Friday, January 24th – Naples

Our morning temperature was 49° and we made an easy decision to head south for our geocaching adventures today. So, we drove to Naples which is 26 miles south and by mid-afternoon it was 71°.

We walked a boardwalk trail in the Naples Preserve which is 9 ½ acres in an urban area. “Hikes” in Florida sure are a lot different from those we are accustomed to in Maryland. We sought and found a geocache that was hidden underneath the boardwalk.

There were other interesting things to see, one of which was the gopher tortoise in its natural habitat.

We stopped at the Clock Family Restaurant for lunch. It was very evident that they support the U.S. military. Flags from various branches of the service were hanging throughout the dining area and signage around the room expressed their support. We overheard the server tell a veteran that the cost of his meal had been covered.

When I mentioned to Cordell that the temperature inside the diner was a bit too hot for me, he commented that they have to keep it warmer for the old people. When we thought about it, we agreed that the farther southwest we went in Florida, the older the people seemed.

My favorite geocache was one that we found in The Garden of Hope and Courage located in the Norris Sanctuary which is situated across the street from the Naples Community Hospital.

 

It wasn’t the type of the cache container, nor the way it was hidden that made this so special. It was the design and beauty within this peaceful garden that grabbed me. I wish the hospitals around our area could develop something similar to this.

When an artesian well was accidentally discovered during construction on this site, Lester Norris, who was a trustee at the hospital convinced the board to seize the opportunity to form a lake into a place of respite rather than filling in the area. Today, it is a serene and beautiful garden filled with trees, shrubs, flowers, statues, benches and paving stones. Many of the objects are dedicated in memory or in honor of loved ones. Some of the tributes are extremely heartwarming. Other places have encouraging statements. The dedication in 1984 reads in part: “…a peaceful place for meditation, relaxation and enjoyment for patients and staff”.

 

 

 

As we were walking though the garden, I could feel the spirits of the people who are remembered here. I can only imagine the solace that such a place can give to people who are spending a lot of their time with patients at the hospital and I would have been comforted myself during those times in the past. This is one of the best parts of geocaching—it takes us to places we never would have visited otherwise.

 

There are lots of bike trails and bike lane all over southwest Florida and we intend to make more use of them as soon as the weather warms up a bit. We constantly see bikers, but today we saw something a bit different. A woman was riding her bicycle that had a baby riding in a cart attached to the back of it, plus she had two dogs on leashes running ahead and alongside of her. I have enough problems keeping my balance on a bike---I can’t imagine how she can do it with the dogs pulling her in other directions!