The Captivating Cape...

After a great visit on the Atlantic side, we popped by Hertz to pick up our rental car and enjoyed the fastest and most gracious service we could imagine.  Did they really apologize that it took us a whole five minutes to get everything sorted?!

Starting off on a good note, our trip across Alligator Alley was a smooth and quick one, and we made it to Cape Coral in record time.  We were greeted by Geoff's parents and their new pup, George, who was so welcoming and adorable that we quickly started plotting how we could try to sneak him home in our suitcase.


When we could pull ourselves away from playing and snuggling with little but quickly growing George, we made the most of our time out and around Cape Coral.

Although George was initially a reluctant traveller, he slowly realized that car trips brought great things such as visits to the charming Sanibel Island and the welcoming Jaycee Park, where children and adults would faun on his every move.  He was probably almost sad to see Carol and Beth head out on their annual trip to TJ Maxx - little did he know that the store had lots of people and a great dog section!

Although the weather turned unseasonably cold due to the polar vortex sweeping across Canada and the Northern States, we didn't let it stop us.  We played our daily pickle ball matches (either with ourselves or whoever else was on the courts), and even beat out the masses who arrived oddly early to play tennis on New Year's morning.  Luckily, our chilly after-dinner walks were short and sweet as George couldn't walk far and often relied on Dan's comforting arms to carry him briskly around the neighbourhood.

We learned a lot during our visit - whether it was figuring out how to put together a wood puzzle (thank you youtube tutorial) to understanding that an air fryer is an absolute must-have kitchen item.  But, one thing we couldn't get our heads around was the appeal of the Sous Vide cooking method.  And no amount of Apothic Red could change our minds...