While driving to Fish Tale Marina a few days ago I crossed over the Little Hickory bridge. At the top there was a young couple standing arm in arm looking east waiting for the sun to come up and start another day. The wind had finally stopped blowing and the air was full of moisture so that everything was shrouded in a mist like fog. I knew the sunrise was going to be a colorful and beautiful one.
We are so lucky to live where we live. Just about everywhere you look there is something to catch the eye. Rosette spoonbills are wading the flats and eagles soar overhead. Dolphins are working the schools of fish for breakfast and the ever present royal terns are diving for bait. It’s too bad we tend to drive right past these moments without stopping.
This is the time of year when we really need to sit back and take a deep breath and enjoy our surroundings. I figure we have just about a month. January will soon be upon us and that will mark the beginning of the winter tourist and snowbird season and we locals won’t have time to do anything but work. It’s a good thing. Our economy depends on this time of year. But it’s very tough on family outings and most of our free time is spent trying to rest up for the next working day.
So get out there and smell the roses. Take a weekday off and go to the beach. I don’t care what beach... just go. Pack a lunch, a good book and a beach chair and plop yourself down and enjoy the view. Turn off the cell phone. You can live for a few hours without voice mail and text messages.
Go to a local weekend festival. There are all kinds of art fairs and events going on in our area and in most cases you can visit a least two in a day. No festivals? No problem. Head over to Matlacha and visit the dozen or so art galleries along Pine Island Road.
Make lunch last forever. Go to your favorite watering hole and have a nice long lunch with your significant other. Arrive around noon and stay until three. Try several small things on the menu accompanied by your favorite libations and be sure to try something you’ve never had before. When you think it’s time to leave, order one more item off the menu.
Go topless. Rent a convertible from one of the car rental outlets at the airport and then cruise the beaches with the top down. Start with a leisurely drive through Sanibel and Captiva Islands and then head over to Fort Myers Beach and cruise the strip. Stop along the way and visit a t-shirt shop and do your best to find something really tacky to put on a shelf when you get home. Something that says “Florida” on it and has sand in it would be perfect.
Last but not least get up before dawn and find a place to watch the sun come up. Take a photo of it and then do the same thing in the late afternoon and watch the sun go down. Put those photos on the fridge or on your desk at work and refer to them often.
I'm looking out through the sliding glass doors of my room at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach. I'm here attending the Governor's Conference on Tourism as a partner with Visit Florida. The view is spectacular. The Atlantic Ocean is emerald green and dotted with cruise ships, freighters and cargo ships. From my balcony I can also look toward downtown Miami and see the many skyscrapers, the Intracoastal Waterway and the main entrance drive for the hotel. The entrance drive is fascinating.
