Two Cars

You have to like attention.

Or really really want to sell your car.

Life Can Be Tough

I drove up and down some of the less traveled streets in Immokalee,
a town that is home to many of the migrant workers who pick the tomatoes, citrus, etc.

Tervis

One store on pricey Fifth Avenue South sells nothing but insulated plastic cups and lids.
Seriously.

Naples Bay Resort

Naples Bay Resort is colorful and pretty, but it is also VERY quiet.

At least it was on a recent weekday morning.

Some of the Regulars and Semi-Regulars

The local Starbucks is where I pause for a bit while trying to decide where to go next.

Linda has been a widow for more than thirty years, raising her daughter by herself.

She is from Illinois.  Before moving to Naples, she did office work for Caterpillar.

Lynn Gay is a realtor, who is always made up and dressed meticulously.  Love her hat.

Back in New Jersey, MaryAnn operates a mobile pizza business with Al.
In Naples, she takes it easy and enjoys life.

Al is from Staten Island.  His main business is IT, 

but on the side he has a mobile pizza business with MaryAnn.

Richard is a bit camera shy, but I wore him down.

Carmelita is Richard's wife.  She has been seen here before, minus Lola.

Bud is from outside Detroit.  He was in the industrial pump, filter and valve business.

Linda is Bud's wife.  She was a bank cashier and worked in a family finance business.

AND, Sammy has been a barista this winter, but a few days ago she left with her husband and baby to go home to upstate New York.  When they get there, Sammy and her husband will rejoin a troupe that gives fire dancing performances.  Breathing fire, fiery hula hoops, etc.  No kidding!

The Nina and the Pinta

Handcrafted replicas of two of Christopher Columbus' three ships -- the Nina and the Pinta --
visited Tin City on Naples Bay last week.  The ships were open for paying visitors,
but I just stood on the bridge and took a picture.

Fishing at the Lake Trafford Pier

Melvin

Charlie

Brenda

Sandra and her friend caught this fish with a line dropped through a crack in the pier.

One of her tattoos says (in Spanish) something like "live today like you will die tomorrow."

A few years ago she fell asleep at the wheel and rolled her car.  She is lucky to be alive.

Dad was teaching his little girl how to bait a hook.  She wasn't so sure about it.

Kunjani

Stunning Zimbabwe-born Nicola and her daughter Stephanie have opened Kunjani, 

half craft coffee shop and half African art gallery.  

Nicola -- who has appeared here before -- stands in front of colorful paintings by Zimbabwe artist Barry Lungu and a ceramic work by South African studio, Ardmore.

Inca's Kitchen

Inca's Kitchen is a popular restaurant in Naples that features Latin American food, primarily Peruvian.  The lights reflect off the polished tables.

(I was there in mid-afternoon, before the hordes descended for happy hour.)

More reflection photos are here on James' website, Weekend Reflections.

Red

One fancy, one simple.  You pick.

Blue

Yes, I know I am repeating myself.
But this cottage caught my eye again.

Sometimes I am OK with repetition.

Strolling Third Street South

A devilish archer in a fountain. 

The Entrepreneur, by Jim Rennet, at The Englishman.

Valentina Italian Shoes.

Sea Salt.

Jane's Restaurant.

The Continental.

Tommy Bahama.

Olde Naples Building 1921

OK, Europeans, laugh all you want.  

A 1921 building is old in Olde Naples.

Ali

Ali is an art consultant at Quidley & Company, an art gallery on Broad Street.

She works winters in Quidley's Naples gallery and summers in their Nantucket gallery.

Tough life, Ali. 

Under a Bridge

I came across Peggy, a photographer, and three of her photographer friends under a bridge across the Gordon River, near Naples Bay.  They saw their shadows on the abutments and were trying 

to take photos of the four shadows.  (A very tricky shot.)

Militantly Organic So You Can Shop in Peace

Food & Thought, a natural food market in Naples.

A Quick Trip around the Center of Everglades City

Everglades City was the staging area from which the construction of the eastern end 

of the Tamiami Trail was managed from 1923 to 1928.  

The Museum of the Everglades is housed in the town's original laundry building.

The Everglades Community Church was funded by the Collier family.

It stands on a prominent location, across from the City Hall.

Barron Gift Collier

Barron Gift Collier was a self-made advertising millionaire in New York City by way of Memphis.

In 1911 he visited southwest Florida and fell in love with it.  

In 1923 a road-building project from Tampa to Miami (the Tamiami Trail) was stalled.  Collier proposed to the State of Florida that if they carved off a southwestern-most county where he owned thousands of acres of land and named it for him -- Collier County, home of Naples and Marco Island -- he would finance and oversee the completion of the Tamiami Trail.
Five years later, in 1928, the Tamiami Trail opened.

This bust of Collier and a display about his accomplishments are in one of the Collier County Museums, the Museum of the Everglades in Everglades City. 

A Quaint Little Fishing Village with a Drinking Problem

The joke around Goodland -- and on tee shirts popular there -- is that it is
a quaint little fishing village with a drinking problem.

There are far more bars than a small village
could support with just the locals.