We left Rialto in Alva FL on a pure sunny day with flat seas
and calm breezes. It was the perfect boating day for a ride on the Gulf.
Clothes just flew off.
Then we got to Naples.
Lots of people love Naples FL. It is a popular destination
for Midwesterners. We know people who vacation there. Mike and Judy on One
September know lots of people who winter there. Our review? It is not for us.
Sure it is pretty.
The place is half deserted too. There are few lights on in
any windows at night, our typical measurement of how occupied a place is. We
saw crowds three times:
1) At restaurants at night Judy and Michael experienced
huge, noisy crowds. We didn’t so much because we didn’t eat out as often but
evidently no one cooks in Naples. The restaurants are huge with open windows
since the weather is nice.
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| Every farmers market has a squeeze box duet |
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Fancy chocolate at the crowded
farmers market |
3) At the farmers market. For a population that seems to eat
out all the time based on the crowds, the farmers market was packed. One time I
turned around and lost Judy. Really! She was gone. I said to myself, “I am
going to get in big trouble if I lose Judy.” Then the crowds parted a little
and there she was looking for me. It was scary. We had to wait in line to buy
stuff at every booth. It was worth it. The bread was amazing. We ate half a
loaf when we got back. And the strawberries… to die for!! Straight from this
place called “Plant City”. I have to find that place and go right to the
source.
The farmers market had the appropriate level of old hippies represented
like these ladies playing odd instruments. The folks in the crowd did not look
like these ladies. I never saw so much jewelry, manicured hair, and designer
clothes at a farmers market in my life. Not even in Chicago or Longboat Key. We
were sorely under dressed everywhere we went.
This is not a large marina. It probably has 50 slips. The
boats at the marina were HUGE too. Our little 36 foot boat was definitely the
smallest. There was a 42 Sea Ray nearby. After that One September at 50 feet
was the next smallest boat. After that everything was bigger than 50 feet,
sometimes much bigger.
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You can see how big the boats are: The boat behind
towers over One September but is only about 2 slips away |
Our slip was at the end so when we walked to the
clubhouse it felt like we were walking in a canyon. The pictures here don’t
really capture it. Rusty would not stand still long enough for me to walk far
enough away so you can get the perspective. That is how big these boats were.
Judy and Mike saw the big brother of their boat –a 63 foot Viking Princess. It
was exactly like their boat only on steroids.
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| Trumpy MV Freedom from Newport |
The first boat we saw when we pulled into the marina was
very special. It was a Trumpy called Freedom down from Newport RI. It is a
wooden boat built in 1926 for wealthy industrialist Aubert J. Fay of Boston. It is the sister ship of the presidential yacht Sequoia, used by US Presidents since Hoover, currently located in Washington DC. Freedom was recently restored for
$8 million. It just glowed. The pictures don’t do it justice. It really glowed
from top to bottom. This is a video showing the
Freedom in action and comparing it to the original. This article describes the
meticulous renovation.
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| Trumpy MV Freedom from Newport RI |
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| Trumpy MV Freedom from Newport RI |
We saw crew crawling all over it for a couple of days but no one who was the
owner until later in the week when we encountered crew in uniforms (of course)
carrying luggage following three people in sport coats and fancy dress marching
down the dock and being welcomed onto Freedom by the captain. The guy in the
sport coat was cradling a wooden crate of Sterling Vintner cabernet sauvignon
like it was a baby. Of course he was. They partied that night and left the next
day.
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The Naples Boat Club from the water
Check out the size of the boat!!! We are teeny - you
can see Good Karma on the right side with green canvas |
Kermit of course met everyone on the dock. That was easy
since there was hardly anyone there. Mostly the people we saw on the boats were
cleaning people. One time this lady, clearly an owner and someone we hadn’t
seen all week, went on the boat, made a disgusted noise, turned around and
within 15 minutes a cleaning crew of three Hispanic ladies with buckets and
vacuum cleaners appeared to whisk away the offending staleness before her
highness went on the boat. That is what Naples means to me.
So back to Kermit. He was walking down the dock one
afternoon when he spotted a guy with a Cruisers t-shirt. Kermit, desperate for
someone new to talk to, said, “Nice boats”. The guy was like, “What?”, because
rich people are not used to general conversation with strangers, especially
folks dressed like us. Turns out this guy was really nice. His name was KC
Stock and he owns Cruisers Yachts. Yup. The man himself. He gave Kermit his
card. They swapped spit or whatever Kermit does to charm everyone he meets, and
he was off. Never to be seen again. That is what Naples means to us.
