Inland Coastal Byways in Bonita Springs, FL -- February, 2016

Sunday, February 21, 2016

The temperature is perfect for this beautiful Sunday.  At noon we met Trudy Glenn and MaryJo and Richard, friends from home for many years, at the Bay Water Exclusive Boat Club in Bonita Springs, FL.  After a quick orientation of how to operate the pontoon and read the maps, the six of us are venturing out on a 4-hour ride through the complex inner water ways parallel to the Gulf of Mexico. Glenn was a great captain of our pontoon.  Bob became the skillful navigator by default after, with some trial and error, he figured out the correlation between the green and orange markers in the waterways and the map!

We meandered through Ostero Bay with its many mangrove islands of all sizes … Black Island, Long Key, Coon Key, Carlos Park, Ostego Bay, Big Hickory Bay and Island, past Lovers Key State Park to the Fort Myers Beach vicinity. We passed … and were passed by … many other water vehicles … big boats, little boats, fishing boats, sail boats, paddle boats, canoes, kayaks, jet skis, many other pontoons.  Even so, it did have the feel of privacy, with only a few lines of vessels through the narrower channels.  The views are also interesting … the contrast between the blue water and bright green islands of nature with the scattered tall high rises reminding us that we are still very close to a populated area!  Of course, many people were casting their lines in hopes of catching their dinner; and especially the children were enjoying jumping around in the water of the shallower areas.

While I would not consider the sighting of wildlife plentiful, we did see an eagle being chased away by an osprey, another osprey keeping watch over its nest, some brown pelicans sitting on a beam along the docks, many double crested cormorants or sea gulls holding vigil on the markers along the way, egrets and ibis and even a couple dolphins playing in the bay. (I have to add here that earlier in the day I had already sighted several wood storks … very exciting!)

Mid-way through our adventure, we dropped anchor and had lunch on the pontoon while we basked in the wonderment of enjoying each other’s company and exploring the bay on this perfect day.  It doesn’t get any better!  On the return trip we meandered through the canals surrounded by homes … awed by the beautiful, obviously very expensive homes.  It was fun to see.

After we returned the pontoon, we drove up to Fort Myers Beach for happy hour and a delicious dinner at Pincers Tiki bar on the beach.  It is a very wide area of pure white sand and the sunset over the Gulf of Mexico was astonishingly beautiful … light and dark blues, some pink and the glow of the sun as it dropped below the horizon.  And then the mile-and-half walk along the beach with good friends, where at one point a blue heron, seemingly oblivious to us, was looking for its dinner, capped the festivities!  Afterwards we went to Trudy and Glenn’s for a farewell glass of wine, as Richard and MaryJo are heading for home tomorrow.  Wow … God certainly has Blessed us … Life is good!