Crystal Lake RV Park, Naples, FL

What a great find this place was.  It's not cheap but nothing is down here this time of year.  This is the nicest place we've stayed at since we've left.  70% of the units are park models, 20% are beautiful Class A buses and the rest are 5th wheels.  This place offers everything and has activities going on every day - great place to retire to!  Here's a look at our "camp site" . . .

Many people working on their left handed "Taylor" putting out front of the club house (weekly competitions with 50+ people):

And out back there is tennis, shuffleboard, boccie, a lake with boats to use and horseshoes where I put on a few demonstrations during our stay:

And a beautiful pool & hot tubs area to relax in:

We're stayed about 8 miles from the beach.  We visited the Delnor-Wiggins State Park several days while here.  The beach was pretty nice:

Me and my egret friend spent a lot of time fishing while we were hanging here:

 I managed to pull in a fish that looked tropical and no one nearby knew what it was so I let it go.  Found out later it was a sheepshead which is highly sought after - good eating!

Also caught my first spotted trout keeper but let it go for the bigger one (that I never did catch):

Meanwhile these osprey were keeping a close eye on all fishing activities on the beach:

The best place to enjoy all this activity is all the way down to the end of the park (lot #5) where there is an inlet to Naples own inter coastal waterway.  Keep an eye out for these guys when you hit the restroom - they like to drink from the outdoor showers:

Suze found this hermit crab crawling on the beach:

  We also hit the boat ramp here with our kayak and explored the inter coastal waterways.  We saw these American Oystercatchers along the way:

And many of these herons and egrets among the mangrove roots:

And we're unsure about this either red-shoulder or coopers hawk we saw kayaking:

And almost every time just before or just after high tide, we would see the Dolphins wrapping up their hunting in and out of the inlet:

Another day we drove to Sanibel Island (just off Ft Myers Beach).  We brought our bikes and started from the J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge.  You share the ride with cars but there was plenty of wildlife to see along the way.  Not sure what this little guy is:

Everyone was telling us this one was an eagle . . . may be a young one?

And there were thousands of Ibis, Egrets and Pelicans throughout the wetlands here to see:

On a 2nd visit to this same reserve, I caught a few Roseate Spoonbills (check out the beak on the bird with it's wings up):

And also found a Bald Eagle hanging in it's nest:

And the first "live" horseshoe crab I've seen . . . moving across the water:

We're now card carrying members of the national Audubon Society after visiting the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in Naples.  At first it seemed a little lame walking the boardwalk in the middle of nowhere with some hackapotimus hacking up a lung every 2 minutes which would scare away any panther, bobcat or chipmunk within 2 miles.  But as we progressed down the boardwalk, people were pointing out wildlife that we may have missed otherwise . . . like this hawk for example:

Not the best action picture but I did catch this guy as he was taking off too:

Suze found this turtle hiding amongst the lily pads:

This little blue heron walking on top of the lily pads hunting for food:

You had to look really close (or have a 20X zoom) to see this gator hanging out among the lily pads too:

Another day we hit Everglades National Park from the Everglades City side (south west coast).  This side of the Everglades took a little more work to find the wildlife but if you were patient, you'd find plenty of gators:

We even saw some hanging in the water here:

There was a beautiful blue heron hunting amongst the Spanish moss in the swamp:

And this diamondback rattlesnake crossed our path:

And like many other places we've seen, the various species of birds all seemed to get along as they hunted together:

Suze has gone back to NH/MA to wrap up some work stuff while I knock off my honey-do list.  While still in Naples, I hooked up with our friend Ann Rossi and her husband Joe who were finishing up renovations on a beautiful rental place they just picked up on Ft Myers Beach.  No pictures but I had a great time hanging with these guys for the night!  Roger also came over to keep me company for a day - we got up close to a forest fire that was threatening houses and a shopping center nearby:

I went off to Highlands Hammock State Park in mid-Florida before coming back to Woodsmoke RV Park in Ft Myers to pic Suze up this week.  We're both off to Rainbow Springs State Park further north early next week.  Stay tuned for more updates . . .