Christmas was early us this year as we worked around the best schedule for both Lauren and Matt to be there at the same time. It was a wonderful time and I wish it could have lasted longer. Lauren was able to visit for a few days before returning home to Memphis. She is in your last semester at school and so ready to get it over with. She has been looking at several prospective cities to call home when she start her new life as a working girl. Below is photo of the two of them.
Since our family Christmas events all occurred before Christmas due to scheduling and Atlanta was headed for chilling temperatures in the teens, we decided to head south. We flew down to Fort Myers, Florida and Canary Transportation drove us down to the Marriott Resort hotel on Marco Island about 1 hour south. What a great decision that turned out to be. The weather was sunny with 80 degree temperatures the entire time. Only one morning was cloudy but turned into blue skies by 10:00 am.
The hotel is a large resort with two very large pools separated by one of two large room buildings. One of the pools is heated so we lived there, read, relaxed, talked and slept. We also maintain our exercise regime by working out in the fitness facility as well as a couple of walks. In the afternoon, we walked down to the shopping area on the bay (4+ miles round trip) to eat dinner and watch the sun set.
Of course you can't visit the Gulf and not walk on the beach (I think there is law against it) so we hiked in both directions. The beach was full of shells so unlike the Emerald Coastline at Destin (our beach home), you had to wear shoes unless you were a Marine or the Terminator looking for Sarah Conner. I was pretty sure I could see Key West from the south point.
A 2.5 mile walk got us to the bay area where we ate dinner next to the water.
The beach was very wide with lots of shells. You could not walk bare-foot without feeling some pain.
Getting ready to go out for dinner. The weather was great with temps around 70+ degrees every day.