World United States Florida Lovers Key State Park

On the Road Again

Lovers Key Beach Feb 1, 2012

From WP Franklin Lock Campground in Alva, FL …

Wednesday, February 1, 2011

As it has been pretty much every day this winter, the weather was forecast to be beautiful today. So we decided to make it a beach day.

After breakfast, we took a two mile walk around the park. Then we packed a cooler of drinks and put our chairs into the trunk of the car, and we were on our way. We have several different nice beach areas within 30 miles in this area; however, with the southwest Florida winter traffic, it generally takes about an hour to get there.

Today we decided to go to Lovers Key State Park which is in the Fort Myers Beach area. This is a beautiful state park with hiking trails, waters to kayak or canoe, and beaches on the bay or the gulf. We parked the $8 admission fee (ouch!) to enter the beach and parked the car. Then we waited from the Tram to take us to the beach. There is one beach close enough to walk to, but we chose to ride the tram to the furthest beach.

The tram transports beachgoers all day long until about 4:30pm. It was a beautiful day to spend on the beach … sunny with just the right amount of breeze. Apparently, a lot of people thought it was a good beach day too, but it didn’t feel overcrowded. We had fun watching a group of six pelicans fishing the waters right in front of us. Time after time, they took off and dove into the water making huge splashes and catching fish.

We stayed on the beach until about 4:00 until we worked up a hunger for some lunch/dinner. We went to a great seafood place at a marina which is about 2 miles from the state park. The Fish House has outdoor dining on a covered porch and a very large screened porch. We sat on the screened porch overlooking the marina. We watched lots of boats coming in and being raised out of the water by a tractor to put into dry dock storage.

On the way home, we drove through Bonita Springs and stopped by the Whole Foods Store where we picked up some of their yummy Crab Bisque to bring home with us. We enjoy going to Whole Foods since we don’t have one in Roanoke.

What a nice day. Life is indeed good!