Naples

Yesterday, Josh and I spent a lovely afternoon exploring the beautiful city of Naples. Naples is a wealthy beach city on the Western coast of Florida that has tons of good shopping and restaurants.

It also had an abundance of species of tropical flowers. Much to Josh's annoyance, I insisted on stopping to photograph most of them.  "You should start a new blog," he teased, "'Flowers of Southern Florida'. I'm sure at least three people would read it." Little jerk is lucky I love him so much.

We left Tilly in an empty parking lot (as we often do, since RV parking doesn't grow on trees) and headed for Naples pier.

The pier gave us a spectacular view of the Gulf, the beach, and...

DOLPHINS!!

Much like the oxen I discussed in my Colonial Williamsburg post, I had never seen a real live dolphin in the wild before. They come up to the surface every so often to breathe, making a loud hacking noise as if they've smoked 3 packs of cigarettes every day for the past ten years. Besides that, though, they're super cute.

Naples Beach, from the pier.

It got pretty hot after we got off the pier, so we walked back to Tilly on the beach. There were a ton of people out, and it was nice to see everyone playing in the water and hanging out in the sand. This time last year, I went to Plum Island Beach in Massachusetts with two of my friends, and the water was so cold you couldn't go in past your ankles without turning into a human icicle. Here, the water feels like a comfortable bath. I love Florida!

No icicles here.