We have been docked at Rose Marina in Marco Island for a little over three weeks - longer than we usually stay here. The length of our stay was based on a few personal matters that we needed to deal with and some strong weather.
We arrived in early December expecting to stay for at least a few weeks and got a great deal on dockage for a month making the length of our stay flexible.
Typically Marco is a quick stop for us where we get provisions, fuel, etc. and continue on our way. It is easy to run out of things to do within walking distance of the marina in this upscale community, so we splurged on a rental car for most of our stay. It has really made this a fun stop!
We caught a few movies - most importantly (to me anyway), 'Mockingjay - Part 2'.
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| Go Katniss Everdeen! |
The burrowing owls are still living near the marina in the middle of all these big houses They are so cute!:
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| Picture from 2013 |
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| Peek-a-boo - Grass is higher this year |
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| What'chu talkin' 'bout, Willis? |
We went to two Collier County museums - most interesting was the 'Pioneer Museum' (Roberts Ranch) in Immokolee http://www.colliermuseums.com/locations/immokalee_pioneer_museum. This is a well preserved cattle ranch dating back well over 100 years ago. Many people do not realize the importance of the cattle industry in Florida, both in the past and today. Drive up through the center of the state and you will be amazed by all the cattle.
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| Main Museum - Formerly the church on the ranch |
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| Bunk House - available without charge to cattleman driving herds through the area. |
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| Florida cattle |
We went to a high school basketball game (boys and girls) between Marco Island Academy and Everglades City. Neither team had great records, but were evenly matched. Everglades City won hard fought games in both the boys and girls contests. Everglades has about 160 students in total in grades K-12, so they are a very small school. They had no cheerleaders (compared to Marco's 15), but the girl's team formed a great cheer section for the boys game - they were a blast to watch - they had so much fun. We rooted for the 'country kids' from Everglades City where we have visited for over 25 years.
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| Both games were very physical with a lot of 'floor-rash' |
We also decided to make a trip north to Orlando for the 'Florida Sunshine Classic' women's basket ball tournament where the Miami Hurricanes were playing. In the first game on Saturday the 23rd-ranked Hurricanes faced 4th-ranked Baylor. It was a great game with the lead going back and forth for most of the game; unfortunately Baylor's superior height prevailed in the fourth quarter as they won 88-81. Miami played great and we were very proud of them!
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| Coach Meier leading her team to a near upset over 4th-ranked Baylor |
On Sunday, Miami faced Indiana in a tough match, winning 89 -75. In the beginning of the game we were afraid that the Baylor game the night before had taken too much out of Miami (it was Indiana's first game of the tournament) but the gritty Hurricane's prevailed!
While in Orlando, we went to see Wakiwa Springs (https://www.floridastateparks.org/park/Wekiwa-Springs) - one of the many natural springs in Florida. In all the years we have been coming to Florida, we have never seen a spring - most are in northern Florida. I didn't know quite what to expect, but the outflow from the spring was impressive! Near the spring, you could see big 'boils' of water coming to the surface; if you look closely to the following picture, you may be able to see them in the foreground.
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| The constant 72 degree crystal-clear water makes great Florida swimming in the Summer - not when we were there :-) |
We hope to leave Marco right after Christmas and make our way quickly to the Bahamas (Abaco).
Tom
Docked Rose Marina
Marco Island, FL
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