Marco Island With Dave and Becca

This year, we had the privilege of vacationing with Aunt Becca and Uncle Dave. We spent the week in Marco Island. We were pleasantly surprised to find that this was the off season for the Island. The population was less than half of what it is during the winter. This made for quick evenings at original restaurants with no waits. We tried a new local restaurant every night and were never disappointed.
Upon our arrival at Marco Island we took a long nap to sleep off our night and day of straight driving with a sleepless Moses. We arrived on July 4th. We were pleasantly surprised by an amazing fireworks display right on the beach of our hotel. We enjoyed dinner on the patio at Pazzi's, the fabulous pizza place at our hotel.

Well rested and ready for fun!

We decided to spend a day in the everglades. On our way we took a scenic route down a recommended street for an up-close look at some gators.

Objects in image are actually just as close as they appear.
Yup, nothing but our car door between us and this gator.

On our way to the everglades, we happened upon this gem.

I can't say I would recommend this place for small children.
Just as much for the creepy creatures as for the risk of e coli.

If you can't tell, he actually cut this Burmese python egg open with scissors.
Helping nature along.

Meet Telly Savales, our tour guide through this parasite paradise!

Aunt Becca was a good sport.

Uncle Dave actually held this tarantula.

This place was actually featured on TV. We recorded it, so remind us to show you next time you come over.

Moses about to be eaten by a Burmese Python. There was a huge overpopulation of these in Florida this summer. I cannot tell you how many horror stories we saw on the news.

A panther.

This is Smallwood's store. We drove to the Everglades to see this and it was closed. Contrary to all the published information we had on it!

Our tub.

A perfect day at another perfect pool!

Failed attempt at a cute picture of the boys.

Melissa came down for the day from Ft. Lauderdale!

The most amazing breakfast buffet ever known to man.
Anything you could think or dream of eating for breakfast was on this buffet AND it was all delicious.

Our Waitress at breakfast.

Our patio.

This is the amazing view from our penthouse room. We got upgraded a couple of days in due to Drew's goldmember status!