More May Flowers

Rained once in April and once in May, and these blooms are just shouting for joy. Sunshine must be the secret ingredient in that healthy glow.......for us too. Yep! that is radiant moi competing with the other blossoms. Let's be realistic - eventually they'll fade too, but they don't seem to be in any hurry at the moment. However, according to those television ads - "life comes at you fast."

Sure does.

City of Palms

Hey Chicago! This is where palm trees like to live.

Fort Myers is known as the city of palms and many of its streets are lined with palm trees. Although they grow in other places....... all over the world(not counting Chicago), somehow they seem so representative of Florida. Everyday, you can see new ones being planted and old ones being carted away. The trees shed their branches whenever and wherever they please, and the streets are littered with fronds, but people stack them on the curb and a truck comes around and collects the discarded limbs. All quite orderly really.

Palm Beach

Traditionally Memorial Day is the unofficial beginning of summer. Yay. Of course, down here in SWF, who can tell? Up North it's the first weekend at the beach; here it's just another weekend at the beach.

The top photo is the Oak Street Beach in Chicago (been there quite a few times) as pictured on the Chicago Tribune web site. Where the heck did all those palm trees come from? And why is the dude on the bike all bundled up like that? Guess it's a chilly start to the season on the Lake.

No palm trees in the other pictures, but we're getting that recommended daily twenty minutes of sunshine vitamin D on our bare skin - and we're not shivering.

Hey! You don't think those palms flew north for the summer, do you?

Rollin' On Our River

Actually, this woman seems to be rowin' on the river. It's a hot morning, but she seems to have found a way to enjoy life in paradise without a big expensive yacht. I wonder whether she has noticed that there is a dolphin to her right. And it's bigger than her kayak. No worries....they love us. Don't they?

There's just something so serene about a sailboat - large or small. The DH would love one, but I don't think there is much hope of his acquiring one because of that incident (he says it was an accident) where he hit me in the head with the boom. Uh-huh. Sail on by.

There are quite a few working boats on the river. (Not everyone is on vacation.) This barge carries construction vehicles, and we always comment about how the World's-Cutest -Grandson-on-the-Other-Side-of-the-Oceans would insist that he "needed" a boat like this for his bathtub. Of course, we would have to get one for him.

Can't miss this beauty steaming up the river. The Captain JP is docked right down the street from us at the Fort Myers city pier. In fact, there are two of them and you just can't help thinking about Mark Twain when you see them go by.

In Texas, party boats went out into the Gulf on gambling cruises, but weddings must be big business for the JP. On reflection, I guess there really is no bigger gamble.

http://www.modernsurf.com/jccruises/page5.html

Friday at the Museum

Just to let you know that there is more to life than beaches and restaurants.

We were at the Naples Art Museum to see the Picasso exhibition titled Pablo Picasso: Preoccupations and Passions. Gives one pause..........wondering how our own activities fit into those categories. Is preoccupation an excessive passion? Isn't preoccupation a negative (maybe I'm thinking of obsession), but can't it be a good thing for an artist.......or is that what makes them crazy?

Pay to Play

Yes, that's right. A person has to pay to go to the beach here in the land of the free (although we all know nothing's free, and Janis told us that "freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose) and the home of the brave. Well, that's not exactly right - one has to pay to park one's car at the beach if one is not rich enough to get there in the family yacht. We're talking two dollars an hour after you pay six dollars to cross the bridge to get to the beaches (discounted to two if you buy a special sticker). However, the powers-that-be make it relatively simple - the machine devours dollar bills and credit cards, then an attendant comes around and collects the loot and writes tickets every hour on the hour just like clockwork. Sorry. Couldn't resist that easy shot.

We've learned to play the game: hooking up with a transponder, recognizing that the mean machine prefers credit cards to dollar bills, locating the best parking lots. Occasionally everyone parks for free when the machine malfunctions. You know how it works - the parking permit that the machine spits out must be displayed on your dash. We became familiar with that routine in Wellington, NZ, where there never seemed to be enough parking spaces to go around. Same problem here during "the season" as tourists wait in line in their cars for hours, hoping to snag a spot when someone leaves. They're on vacation - what else do they have to do?

So....last week when we returned to our car, there was a ticket stuck behind the wiper blade. What's this? Seems the parking nazi had been unable to locate our receipt, fined us $35, left us instructions about where to mail our payment, and admonished us that the fine would increase to $50 if it wasn't paid in five days. Well, the DH (dutiful husband) decided that he was going to fight back so he has made his case and sent the documents to the authorities.

Don't mess with Texas, y'all. Stay tuned.

Who's Crabby Now?

I bet you're wondering what restaurant is right down the street from us here in Fort Myers. Well, disappointingly enough - it's Joe's Crab Shack. I know they're everywhere - they're everywhere, but not all of them have a marina outside. In fact, this particular one is built right on the water. There is a family (three girls and their mother) living on a catamaran that we enjoy watching while we eat. One of the waiters told us that they've been here for at least a couple years and have never been to the restaurant. They probably know something we don't. What a life that would be! I'm surprised they haven't been offered a series on reality TV.

Ignore all those items on the board and go with the bucket of crabs and the key lime pie. I could eat that every day. Of course, the feast is often interrupted by the wait staff performing an enthusiastic line dance to Y-M-C-A. (Who said there were just old fogies living down here in the swamps?) We had to hold back the world's best dancer-in-law when she was here because she was just itching to get up there with the crew and show them some moves. Reminds me of when I used to dance on the bar when I was in college. Well, that's a story for another day.

Dolphin Envy

Dolphins have no natural enemies, and they always make people exclaim and point as if dolphins were some awesome phenomenon. Why do we feel such an affinity for these now-you see-me-now-you-don't creatures? Maybe because they are so graceful, and much better swimmers than we are, and waaaay prettier than manatees.

They are always out there beneath our balcony, sometimes in groups of six or eight, sometimes solo.........but no matter how foul a mood I'm in (I know........ a phenomenon in itself), they always make me smile and think somehow that life is pretty amazing.

Oh, to splash with the dolphins all day.....to swim lazily along the sea wall.........to never have to cook dinner....................

Birds of a Feather

Ah......another day in paradise. Well it's not Hawaii (for all of you who recognize the Magnum quote), but it's close enough.

Everybody is just giddy about having some room to stretch out and flap their wings now that all the tourists have packed up their gear and fled back up North from whence they came, leaving the sand and the sea to the locals who are free to worship the sun in whatever fashion they so choose.Yoga - on the beach. Could life be any better?

May Flowers

I can't really say that April showers bring May flowers because we only had one April shower. Haven't noticed any of the typical up-north spring flowers, but they could be too delicate for the tropical heat and humidity. Some days the sun heats up to near ninety in the afternoon. However, most days there is a nice breeze so we are able to maintain our cool. There is an unscreened balcony, as well as a screened lanai, at our new digs and I am eager to pot up some blooms for the summer......................just in time for the hurricanes. What is that ditty......hurricane, hurricane - go away......