Highs and lows of our 5th trip to Florida Marco Island. Last couple of days

[Lisatink]

We have had a busy time over the
two weeks of our holiday so the last couple of days have been relaxing by the pool, fishing, kayaking and visiting our favourite bar on the last night.

Thursday
We got up and James and Lily a swim in the pool, Lily's lip has healed well and I am letting her loose in the pool but not in the Gulf. As Lily spends most of her time under the water it is a relief to let her loose. Hopefully it will teach her to be more careful as this was our second trip to ER in two years!
We had last nights Pizza for breakfast, so much for my plans of eating healthy whilst we are here.

We then set off for the beach. We are not massive beach fans, we like to go and have a look and have a swim but usually only spend an hour or two max before moving on.
Today Mark took his rods and some shrimp. They stood waist high in the sea by the rocks for a couple of hours and caught:
Jack
Snapper
Snook

Whilst they fished I enjoyed reading my book swimming and looking for shells. The shells are unbelievable! There are so many of them, all different shapes and colours and there are lots of locals searching through. One lady saw Lily looking and came and gave her a necklace with a shell on it so she was happy.

We had probably been at the beach for around four hours which is a record for us.

The sky got dark as a storm was in the area but luckily it only rained, no thunder and lightning.

The sea got a bit chopper and I told Mark and James they would have to get out soon. Then I saw fins in the water, I couldn't decide if they were sharks or Dolphins. If they were sharks, they were pretty big! As there was a few of them we decided they must be Dolphins as sharks don't swim in groups like Dolphins do. They just weren't moving in the same way as they have done when we have previously seen them. They just had one fin sticking out of the water. As I was keeping a close eye on the Dolphins (just in case)
I heard a noise beside me and there was a Manatee! Right beside us! This place is so amazing if like us, you like wildlife.

The fish were nice to catch but no big ones so all have been returned to the sea.

We left the beach, went home and showered and went out early for dinner.
We went to Mangoes which was lovely and had seating outside so we sat and looked out at the water and the nice yachts.
I tried to get a nice picture of the sunset but so far we haven't caught any good ones.

I do get very tired by the end of the day and keep nodding off when I try to write my trip reports, so when we got home off I went to bed.

Friday,
This was to be our last day on Marco Island so we took it easy and revisited a couple of our favourite things.

We went to the bagel factory factory for breakfast which was really tasty and four bacon and egg bagels for $20.00 was cheap for the island.
We ate these by the pool before setting off for the day. Lily wanted to hire Kayaks and we had seen them on Tigertail beach.
Here you don't go in the sea but in a lagoon which separates the sea from the mainland. This place is so wild! Just from standing by the lagoon we watched Ospreys diving in to catch fish. We also saw Black Skimmers and Sandling's which are on the critical list.

There were Mullet jumping, lots of crabs and lots of other wading birds.
We had booked our kayaks through Groupon and paid around $25 for the four of us. When we went to the hut to get the kayaks, the guy chatted to us and asked where we are from. It turns out that he and Mark were both born in the same hospital and that he drank in the pub in Dagenham where I grew up. They chatted about West Ham and how he had come to move to Marco Island.
We weren't really very good at Kayaking!

Here are some of the views from the kayak I only had my mobile but there is an Osprey in the top of the tree.

We messed around for an hour, beaching ourselves in the shallow water, swapping rowers and trying not to argue with each other lol!

After we got rid of these instruments of torture, Mark got his rods and had a fish.
They caught:
Amber Jack
Lady Fish
Snapper
Pin fish
Catfish
Sheepskin Head (ugly!)
Snook.
Whilst the boys were fishing Lily and I waided through the lagoon to get to the beach. Last time I did this I was a bit unsure as the water is brown from the tannin of the mangroves but after being told that there isn't anything dangerous in there I was more confident. There were also lots more people than the last time and I was able to follow a more direct path through the water.
We got to the beach and had a quick dip but the black clouds were rolling in quickly so we went back through the lagoon to find the boys.

Tiger Tail Beach

Once they had used their bait they called it a day. Mark James and Lily have really enjoyed their fishing and for a family that don't do sitting around, it has made us relax and sit a while.
Mark has been on a real high after catching his monster Saw Fish and keeps saying that he wants to tell people about it.😁

We left the lagoon and headed to the shop to get an Ice cream.
This is called cold slab and they mix your ice cream with your chosen toppings and use the cold slab to combine your chosen ingredients. Being a good diabetic, I just had a taste of everyone else's.😋

We went home and James and Lily got in the pool. Mark and I sat and had a glass of wine. We then got dressed to go out to dinner for the last time. 😥

We booked an Uber which arrived in a couple of minutes.
Our favourite has been the Snook inn which again is on the water.
We sat at the bar and had a couple of drinks and got chatting to some Americans. They were really friendly and it was really interesting talking to them.
In England you can go for a drink but if you go to a bar in America it is more get you in, fed and out as quickly as possible. Here it was more relaxed and they were happy for us to have a drink before eating. They had a singer and James went and asked him to sing Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty. Not your usual music tastes for a 14 year old but pleased he likes to be original.😁
We really enjoyed tonight and around 11pm we booked another Uber to take us to our villa.
It has been a really lovely day.
Tomorrow we are going home.😥

[m84ourlife]

Some great memories to keeping you going till your next visit

[saratogajan]

Fantastic photos. I’ve made a note of all your recommendations for our trip in April. Thank you.