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Our trip to Naples, Florida

• Mason City, IA to Paducah, KY
• Paducah, KY to Valdosta, GA
• Valdosta, GA to Bonita Springs, FL
• Bonita Springs, FL to Naples, FL
• An day in Naples, FL
• Sarasota, FL to Americus, GA
• Andersonville and Plains, GA
• Warm Springs, Georgia
• Dalton, GA to Mason City, IA

The business meeting ended before noon so we loaded the car to head out of Naples. Before leaving though, we drove to Naples Pier, which the travel guides told us was a must see location in Naples. The sign at the pier told us that it was originally built in 1888 as a freight and passenger dock and at the turn of the 20th century it was equipped with narrow gauge rails to transport the freight and passengers. It was renovated after three hurricanes, the last time was in 1960.

As we walked out the pier we were both impressed with the view to the north and could pick out our resort on the distant skyline. The waves were the largest we have seen in our three days here, a direct result to the of shore westerly wind that cooled the air off as well.

We saw lots of sunbathers but only one serious water sport person. This young girl dressed in a wet suit spent a considerable amount of time getting positioned and waited for the perfect wave to propel her surfboard towards shore. We saw her standing on the board a couple times before leaving.

Our walk out the pier made us realize just how far it extended out in the golf, one reference we read indicated it is 12 feet wide and about 70 yards long. There were plenty of people fishing and we saw one fisherman pull in a Whiting, it wasn’t large, but it went in his basket nonetheless.

The next two pictures show the pelicans that were floating around the pier looking for fish. They are a fairly large bird but we did not see any pick up their lunch.

We left Naples about noon and drove to Venice, Florida to visit our friends and join them for dinner. Tomorrow morning we will travel to Americus, GA where we have plans to visit Plains, GA the home of former President Jimmy Carter. We are hoping for great weather so we can get pictures of the state that we remember as being a fog bank on our way here.