Jetskis and Kayaks

October 21. Cocoa Beach to Marco Island.

Up early to see a lovely east coast sunrise.  Packing up, schlepping stuff to the truck, and getting it stuffed in is now a routine but a very tiresome one.  We haven't needed a lot of the stuff we brought along but who knew.  We've been really lucky with the weather the entire trip with nice dry warm days.  Tuna continues to hate the in and out of truck/hotel travel; this morning we got some really evil glares when we were trying to convince her to get into her carrier.

We drove west by Orlando, then southwest to the Naples area, then continued on the coastal road to Marco Island.  The Naples area is a huge sprawl of buildings.  We hadn't heard of Marco Island until I started researching places to go and I was surprised at how developed it is.  It reminds us of Coronado.  Lots of houses with little room between them and lots of high-rise condos and resorts.  There are tons of boats, as you can imagine, from huge yachts to smaller fishing boats. 

We stayed on the northern end of the island at a small family-run motel, The Boat House.  It is a great little spot, with spacious rooms, a dock for fishing or having drinks and watching the boats go by, and friendly people.

October 22.  Marco is at the northern tip of the Ten Thousand Islands and a great place for exploring by jetski.  This was our first time on a jetski and once Mark got the hang of it, he loved speeding around the islands.   We went around mangrove forests, had bottlenose dolphins right by us at times, stopped at a deserted beach to gather shells, and just had a great time overall on this 3-hour adventure.

October 23.  Today we went from speed and noise to slow and quiet.  We drove to Chokoloskee Island and took a boat-assisted kayak tour of the Everglades National Park.  We went out a distance in a power boat with the kayaks onboard, then when we got to a more remote spot, we got in the kayaks and paddled around the Everglades for a couple of hours.  This was our first time kayaking, although we both have experience with canoes, and it was fun.  The landscape was similar to the prior day but the experience was very different as this day was peaceful and quiet.  We saw lots of birds including osprey and their nests, white ibis, great blue herons, kingfishers, brown pelicans, turkey vultures, and egrets.  A huge white pelican flew over us, a sign that winter is coming - they fly in for the winter and leave again for the summer.  This is a bird migration path so lots always going on.  We also saw a baby loggerhead turtle and a baby stone crab, and bottlenose dolphins again were right next to us.  Since it's been so dry lately, we didn't see/feel any mosquitoes.  We stopped once on a small island for a break and found a few more shells.  This southwest area of Florida is a sheller's paradise.  Mark hoped to see alligators but they are more in the inner reaches of the park and in the Big Cypress Swamp.  (We did see one in a roadside waterway at the space center).  We looked for manatees, as they are often around, but no luck. Chokoloskee is the opposite of Marco: laid back people, manufactured homes, and a very rural feel. 


We enjoyed our time on Marco Island and exploring the waterways.  It was a nice respite.