Ft. Myers, Florida...Again

(Actual date of visit: January 18-25, 2011)

I think we came up with the idea to go back to Florida while we were snowed in at Hot Springs, Arkansas. Our friends, Michelle and Sean had their son, Cayden, about a week after we left Florida in December. All of her brothers and sisters (our friends) were planning on heading to Florida in January to see the baby. Not wanting to be left out, we kind of invited ourselves to their get together. ;-)

Breakfast at the Island Cow on Sanibel Island, Florida.

The other brainstorm we had was to invite our friend Marge to fly down from Ohio to spend five days with us on the beach. Kait and Andrew are her "adopted" grandchildren (although I guess technically I adopted Marge first and she just got Kait and Andrew with the package!) LOL  As you can see, we had a great time shelling and relaxing on the beach.

Marge, Kaitlyn & Kelly

Shelling at low tide

Mar Mar & Kaitlyn humoring me with another photo.

Our shell treasure.

Sea Shell Heaven!

I LOVE SEA SHELLS!

There, I said it. They say the first step in overcoming an addiction is admitting you have a problem. Unfortunately, I don't see my hobby for finding sea shells as a problem. It's a challenge and it's fun!

Tom thinks my hobby is an obsession and a compulsion. I say he's not a professional and shouldn't throw those words around without a medical license.

My shelling hobby started when I was a little girl hunting shells with my grandfather on the beaches of Massachusetts. I would come home to Ohio every summer with bags of sharks eyes (snail shells) and clam shells. (I also remember the horror of my Mom and Dad selling said shell collection at a garage sale! How could they sell my treasures for $1 so some guy could decorate his fish tank?! But that's another story.)

What I am most excited to report is that I have finally hooked my kids on shelling too! Finally! It helps when you find really cool stuff. It almost brought tears to my eyes to hear Andrew say, "Look how beautiful that one is, Mommy!" or Kaitlyn yell, "Mommy come see what I found!"

One morning at low tide, we walked down the beach and waded over to a sand bar. We found some really big whelks, Florida fighting conchs, horseshoe crabs, hermit crabs, brittle stars, sand dollars, jelly fish, a sea cucumber and a small octopus!

I didn't take the camera with me on this bountiful trip but here are some shots of the things we found right before we left FMB:

Kelly holding a large whelk shell with mollusk inside.

Kaitlyn holds a sea star.

Andrew and a horseshoe crab.

Say "Hello" to my little friend.

Fish. The other white meat.

The kids learned that we couldn't keep any shell that had living thing in it. So most of the really big shells and all of the sand dollars had to be returned to the ocean. We always tried to put them in deeper water so no one else would try to take them (not everyone adheres to our "no kill" philosophy). 

Kaitlyn said it was like we were rescuing the animals. The kids also picked up any trash we found. They really are good kids. :-)

The only down side to shelling for 5 days straight...SRI's.  For you novices out there, new to the shelling community, an SRI is a "Shelling Related Injury".

I suffered two SRI's at Fort Myers Beach . I stepped on a shell on the dead center of my heel and thought I was going to pass out from the pain shooting up my leg. Just a deep bruise. I shook it off and continued on.

The other is a common problem due to shelling. You quickly find out that walking around with your head down for five days, your neck and shoulders start to hurt. Like any other serious athlete, sometimes you just have to suck it up and play through the pain.

You never know when that next big shell might be right there for the plucking, right?

Fort Myers Beach, Florida

Can't believe it's been a week since our last post! Sorry but that's what happens when we're at the beach! We spent the past five days at the Red Coconut RV Resort in sunny Fort Myers Beach, Florida.

Why did we choose the Red Coconut, you ask?  Let me show you the view from our windshield:

And here's the view of our RV and our neighbors from the ocean:

We were originally only scheduled to stay in FMB for 3 days but when we arrived it was still chilly and the forecast said Friday and Saturday would be in the mid 70's so we decided to stay a couple of extra days.

On Tuesday, we met our friends who live in the area, Michelle and Shawn Riley. They are expecting their first child later this month! Yeah! And I would love to post a picture here but apparently I was more focused on a) relaxing, b) our conversation and c) my 28-ounce bucket of mojito than I was taking pictures at dinner. Sorry about that. Trust me when I say Michelle and Shawn are adorable and proud parents-to-be. We can't wait to meet baby Cayden!

