Highs and lows of our 5th trip to Florida, Marco Island day 4. Dolphins, Dolphins and a few more Dol

[Lisatink]

Today we decided to have a lazy morning as it has been a very busy holiday so far,.
Mark and I got up around 7.30am. James and Lily were still asleep. We went down to the fishing dock which was lovely early in the morning.

Mark fished for a while whilst I read my book.

We were then joined by James who joined in with the fishing. They caught a few catfish and a couple of Pin fish. Whilst we were sitting there we watched a Dolphin coming out of the water.
Around 9am Lily put in an appearance her poor little face is so swollen after her accident and she isn't allowed to get it in the pool or sea. We cleaned her face and but the antibiotic ointment on and then we drove to the bagel factory to get breakfast.
We ordered 4 bagels and took them back to the villa and ate them around the pool.
After breakfast Mark and James went back to fish, Lily and I spent some time on the pool, making sure Lily didn't get her face wet.

Around 12pm we got dressed and headed to Naples.
We put Naples Pier into Google maps and it was 18 miles away.

When we arrived we went to the carpark but it cost $8.00 to park but the machine only took quarters! As we didn't have 32 quarters in our pocket we drove two streets back and parked for free.
We got out and walked to the beach

It was busier than Marco Island but still pretty quiet.
As we headed to the pier with the fishing rods we could see lots of dolphins topping in the water.
We went onto the pier and james and Lily started to fish.
If you look closely in the picture you can see the dolphin in the middle.

Whilst they were fishing I watched the Dolphin and saw that it was swimming very close to shore. Lily and I decided that we would go into the sea to get a little closer. At this point I didn't know how close we were going to get!
As Lily can't get her face wet, we went in as far as her chest. We watched the Dolphin in the distance swimming around which was great. The after a while a fish came by jumping out of the water it was followed by the Dolphin! It came out of the water about three feet from us and caught the fish. It was amazing and I really love Dolphins 😁 around 10 minutes later we were still in the water when the same Dolphin jumped high out of the water again within two or three feet of where we were standing!
After about an hour we went back to the pier to find the boys and see how the fishing had gone. James had caught a fish and as he started to wind it in, a dolphin came and took his fish off the hook before swimming away.

We then walked around a mile to get an ice Cream before walking back to the car.

We drove back to the villa, showered and changed ready to go out for dinner.
We went to the snooker inn

This was a restaurant built on the water. Here is a view from the bar.

We had a couple of drinks at the bar and listened to the live band.
We noticed a lot of people looking out at the water and there were more Dolphins!
We then went to a table to order food. Mark had Mahi Mahi, James had calamari, I had a Reuben sandwich and Lily had a jacket potato as she wanted something soft.
The food was big portions and tasty.
After we had eaten we walked back to the water. The restaurant have put lights into the water so that you can see the fish.

After dinner we went back to the villa.and watched tv for a while before going to bed
Thank you for reading

[saratogajan]

What a lovely relaxing day. We spent hours at Naples pier earlier this year just watching the dolphins. Loving reading your updates. Thank you

[Carpgirl]

Enjoying comparing our trip. We were in Naples yesterday too. We swam, watched the dolphins from the pier and had an ice cream. We got there later though so it was quite overcast.

[MinniMouse]

We're not long back from Naples, we stayed in a villa on the Lely Resort, between Marco Island and Naples. Loved it but felt it was perhaps a bit too far out of Naples and Marco Island. Can I ask who you booked with? I'm wary when making any bookings with the unknown!

One of our highlights was in Sarasota (we stayed there for 3 nights before driving down to Naples). We joined a turtle nest walk on Longboat Key. They do walks every Saturday in June and July. They excavated a nest that had hatched a few days earlier to check for any stragglers and to count the shells for research. They pulled out 9 hatchlings. So cute. If you are planning on visiting the area they post on their facebook page 1-3 days beforehand if they plan on doing an evening walk. These walks in the evening are usually to excavate the nest. Well worth doing. The facebook page is Longboat Key Turtle Watch.

[Lisatink]

Originally Posted by MinniMouse

We're not long back from Naples, we stayed in a villa on the Lely Resort, between Marco Island and Naples. Loved it but felt it was perhaps a bit too far out of Naples and Marco Island. Can I ask who you booked with? I'm wary when making any bookings with the unknown!

One of our highlights was in Sarasota (we stayed there for 3 nights before driving down to Naples). We joined a turtle nest walk on Longboat Key. They do walks every Saturday in June and July. They excavated a nest that had hatched a few days earlier to check for any stragglers and to count the shells for research. They pulled out 9 hatchlings. So cute. If you are planning on visiting the area they post on their facebook page 1-3 days beforehand if they plan on doing an evening walk. These walks in the evening are usually to excavate the nest. Well worth doing. The facebook page is Longboat Key Turtle Watch.

See more...

The Turtles sound great! I have had a look but there aren't any walks at the moment here.

We booked our villa through homeaway, once we had confirmed our booking it was passed onto a local agent. We have booked a number of villas through homeaway and have not had any problems. X