Naples

Naples is really posh. Beyond Sanibel and Captiva Islands. Gorgeous, too. Lots of greenery, oodles of flowers, multi-colored Mediteranean-style buildings, stately palms, ... .

Sunday night after setting up in the Kountree Kampin RV park we made arrangements to meet Susie's cousin, Lauren, and his wife, Colleen, for lunch Monday. Susie's family hails from Indiana and back in 2001, when we were at Ann Arbor, we visited several of Susie's cousins in N. Indiana and S. Michigan. I called it Susie's Cousin Kissin' Tour. Lauren and Colleen live in Fort Wayne, Indiana, most of the year and for about 15 years they have been spending winters here in Naples. They traveled the state widely when he was employed in FL some time back and say this is the only place in Florida they would live. We can see why.

They have a lovely condo-apartment in downtown Naples. The picture below is in the courtyard of their building. After visiting a while, telling family stories, and showing family pictures, we went to lunch at a nearby Italian restaurant: sidewalk seating, classy shops nearby, great weather.

Back to Naples, you can see some nice Naples pictures at this website.

After lunch Lauren drove us through various residential areas. Take a look at some of this real estate. Along the Gulf Coast, in an area called Port Royal, and along the bay there are lots of mansions. Here's a shot of part of Steven Spielberg's place, where he occasionally visits, they say. That's the huggin' cousins in front of Spiel's place.

This picture shows just part of the block-long estate. Off to the left are the guest house and servants quarters (we guess). Lauren fishes along this beach.

One aspect of Naples that makes it particularly attractive is that in Old Naples no building can exceed three stories. Thus, you don’t have rows of high-rise condos as many beach cities do. You definitely notice the difference when you move north into a newer area without that restriction.

This website lists celebrities with homes in Naples. Sports figures include Don Shula, Mike Ditka, Greg Norman, Larry Bird, and Jennifer Capriati. (I wonder if Greg still has his place after he divorced his wife and maried Chris Evert.) Also, a statistic: Nearly 200 of the Fortune 500's CEOs have places here!

On Tuesday we went back to the Spielberg beach to spend some quality beach time – reading, working on our tans, beach-walking, gawking. We could hear a mower and a power trimmer at the Spielberg place, so I guess Steve and the kids were doing yardwork.

Here's another beach cottage.

I liked this line of sentries.

Tuesday evening Susie and I drove south of Naples to Marco Island. Lots of high-rises lining its beach, each one seeming to try to top its neighbors - heightwise and stylewise. Earlier, while in search of a post office and an ATM, I had heard a radio commercial for a Sunset Grille on Marco Island – best place to view a sunset and enjoy dinner, so that was our objective. By serendipity, we found it and were there right on time to catch the sunset. The atmosphere didn’t contribute much color that evening, though, at least to the naked eye. The picture below, just slightly photoshopped, is more impressive. Just as the sun dipped below the horizon, everybody in the Grille clapped - must be a tradition. I've read that Key West sunsets draw hundreds of people to the beach there, so we'll soon check that out.

Here's a picture of our Naples RV park. Very nice park with lots of trees. Construction on highway made it a little hard to get in and out, but nice lady on phone gave me good instructions -- go on past the park a mile to the next light where you can turn right and make a U-turn at the entrance to a residential area. Never would have realized that possibility and no telling how far we would have driven to find a place to turn around. Thanks, Kountree Kampground.

Cheers,

Susie and Rob