Fort Myers Beach (Port #53); Dec 15-22, Murphree Kids Christmas Visit !

Good evening blog followers,

As you see in the title, we are still at Fort Myers Beach Florida, and will be here until Dec 30th.

This week we had a special visit, and long-awaited reunion with our children Ashley & Daniel.
Ashley arrived from California with 1st mate/boyfriend Dave Lyman, late (10pm)Thursday night Dec 21st.
Dan arrived from Michigan with 1st mate/fiancée Megan Durrant, very late (2am) on Friday night.

The kids spent the nights at a hotel on the south side of Estero Island named the Outrigger Beach Hotel, and spent the days with us at the Pink Shell Resort and aboard Gettin’ Looped.
The two location sleeping plan was based on the fact that 6 people aboard Gettin’ Looped for 1 full week would be gettin’ a little to snug & the room rates at the Pink Shell were $350-400 /night.

I will now warn the blog readers that this post may be a little bit boring, unless you are into Murphree family photos.

Thursday – Dec 21
Dave & Ashley arrived about 10pm after a long day of  cheap connecting flights from Oakland California (but hey, it was on Southwest, not Spirit).
We met them at the Outrigger & bed time occurred shortly after their arrival.

Friday – Dec 22
On Friday, Dave & Ashley took the Uber from the Outrigger Hotel to the Pink Shell.
We started their day with the Pink Shell Resort Tour.
We had Brunch at the Pink Shell pool-side restaurant Bongos, and then spent most of the day at the beach.
I was again reminded of the exuberance/energy of youth, and our daughters gymnastics background was actively on display.

We finished the night with dinner & music at the Times Square / Beachside restaurant Pete’s Time Out.
Ashley & Dave went back to the Outrigger Hotel about 10pm, and welcomed Dan & Megan about 2am.
Nellie & I had a full nights sleep aboard Gettin’ Looped.

Saturday – Dec 16
The kids joined us Saturday morning at the Pink Shell Resort for a late breakfast at the wonderful (and expensive) Jack’s Breakfast Buffet.
We spent the day at the beach, and were joined by Dan’s friend, and soon to be groomsman Paul Colandra, who was visiting his dad in nearby Naples.

The Murphree Kids were also on display at the Pink Shell Resort Pool Side Hula Hoop Contest, which was won by Ashley =
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=be0gU1hn8MQ

Later that night we had dinner at one of our favorite places Nervous Nellies, on the Fort Myers beach Inter Coastal Waterway. Dan & Megan had to try out the famous Nervous Nellies Chair (do they look nervous ?).

After dinner, we came back to the Pink Shell Fire Pit

Sunday – Dec 17
On Sunday we spent most of the day at a highly competitive Putt-Putt Golf Tournament. The order of finish was = Dan, Mike, Megan, Ashley, Dave, and Nervous Nellie.

Later that night we ate dinner at the Yucatan, a jungle/island themed restaurant.

Monday – Dec 18
On Monday we had several events;
1. We received the repaired 4-Blade props reworked by Coastal Props Technologies.
2. We repaired the cabin door on the SS Gettin’ Looped.
3. We went for a fun ride in the dinghy to have lunch at a place called Doc Fords, another waterfront restaurant/bar on the ICW.
4. We had Pizza & music at a place called Mantanzas On the Bay.

The props turned out to not be so bad, they were reported as a Class-2 initial scan, and reconditioned to a Class-1 level. This matches what I felt while driving, the vibration was not bad but had changed when we hit some submerged object about 3 weeks ago. Coastal Prop Co is a highly technical place with laser scans & high speed balance. They provide a very nice summary report of the condition of the props before/after repair. This is the first time I have ever received such a report. Hopefully the reconditioned props will fix our minor vibration issue.