While we were in town, we also met up with Tom's sister and brother-in-law, Susan and Big Phil, who also happened to be in town. And I would love to post a picture here too, but apparently I was more focused on a) relaxing, b) our conversation and c) my 28-ounce bucket of lucky juice (really that's the name of the drink) than I was taking pictures at dinner. Sorry about that. Trust me when I say Susan and Big Phil are adorable and proud parents. Their kids are cool too. LOL

Anyway, in between meeting people for cocktails and dinner, all we did was play at the beach. Most days at the Ft. Myers Beach but we also when to Sanibel and Captiva.

Here's Tom, Andrew and Kaitlyn playing football on the beach
:

And here's Kaitlyn stomping off when she doesn't get her way...

We watched lots of great sunsets:

And it took all week to dig the sand out of Andrew's ears after Kaitlyn buried him in the sand on the first day. He's under the big mound of sand below:

Good times...

Miami, Florida

After Disney, we were exhausted. That's not a complaint, just a fact. We needed a day or two of Disney detox (relaxing, school, laundry and cleaning, etc.). So off to Miami we went to recuperate and see our friends, Robert and Martin.

Miami was experiencing a cold snap (65 degrees and sunny during the day). To listen to the natives, you might think that the proverbial hell was freezing over but it felt pretty good to us. Especially when we checked in on Newark and the high was 28 degrees with more snow on the way! I'll take a "chilly" day in Miami over a cold day in Ohio anytime!

Kaitlyn with Martin (left) and Robert (right).

We ate at Havana Harry's and had the BEST Cuban meal ever! If my cooking club ever wants to do a road trip to Miami, this would be a great place to go! (Hint, hint.)

The kids with the Everglades RV Resort greeter.

We also took some time to decorate for Christmas. We strung some holiday lights around the interior of the RV and decorated our Christmas tree.

Kait and Andrew decorating the tree.

The LeFevre Christmas Tree 2010.

We decided not to venture down to Key West since it's a long drive and it's not exactly a kid friendly place. Our next stop brings us up the Gulf Coast to Fort Myers Beach, Florida.

Ta ta for now!

Lake Buena Vista, Florida (aka Disney World)

Yep, we did it. We officially lost our minds. At least that's what I thought when we decided to take the kids to Disney World.

It all started with cocktails...as so many of our adventures do...the kids were in bed and we were discussing our options for our next few stops around the coast of Florida.

First let me preface this with we have never been to Disney. We almost broke down last Christmas and stopped by Disney for a day. (You can tell how much we knew about Disney with that comment. Now we know that no one just pops in by Disney for just a day! There are plans to make. Strategies to develop. It should take weeks, if not months, to properly prepare for your Disney experience.)

Second, did I mention, I strongly dislike amusement parks, big crowds and large groups of whiny children? I really didn't want to go but I didn't want to be Debbie Downer and prevent my kids from this so-called "experience of a lifetime" either.

By my second adult beverage, I was agreeing to go to the Magic Kingdom and the reservations were made for four nights at the Fort Wilderness Campground at Walt Disney World. (By the way, you need to make reservations at least 3 days in advance. Mickey doesn't embrace spontaneity!)

We agreed to surprise the kids and not tell them until we were pulling into the park. Here's their reaction as they finally realized what was going on. (And let me tell you, it took them a while to figure it out. You would think all of the "Welcome to Disney World" and "Magic Kingdom" signs would be a dead give-away.)


"Yes! We're goin' to Disney World!"

I have to admit, I had fun. We all did and I'm really glad we went. I have even gone so far to make comments like, "The next time we come here..."

Here are some more shots from the Magic Kingdom.

St. Augustine, FL

As our trip continues, we plan on working our way all the way around the coast of Florida. Our first stop is St. Augustine, just for an overnight stay. We did have time to poke around the city before it got too dark.

Did you know that the Fountain of Youth is located in St. Augustine?

Unfortunately, we found the Fountain of Youth but it was closed. Bummer. Tom and I need all the help we can get.

When all else fails, my strategy is to go to the beach. So that's what we did.

Kait and Andrew's sand castle.