Leaving And Taking The Cold With Me!

Of course our final day on the island was the best of the bunch weatherwise. Oh well. We got an early start hitting the beach just before 7:00 to catch a spectacular sunrise. We couldn’t believe how many starfish and dead fish we saw on the beach but a guy walking by told us it was due to the cold snap; fish swimming in more shallow water can’t survive in the cold water. It was surprisingly warm when we got to the beach but once the sun came up and the wind kicked up a notch there was a noticeable chill in the air and we headed back to our toasty hotel room where we’d left the heat set near 80. We enjoyed our final free grand slam breakfast at the hotel and our last morning chat with Mr. Stout (the gentleman I mentioned in Friday’s post). After breakfast we wanted to be sure to get in a final bike ride since the bikes had been rented for a total of three days and we needed to check out of the room by 11:00. We rode the bikes for just under an hour before going back to the hotel and packing up our things. At checkout the desk manager told us to feel free to use the bikes for as long as we liked when we mentioned our flights wouldn’t depart until after 5:00. So we went for another bike ride this one was very long because we were trying to find a coffee shop, I think we rode around in a gigantic circle for at least 8 miles or more and we never did locate the dumb coffee shop. We left the Island Inn around 1:30, stopped for lunch in Ft Meyers at a Ruby Tuesday, and arrived at the airport just after 3:00 where we returned our barely used convertible. We had about an hour together at the airport before I went to my gate and leaving poor Tracy working at a Starbucks. My seatmate on the FL to MI flight must have taken a sedative before boarding because she was completely out of it for the entire flight. The inflight viewing was pretty good making the time between Ft Meyers and Detroit pass quickly. I had the entire row to myself from Detroit to Minneapolis and worked on this blog post. Now I’m back at John’s putting the finishing touches on this post. Thanks, Tracy for a fun time in Florida and all the laughter.