AT FORT MYERS BEACH



 Very wide beach here at the south end of the island.

 Ring-billed gull looking for a dead fish.

 Swimming pool at Caribbean Beach Club

 View from in front of the unit we will have next year, and the next, etc.

 The area around the pool at the CBC

Looking north along Ft. Myers Beach



2011 Sun. - Tues, Jan 23 - 25
On Sun. we left about 10 a.m. to head to Ft. Myers Beach for 3 days, 2 nights, in a small motel less than 2 blocks from the gulf. After checking in, we walked to the beach for a quick look and were surprised how wide the beach is here. Judy and Larry Ahearn had invited us to their place for drinks and snacks before we went to eat at Naples Tomatoes restaurant. Ginny and Allen Halterman were with us also. We had a very nice time - great conversation and excellent food. It was ‘nickel lasagna night’ at the restaurant. (Yes, a generous serving for 5 cents!) It is really good to spend some time with friends from back home.

On Mon. we got down to business - trying to find an economical way to spend our first two weeks in FL on Ft. Myers Beach. We looked at rooms at 5 resorts, checking prices for rental or purchase. We found a bargain at Caribbean Beach Club - BOGO! Buy one, get one free! So for a great price we now have weeks 2 and 3 in Jan. at CBC on the beach, and 2 weeks of our choice in Panama City Beach, right on the beach, FOREVER! We went with the idea of just looking, but this was too good to pass up. We can always rent them out and make money if we want to.

On Tues. morning, we met the agent to finish up paper-work for our purchase. Then we ate lunch at the Fish House restaurant right on the bay. I had a fried oyster basket and Linda had a fried shrimp basket. We shared (pretty equally!), and both were excellent. Good seafood places are one of the best things about coming to FL. The agent had given us 2 coupons for free key lime pie, and it was also excellent. Completely stuffed, we headed back to Kissimmee and arrived about 5 p.m.



FL WEATHER: Jan. 25: At Kissimmee: high 75, low 61. Very warm (about 80) and mostly cloudy and windy when we left Ft. Myers. Close to Tampa, started to hit little light showers off and on. In Kissimmee, after dark, it started to rain hard, with lots of thunder and lightning. TV channels warned of tornados in the area. Rained quite a lot.



FL NEWS: Central Florida cleans up this morning after Tuesday's storms:
Residents woke up this morning to find Tuesday's storms left behind some damage — mostly in a small community in Lake County (northwest of us) - and needed rain. About 12 to 20 homes in the south Lake County community of Groveland sustained the most damage Tuesday evening, the National Weather Service said. Television stations were reporting this morning that about a handful of homes in Groveland were deemed unlivable. It was unclear if a tornado caused the destruction. Elsewhere in Central Florida, trees limbs snapped and power lines were downed but no major outages or road closures were being reported this morning. Possible tornado activity was reported in several areas Tuesday as powerful storm cells pounded the region.