Florida Part 3

Grandpa Marshall had to go home on Monday, so we had lunch in Naples and got dropped at the Zoo while Gangi took Grandpa to the airport.  Turns out, the time it takes to drive Naples to Fort Myers and back is about how long the short attention span crew can spend at the Naples Zoo.

There are still hints of the zoo's past life as Jungle Larry's Caribbean Gardens - you can pay an extra $5 to feed a leaf of romaine lettuce to a giraffe, or ride a camel.  Since waiting in line to have a last minute chicken-out is something I currently refuse to do, we settled for watching other people feed giraffes and ride camels, and devoted a little extra time to the playground.

So, basically, we only have photos of fake animals from our zoo trip.

But this one is real - 

That big guy was sunning himself at the end of the Fakahatchee boardwalk, and thank goodness.  A cold front had arrived, and I mistakenly thought the kids might enjoy a nature walk, since it was too cold to swim or go to the beach.  Lucie insisted on pushing the stroller and crying when it wouldn't go the way she wanted.  Brennan wanted to know where all the animals were, since there were signs along the boardwalk featuring bald eagles, river otters, etc. Basically, it was the Worst Zoo Ever.  He did enjoy telling everyone we met on the way back to look out for the big alligator.

Enough nature, time for lunch.  After 3 trips to Everglades City, we finally made it to the Camellia Street Grill.  It was nice to sit by the water and warm up in the sun, and Mommy was super-excited to find a restaurant salad with mixed greens and herbs and even little edible flowers.

It would have been smarter and faster (and more fun) to skip the boardwalk and just go to the playground.  So that's what we did next time.

Even more fun was a special ride invented by Gangi - the grocery bag swing:

...and we didn't even have to leave the living room!

All too soon, our last day arrived.  We packed our bags, locked up the cottage, and drove to Fort Lauderdale, so our last night would be close to the airport.  I didn't want a repeat of last year's white-knuckle experience, sitting in gridlock and watching the minutes tick down, followed by my curbside-to-checking-the carseat-to-airplane-boarding-while-toting-a-3-year-old-and-14-month-old-who-could-barely-walk mad dash.  I may have set an airport record.

We had a nice dinner on the sprawling patio at Le Tub - 

I don't why it's called Le Tub, but they do have plenty of them.

And it was a good place to watch one last sunset-

It was a looong flight home, but we survived, much to the chagrin of the couple flying with their 20-ish daughter behind us.  (message to row 18 - Yes, next time you shouldn't fly coach.  To Florida.  During Spring Break.  BTW, your daughter was small once.)

As usual, it was a great, fun, relaxing trip, and we're excited to come again soon -