Getting settled in Ft Myers

November 13-20, 2015

Jim and Ann were flying back to Quincy on Sunday, November 15, so they spent most of Saturday looking at furniture for the salon.  For those who might not be familiar with boating lingo:  salon = livingroom, galley = kitchen, stateroom = bedroom, berth = bed, head = bathroom but more specifically toilet, hold = storage space below the floor.  Some boaters are sticklers for using boating lingo for the living space on a boat, but we still slip up from time to time.

They had a rental car again, but since we really hadn’t eaten anywhere downtown except for The Lodge, we decided to try a couple of the restaurants there that the locals had recommended.  Friday night we ate at Capone’s, which has Italian fare, including coal-fired pizza.  Since it was still hot & humid, we didn’t take Sasha with us so that we could sit inside.  The restaurant is decorated with a Chicago gangster era theme, including the restrooms where the men’s looks like a prison cell and the women’s looks like a brothel.  The staff is dressed in clothing to go along with the theme as well, and there is a mock-up of the “real” Capone vault.  The pizza is reasonably priced and very good with a nice crispy thin crust.

Capone's Coal Fired Pizza

Capone's "real" vault

Saturday night was Bike Night, which occurs 4 times a year.  Hundreds of motorcycles of all kinds lined the blocked off downtown streets.

Just one of many streets lined with motorcycles

Tricked out custom reverse trike motorcycle

There were vendors and bands set up to entertain the thousands of people who filled the streets.

There were a number of vendors who catered to the biker crowd

We saw the famous motorcycle Jack Russell terrier, Whitey, sitting in his custom seat on the back of his owner’s bike.

Whitey always attracts a crowd of admirers

We took Sasha with us and she did just fine with the crowded streets.  The only thing she didn’t really like was when someone revved a motor loudly.  We ate at Ford’s Garage, another downtown theme restaurant that was in the thick of all the action.  They even had a grill set up for people who wanted to grab a burger instead of sitting down for a full meal.  We sat at an outside table since we had Sasha with us, and she was so well behaved that the waitresses didn’t realize we had her with us until we were almost done eating.

At Ford's Garage with Jim & Ann Vandiver

The view from our table

Even the bathroom sink fits the garage theme

We were sure sorry to see Jim and Ann go on Sunday.  It was nice to have friends from back home to visit with, so we hope some of our other friends take us up on our standing offer to visit us any time. (Hint hint!!)  When we go to our other home for Thanksgiving, we plan to drive our car back, so we will have better transportation for visitors after that.

After Jim and Ann left, we spent the rest of the week working on things on the boat.  We are still settling in, rearranging things, and figuring out what we need and don’t need.  Rob already has some clothes to take when we go back to Illinois and some things he may want to bring back from there.  He has also been working on a couple of small projects on Jim & Ann’s boat as well.

Thursday we went to the 43^rd Annual Ft Myers Boat Show, which was held on the west side of our marina, as well as the adjoining city park and event center.  It felt different going to a boat show now that we are living on our boat, because we had a better idea of whether some of the vendor items would really work for us.  We ended up buying just a few things, mainly to do with fishing since we didn’t have any fishing gear at all.  It was neat to look at all the different kinds of boats as well, even though we weren’t in the market for a different one.

Some of the boats on display at the Ft Myers Boat Show

This weekend, we are looking forward to going to the Ft Myers Beach Sand Sculpting event since we’ve never been to one before.  We’ll be sure to post lots of pictures of all the cool sculptures!