Everglades Rod and Gun Club

Want to own a historic restaurant and hotel?  Hand over $12 million.  

The Everglades Rod and Gun Club is for sale.

Be sure to have a budget for renovations.

Fishing on Venetian Bay

For more reflection photographs, please visit James' website, Weekend Reflections.

Hertz's Green Headquarters

Hertz (the car rental company) has received "gold" level certification from the U.S. Green Building Council for the sustainable design, construction and operating performance of its new 250,000 square foot global headquarters building in Estero, just north of Naples.

Solar panels on the employee parking garage roof provide 15 percent of the building's electricity.  

An innovative ice storage system and advanced window glass reduce the air conditioning load.

Food waste is minimal and recycling programs are extensive.

Hertz's relocation to southwest Florida was announced in 2013.

The headquarters building was opened and employees began moving in just six months ago.

Odds and Ends

Time once more for a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

I recently played at a different golf course.  On the tee box for one hole there were more crickets than I have ever seen at one location.  Just one hole.  Thousands.  I heard that they are always there.

The club house at Pelican Bay, one of the biggest and oldest communities in North Naples.

They are tearing it down to replace it with a bigger, two story clubhouse costing $18 million.

On a side street in Everglades City, I came across a bus for Outward Bound and a sign telling us that this is the site of the North Carolina Outward Bound program.  I did an Outward Bound program
 in Colorado more than 20 years ago.  No idea about this one.

Road signs on Sanibel point out the distances to some locations, mostly in Indiana.

The Gulf Shore Play House performed Henrik Ibsen's Enemy of the People, a play about a man protesting a city's dangerously bad water supply.  Eerie similarities to Flint, Michigan.

A bloodmobile is parked in front of a movie theater.  A familiar tall shadow is in the forefront.

And, inside the theater, the table is set for a kids' party.

Winnie

Mexican-born singer Winnie also makes her own jewelry.

She has a wonderful smile, but I am drawn to her serious expressions.

Lou

Thirteen-and-one-half years ago, Lou weighed 465 pounds.  Probably more, but that is the highest a scale weighed.  He figured that if he didn't lose a lot of weight, he was going to die.

So, Lou joined Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous (FA), a group based on the twelve principles of Alcoholics Anonymous.  He loves wheat and sugar but has had none in 13-1/2 years.  He eats only healthy foods in strictly measured portions, and he is disciplined.  Today Lou weighs 300 pounds less and is healthy.  And, he leads the Naples chapter of FA.  Congratulations, Lou.

Smell

Stela is from Russia.  She works at the perfume counter at Saks Fifth Avenue.

Stela was happy to model for me, but she worked hard to get the name of the perfume --
Kilian -- into the shot.  She is a committed merchandiser.

On the first day of each month, City Daily Photo bloggers show photographs on a theme.
For May 1, the theme is "smell."  Click here to see other interpretations.