We stayed in Naples for a week, arriving on Thursday January 24 and leaving on January 31 despite our view of the
town. Our original plan was to be there for 5 days because Judy and Mike know
so many people who live there permanently or for the winter. They were booked
solid with four different couples. On the fifth day as we were planning our
escape, the wind kicked up like you wouldn’t believe. Sustained wind of about
25mph with gusts up to 40 mph. It was windy. Chances are we weren’t going
anywhere. And sure enough, we couldn’t leave the next day, Wednesday January
30. But the management was not pleased. They almost kicked us out but Kermit
insisted and sweet talked them or whatever he does so we could stay. They did
not want to talk to Mike about it. He couldn’t make them budge.
Thursday was just as bad so we couldn’t leave then either.
Then we figured out what was making the marina management so upset. Their interest in getting us to leave was not because they didn’t care about us. They were actually nice
folks. Turns out the marina slips are owned by the condos. The condo owners
allow the slips to be rented to transients like us. The empty condo slips
associated with the unsold condos are managed by the marina management.
Transients request particular slips and they expect to get what they want. So
if they say, “This is Mr. Important and I am coming in to slip 30 tomorrow”,
marina management cannot say, “Sorry Mr. Important. One September is still in
that slip and they can’t leave due to the weather. How about slip 24?” That kind of stuff doesn’t fly at the Naples
Boat Club.
Kermit calmed them down by suggesting that if we can’t leave due to
weather it is unlikely that Mr. Important can come in due to weather. Sure
enough, Mr. Important called and said the wind was too bad and they couldn’t
bring that 70 foot Hatteras in until the next day. So everything was ok after
all! That is what Naples means to me.
There is a good ending to the story. The marina management
liked Kermit so much that they did not charge us for the last two days. They
tried but Kermit reminded them that there was a weekly rate. When they
calculated the weekly rate it came out to $36 more than we paid for five days
so they said they would forgive the $36 dollars. Isn’t that nice? They were
really nice to us when they could have been jerks. We appreciated it.
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| Lots of pelicans filling spaces at Naples Municipal Marina |
Other loopers stay at the Naples Municipal Marina just
around the corner. We tried but couldn’t get in there. It was about the same
price anyway. The municipal marina was filled with an entire club of pelicans
so there were no slips for us!
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| Tenant at Municipal Marina |
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| Naples Municipal Marina |
We shared our end slip with a nice young couple on a big
sailboat. Chris is in the Navy finishing a degree waiting for his next
assignment. He is a very sharp cookie. His fiancé, Diama, is another sharp kid
setting up her own graphics design business. We knew they were something
special when they slid into the slip one afternoon after a sail. I never saw
someone slide into a slip between a dock post and the pier like butter. Quite
the seaman. He teaches Navy folks boat handling. It looked like he could teach
us a thing or two about boat handling.
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| Chris on his sailboat, Katannah in the slip next to us |
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Diama goes up to the top
of the mast |
We met his father a few days later. Turns out the dad is
from Boston where Judy and Mike lived while Mike was in dental school. And
Chris and Diama attended the same boarding school as Judy and Mike’s youngest
son, John. They know the same people. What a small world!!
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| Just tighten that little screw |
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| the bag of tools |
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| Don't look down!! |
On the windiest day, Thursday, a piece of navigation
equipment went hinckey. On a sailboat that means a screw is loose somewhere at
the top of the mast where that kind of equipment is located. So he sent Diama
up the mast in a boson’s chair with a bag of tools to tighten the screw.
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| Almost done |
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| Get me down NOW |
She
was fine until she looked down to see all the cameras. Then I heard her scream,
“Get me down before I throw up!” I swear there was an exclamation point. So
Chris sprang into action. He invited me to help. So I scrambled on the boat and
let loose the line on one winch while he tightened the other winch and lowered
her down. I thought “green” was just a euphemism till I saw Diama’s face!! We
were very lucky to have such nice dock mates.
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| Diama is a lovely shade of green! Go take a nap. |
You can see Chris silhouetted at :58 in this neat
Navy video
describing the USS Independence LCS2, the really cool new naval vessel we saw at Mobile. The video was shot in Mobile Bay so you can see what we saw in Mobile Bay.Sometimes it is
neat to see how little strings are connected in the cosmic universe!! According to Chris, the first LSC2 cost $1 billion. The second and third only cost $300 million. Way cool!
