Vacation in Marco Island

Currently, my family and I are vacationing in Marco Island, FL. Located about 50 miles south of Ft. Myers this domestic vacation destination is really living up to the reputation that preceeds it. We arrived on Saturday, May 17th and rented a Ford Edge to head on down to our rental home. The place we found is called Tranquility and is rented by Jason Byington of White Sand Getaways. I'm a pretty critical type of person and I must say that I cannot find anything wrong with our rental home after living here for four days now. The pool, hot tub, and lanai are beautiful. Clean, spacious, modern, and high-tech. There's a fully wired office with PC and printer along with a 60" big-screen TV. The outdoor sound system rocks and has is fed by an stereo complete with iPod sound dock. Right up my alley. As for Marco Island, it's basically a ghost town now. I guess the snow birds are gone and it's "too hot" for many here now. So far the weather's been sunny and 88 - 92. Humid, but breezy, so pretty nice.

Sunday, May 18th
We woke up in the morning and headed over to Mackle Park with the boys. The house has four mountain bikes and a pull-behind trailer so Lisa and I trecked over to the playground and fountain play area with Tyler (3) and Max (1). Mackle Park is only about one block from our house. We were both pleasantly surprised by the park as it was not only the largest playground both of us had ever seen, but very fun, completely made of composite material, and safe too. The water fountain play area was awesome too. It's a colorful 50 ft. circle with several fountains. The kids romped around in there and had a blast.

After that we headed back to the house for some swimming. We later ended up exploring the island and stopped at Tigertail Beach far about a half-hour. We weren't immediately impressed with the beach, but later found out that we weren't on the actual beach. Instead we were on the inner beach created by high tide and would've needed to cross a narrow channel before seeing the actual beach. I think we'll try that later in the week. Last, we went to a restaurant on the water called the Snook Inn where there was live music playing and had some sandwiches.

Monday, May 19th
Woke up early with the boys and headed over to Caxambas Park to catch a catamaran with Captain Corey of Off the Hook Adventures. From 8:30 - 11:30 we went shelling. Ty and Max both gathered tons of conch shells and we even learned a little bit about Marco Island and the birds that make the mangroves their home such as Pellicans, Bald Eagles, and Herons. We spotted several pods of dolphins playing in the bay. All in all, it was a very memorable morning.

After that the boys took their naps and we headed back out to Cold Stone Creamery for ice cream at The Esplanade. There we spotted some nice boats and a few fish off of the piers.

Tuesday, May 20th
Woke up and headed over to the park with Tyler. Max and Lisa went to grab some more groceries and then came home for Max's nap. When Max woke up, Tyler and I were just about home from the park. Then we headed over to the Marriott beach where we went in the water and played in the sand. That lasted for about an hour and a half and then we came home, the boys took their naps and then Lisa made a great spaghetti carbonara dinner for us.

To be continued...