It was a beautiful morning, with not a single cloud in the sky.
We spent the day around the pool relaxing, acutely aware that the time is flying by and we only have four days left here in this paradise.
Lunch was leftover pizza, and there was a lot of it! Needless to say the crusts that weren't eaten were shared with the turtles and the fish!
We'd decided to go out at 4pm and visit Tin City in Naples, a riverfront area of shops and restaurants as we were looking for somewhere new to eat in the evening.
Getting into the car which had been standing in the sun all day was torture! I dread to think what the temperature was inside! We drove into Naples along a different road, the Golden Gate Parkway, and came across a crime scene with several police cars and even a Fox News reporter! We later found out that a man had been discovered dead in a pick-up truck on the road so that was very intriguing.
After we turned onto the 41 from the Golden Gate Parkway, we saw a Cheesecake Factory restaurant, somewhere I've always wanted to eat, being a huge fan of cheesecake! It's always a good idea to explore new roads as you never know what you're going to find and we were a bit tired of constantly travelling on Airport-Pulling Road!
We parked some distance from Tin City and walked over to the waterfront complex. It reminded me a bit of Weedon, a small collection of shops we go to at home, but on steroids! There was a cafe called M&M's where Mike and Sophie had an ice-cream and lots of places selling touristy tat, including shells, soaps and clothes. We went into one tee-shirt shop as Sophie wanted a Naples top and we had a great chat with the owner who told us how busy the town can be between Christmas and Easter. Apparently, there's a 30 day wait for a restaurant table!
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| You can take boat trips from here, as well as shop and dine in the restaurants. |
We checked out both restaurants in Tin City - Riverwalk and Pinchers Crab Shack - but we didn't fancy either of them. They were also open air and the heat was still very oppressive, even at 6pm. We decided to drive to 3rd Street South and eat at The Old Naples Pub again, before heading for the pier to watch the sunset.
We were quite early for dinner, by our standards, but one of the servers warned us that the restaurant would fill up, so we took a table inside (lovely and cool!) and ordered drinks. A man was playing the piano in the background and it was all very relaxed and chilled out! Sophie and I ate coconut shrimp served with chicken, rice and sauteed vegetables, Keith enjoyed fish and chips while Mike had a huge plate of nachos. With drinks, the bill came to a very reasonable $92. Sophie really enjoyed her shrimp and I thought the meal was lovely and certainly as good as Tommy Bahama's!
We made the mistake of deciding to drive to the pier, even though it was only a short distance away, and therefore gave away our parking space. It became very obvious that hundreds of people had the same idea as us as the sky was cloud-free (unlike last night!) and there was no space to be had at all in the car parks near the pier. We had no option to return to the parking lot near the restaurants and try and find another space. Which, luckily, we did!
We walked back to the pier with the crowds and shuffled along to the mid-point where there is a small cafe. Sophie had suggested we have a frozen banana for dessert but both Mike and Keith declined so it was just the two of us who chose one each covered with peanuts.
As soon as I took mine out of the wrapper the lolly stick came away and it collapsed! Sophie took mine and I had hers, but whether the banana wasn't completely frozen or the heat got to it very quickly I don't know, but mine collapsed again and I soon realised that Mike and Keith were very wise to miss out on this particular treat! I ended up with banana, peanuts and chocolate all over my face and down my favourite top, which caused my family great hilarity! I also had chocolate all over my hands and was a right mess. The breeze from the sea had blown my hair in my face and I was hot and sweaty...not the best of feelings! And I don't even like bananas!
I managed to clean myself up and we carried on down to the end of the pier where a great crowd had gathered to watch the sinking of the sun into the Gulf of Mexico.
It was a beautiful evening but the absence of lots of interesting clouds on the horizon meant that it wasn't as gorgeous as the other night. There was, however, a huge bank of clouds behind us which was spectacular.
So far, we hadn't heard any thunder but looking at the formations in the sky I don't think a storm was far away. There were still people swimming in the sea and playing volley-ball on the beach and there was a great atmosphere as the sun set.
As soon as it was over we walked back to the car with hordes of people, our progress impeded by some who would stop dead and take a photo of the sky or friends and family.
We got back to the car and on the way home called into Publix to get some beer and Fever Tree tonic for me. I also bought a hat as I find it much more comfortable sitting out by the pool with something on my head! On the way back to the villa we saw some fork lightening but we didn't get any rain.
The last dregs of the day were spent having a drink outside and then watching a little television before bed. We enjoyed a half hour long advert for 70s, 80s and 90s music that had us all singing along and dancing around the living room!
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