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| An artsy store |
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| A fancy hotel on 5th |
Restaurants as I mentioned before are very big, very loud,
and very expensive. Judy and Mike went out a lot because their friends expected
it and Judy didn’t want to entertain by cooking on the boat for a crowd. Very
understandable. One September came in to Naples a day earlier than we did since
we stayed at Rialto to get the railing repaired so they already experienced one
night of Naples restaurants. Judy whispered, “It is really expensive here”. We
were invited along with their friends to join them for dinner the first night
at a lovely place called Lurcat. I checked the menu. OMG. The average dinner
was over $30 and it was a la carte. So with wine we would be looking at a $120
to $150 dollar meal. No way. So we declined. We were tired anyway so we decided
to stop for a small bite at the tavern associated with the Naples Boat Club. We
could sit outside and relax. Nice, huh? So instead of a noisy, fancy $120 meal
at Lurcat we had a quiet meal at the Wharf Tavern for $90. Seriously. All we
wanted was a hamburger but nope. Even small quiet restaurants have fancy food
for fancy prices. Crazy!!
We went out for breakfast once, lunch a few times and dinner
three times. The rest of the time we ate on the boat. We still spent a fortune.
We found a great grocery store called Wynn. Judy and I
strapped on our backpacks and insulated bags and walked about 12 blocks north
to shop. It was heavy. I needed 4 items: lettuce, an onion, milk, and yogurt.
That was all. I ended up with the best chicken salad of all time, some fruits
and vegetables, chicken breasts, and a great bbq sauce to add to my collection.
One backpack and one insulated handled bag for $100. It better be the best
darned chicken salad in the world. That is what Naples means to me.
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| I never saw a store named Marissa before |
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| I HAVE to have this bag |
There are two places to shop around Old Naples – around 5
th
Avenue (of course) to the north and 3
rd Street to the south. We
walked to both several times. We had the time. Cute shops. Expensive
restaurants. We found Marissa stores (have to have a picture of that!). Every
town has to have a Michael Kors store, don’t you know. The best part of
shopping was walking around, especially since I couldn’t afford anything. The
worst part of shopping was what to wear. We do not have any clothes appropriate
for this town. I always felt awkward and underdressed.
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| Sunset in Old Naples |
One of the nights Judy and Mike went to dinner with friends
Kermit and I went to a movie. This was not necessarily less expensive but it
was a change of pace. We wanted to see Lincoln for a long time now so we found
a theater and called a taxi. Even movies are more expensive here at $9 per
person plus popcorn and taxis each way. The movie was great!! Afterwards we had
ice cream next door. That was great too!!
We sat at the pool for a whole afternoon.
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| On the water taxi |
We found the water taxi would take us all around Naples for
$5 each. This was the best yet. We got off and on the taxi and chatted with
Captain Dan. Mostly tourists travel on the water taxi since the rich folks have
their Lexus and Benz’s to get around town. This was the best day of the trip.
Kris and Dennis Cada stopped for dinner one night. This was
really the best! It is so nice to see friends from home. We had a lot of
trouble arranging the dinner because another couple we met in Sanibel wanted to
join us. They are from Naples and enjoy the fancy restaurants. The two dinner
concepts collided. The Naples couple wanted to go to this French restaurant
that Judy and I walked past the day before. We took one look at the menu and
both said Kermit and Mike would never find something to eat there so it was
out. Kris and Dennis suggested this great fish restaurant in a bar that sounded
intriguing but the other couple wouldn’t like it. So we had to pick. We
actually did research and scoped out restaurants one evening. We picked an
Italian restaurant that looked a little less crowded and a little less
expensive because that is what would make us happy. We spent the afternoon
alone with Kris and Dennis catching up then blended the crowd for dinner. It
worked out and we had a lovely time.
Overall we found Naples to be vacuous and hollow, too
expensive, and not to our tastes at all. We enjoyed seeing Kris and Dennis and meeting Judy and Mike's friends. But we strongly prefer almost all the
places we visited in Florida better than Naples.
We left Naples on Friday February 1 for a long boat ride in
the wind to Everglade City. We skipped Marco Island because if we didn’t like
Naples we could not see what we would like in Marco Island. This made for a
long day. We left at 9:30am in the rising tide in about 15 mph winds and made it to Everglade City at about 4pm.
I have lots of photos from Everglades for the next blog post. We only stay in Everglade City for 2 nights then depart for the long 90 mile trip to Marathon. We are positioning ourselves to cross to the Bahamas in about 2 weeks. Bunny and Evan Evans will be joining us for that crossing. Then the Lipkas and Vellucci's join us on 3/1 in Treasure Key. It will be fun.
We left Rialto in Alva FL on a pure sunny day with flat seas
and calm breezes. It was the perfect boating day for a ride on the Gulf.
Clothes just flew off.
Huge, beautiful homes. Fancy shops. Expensive restaurants.
Manicured lawns. Lots of fountains. 
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