I can't believe we have been here in Naples for a week already. Naples is located on the Gulf of Mexico in Southwest Florida and is known for it's relatively temperate climate and warm sunny winter days. Now I know you have had some pretty cold weather back home but we have had some freaky weather here too!! The average day time temperature in December is 77 degrees and rarely falls below the 50s even at night. It was so cold here last night that they opened shelters for the homeless and put out calls for blankets and warm clothes. Plants have been covered up to protect them from the freezing (!) weather - the low?? - about 40 degrees (32 degrees is freezing). It's all relative I guess!!!!

Saturday and Sunday were the best days weatherwise so Saturday was spent on the beach and Sunday lazing by the pool. The cool weather hit on Monday and altough the day was dry and sunny, we have had a cold northerly wind for the last 3 days. Monday we hired bikes for a couple of hours and cycled along Gordon Drive where all the millionaires (or should that be billionaires!) houses are. Unfortunately, we didn't have the camera with us - it was very windy and made cycling rather challenging...... but not as challenging as kayaking in it the next day (AGAIN!!).

We booked a tour with Susan from Up A Creek Kayak and although we have been kayaking several times, this was my first time in a single kayak!! Luckily, Susan was very calm and reassuring and a good instructor so I survived. We explored 12 of The Ten Thousand Islands - The Ten Thousand Islands are a chain of islands and mangrove islets off the coast of Southwest Florida - most are uninhabited but you can kayak, fish, snorkel and even camp (altough I have since found out that the Wildlife Service recommends only seasoned canoeists and sea kayakers attempt the trip!!!) Once again it was very windy and this time I had to do all the work myself to get back to the launch site - it was a beautiful day though despite the wind and we were the only ones out on the water. We kakayed to one of the small islands (Cone Island) where we stopped for some snacks provided by Susan and to rest and stretch our legs before the rather strenuous kayak back. We were out for 3 hours in total and kayaked about 5 miles.

As if that wasn't enough, on Tuesday night there was a Christmas Parade through the streets local to our hotel - I think we walked another 5 miles following the parade!!!

The wind has dropped today but it has still been quite chilly with the temperature barely reaching 60 degrees. We spent a couple of hours at Audubon Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary - The sanctuary was established to protect one of the largest remaining stands of Bald Cypress and Pond Cypress from extensive logging of the tree that was ongoing throughout the 1940's and 50's. The Corkscrew Cypress Rookery Association was formed in 1954 to protect the area. Today, a boardwalk of about 3 km (2 miles) provides walking access through (actually 'over') pine flatwoods, wet prairie, Pond cypress, Bald cypress, and marsh ecosystems within the sanctuary. Today we saw Anhingas, Ibis, several other small birds and an alligator