For Thelma. . . a family surprise party/birthday and visits with old friends. . . a swim in the Gulf (apparently my new best friend, Gulf of Mexico, is very fickle and was all over Sandy as well! Huh! Figures. . . . . . ), tennis and long walks.
For me, aka Louise, it was all that I have previously recorded plus visits to the homes of three different Chautauqua friends in their Florida habitats. I took a brief run out to Sanibel Island. . long enough to have a nice lunch and vow to return. I've had guided tours of Fort Myers including the fabulous Edison and Ford summer residences (only drive-bys of these. . must return for a closer look) and the most super phenomenal Banyan tree on the Edison property that I have ever seen.
This is one tree, and this is only a part of it. I could literally get a chair and sit and look at this tree all day.
Got an extensive tour of Shell Point retirement community where my friends live. An amazing complex of beautiful housing and services for seniors. While there I was able to see a manatee!!!! Twice! They have an inlet from the river where the manatees come to escape the cold. . . and there was cold to escape in the past two days. I saw one little manatee surface twice. A real thrill. Ugly little bugger. So ugly he was precious!
I met Thelma and her friend this morning for breakfast in Naples. I have one inquiry in for a property in North Naples for possible rental next year. It's a tiny house with a pool. They can heat the pool so that I could swim every day. It would not be cheap, but one thing I'm thinking about is renting for only the month of February to see if I like the area I've chosen and even if I would like living down here. So that's where I am with that.
And so the trip back began with each of us taking long periods of time to regale the other with what we did while we were apart. My two main things to want to be sure to do on this trip were 1.) see a Manatee (check), 2) pick an orange off a tree. Up until today, the second item had yet to be accomplished. But Thelma's friend took us to a house in her neighborhood where I picked a grapefruit! And I was pretty happy about that. It would have been enough. But then my karma really kicked in when we decided to stop at a fruit stand off the highway. You may remember that on my way to Bradenton I stopped at a fruit stand where the lady told me that it was against state law for her to allow me to pick an orange. But then as we drove up to the stand today, there was a sign. . . Pick Your Own! Thelma and I went berserk. Well. . . make that I went berserk! There was a little lady sitting inside eating Kit Kat bars and looking a little surly if you ask me. Thelma and I collectively can emit enough kinetic energy to fill a barn without trying too hard. So we took both of our bigger -than- life personalities into this big garage type structure and began getting very excited about picking. The woman somewhat begrudgingly got out of her seat, put down the Kit Kat and took us out back where she said: "Go down this row and you can pick off the first two rows down there." I'm a teacher. I'm a teacher who taught teachers how to give clear instructions. These were not clear instructions. But Thelma and I have the collective emotional age of one kindergartener when we get going, so we merrily made our way down the row and found our own version of "the first two rows" and began picking like mad. What fun! Suddenly I asked Thel. . . . "what kind of oranges are these?" To which Thelma replied, "Naval oranges. It says so on the sign." Hmmmmm. "Uh . .Thelma. . . . . . how come there are no navels on these oranges?" Ooooops! Wrong row? My solution: "Let's just start picking on the right row. These oranges will be at the bottom of the bag. Kit Kat Lady will never know!" Thelma's solution: Take her 3/4 full bag down to the lady, confess everything and throw herself on the mercy of the court! I'm holding my breath and cursing the day I met Thelma as I wait for her to reappear around the corner with a little lady who had dialed her surly up a couple of notches to where she was downright threatening! She clearly needed another couple of Kit Kat's. I didn't catch the whole exchange, but I heard surly Kit Kat lady say, "Well, you're not very good at following directions!" I decided that now would not be a good time to explain to her, in carefully articulated teacher language, just exactly how many ways HER lousy directions could have been interpreted. We realized that her main concern was that we would end up with not ripe enough oranges (as in, "Those oranges you picked won't be ready until March!") and that we would be disappointed. I quickly assured her that Thelma and I had the collective emotional age of one kindergartener (she somehow did not grasp what I was talking about) and that all I really wanted to do was to pick oranges anyway. Eating them later was entirely optional. At this point Kit Kat lady was really starting to loosen up, smile a little, and basically do everything she could to get us checked out and on the road as soon as possible. And I gotta tell you from the comfort and safety of my hotel all these hours later. . . . I'm pretty sure that somewhere out there Kit Kat Lady is reflecting on her day, missing us a little, and seriously considering retirement.
So here we are outside Jacksonville in a hotel. We've been to the pool and the hot tub. We've squeezed about everything we can out of this state. Basically, we brought Florida to its knees! And we both agree we're ready to get home. Thelma to her husband and animals (mutually exclusive) and me to the progress on my Crappy Little House and life in the big house without Jean. We are stopping for the night tomorrow in Charleston with yet ANOTHER friend of Thelma. Home Saturday or Sunday. It's been a great trip.
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