Sunshine State of Mind

So on Wednesday, May 12, Colin and I ventured out on our first real vacation together to Cape Coral, Florida. His older cousin Sara was getting married on May 15 so the family took a mini-vacation and all flew down. He took care of all our travel arrangements so as a result, we had a 3 hour layover in Atlanta which got us into Fort Myers at 9pm. Colin’s mom had gone down the day before so she picked us up at the airport and got us to our wonderful vacation home less than a mile from the beach in Cape Coral. Thursday morning we woke up bright and early; like 7:15am. Colin was engrossed in a book he had bought for the flight so as he read by the pool I took pictures and explored the house some more and made breakfast. We went for a swim in the pool before taking the bikes down to the beach for 10am. This beach was very nice but it was in a bay so there were virtually no waves and as we got close, saw that the water was almost the color of blood. It was a very dark brown and as it got shallower it was a rusty color. We were repulsed by it but all the natives didn’t seem to mind. They were all swimming around like there was nothing wrong with swimming in infested-looking waters. C’mon. This is Florida! Where are the aqua blue waters and big waves?!
After a little over 2 hours there and apparently my body was trying to tell me we weren’t in Massachusetts anymore. We got up to talk to Colin’s cousin who had just gotten there with his three kids and within a few minutes I was seconds away from passing out. I ran to a bench to sit down before I did and embarrass myself. I must have been dehydrated. Colin’s terrible sunburn that showed up later that evening proved to us that being that far south, the sun and the heat are a LOT more powerful than up in New England!
That night was supposed to be a big bachelorette party for Sara, but instead she decided to have one giant party for everyone. The house we were staying at was the largest so all 40 or so guests came over to our abode where we had a big cookout. It was a lot of fun and great to see and meet more of Colin’s family plus all the other people from the groom’s side. We all clicked very well which is always a good thing.
The next day Colin and I went for a bike ride around the area to see the houses. We saw some pretty cool architecture and some pretty amazing mansions on the water. And to think that these houses are SO affordable considering where we live now…
After the bike ride we spent the day lounging by the pool and relaxing. It was in the 90s the entire time we were there, so there wasn’t much you could do outside before you were either feeling overwhelmed by the heat, or your skin was…
That night was the rehearsal dinner. There were about 50 people present at the dinner which was at the Olive Garden. Yum! Afterwards all the family from Colin’s side went out to a bar called the Paradise Tiki Bar. It was a massive tiki hut, open air bar with live entertainment. The guy singing noticed we were from Massachusetts so he started singing Sweet Caroline. That got us all riled up. He came over to our table and we all chimmed in with the “SWEEEEET CAROLIIIINE, BAA-BAA-BAAA”…. And the “SO GOOD! SO GOOD! SO GOOD!”
The next day me, Colin, his mom and his brother all took a trip to Sanibel Island which is next to Fort Myers. It was nice to go to a real beach for once and go swimming in the Gulf of Mexico waters. The water was so warm! We stopped at DQ on the way home and then had to get ready for the wedding. The wedding took place at The Royal Palms Yacht Club in Fort Myers. It’s right next to the Henry Ford and Thomas Edison museums since this was where they vacationed back in the day. The ceremony was nice. It was on the 2nd floor of the building, overlooking the harbor. Sara had picked some fun music to play during the ceremony instead of the traditional processional songs. On top of that, the ceremony was also about 15 minutes. Short and sweet! So downstairs we go to get the party started!
The cocktail hour was fun. We watched the bridal party get their pictures taken outside while the greatest Emcee ever kept us entertained. They had a trivia contest too. They played a few clips from TV shows opening songs and people had to guess. My hand shot up for one of them; it was for Everybody Loves Raymond. But my scratch ticket, the prize they gave away, wasn’t a winning one. Bummer. Anyways, we danced the night away and it was a grand ol’ time.
The next day was Sunday and it was basically our last day there since our flight left at 8am on Monday morning. Again, another great job on Colin’s part for booking our vacation. This day, Colin’s mom took us to downtown Fort Myers. It was awesome. The streets reminded me of Universal Studios. We walked around for a while, went in almost every tourist/souvenir shop there, then had some lunch. Colin and his brother got fried alligator which I tried and it was delicious! Colin and I decided that we definitely wanted to come back to Fort Myers some day and rent a place with a bunch of people because that area is just so much fun! The beach was beautiful, there was plenty to see and do and the drinks were cheap! Not like up here in Boston!
That night we had one final family dinner with everyone. As Colin grew up they had weekly family dinners at his grandparent’s house in Norfolk. All the aunts, uncles and cousins got together so for them this was a real treat since it hasn’t happened in a long time. It was great all being together for one last time before we all departed. Most likely this was the last time his entire family on his mom’s side would all be together under the same roof for a long time, if ever at all. With half of them living in Florida it’s hard to get everyone together. Even for our wedding next year there might be some people missing…
Monday was a long say. We got up at 5:45 to catch our plane to Detroit where we had another 3 hour layover. Long story short though, our plane was delayed and we didn’t take off until 4pm to Providence. I guess it was good to be home but it sure made us promise each other to take many more vacations together. Hopefully as many as we can before we start having kids!