Sunday, February 24, 2013

Friday, February 15, 2013 – Naples, FL – Cloudy – Rainy – mid 70s

We slept really well in our efficiency. 

The “Deluxe” Continental Breakfast turned out to be pretty good – they had waffles and Bran Flakes (what else could you ask for?). The dining room is large so the breakfast wasn’t loud or crowded.

The hotel did find another golf course view upper level room (non-smoking) that we will move into for our last two nights.  It is further away from the bar so perhaps the wailing will be reduced.

The plan today is to walk around downtown Naples.  It is a relatively short drive from the hotel and we found a free parking space near a War Memorial Park.  It was drizzling but the rain was warm so the only problem was getting a little wet. 

The War Memorial Park honors locals who have served and died during all of the country’s wars.  There is a nice plaque will all of the names of the war casualties.  Very nice.

20130215_Naples War Memorial (Small)   20130215_Naples War Memorial 1 (Small)

War Memorial Park, Naples FL

The best way to describe Naples is that it is Rodeo Drive Florida.  Lots of upscale stores and upscale restaurants.  Even the not so upscale restaurants (diners almost) have upscale prices.  After walking for some time, we started our search for a place for lunch.  We settled on an Irish Pub.  I had a fish sandwich and fries (very good) and Ellen got brave and ordered a fancy flatbread (cheese and mushrooms).  It turned out that the flatbread was 1 percent flatbread and 99 percent cheese – too cheesy.  We took it home.

20130215_Ellen and Gator (Small)

Florida does have gators

The area we had walked through seemed very new and we were intent on seeing the Naples Historic Center.  We got into our car and followed a long line cars to this Historic District.  As it turned out, the Historic District was pretty close to where we had parked in the first place – so we did the circle route.  From the street, we could see the beach area but parking was by permit only.  Needing a picture of the Gulf of Mexico before leaving the city, I snapped the following shot while the car was in the street below.

20130215_Naples Gulf of Mexico (Small)

The Gulf of Mexico

From there, we headed back to the hotel, stopping at a supermarket along the way to get some food for the weekend (deli tuna salad, pita bread, and bottled water).  We were pleased to find that all our luggage had been transferred to the new room.  The hotel had also stored out dinner leftovers and then put them into the fridge in our new room.  Easy Peasy.  Dinner consisted of those leftovers and they were actually better the next night.

Unfortunately, our new room was not far enough away from the bar to deal with the moaning of the Karaoke singers.  Our only option was to wait them out – they were supposed to quite at 11:00 PM and that is exactly what they did.  At 11:02 PM, all was quiet on the Karaoke Front. 

The forecast for tomorrow calls for a nice day.  Let’s hope the weather folk are correct.

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