No, not my birthday – Marlene’s brother, Mike, turned 69. He drove over from Fort Lauderdale to spend 4 days with his sister and me. Marlene’s friend Dottie joined in on most of the activities, too.
On Thursday we dined out at Skip One 41 in South Fort Myers. Marlene called it a “hole in the wall” restaurant and I think that is pretty accurate. The decor is basic. Even the presentation of the food – served on what appears to be aluminum trays from a toaster oven – was downscale. But the food itself was terrific.
We got a nice rainbow while there.
After dinner we danced a bit at Sneaky Pete’s.
Our Friday entertainment was Deb and the Dynamics at Dolphin Key Resort in Cape Coral. This is one of our favorite dance bands and we did some dancing, for sure. But we also liked the half-price drinks before the music started. Good food, good music and cheap drinks – a great combination.
After we left the Dolphin Key, on a whim, we stopped at the World Famous Cigar Bar. I don’t smoke cigars – too many bad memories of smoke from the cheap cigars my grandfather smoked – but am tolerant of smokers. Mike had a cigar and the rest of us had a couple of very good drinks. Plus we met some great folks and generally had a wonderful time.
For Saturday dinner we dined and danced at Harpoon Harry’s in Punta Gorda. The band there was good, but we left when Pure Country started playing on the beach. We LOVE Pure Country – a great country band that plays for hours without a break. The lead singer, Ed, often roams through the crowd while singing. Again, we danced, but learned quickly that dancing on the beach is not easy. Once we learned that lesson we confined most of our dancing to the paved walkway. We were treated to a wonderful sunset.
Saturday morning we decided to drive to Mt Dora – over 3 hours away, north of Orlando – for an overnight, the hotel courtesy of Marlene and Dottie. We stopped at the Log Cabin on our way out of town for a great breakfast. The cook prepared a special pancake for the birthday boy.
Mt Dora is a very pretty little town. We spent some time admiring the beauty of Lake Dora, but I think the highlight of the trip was the Magical Meat Boutique, which, despite the cute name, is actually a very fine and very authentic British pub. We went in to get a drink and after seeing some of the dishes being consumed by other nearby patrons decided to dine there. I had the cod fish and chips while Marlene and Dottie split the HUGE haddock fish and chips. Mike, being adventurous, chose the bangers and mashed, nicely presented in a round Yorkshire pudding bowl. We all share a huge slice of cake for dessert. Everything was delicious and the draft English and Irish ales were superb. Excellent!
We had a free Monday (Memorial Day) breakfast at the Comfort Inn in Tavares and stopped in Arcadia for lunch at Beef O’Brady’s. The pub fare there was perfectly fine, but suffered by comparison to the Magical Meat Boutique.
Mike went home soon after we got back to Ft Myers. Hopefully he enjoyed his long birthday weekend. I know I did.