Bryan and Stella's Great Adventure

Finally, Bryan got some time off and made it to Rock Chalk.  We all wanted Trisha (and so did she) and Frankie to come as well.   But Frankie is just 1 year old, and that is a difficult age to spend time on the boat.  So Trisha was a great wife, and told Bryan to take Stella and go.    We are missing Trish, but have had a great week.  

So what does one do with a 3 year old on a boat?   Well, we think we found a perfect solution.   A new marina opened up on Ft. Myers Beach called The Pink Shell Marina.  It is part of the longtime resort of the same name on the western end of the beach.   The marina is brand new and with your dockage comes full privileges to the resort, its heated pools, spa, restaurants, and most of all the beautiful beach.  This turned out to be a perfect place to entertain all of us, but especially Stella, as she made her first trip ever to a beach or the ocean.   Shelley and I loved having both Bryan and Stella here with us on the boat for the week, as we got in some good "Grandparent" time.

We also took Rock Chalk over to North Captiva for a great day of shelling on its very unique beach.   Not many people get to this island as it has almost no settlement on the island, and the only way to get there is by boat.   Therefore, the shells collect on shore by the millions, piled high in mounds on the beach.  It is the best place ever that we have found for finding shells.   As you can see we captured a few.

Plus it is always fun in Pine Island sound to play with the dolphins.  As we motor our way through these beautiful waters, the dolphins are plenty, and eager to play.  The key is you have to take the boat up to speed where it makes a 4 ft. wake.   The dolphin will ride that wake, hardly moving their tail, for miles.   Then if we speed up a bit more, they just love to surf the wake and flop on their side.  Over and over they will jump out of the water looking at us right in the eye, and then make a big pop as they splash into the water.

All in all it has been a great week.   We love having our kids and grandkids get the time to break away from their lives and enjoy our boat and our lifestyle.   Trisha you were missed, but thanks so much for letting Bryan and Stella spend some time on Rock Chalk.  We had a great time.