A weekend in Naples

If you have been paying attention, you will remember that I had a very good time on my second Princess cruise (PCL2) in December, due in no small part to my congenial cabinmate, Carl, and the friendships we formed with two lovely ladies from Ft Lauderdale, Bobbi and Patricia. When the cruise ended we agreed that we would meet again, but busy lives and a continuing pandemic made that somewhat difficult. But we finally managed to make it happen last week. Bobbi and Patricia made the trek from Lauderdale via I-75 and Carl hosted us in his very nice condo in Naples.

Yes, for the first time since Jett’s passing, I cohabitated with a woman. Or, to be precise, two women. But lest that sound more salacious than it was, let me explain that Bobbi and Patricia shared one bedroom, I had the bed in the office and Carl had the master bedroom. All very proper and above board.

So what did we do for three days? Well, there was a lot of Trivial Pursuit (1981 edition – thanks Patricia!). We played teams, without the board, just going 5 rounds with each team answering all 6 questions on the card. Patricia also brought Pente, a game I have never played before and proved it by losing badly in 5 quick games.

We did a road trip to Tin City in Naples the first night and dined at Pinchers, a popular seafood restaurant chain in the area. The restaurant was on the pier in Naples and while waiting for a table we watched the gutting and fileting of the day’s catch. The meal was quite good.

There were three main events on Friday, the first of two full days. First, Bobbi, Patricia and I visited the Naples Zoo, a place which I have passed many times but had never gone inside. I was impressed. It is a very nice small zoo. Besides the live animals – gibbons, giraffes and many others, there were also many Lego animals. Some were small (such as the one that I posed near) and other were HUGE, consisting of hundreds of thousands of Lego pieces and weighing more than a ton. Very interesting, very artistic.

Carl stayed home and rested, then came with us on the second big event of the day: sunset on Vanderbilt Beach. We got there about 15 minutes before the sunset and I got some good shots of the sun sinking over the Gulf of Mexico.

The third big event was dinner. We dined at AZN, an “Asian fusion” restaurant in the Mercado shopping area of Naples. The area was hopping on this Friday night. If you need any proof that the pandemic is winding down, hang out at Mercado on a Friday evening. Thousands of people and not a mask in sight.

The selection of AZN was the result of them offering us a table first. We had put our name in at several other restaurants and took the first one that responded. None of us knew anything about the restaurant but it turned out to be a lucky pick. Everyone loved their entrees.

The weather was poor on Saturday with an intense thunderstorm and a dramatic drop in temperature. We decided to make it a movie-and-dine-in day. Scrambled eggs for breakfast, pasta and salad for dinner. Also snacked on the antipasto and pastries that Bobbi and Patricia had brought and the sangria that I contributed. No, we didn’t starve.

The movies were House of Gucci and King Richard. Neither was a comedy but both were sufficiently interesting to keep most of us awake.

Sunday breakfast was french toast (thanks, Bobbi!) then we left Carl before noon. Bobbi and Patricia went back to Ft Lauderdale via Ft Myers, stopping at my RV for the custom 5-minute tour of the RV and the 20-minute tour of the resort. It was a comedown after Carl’s condo, but at least they know now what an RV life looks like.