A Day at Marco Island

Hope you all had a great weekend and were not too sad about the conclusion of the Olympics. I only teared up four times during the closing broadcast, so I considered that a win.

(And can we talk about Tokyo for 2020!? They dropped the mic HARD in Rio last night. Goodness. Cannot wait for those games!)

I've been living here in Southwest Florida for about a month and a half now, and am just now considering myself "settled in". I have my routine and am getting a much better handle on this area where I now live.

Every weekend, my sister and I try to visit a new beach in the area. This is partly because we want to find the ones we like the best, but also because we want to take advantage of what is literally in our back yard.

When you live in a place that's a vacation destination, you tend to NOT see and do those things that people come to see, because you can do those anytime, right? There's no pressure to see and do, because you can theoretically go out any old time you'd like. But of course what ends up happening is that you see and do NOTHING, so we are aiming to correct that wrong.

The next beach on our list was in Marco Island, Florida. My sister had friends in town, so we decided this would be a perfect time to try it out.

And you guys - it did NOT disappoint.

After meeting her friends at their condo and caravanning down to the beach, we arrived around 11:30.  The drive into Marco Island is GORGEOUS, as you cross one large bridge and a smaller one and both are just gorgeous. I, of course, fired up my Realtor.com app more than once to see what it would cost to live in this paradise. Just incredible. We made our way to our destination, Tigertail Beach.

My sister has a sticker where she can get beach access at no cost (she works for Collier County) and so we drove right in with no problems. If you don't have a sticker, it costs you $8 per day (or $1.50 per hour) which is totally do-able for a day's worth of fun. We parked and loaded up our beach cart and arms and it basically looked like we were moving in. (When you plan to be at the beach all day, you must take provisions! And lots of umbrellas. And more food.)

We knew going in that it would be a bit of a trek to the beach. From the parking lot to the beach itself, it's about a 1/2 - 3/4 of a mile walk. There is an option to wade through some water to get there faster, but as we had lots of stuff (and also, because ANIMALS IN THE WATER and who knows how deep it is at parts), we decided to hoof it to the beach.

There are restrooms by the parking lot, as well as a little place that sells basic food and beverages. It would be a bit of a hassle to walk back and forth to the restrooms all day but if you weren't carrying all your beach gear, the walk wouldn't be so bad.

It was an amazing walk because the sand was SO far back. With most of the beaches down here, the condos and hotels are a mere steps from the water but down by Tigertail, it's at least a football field's length from the shore to the hotels, maybe more. I need to research how often the tide gets THAT far up the beach, it was pretty neat.

We set up the umbrellas, chairs and coolers and pretty much settled in for a day at the beach. It was INCREDIBLE. Probably the best beach I've been to thus far. It was nearly deserted; probably because most schools are in session now and most vacations are over, but we also wondered if it's because it's a bit of a trek to get to this beach and people don't want to do that. That all worked out in our favor, because even though there was activity at the beach people were not on top of or crowding us. It was perfect.

The weather could not have been better. The forecast was clear; in our last hour we heard some thunder rumbling and looked at the radar and it was about 15 miles away but never came towards us. Since it rains pretty much every day in the summer, this was a win.

I only took these three pictures because they are essentially all the same (gorgeous water and scenery)  but believe me when I tell you - it was paradise. Incredibly gorgeous. The water was a tad warm (as it' s been in the high 90s for months now) but it was still perfect. My sister and her friend, as well as their son, spent a lot of time in the water.  The friend's wife and I had a nice chat under the umbrellas that they were so good to bring. That is the key to beach longevity - umbrellas. As long as you can be in the shade, you can spend all day there.

After about 5 hours, we loaded up our gear and made the trek back to the cars. It was a HOT day and we were all sandy, sweaty and hot but so worth it. What a perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

My sister and I both agreed that this would not be a beach where we'd go for a quick hour or two; you really want to make the drive and walking there worth it, so it's really a day beach. However, it is somewhere I will take out-of-town guests and also suggest to clients and vacationers who are coming to Southwest Florida.

I will keep you posted on other beaches and places we're exploring down here.

Have a great day!