FMB Review

Just prior to the 4th of July, we went to Ft. Myers Beach. It was our first beach vacation with the kids and I think we will do it again. FMB is a pretty laid back community and it was the kind of place that you could wear your bathing suit everywhere.

Here are some pictures (if you click it twice, you should be taken to a site to get a bit larger pics):


Our typical day was hanging out at the pool from late morning to dinner time - we couldn't pull the kids away! Once in a while we'd try to convince them to go to the beach - after all, when are they going to really be able to see that? But most of the time it was around the pool. Ter and I would sample some of the pool bar drinks (our favorite is the Miami Vice - half strawberry daiquiri, half pina colada). Some days they had kids' activities around the pool which Allie mostly participated in. Anna was just happy hanging out in the pool (which probably contributed to the swimmer's ear she got upon returning to Bloomington). After spending most of the day at the pool, we'd got to the Times Square section of the island, which is kind of their downtown. There they had shops, restaurants, and lots of people.

Anna did get sick the first day, but laid around the first day and felt much better by night time. While Ter and Anna were in the room together, I competed in the Diamondhead's drink making contest. Basically, three contestants had seven ingredients to concoct their own drink recipe. The very cheap ingredients were vodka, rum, peach schnapps, melon liqueur, pineapple juice, orange juice, and cranberry juice. My drink was a variation of the classic fuzzy navel, which I called the fuzzy pineapple. My WINNING recipe was:

• Fill tall glass with ice
• Put in one shot of vodka and one shot of peach schnapps
  
• Fill with pineapple juice
• Top with splash of cranberry juice
  

The weather was actually pretty perfect. First, it wasn't nearly as hot as I expected it to be. Yes, there were a few times when you'd be sweating while just sitting down. But if you dipped your feet in the pool, you'd cool off instantly. Plus, there really was only like an hour or two during the day that it was really THAT hot - the breeze off the gulf made it perfect. Yes, it did rain just about everyday, but it was literally exactly when we wanted it to rain. One day it rained when we got back to our hotel after calling it a night and two other days it rained during dinner. The last day we decided to do some night swimming and the weather decided to hold off for us - the only day it didn't rain at night.

FMB is on a pretty narrow island (Estero Island) and if we decide to do it again next year, we might look into renting a house. Anywhere on the island would be less than a half mile to the beach and there are beach access roads literally every block. Since the kids were not that interested in the beach, it might be nice to have your own house.