A Nice Trip to Naples, Florida

I have been gone for a little while and I learned when I get there, I had no Internet access therefore, no posts.. So where did I go? I was in Naples, FL for a 1 week vacation and it was nice. Down there, they were having record high (or close to it) temperatures which was fine with me. It was sunny most days and in the lower 90's with high humidity. It was like the summer I never got in Wisconsin.

It was more of a relaxing vacation instead of the usual run around and get as much in as possible. I did splurge a little and rented a Sebring Convertible which ended up being a great decision based on the weather we had. Rentalcarmomma.com had a great price for a weeks rental. I was staying on a golf resort and didn't even do one round. What is my problem?

I did get 3 runs in while I was there, all in the morning as during the day would have been quite hot. It was hot enough in the morning with the humidity and all. I did get in a race as well. I found a nice 8K put on by the local running club, Gulf Coast Runners, called the Crazy 8 Halloween 8K. It was a nice race and I will tell you all about it in a race report in the next post or so.

I was able to get a few fun things in while I was there. I drove to Miami one day and spent some time on South Beach and saw some "interesting" sites while there. I won't go into detail as I want to keep it clean here. The water in Miami was very warm and was nice to swim in.

One day I went to Everglades City and took an Airboat Tour. This was pretty cool. We had a pelican land on the boat before we even started the tour. It was right next to me and when it flew from the side of the boat to the landing in front, it smacked its wing on my head. Very friendly bird but it was just waiting for the fish the driver had. The ride through the swamps and mangroves was a blast and we even got some good speed going at times. We stopped a few times and saw some alligators along the way.

Since the princesses were at Grandma's and Grandpa's for the week, I was able to do what ever I wanted to whenever I wanted to, a nice feeling. Some of you without kids don't know what you have! I missed them a lot on the trip but it was nice to get a break. I even saw 2 movies on the trip. "Couple's Retreat" was an OK movie. It had its funny parts but was a typical Vince Vaughn movie. I also went to see "This Is It", the Michael Jackson movie about the planning of his last concerts that never happened. While this was not like seeing his concert, it was pretty cool to see how it was going to be done. I can tell you it would have been one hell of a great concert if it happened. The behind the scenes stuff was neat to see.

I did not want to leave the Naples area, but it was time to go home. Now it is 4:15 and Trick or Treat begins in a little less than 2 hours. This is one of the fun things you get to do as a parent, trick or treat with your kids. I think we have a 50's Poodle Skirt girl, a Sleeping Beauty type princess, and another princess going out tonight. It is windy here today and about 40 out so there will be many layers underneath tonight.

By the way, I know I had mentioned that I was going to run the Indianapolis Marathon next Saturday. Well, I am still planning on running but there is a chance I may miss it. There are some issues with my family that I will need to deal with this week that may take me away from it. Also, my ankle got a real beating walking down the beach a lot. I know, poor me, walking down the beach along the Ocean, but the camber of the beach gave my ankle some pain so that might be an issue. Right now I would say I am going to be running, I hope to, but we will see.

Good Luck to Mark running tomorrow in his marathon.

Here are a few pictures from Florida:

Here is the friendly Pelican that came for a visit.

Nice alligator, nice CLOSE alligator.

The Naples Pier, lots of people fishing and dolphins swimming near by.

Me on the Naples Pier.

The resort was on a very nice looking golf course. I wish I could have played a round!

The view from the condo along the golf course.