We took the boat up to the Caloosahatchie Regional Park the other day, just for a picnic lunch. It's past Franklin Locks, the first river lock we went through on our boat trip with the club. We did it all by ourselves this time!
These are just some other river pictures, mostly taken from the boat. We love this river; it's like another world out here -- but not so far away from home that we can't go there often! The best kind of other-worldly experience.
Every few miles, you pass one of these "bird islands." There will be island after island with no birds at all, then one where all kinds and varieties seem to live. I don't know why they like this piece of real estate better than the one just next to it. We see egrets, ibis, herons, pelicans and others and this bird which we've never seen anywhere before. It's a wood stork. Silly looking thing!
The boaters from Upriver go to lunch about once a month. This is our "armada."
The Waterfront restaurant, which is at the southern end of St. James City on Pine Island, actually has excellent food and an interesting history. Ponce de Leon came ashore near here first on his unsuccessful search for the proverbial Fountain of Youth. Even without that though, its still a fun place to hang out. We all agreed that none of us needs this house anyway. Because we can see the same river from our boat -- and even from our spots at Upriver Resort. It really is a great life here. The restaurants we like are all the fancy ones, of course. (If you don't believe me, click to enlarge the picture below and read the classy decorations!) Seriously, we love being able to go to any restaurant (whether by land or water) without dressing up! We're from Eugene, so this stuff is right up our ally.
Many of the restaurants that are on the river have a tiki hut theme. This one is called Coconuts. We even saw a place where you can buy a pre-made tiki for your backyard. There are tons of houses on the various canals around town, so they probably sell quite a few.
The house in this picture is for sale for five million dollars or so--but it doesn't appear to have a tiki hut. One of the ladies on our last boat lunch joked that maybe we could all go together and buy it. (She definitely needs to get some different friends!)
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