Guest bloggers Ann Wojtysiak and Leonardo Tombelli
Traveling to Florida can be a welcome break to interrupt the Michigan winter and this year we decided to return to Naples, Florida, and enjoyed some day trips in surrounding Naples:
Pure Naples and the Naples Princess both offer a fun 1.5-hour sightseeing cruise through Naples Bay, around Port Royal, and into the Gulf, all leaving from Tin City. Naplesprincesscruises.com
The Naples Botanical Gardens have walking paths to themed gardens, waterfalls, an Orchid Garden, and café for lunch.
The flowering plants are a welcome sight!
The everglades are nearby, and one can enjoy the natural beauty of this giant river of grass and take in a fan boat ride! https://www.evergladescity-airboattours.com
These folks know how to provide the trill of speeding through a mangrove canal but also respecting the water and its wildlife.
Later, enjoy lunch of stone crabs at Triad Food’s screened in porch. Triad is family owned and operated, located on the historic Barron River.
The Audubon Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary features a natural protected wetlands area with boardwalk trails, observation tower & native wildlife.
Everglades National Park: This park protects the southern twenty percent of the original Everglades in Florida. The park is the largest tropical wilderness in the United States and the largest wilderness of any kind east of the Mississippi River.
Everglades City: Enjoy Marsh Trail and walk a short distance to the multi-story viewing station to see amazing birds, and perhaps a gator.
After visiting the Everglades, check out the Ochopee Post Office! It is the smallest operating post office in the United States. Measuring a mere 61 square feet, it is a tiny shed on U.S. Route 41 in Collier County near Ochopee, Florida.
