Hi faithful readers! I pray this finds you in good spirits, wonderful health, and even better luck as the Christmas seasons falls upon us.
We are back safe and sound from our honeymoon. For those of you who do not know, we went to Fort Myers, Florida, home of the U-turn. And some other stuff, I'm sure. But mostly the U-turn.
Day 1 of our honeymoon brought us untold adventures. Upon arriving, we rented a Mustang Convertible. It was excellent, loud, and gave Jeff the opportunity to get us lost time after time without feeling his manhood threatened. :)
Vroom vroom! That said, our first big purchase on our honeymoon was a GPS, who we lovingly named Tabby. She caught the Florida spirit near the end of our honeymoon by instructing us us to make U-turn after U-turn after U-turn (and even had us circling city blocks several times before admitting our destination was on the right). As our previously Googlemapped directions took us to the property rental office (and not our beloved condo), we felt this was a necessary purchase. Hooray for Day 1! :)
Day 2 brought untold adventure as we went in search of the necessities: groceries, parking passes, and Bank of America. Now, let me tell you, this is when Tabby began to show her sarcastic nature. From our starting point, the nearest Bank of America was around 12 miles away... after an hour of driving, Tabby took us to a location on the beach. Literally. No Bank of America anywhere. We then drove through barrios and ghettos before U-turning ourselves until near dark. You'll be happy to know we later realized a Bank of America a few mere blocks from our beginning destination.
Day 3 was wonderful and wonderous, as we explored the exciting winter homes of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. We were especially excited to peer into the rooms , guest houses, pool house, midnight garden, home office, garage, and laboratory of these fine gentleman (it was honestly really cool). As walking their acre of property took much of the day, we continued the adventure by wandering the area around our condo (which was actually inside a spa/resort facility and was on the beach and BEAUTIFUL!). Pictured are Thomas Edison's home and Jeff and I breaking the museum rules by entering a restricted area to be next to the SAH-WEET car!
Day 4 was Thanksgiving. For our first meal as a married couple, we decided to be really traditional... so we had fish and rice. And then we walked around on the beach, gave thanks for the wonderful weather and beautiful views, and retired to watching movies and cuddling the remainder of the day. Happy Thanksgiving to us!
Day 5 we learned a LOT more about Florida driving as we journeyed to Tampa Bay to visit the Florida Aquarium. It was nice, but I was a tad disappointed because I expected larger and more oceanic fish with us being in FLORIDA and all. However, I really enjoyed looking at fish at a location other than Red Lobster. Behind the Aquarium was the SS American Victory, an old ship dating back to WWI. Jeff and I promptly left the Aquarium and toured this wonderful ship. We even got to go into the cabins and on the top deck. It was really neat. Lastly, we found something that took the rest of the day: IKEA! I was so excited I make Jeff stop. We spent the remainder of the day browsing the aisles and remarking at how smart those Swedes are.
Day 6 we found ourselves journeying south to Naples to the Naples Zoo and Botanical Gardens. After going around the same block twice, Tabby admitted the location of the entrance. As with the aquarium, I found myself searching for many more wildlife than was found at the zoo. It was certainly an enjoyable time, but I was a little disappointed as we missed alligator and snake feeding time. They also had wonderful trees and plants to look at. We also took a boat tour to see the monkeys and that was pretty neat. That evening we had reservations at
Ellington's Jazz Club and Restaurant, an upscale establishment with live jazz entertainment. Our waiter reminded us of
Marshall from
How I Met Your Mother in every way, shape, and form and this kept us pretty entertained. Overall, the food was good, the staff was curteous, and the band was awesome! The band surprised us by announcing our recent nuptials, dedicated a song to us, and the hostess brought over a rose. It was really sweet and definitely really cool.
Day 7 was spent at the beach. It was gorgeous and only took us about 14 U-turns to find (relatively cheap) parking. :)
Day 8 brought us back home, bringing about the wonders of flying First Class (do you know all drinks are free in First Class?!). Let me tell you, we did not allow any of the "advantages" of flying First Class go to waste. I am thankful there was a car service to pick us up for the ride home.
While we REALLY miss the wonderful view and warm weather, it is good to be back home! We started missing Duncan the second day and the long phone calls with him just weren't really doing the trick for us... plus he kept dropping the phone, etc. :) Hope all is well with you and yours! :)
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