some of the artists were still working on their creations, it was very fun to watch.

Gramma and the boy.

After a few days Jordan's parents Mike and Lynette joined us on the boat.  We had a great visit and got caught up on each other's lives.  Here is one of the beach days where we went looking for shells and sea creatures.

Grampa and Jordan

Mike and Lynette

Jordan and his mom checking out the sea treasures.


We also took a side trip to Cayo Costa State Park and one of our favorite anchorages in Englewood.  It was great to show our children and grandchildren our winter retreat area.

So we stopped to get some fuel and this fishing boat was parked at the dock but was unattended.  The bait bucket was full and these two thieves thought it was lunch time.  The bird on the right was bigger and of course he kept the smaller bird at a distance until his tummy was full.

Too Funny!

We also took a trip into Fort Meyers and toured the Edison and Ford winter estates.  These were the homes in the winter for Thomas Edison and Henry Ford.  There is a museum and many acres of unique plants and flowers.  This tree behind the Beemer/Brower group is a banyan tree which covers a large area.

Well to all of our faithful followers, we will not be posting for a while as we are pulling the boat and putting it into storage (away hopefully from the hurricanes) and then we will begin our adventures again the beginning of 2012 as we continue our loop.  Thanks for sharing our trip with us.

Ft Meyers Fun and family

Well we had a wonderful time with Erwin's little sister Bonnie and her husband, Bill.  They are visiting Florida and drove to Ft. Meyers to spend some time with us.  It was great fun to catch up with them for a couple of days.  It was a first for both of them sleeping on the boat, but they are campers so it was not a hard transition for them.  Here is a picture of Solitude on the mooring at Ft. Meyers.

Here is her Big Brother taking us in the dinghy which of course, is our main transportation.

One of the things we did was check the crab pots and we were very successful.  Here is the picture of Uncle Bill and Erwin.

We took a hike on the beach the pier at Ft. Meyers Beach.

Here are the shrimp boats which are on the one of the shores off the mooring field.

Here is a picture of the mooring field one of the evenings on board.

We took Solitude out and up the Caloosahatchee River for a day trip with Bonnie and Bill.  It was a great day for a cruise.  We did not realize it would be a nature cruise though.  We spotted a couple of manatee and we also had a couple of dolphin that cruised for over 15 minutes on the bow wake of the boat.  Aunt Bonnie got some great video and both her and Bill were hanging over the edge of the bow watching them swim very effortlessly.  It was great fun.  We also spotted a sea turtle back in the mooring field!



Here is a picture of the light house as we cruised by Sanibel Island.

It looks like they enjoyed the trip!