We decided to rent a slip at Legacy Harbor Marina in Ft Myers for a month over Christmas so we could visit Cait in Los Angeles.

  Our little crab pot Christmas tree.

 This greeted us at the marina.  Terrible pic, but you get the idea

It was cheaper to rent for a month than for 2 weeks at this first rate facility.  For our “Looper” friends reading this, we highly recommend Legacy Harbour.  The staff were very helpful, the rates were competitive and the facility was one of the best on the Loop.  We had three other Looper boats staying there so we had many pot lucks in the Captains Lounge. 

  Hiromi and Mike “Off Leash”, Arch “Ka-Jen”, Rick and Margie “Journey “, and Tom

A Publix market is a two block walk and downtown was just 3 blocks.  The downtown had theme nights every weekend with lots to do. 

 These beautiful banyan trees at the Edison Museum.  We toured the grounds and homes of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford in Ft Myers.

We spent a week with Cait in LA and had a wonderful Christmas and celebrated Cait’s 24^th birthday.  She and her boyfriend Brian have a nice apartment located between each work place.  

 Everyone knows the biggest part of our lives is EATING.  Cait and Tom at a Japanese restaurant in Burbank.  Cait’s favorite place.

 Cait and me at Warner Bros.  Don’t judge her.  That uniform is hideous.

    Cait and I had a girls day out.  Of course, we went for margaritas.

     Cait and Brian

  Cait wanted her Dad to cook the whole time we were there.  Yum Yum   Osso Bucco

  We played Skip Bo and Cait was not happy with her Dad, because he was winning. 

    Happy Birthday my sweet girl.  I can’t believe you are 24!!! 

We returned to the boat on New Years Eve and as we normally do, we went to sleep. We did a lot of reading and relaxing while waiting on our month to be up. We were having so much fun we did not want to go.  We rented a car twice.  Once so that Melesia could test drive a Mini Cooper Roadster at a Mini dealership.  She loved the car so we bought one.  It is currently being built in England and will be delivered to NC about the time we return. The second was so we could visit “Looper” friends at their home in Naples, Fl.  Betty and Rusty Hughes and Roger and Linda Moffat who both own Monks, were waiting for us.  We went out to dinner and had a great time catching up.  We hope to meet up with Rusty and Betty aboard “The Cooper” when we both do the Down East Loop around Nova Scotia.

   

Betty, Linda, me, Tom, Roger and Rusty.   Such dear friends.  

Once we got underway again we headed East for the first time in a long time.  We were transiting the Okeechobee Canal and Lake to Stuart Florida. 

  I think these are Snowy Egrets…They have different feet.

We reached a milestone en route to Stuart.  We went through our last and 149^th lock before reaching home.

    They burn the sugar cane and there is smoke all along the Okeechobee

  Sandy Evans, this is for you!

  .

We made overnight stops in LaBelle, Moore Haven and Indian Town before we reached Stuart.

  Tom takes me to the nicest places to eat.  This was in Moore Haven.

   I don’t know what kind of tree this is, but it was so cool.  Moore Haven.

      Our first air boats.        

 We picked up a mooring ball for 2 days.  Mooring balls are more difficult than actually staying a Marina since we have to get to the Marina using our dinghy. 

  This is our mooring ball.

  Tom in dinghy    

 Sunset      

  This building was painted like this.  We thought they were real windows and balconies.  HA HA  all painted.

  Couldn’t pass up the chance to take Mango’s pic with this boat.

The cost is only $20.00 a day which is 1/3^rd of what a Marina normally costs.  We had a great time visiting the town along with Rick and Margie, aboard another “Journey”, who are also doing the “Great Loop”.  We got underway for Ft Pierce yesterday and made our final turn to the North.  We are now only about 700 miles from home.  We have traveled about 6300 miles so far in 9 months. We have spent two days in Ft Pierce. The town is very nice and just across the street from the Marina.  Tomorrow we have a 68 mile run to CocoBeach. We are excited that there is a rocket launch scheduled tomorrow at 9PM which we will watch from only 12 miles away.  

Sorry it has been so long since we posted.  We are having a ball and absolutely loving life.  We miss everyone at home, but we are having the time of our lives.