The morning after Halloween looks exactly the same now as it did forty years ago. Even the candy is largely the same. I mean, plain Hershey bars? Do they even make those things the rest of the year. Who buys those? Our kids crack us up, too. These buckets of candy will sit in their room for months. They could just gobble it all up right under our noses, yet they never eat a single piece without asking permission first. Seriously, I sometimes wonder if they are my kids at all. Before going out for Halloween we actually had to make them throw away all their old candy. Candy that was from the Fourth of July parade!
Florida is a pretty good place to find little pieces of Mexico. At this nearby gallery there was a Day of the Dead art display. And outside was a small weekend market where we scored some pretty amazing tamales.
Still not entirely sure we’ve got this thing rigged right, but we took her out for a lightwind sail regardless. Man, this thing is going to be a blast once we’re out in a nice open anchorage.
Like everywhere we go, the animals congregate at our house. These ducks sit outside our door all day and quack excitedly whenever we come outside. If one of them gets aggressive with another one, they get a stern talking to.
Out on Sanibel Island we took a drive through the J.N. Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge. It’s a short, slow, one way road, so Lowe did the driving.
They couldn’t be turned loose on the marina with a sail, but were perfectly happy to paddle around.
Ali gets to forgo the Post-It notes now and just scribble everything on the windows with the kids’ markers. While they were gone one day I was cleaning the windows (first removing the corroded windshield wipers which would never work again anyway) and sprayed Windex on one without thinking. As the words began to run down I scrambled to copy down what I could before writing it back up there for her. It’s also, obviously, stock up time again before we make our way out of the States. Ali makes a pretty much daily trip to Target now. Each trip ends with some weird combination of stores, like peanut butter, hot sauce, black beans, soap, and toothpaste. I’m sure the cashiers are wondering what the hell is going on at her house.
Another museum. There is definitely no shortage of things to do around Ft. Myers.
Putting in some finishing touches. Each of the four middle squares sits on rubber trim and has a good sized hole drilled into the side for water runoff. They won’t be watertight, so we will still get some dripping sitting underneath, but for how often we’re actually in wet weather I don’t think it’ll be much of an issue for us.
After showers, before bed, singing and dancing.
16 Comments on “Life Around Fort Myers”
Yes, they make plain Hersey’s all year and I’m glad. They are one of the few American chocolate candies to not have peanut warnings on them. I’m so allergic breathing near a deep frier using peanut oil can kill me, so I have to take those may contain traces warnings seriously.
bumped into another cruising couple with children…Aboard Mermaid Monster…they are heading to Bahamas and further.
they are new to cruising … hope you guys share an anchorage or two…it is my belief they could use a visual aid or two on how cruising should look.
blessings
scott
You make cruising look amazing.
Beautiful and interesting photos!
Its funny I haven’t caught on your blog in a few months. But just last week I was telling my wife how jealous I am of your kids upbringing. I was saying how they are going to be little water people. I told my wife its a shame they sold the sail boat, because those kids would be sailing masters by the time they were teenagers. I said maybe he’ll get them a little sailing dinghy and they go off an adventure on their own. This morning I sat down with a cup of coffee and clicked on facebook to see the latest blog post, and what do I see..a sailing dinghy! Man those kids are going to have so much fun sailing and exploring with that little boat. We don’t have kids but I’ve taught a lot of my friends kids how to sail. I really feel like sailing is like a magic adventure for kids. It teaches them so much and its such a fun time…I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again..you guys are doing it right! Well have a good time cruising this winter. We are off to Mexico tomorrow…bye bye winter!
The pic of Lowe driving brought back a childhood memory. My dad would let me drive once and a while on private roads such as you were doing. It all stopped one day after we hit a pile of bricks. Hats off to my dad. He never yelled at me or got angry about it. I never asked if I could drive again until I was a teenager 🙂
Mark
Heh . . . I realize that one duck is just looking up for something to eat, more than likely, but it sure looks like he/she is listening attentively to Lowe’s stern lecture. Great picture.
Looks like the red tide has gone or subsided?
I really have to know what Ouest and Ali were singing! Love dance parties with my four boys too.
Ahhhhh sv Ariel ?
The Taco Taco ?? Bell line is pretty close to the original!
Fair Winds from sv LunaSea.
Psssst….if you would like any TB pointers for the original….let me know, I was a GM in CA…. decades ago ???
What a beautiful story you are creating – I enjoy watching it unfold.
My favorite hot sauce is salsa brava, try it out!
https://www.lavictoria.com/products/hot-sauce/salsa-brava-hot-sauce/
Talk about “home un-schooling” ? Sorting is a great math skill. Halloween candy has always been a favorite activity. Alike and different? How many of each? More and less? Lots of skills there. So much the better that they don’t have to eat it all. We always buy a bag of candy to have on hand if anyone comes to the door. (Doesn’t happen in our neighborhood.) We have to eat it all. At 80+ years old, it is okay. Your posts make our day. Thanks!
Ouest looks like she LOVES snakes!
Love seeing Ali’s Target haul…buying in bulk the things you actually use. Smart! Ouest’s hair is gorgeous lately. She is going to be a real knockout in her teens. Watch out! Both kids are just as cute as buttons, and they are going to have a blast in that dinghy. What an amazing childhood they are having.