 

The cabin entry door mechanism had been deteriorating in operation since we left Michigan. A few days ago the mechanism failed completely (ie rotating the handle did not open the door). The failure was internal to the mechanism, not just a stripped shaft. Luckily I was able to find an exact replacement on-line.
During the swap, I discovered that the latch side of the door had been worked on at an earlier date, and had an oversized fastener with a plastic anchor in the upper attachment. During dis-assembly the plastic anchor broke into pieces. The latch plate had always had a non-flush fit to the door due to the plastic anchor, so we decided to repair the door with a fiberglass repair kit. The fiberglass repair kit was given to me by Ashley’s man Dave Lyman last Christmas, and this Christmas HE got to use it. I am somewhat handy at repairs. Dave is very handy, so I took advantage of the free help.

After all the work was done, it was time for some fun.
We spent the rest of the day on a dinghy ride & had lunch at Doc Fords Restaurant/Bar (Nita & Rich, you may recall this place).

For dinner, we had Pizza at Mantanzas On the Bay, another ICW located place.

Tuesday – Dec 19
On Tuesday, Jonell took Megan to the local hair salon where we treated her to a hair job for her recent birthday on Dec 12th. Her goal was to have a blonde streaked style.

Later in the day we spent most of the day at the beach (85f & sunny every day of their trip).

At late afternoon, we all walked to dinner along the beach, about a 1 mile walk.
During the walk, Dan and I took a few minutes to make some sand/beach art.

We went to dinner at the Lani-Kai so the kids could get some sunset views from Swing Chairs recommended by blog follower Chuck Wolfe. The swing chairs have only 4 seats, so the kids sat together, and mom/dad had some private time at their own table (just inside the indoor area seperated by a glass window, right next to the kids. We could see them thru the glass window but not hear them, what an option !

Ashley & Dave spent the nite on Gettin’ Looped on Tuesday night.
Dan & Megan had the room at the Outrigger to themselves.

Ash/Dave & Mike/Jonell played a game called “Cards Against Humanity”, a card game given to us by Ashley as a Christmas present.
It was a very fun game, but some topics/words made me think – should we really be playing this game with our daughter (the word – queefing) ?

After Cards Against Humanity, we did the annual mandatory viewing of “Christmas Vacation”.

Wednesday – Dec 20
Wednesday morning we had breakfast at a place that Google said was the Best Breakfast Restaurant in Fort Myers Beach.
The advertisements were well deserved – the food & service were great, the setting was an outside patio with a pond full of big turtles, and we were entertained by a local bird seeking his own breakfast.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWqhCkEtNXU

During the afternoon we went for a long walk from the beach to the boat, around the north pointe of Estero Island. The path got very tight at points and we had to go knee high in the water to make it around large bushes. We also encountered more wildlife during the walk.

Later Wednesday night we had dinner at a Jazz Club called The Roadhouse.
The jazz band was great and featured a Sinatra like male singer and a Billie Holiday like white female singer.

Thursday – Dec 21
Thursday was a sad day, in that we had to say farewell to Ashley & Dave.
Dave/Ashley had a 9am flight, me & Jonell used Dan’s Fiat 500 to take them to the airport.

The remainder of the day was spent having fun on Daniel & Megan’s last day at FMB.

Megan & Dan went on a Parasailing ride.
There was a shuttle boat which picked them up at the Pink Shell Resort, but the actual parasailing was done very far south down the beach, we could not see them or get photos of them in the air. It was the first time parasailing for both Dan & Megan. They both said is was a great experience & very quiet floating up in the air.

Next on the agenda was bowling (requested ALL WEEK by Dan).
We all 4 bowled only 1 game due to the very high $30 cost for our foursome.
The night was filled with controversy as Mike eaked out a 2 point victory (165 vs 163), under protest from Dan.
Dan may have some comments to follow after this blog post.

After bowling, we ate dinner & listened to a musician at a Times Square restaurant called La Ola Surfside.

We ended the night back on Gettin’ Looped, with a Murphree Christmas tradition of watching “It’s a Wonderful Life” (usually done at the end of Christmas day, but watched earlier this year due to departure dates).

It was a great week, it was great to see the kids again, and sad to see them depart.

Ashley & Dave will spend the Christmas Holiday in California with Dave’s family.

Dan & Megan will split time in Michigan between the Murphree, Silorey, and Durrant families.

Mike & Nellie will spend the Christmas Holiday on the beach with 2 Corona Bottles & our toes in the sand !