("It's never too early to kiss a pretty girl." --Keith)
The alarm is going off... it's 2:15 AM, -7 degrees outside, and three hours since we turned in for the night. Wendy needed a little extra time to get organized before she started the day. Keith got up at 2:30am. Let's just say his eyes were open, his body was moving, but he didn't have all cylinders in his brain firing. We awoke at this hour to make it to the Indianapolis airport for a 6:30am departure. We left the house at 3:30am and drove straight to the airport without trouble. Wendy's task on the drive to the airport was to "ramble" enough to keep Keith from falling asleep at the wheel. For those who know Wendy, you know this wasn't a difficult task, except for the fact that she also was half asleep. We found a good spot in the long-term parking lot. Thankfully, one of the shuttle drivers for the parking lot stopped at the shelter and waited for us. Apparently, he had no one else to pick up at that strange hour. Funny that. A short ride, a quick walk, and we are inside the airport.
There are two lines in front of the ATA ticket counter, one for E-ticket passengers and one for "regular" passengers. We have E-tickets, so that's the line we get in. Now, we may not have been totally awake at this point, but it seemed to us that the other line was moving faster. For starters, one of the two automated check-in machines is not working. The instructions were confusing. The touch screen keypad missed most letters people typed. One of the ATA employees was trying to assist people with the machine, but he was fairly rude. Keith was totally unimpressed with the system and missing security measures such as checking your driver's license to ensure it matches the name on the ticket. Then the fun & laughs began when Keith, being the suspicious character that he is, was stopped by the security screeners. He had to remove his belt, shoes, and have his laptop inspected. Thankfully, the guards were extremely courteous and professional. All of them were smiling, happy people. It's now 5:11 AM, and we have proof from the airport coridor clock... we knew many people wouldn't truely believe we were up at this hour.
Both of us were a little groggy, but as we waited for the plane Keith grew into a zombie desperately needing a few hours sleep and/or coffee. For him the plane ride was terrible. Wendy was able to close her eyes for a ten minute power nap, but Keith was unable to sleep during the trip. We both were so exhausted that we were cold. Unable to sleep we both sat bundled up in our coats and blankets counting down the minutes till we arrived in Fort Myers.
Wendy's parents met us at the airport. Her parents have been coming to Florida with the family for the past 20 years. Wendy's grandparents also live in Cape Coral that is about 30 minutes from the beach and Smuggler's Cove Condominiums where we are staying. After leaving the airport we stopped at Perkins restaurant for some breakfast. Following a pot of coffee Keith began to wake up a little, while Wendy for some unknown reason had a second wind without any caffeine.
It's now 9:30 AM, and we have been up now for 7 hours. This is supposed to be Florida and yet it's 41 degrees outside -- that's just not right. Swimsuits weren't on the agenda for today, but we were grateful for a wind chill above zero. Keith put on some running shoes, and we took a four-mile walk down the beach toward "The Square" or public Fort Myers Beach bundled up in our sweatshirts. If we stay moving, the lack of sleep doesn't affect us. Of course the trip wouldn't be complete without checking out a few stores. We walked through some shops in search of a swimsuit for Wendy. Keith was nice enough to critique various swimsuits that she tried on. (A tough job but someone had to do it.) After a few shops and a pushy sales guy later, she found something she liked. We took the Fort Myers Beach trolley back to the condo. Once we returned our temporary home, Wendy reclined in the chair and proceeded to fall asleep for a few hours.
Later that evening, we had dinner at a small restaurant called Matanzas. Keith ordered calamari as an appetizer and got Wendy to try one of the rings. She said it was "OK" but stopped after one. She also thought the "legs" looked disgusting. This was Keith's favorite part. We all ordered grouper sandwiches that were very tasty.
The evening was more relaxed as we all headed back to the condo to watch some TV before going to bed.
Wendy was up bright and early to watch the dolphins on the crystal blue water. Keith caught up on some much needed sleep. Refreshed from the good nights sleep he set off for a jog along the beach at about 9:00 AM. The weather was still a little brisk, but the temperatures were already around 44 degrees. There were quite a few people out walking down the beach dressed in cold weather clothing. We thought this was Florida, but maybe we made a wrong turn somewhere. The rest of us relaxed at the condo eating fresh oranges & grapefruits that came from Wendy's grandparent's backyard.
Later, after Vern exchanged the rental van for a rental car, we drove over to Sanibel Island with Wendy's parents. It is a beautiful island with a great stretch of beach filled with shells and other neat "creature clothing". Everyone pitched in as we sorted through various types, shapes, and colors of shells. Some of the more unique ones we found are captured in the picture below.
Back to our walk on Sanibel Beach... We found a cocoanut in perfect shape and a 119 year old lighthouse in not-so-great shape. Our initial plan was to break it open (the cocoanut), so Keith could drink the milk. Keith wanted to climb it (the lighthouse), but it didn't appear to be a sane thing to do. (By the way, we didn't bring back the cocoanut, and there was no room left in the suitcase for the lighthouse either.)
As we left Sanibel Island we had to make one trip to get some special soaps shaped like a dolphin that Wendy's mother had promised Maddie, Wendy's niece. Sanibel Island has a great outlet mall, but the men got off lucky given we only stopped at the Reebok outlet where the ladies found some Reebok workout pants. Once we returned to the condo it was time for a quick lunch and then a shuffleboard challenge of men against women... the women won!
