February 18-19, 2012

Saturday, February 18^th

We make one last trip to Delnor-Wiggins Pass State Park today.  I am going to miss this beach.

I like to see the palm trees, shrubs and other vegetation that grow between the parking lot and the beach. There are picnic tables and grills scattered throughout this shaded area and it is enjoyable to sit and eat lunch while watching the Gulf.

The dolphins were more active today than at any time we have been here. One was even swimming between some children in the water and shoreline. The people were very excited and I wished I had been in the water with them!



Sunday, February 19^th

There was a lot of wind in Ft. Myers today. People were warned to stay out of the water at the beaches due to dangerous rip tides. It has been mostly cloudy, but even so the temperature this afternoon was 81°.

We went back to Bethlehem Lutheran Church and the regular pastor was there today. This small congregation is going to have an Ash Wednesday service, but will not have any regular Lenten services due to not enough interest. These people do like to sing though—there were 9 songs in today’s worship service and not one verse was skipped!

Major League Baseball spring training opened this week and I noticed a lot more people staying in our hotel. Ft. Myers is the spring training home for two baseball teams—the Boston Red Sox...

...and the Minnesota Twins.

 I think there are some players and team personnel staying at our hotel but I haven’t had an opportunity to talk to any of them. Now, if the Baltimore Orioles were here, I probably would recognize some of them and wouldn’t hesitate to approach them.

We are going to be packing up our things tonight because tomorrow we are headed to the Keys. We will be staying at Marathon for three nights. After that we will begin to wend our way back up the east coast. We hope to visit friends and family in Ft. Lauderdale, The Villages and Middleburg. We are still interested in touring Charleston, S.C. on our way back north. Right now I don’t even want to think about leaving these 80° days and especially so since my niece, Alyson, sent me a photo of snow at her home in southwestern Virginia today!