Marco Island

I love the west coast of Florida.  Have I told you that? Yes, three years ago I recounted our trip to Sanibel Island.  The beauty of the beaches, their sand like sugar.  The friendly strangers; must be because most are reputedly from the Midwest.  Sooo different from my neck of the woods, filled with angsty and neurotic Northeasterners.  Last week my wife and I took a pre-anniversary trip to Marco Island, which is about half an hour south of Naples, which I also visited in 2021.  A, as they say, much needed getaway.  I recall so many commercials for it during my youth.  I can still hear the theme song sung by a sweet female voice...Marrrrrccccco...

We spent three days and two nights at the Hilton Marco Island Beach Resort and Spa.  Not as flashy as the Marriott further East on Collier (where my wife stayed last year during a weekend with co-workers), but very nice.  We hit the beach several times.  The ocean is somewhat murkier in the Gulf than the Atlantic, but still gorgeous.  Water temp. was perfect, not that bathtub warm you get in the dead of summer.  Late one evening after a tour of the Marriott, we walked back to our hotel via the beach.  Thankfully for us (and the sea turtles), not too much light spilled from the mainland, allowing a sky filled with stars above the water. 

We watched a few sunsets from the beach, a novelty for us West Palm folk.   I do get to see the sunrise over the ocean from my workplace some mornings.  I heard someone ask someone else if they caught the green flash.  I thought that was only in Key West?

Couples' massage? Yes, thank you, and it was fantastic.  Nothing too deep tissue.  The spa portion of the Hilton feels as if you've gone to heaven.  Cozy, barely lit, filled with lavender aromas and sounds of crashing waves.  One of the most chill interiors I've experienced.  Then we luxuriated in the outdoor hot tub.

Food? Plenty! Glad you asked.  The first night: The Deck at 560 in the hotel.  Carne asada with broccolini.  Live music from a young lady with an acoustic doing '90s tunes.  In fact, music from that decade was heard seemingly everywhere in Marco Island, becoming some sort of theme.  The next night we went to The Sand Bar, a casual spot in an industrial park.  Been there since 1973.  I had a grouper Reuben that was decadent.  Onion rings on the side and a Shock Top to wash it down.  Afterward we returned to the 560 to hear an older black gentleman with a steel drum.  A shower blew in from the west and chased most of the crowd indoors but we stuck it out awhile.

Lunch on Friday was at Deep Lagoon Seafood and Oyster House.  Swordfish Neapolitan.  Deep Lagoon, a very attractive, more upscale restaurant, is located dockside at the Esplanade Shoppes, where we had also been the night before to stroll and listen to tunes from a country outfit.  The night we left MI we hit 2Shea's Salty Dog, a really casual place across from the Hilton.  Another lusty sandwich - the Mojo Pulled Pork Stack.  Gigantic and delicious.  A Turtle Season IPA paired nicely.  Salty Dog is in a plaza with several other eateries and the people watching was the best this side of Boca Raton. 

We like to hike, but only got to one park,  The Conservation Collier Preserve, a tiny forest smack in the middle of a neighborhood of McMansions.  Depressing.  To think the entire area was once like the preserve with lush greenery and critters a'plenty.... You can traverse this area in under twenty minutes.  An oasis.  We didn't see any tortoises in the park, but did spy one in the 'hood as we drove out.  A sign in the park informed us they may dig burrows up to twelve feet deep, which are home to indigo snakes and burrowing owls.  Tortoises are unable to swim.  They may also live to age eighty or older.

 Marco Island beckons.  Recommended for the stressed and burnt out.  A real tonic.