January 20, 2012

Today we drove into old Bonita Springs and stumbled across a huge banyan tree. It was planted in 1921 by Cordell Smith, a former freight car hopper and a well-liked settler in what is now the City of Bonita Springs.  We don’t hear the name Cordell that often so it was surprising to learn about this one.  Upon further reading, we understood that my Cordell does not resemble this man because Cordell Smith was known as a ” tenacious reader with a memory as long as the railroad tracks he often travelled”.

In the same park as the Cordell Smith banyan tree, we saw these interesting statues.

I had a craving for a hot dog so we drove around looking for a convenience store with the idea of buying our food and bringing it back to eat around our swimming pool. When we couldn’t find what we wanted we quizzed our GPS and got a hit on a place that sounded good.  We felt really silly when we were routed to a place less than one half a block from our room! It is a huge indoor flea market.

There are several places to eat. One place with hot dogs also makes homemade potato chips that are delicious! Our tab was placed in a small plastic cup and that is where we left our payment.

We strolled around less than one half of the flea market and decided we’d rather spend the rest of the afternoon lazing around our pool. After an hour in the sun, I felt a little guilty when I complained that I was too hot!

Resting in the Gazebo.