I forgot to mention something about Silverspot last night. There were no previews! Instead, they advertised a program where you watch a movie before the official release and have a conversation with the director afterwards via the movie screen. I don't think I have ever been to a movie theater that had no previews. The movie started right on time, so we left the theater 20 minutes earlier than at a normal one.
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We caught up on sleep in the morning and missed the free hotel breakfast. That was okay because it gave us a reason to go to brunch at Jane's.
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| Classic Eggs Benedict and the world's smallest fruit side. |
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| Belgian Waffle with more fruit than my side. |
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| Jane's Cafe |
The food was delicious. It was the second best benedict I have had in my life. The best was in Seattle, but that's another story. The surroundings were great and the service was perfect. The only negative was the prices, but we're in Naples, so what do you expect? My $6.50 lemonade was fresh-squeezed with mint and peaches. It was great lemonade, although I'm not sure justifiable $6.50 lemonade exists.
After brunch we headed out to Marco Island. On the way out of Naples, we found Wal-Mart.
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| The Walton Resort. (I mean...Wal-Mart, is that you?) |
The Wal-Mart looked like a hotel! It was far and away the nicest Wal-Mart I have ever seen. I'm not sure what was more shocking: finding a Wal-Mart in Naples or finding a Wal-Mart looking like that!
Wal-Mart wasn't alone. Here's a picture from the Naples Sonic.
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| Every lane has a TV! |
Of course, the building design was amazing too. Plus, the workers were different. There was someone picking up trash in the parking lot and the guy who took my order did it from a headset while delivering food on roller skates! They have a wireless headset that takes orders!
Marco Island itself was a bit of a disappointment after visiting Naples, although we didn't spend much time. It might be a great vacation destination, but driving through, Naples was more impressive.
Up next was a trip highlight for sure. Here's a video!
Of course, we did more than cruise around on an airboat.
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| Holding our headsets so we can chat through all the noise. |
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| Mangrove forest. |
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| Alligator! |
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| Alligator food? (Six of them!) |
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| Another alligator! |
It's fun to be just a few feet from a wild alligator.
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| Everglades City Airboat Tours and a crab boat. |
We also went to the Museum of the Everglades.
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| Exhibits. |
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| The museum used to be a laundry facility. |
I learned quite a bit about the Everglades in the museum, but mostly that the original settlers must have been crazy. Snake-infested waters, rampant bugs, and oppressive heat aren't the sort of things I'm looking for in an adventure.
So, we decided to go into the National Park and see snake-infested waters, bugs, and oppressive heat. There's a tiny, unpaved loop road off of highway 41.
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| Huge mutant grasshoppers. (There were thousands of them.) |
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| The swamp we were driving through. |
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| A vulture? |
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| 25 vultures!!! |
We found our own private alligator!
We also found the best post office ever.
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| That is the post office and the mail man. |
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| Yes, the real post office. |
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| See? |
Then it was time for dinner in Florida City. We ate at a local taqueria, which was nothing special, although Erin really enjoyed her quesadilla. We arrived at the Travelodge and found a very nice room. The Cavalier Inn is looking more and more like the loser of this trip although we still have a few more non-Marriott stays coming up.
Tomorrow we drive to Key West and reach the turnaround point of our vacation!
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