From November to April, the Veterans Community Park hosts the Marco Island Farmers Market on Wednesdays. When we were here back in April, we visited the market and got lots of fresh fruit and vegetables. But our most favourite was the garlic dill pickles from The Happy Pickle. Karen, Cathy, Liam and I decided to go while we left Dave and Michael behind sleeping. Because we got there just after they opened, it was not crowded and were able to quickly pick up what we needed and wanted. The other nice thing about getting there early, is that it is not hot like it is later in the day. We picked up some locally grown strawberries, navel oranges and of course pickles.
We got back to the house around 8:15am and got the cars packed up because we had a boat tour booked for 9:00am. We found Sea Shell Boat Tours on TripAdvisor and what we liked about them is that they only take a maximum of six people which means we would be the only ones on the boat. Samantha and Eric met us at the docks at Caxambas Park. Before setting off, they asked us if there was anything special that we would like to see and we said manatee and sand dollars.
Our first stop was to find sea shells. We learned that they adjusted the tour so that we would stop at an island that has sand dollars. Eric docked the boat really close to the beach. We all got off and started our search. Right off the bat, we found lots of great sea shells. Samantha took us out far into the water onto a sand bar where we found the sand dollars. After spending about a half an hour filling our ziplock bags, we got back on the boat.
The rest of the tour was spent investigating various parts around Marco Island like the Cape Romano Dome Home on Caxambas Island and some of the Ten Thousand Islands. We had been keeping our eyes open for dolphins but still had not spotted any and we were getting near the end of the tour. All of a sudden, Eric spotted some and started heading towards them. We drove past them, turned around and then the dolphins were following us in the wake. It was at least a good five to ten minutes that the dolphins stayed behind the boat jumping and playing in the wake. It was one of the coolest things I have ever seen. We ended the tour driving past some of the expensive homes on Marco Island. Many of these homes are only occupied from January to April. We even saw one house that had three boats … a huge yacht and two fishing boats. Maybe I should check my lottery ticket before heading back home. The tour ended around noon, so we went back to the house and enjoyed leftovers poolside.
Swimming, napping and fishing is how we spent the afternoon. There was a heron standing to the side watching Dave fish. He really became interested when he saw Dave actually catching fish. So Dave decided to see what would happen if he left the fish on the dock. The heron waited and then flew over and grabbed the fish. He flew back and then proceeded to swallow it whole. It was creepy watching the fish go down the bird’s throat and even see it flopping in it’s stomach. In total the heron got three fish. A good day for him.
We thought we should continue the fishing by heading over to the Judge S.S. Jolly Bridge. The bridge connects Marco Island with the mainland of Naples. It was getting close to dark so we did not have as much time as we would have liked. Dave did not catch anything but we did see a beautiful sunset.
We all wanted ice cream but did not want to wait until after dinner so we decided to have it first. We hit up the #1 Ice Cream place according to TripAdvisor called Sweet Annie’s Ice Cream. The flavors are varied and the portions are huge. We ended our long day on Marco Island with a BBQ steak dinner poolside. I think everyone is going to have a great night sleep after all of that fresh sea air.
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