Naples - Day 6

Today we went to Marco Island, Florida - just south of Naples (that's my foot in the Marco Island Beach sand - yes, I need a pedi ASAP). I hadn't been to Marco Island for many, many years - we're talking over 25 years, and it has changed a lot. Sadly not for the better IMO.

I had memories of a sleepy beach town, very little development, hardly any businesses and just miles and miles of beautiful white-sanded beaches. Seriously, the only thing I remember being there was a Marriott Hotel, a couple of locally owned restaurants (fast-food restaurants weren't allowed) and some small apartment buildings and hotels. Now it is a development nightmare! We had to drive forever to finally find a beach we didn't have to pay to go to, considering all I wanted to do was stick my foot in the sand and take a few pictures. But after I got over the shock and a little melancholy for days gone by I enjoyed myself.

Well, I enjoyed myself after we found food! What is the deal with restaurants that only serve lunch till 2 p.m. then *close* until 4:00 p.m. for dinner? Hello? What if you're hungry at, oh, say 2:37? We stopped at like 738 restaurants until we found Capt. Brien's Seafood and Raw Bar - it was awesome. For an appetizer I had a tomato stuffed with fresh crab salad and then I had 1 lb. of cold snow crab - I was in crab heaven! Hubby had coconut shrimp as an appetizer and a platter of fried seafood that included Ipswich Whole Belly Clams - have you tried these? They're meaty and delicious. His platter also included these huge sea scallops that were fantastic and Hubby was so nice he gave me two of them! For dessert we shared a Mango Creme Brulee - talk about two great tastes that taste great together!

So, we finished lunch and started heading home. Now, I've been in Naples since Saturday afternoon and I've been craving Cuban coffee since Saturday evening. As you may know, Cuban coffee is not the same thing as espresso. there were plenty of places that served espresso, but nary a cafecito to be found. So today after the lovely lunch I was ready to cave and stop at the Evil Empire Starbucks and buy their nasty-assed, over-priced, unsweetened espresso. But then I saw out of the corner of my eye a sign that said "Coco Frio", which is basically an ice cold coconut with it's top hacked off and a straw stuck in it, and a very popular Cuban (and apparently other Latin American) drink. So I thought maybe they'd have Cuban coffee. They didn't, the owners turned out to be Mexican, so as I bought a tangerine-flavored Jarrito, I told the lady about my quest. She told me there was a Cuban market right near where we were staying!

OHMYGOD! We followed her directions and...bliss...I found Cuban coffee. In my incoherent excitement I confused the young girl making the nectar of the gods and I wound up with an entire "colada" which is the equivalent of about 6-8 shots. Hubby had ordered a cortadito, which is Cuban coffee with a shot of milk, so I wound up drinking the colada by myself. Needless to say I'm typing really fast right now!

We came back to the hotel and now we're settled in for the night, we may stop by the hotel bar later on, but probably not.

I decided to not take the sight-seeing cruise and instead drive North tomorrow, towards Fort Myers, Sanibel, etc. in search of new adventures!