WHAT A FLORIDA VACATION!

After working over 4 months in Sarasota, we felt that we earned our first vacation to Southwest Florida, even though we have lived in Florida since 1973. We decided to take part in an RV tour, sponsored by Winnebago, the manufacturer of our motor home.  We drove a little over 100 miles from Sarasota to Bonita Springs, where we met up with a group of Winnebago motor home owners from 13 states, some as far away as Oklahoma and Arizona.
 
We left the campground each day for a bus tour to explore various SW Florida attractions, none of which we had seen before. First was a trip to the Naples Zoo, followed by lunch in the expensive shopping area of town.  We didn't even know Naples had a zoo. Highlights of the zoo included monkeys--both the typical black and a blonde monkey too, 

a ferocious looking lion--the obvious king of the jungle, 

 
and a sloth as seen just "hanging out" during the animal show we watched.

The highlight of our second day was a 2-hour ride around Sanibel and Captiva Islands aboard the Sanibel Thriller, a 55 ft. motor yacht.
 

The Thriller captain was able to locate several schools of dolphins, and he knew just how to get the dolphins to play in the Thriller's wake.  Ann was able to obtain some fantastic photos of dolphins jumping is the water just behind the Thriller.
  

Our narrator used the analogy of a human body surfing on a wave, explaining that the dolphins do not need to expend any energy to play in a boat's wake. The boat was very fast, sometimes making it hard to talk to the person seated next to you, and the excitement of watching all the dolphins playing in our wake was priceless.
 
Another day we toured Everglades National Park aboard a very fast and loud airboat. Not sure if you can see on the picture, but we are all wearing headphones to block out the noise. The airboat ride was like being in a race car, even when the driver made a sharp turn, which put the airboat at a 30 degree angle to the water.

We got the chance to view several alligators in the water as we raced up and down the various "paths" between vegetation in the shallow water, the reason these boats are powered by a propeller above the water. We could also view many large and ugly alligators in a small zoo next to the air boat dock.

Later that day, we boarded a large pontoon tour boat, where we cruised past many nesting osprey towards the Gulf of Mexico.

The last three days of our vacation included traveling to/from Ft. Myers Beach to Key West aboard the Key West Express, a 170 ft. catamaran that made the trip across the Gulf of Mexico in about three hours.

While in Key West we stayed on Duval Street, in the heart of the tourist district.  Highlights of our visit included the Hemingway House,

the Key West Lighthouse, 

and watching the sun set over the Gulf of Mexico. It was very dramatic to just watch the sun sink slowly into the water with a thousand tourists cheering as the sun seemed to touch the water and then disappear.  Spectacular is the only word for the sunset experience!

We also found time to have a cold beer or two at various Key West bars, including Sloppy Joe's, where Hemmingway was a frequent visitor and where Jimmy Buffet was discovered playing for beer and tips. I wonder if the guys we heard singing will ever be as famous as Jimmy Buffet?