In the evening we went to the Palmetto Country Club for dinner with Wendy's grandparents. Keith wore his favorite dark blue suit. Wendy was, as always, absolutely stunning according to Keith. During the ride over, we took pictures of each other for entertainment.
Wendy had a great time dancing with her grandfather who was quite a dancer in his youth and Keith for the first time. We are pleased to report that there were no broken toes as a result of our first dance. After dinner, we went to Wendy's grandparents' home in Cape Coral. It was Mr. Eastman's 82nd birthday on January 14th that was one of the main reasons for Wendy's trip to Florida this weekend and her sister visiting the previous weekend. She gave him a few presents and following a nice visit we headed back to the condominium so everyone could get a good nights rest. Returning around 11pm Wendy's parents turned in while "the youngsters" stayed up talking till almost 2am.
As the morning begins it appears that we will have an opportunity to wear some of the summer clothing we packed. Keith and Wendy began their morning with a one-mile stroll along the beach followed by breakfast on the patio overlooking the water. We shared a sweet, juicy naval orange. Wendy enjoyed the smell of Keith's French Vanilla Hazelnut coffee and felt brave enough to try some. This resulted in some very amusing facial expressions. Needless to say Keith was cracking up at her response.
Finally the time had arrived on our vacation to enjoy the true experience of the Florida sun. We laid out on the lounge chairs for several hours reading our books, relaxing and even catching a few winks. Wendy's parents joined her in taking a brief nap while Keith, having more energy than all of us at the time, took a walk along the beach. Once rested it was time for a re-match on the shuffleboard courts. Keith was a good sport even though he wasn't paired with any of the winning teams. Wendy and her dad won two of the games and then Wendy's parents pulled out a win by just a few points on the last game of the day.
Around 3pm the sun went into hiding behind the clouds ending our brief tanning session for the day. Once out of the sun, Wendy realized that regardless of her brief time in the sun she managed to get quite red on her face, shoulders and the front of her legs. We decided to get cleaned up and go to the Jungle Golf before we ate dinner.
As you can see by the pictures of Jungle Golf, the course is quite elaborate. There is a big difference in comparison to the putt-putt course at the Tippecanoe Mall. Having gone to the course several times throughout her childhood, Wendy enjoyed capturing her "young at heart" spirit by climbing on top of the zebra. Although hesitant, Keith indulged her with a photo opportunity of him sitting on the gorilla back. In order for him to do it Wendy had to agree to dispose of the best picture of him growling to match the expression on the gorilla. Eighteen holes and the results are in: 1st Place Vern, 2nd Place Wendy, 3rd Place Keith and 4th Place Carol.
Wendy's parents treated us to dinner at an Italian restaurant on the Fort Myers Beach that had incredibly big Calzones and Stromboli sandwiches. With full bellies we all relaxed in the living room with the intention of watching the Superbowl. Keith made the mistake of letting Wendy lay her head on a pillow on his lap. It didn't take long before Wendy and her parents were out. Keith definitely had an opportunity to learn the various sleep habits for Wendy and her parents while on vacation. Not to mention he was privy to hear the "Eastman Snore" as Carol slept in the reclining chair. Luckily, it didn't scare him away.
Keith cheered at a blocked punt that was run back for a touchdown in the first quarter giving all of us a wake up call. Probably a good thing since we had to pack for our Monday morning flight.
Keith had his PDA with him in Florida so he set it to wake us at 6:45am so we could grab breakfast and get ready in time for us to leave for the airport. A great plan until Wendy woke up around 7am and the PDA hadn't gone off. Keith wasn't sure for the reason behind the PDA failure. We skipped breakfast so we could leave in time to make our flight not knowing how heavy the Monday morning traffic would be. The condo was 30-45 minutes from the airport. Wendy's parents dropped us off and with time to spare. Keith grabbed his Starbucks coffee and Wendy headed for the cinnamon sticks (YUM!).
While waiting for our flights departure we had time to reflect on the weekends events. We totally enjoyed our weekend trip to Florida and came to the conclusion that we could handle traveling together again. Yippee!!
The flight was fairly smooth with a great view until we hit Indiana where it was overcast. When we broke through the clouds on our decent into Indy we saw the snow. Boy did we miss our one-day of weather in the high 60's. The adventures weren't over just yet. At one point there was some concern that Keith had lost his luggage. It was the very last piece of luggage, but even others had made it around the conveyor belt a couple times before we found his bags. Crisis avoided. We caught the shuttle bus to the car and headed back to Lafayette after cleaning the snow off. It was a nice quick drive back to the apartments were we unloaded our luggage before heading to pick Riley, Wendy's dog, up from the kennel. He had been there since the previous Thursday following surgery to have him neutered and remove his remaining two baby teeth. Boy was he happy to see us! He even left a puddle for the kennel attendant to clean up. Riley tended to cling to Keith for the first few hours and was obviously upset with Wendy for understandable reasons.
Later that night Wendy learned that Riley had an infection from the drainage coming from his teeth... hopefully no one ever has to be woken up with there dog gasping, it scared her to death.
We have already begun to think of the many destinations we would like to travel to next time. Many of which are where we have family to meet for the first time or just to enjoy spending time with each other.
We hope you enjoyed reading about our trip. We learned several things while creating this website that will make things slightly easier for the next trip. The biggest of which was how to express two people's opinions without repeating a lot of details. Our solution was for Wendy to work on the narrative with Keith's input and he focused on the installation of the pictures.
Till next time!!!