Cousins & Alligators

 Today we rode the bikes to Coco Walk for coffee (naturally)  and sat and read for awhile.  Starbucks had music playing that Jay liked better than yesterday, so instead of hearing, "What is this song?  I don't like this kind of music.  Is that K.D. Lang?"  I heard, "This is Miles Davis.  I wonder if that's... is this John Coltrane?  I think this is Coltrane.  Yes it is."  Then he paused in reading snatches from The New York Times to say, "This is Monk.  Do you know what his middle name is?"  I said, "Thelonius."  just to be saying something.  Seriously, why would I know that?  So, then he told me Thelonius Monk's middle name.  "Sphere."  So, anyway, that's what we did this morning.  This afternoon we drove out to Mathison Hammock Park, or whatever it's called.  It's where Jay's mom's memorial was held.  It was one of her favorite places.  It's right on the ocean.  The picture above is him standing on the walk with a regatta of sailboats behind him out on the water.  He fished along the shore but didn't catch anything.  A coon came up to me where I was sitting at a picnic table but I only had a bottle of water so it went away into the mangroves.

 On our way back from Naples we saw an information center along the canal through the everglades and stopped.  There was a boardwalk up a couple feet off the canal and when we went up on it we saw a bunch of alligators sleeping on the bank.  There were 17 in all.  Only a couple moved the whole time we were there.  We weren't sure what the reason for that was.  A few laid in the water or half in anyway.  Very reptilian behavior.

Once again, I meant for this picture to be the first.  You'd think I would learn, wouldn't you?  We're standing on the Naples Pier with Jay's cousin Betsy and her husband Andrew Decker.  They are really nice people and it was so great to see them again.  We want to go visit them in Sarasota next time we're down here.  It's amazing how you really FEEL that you're related to someone even though you hardly ever (or in my case, never) see them.  Betsy's father and Jay's father were brothers.
Jay wondered about the place there that says Ann Arbor . Naples so he went in to ask what the connection was.  All he got was what exquisite taste the owner had, how elegant her vision was, how inspired and blaa, blaa, blaa everything she had in her stores in Naples and Ann Arbor were.  You just wanted to say, "Was I talking to you!!!???"  to that rediculous guy sitting there at the counter, and not BEHIND the counter but at it.  The lady behind the counter was at least somewhat helpful.  I have to say, Naples is a wierd place.  It's, like, totally new!  You feel like you've gone to a fake village where all the buildings are pre-fab construction.  For those of you who are interested in this sort of thing, there was not ONE book store!  Tomorrow we are going to Flamingo.