It’s become rather interesting to me that we live in Colorado and this summer we chose to spend a large portion of time in Florida. I’ve been seeing many other RVers that live in Florida spending the summer in Colorado.
It’s been hot and it’s been humid, but I think I have one of the best suntans I’ve ever had. And we have air conditioning – so there is that.
Tampa Bay Area
One of the things we really enjoy doing is connecting with family and friends. As we plan our travels around the USA, we like to see where we have family and try to make stops in those areas to connect with family that we probably wouldn’t ordinarily see (except for at a family reunion, etc).
I have a cousin who lives in Tampa. We were able to connect with him and his (amazing) wife last summer in Washington, D.C. They now call the Tampa area home so we wanted to make a stop there (plus there are some cool things in this area!).
We really enjoyed our time in the Tampa area and we really wished we had spent more time there (Note to self: if we go to Tampa again – plan for at least a full week!) We did a lot in the 3 days we were there was so much MORE we could have done.
We visited John’s Pass and went on a Pirate Boat ride. This was a lot of fun, because:
- Being on a boat is always fun – no matter where you are.
- The crew dressed up as Pirates and kept the kids entertained for the whole boat ride.
After our boat ride, we went back to my cousin’s house (they have a pool!) to relax for a little bit, and then we ended the day at Honeymoon Island State Park. This was an amazing beach with TONS of seashells and amazing sunset views. The kids built sandcastles, we walked along the beach, collected seashells, and enjoyed the end of a fun day.
Naples/Everglades
After we left the Tampa Bay Area, we stayed in the Naples/Marco Island area. One thing that was NOT cool was the bugs – particularly a bug I had not encountered before called a “no-see-um”. And NOT many work to repel these suckers. Not cool, Florida – not cool at all.
Air Boat Ride Tour
We went on an airboat tour with Everglades City Airboat Tours. This was a very fun experience and it was our first time on a fan boat/airboat. There are some fun maneuvers that these boats can do (can you say drifting?) We saw manatees, dolphins, alligators, and birds on our airboat tour.
We each wore headsets so we could hear the guide (and because these boats are LOUD!) The tour lasted about an hour and we went through many mangroves “tunnels” on our tour.
Marco Island Shelling
Marco Island was an interesting place where most of the neighborhoods we observed had boats in their backyards with different channels leading out into the gulf. We also visited Tiger Tail beach while we were in the Naples area and found some really awesome shells!
