Travels of Mark and Pat: Thursday-Friday, March 8-9

We left Salty Sam's at 7:00 AM this morning. Sad to leave Fort Myers Beach, but taking with us so many memories of fun times spent with our families and friends. Lots of good eating in this city, for sure, so also taking with us a few extra lbs,., but I'm happy to say I did my little bit to boost the FMB economy with all my shopping. It's been a great visit and look forward to returning next February.

Leaving Salty Sam's Marina....Catrina's home for the past 6 weeks.

Took us 2 hours to downtown Fort Myers. We were on the Caloosahatchee River with 3 locks today.

It was a nice day of cruising, although at 1:10, the rain started, but it was one of those brief Florida afternoon showers. We passed cows grazing in the fields, horse farms and of course, had our friendly little dolphins swimming alongside us.

Our friend, Jerry fell and badly injured his knee. After numerous tests and doctor visits, he needs surgery, so they are going home tomorrow. Sure sorry to hear this, and sending lots of prayers for safe travels and successful surgery/recovery!!!

Tonight we are in Clewiston after doing 90 miles. They have a large outdoor restaurant here at the marina and when we arrived, were told that the boaters had a 6:00 reservation. Several came and we enjoyed visiting with the father-daughter crew of Bill and Jennifer (he's from Fort Lauderdale and Jennifer is from Cape Coral.)

Thursday - March 8 We went for a walk in the morning and after lunch, 3 long-time couple friends (Claire and Mike, Paul and Kathy and Paul and Margie) came for an outing on Catrina. Had a brief little rain shower and then warm, sunny and breezy! Spent time on the back bay just chatting away and enjoyed snacks and drinks. So fun to be together and catch up! At 5:30 we walked up to Parrot Key to get a table, enjoy dinner AND Frank Torino who put on another great show!!!! We sang along, danced and it was a great ending to a FUN last day in Fort Myers Beach.