Marco Island

We went to Marco Island last night for a picnic and some beach time.  It is about a 45 minute drive south of Naples.  We enjoyed our picnic before hitting the beach.  While we were walking, we noticed a couple of crabs.  Wes says they are called Fiddler Crabs because one claw is larger than the other.  They also walk sideways for some reason.  As we got closer to the water, there were hundreds of crabs.  The beach looked like it was covered with red seaweed or something.  Some beach walkers passed and the crabs just scurried like something you would see on an Indiana Jones movie.  Made our skin crawl.

 Wesley found this guy washed ashore.  He was intent on taking it home, until he smelled it closely (it was dead).

 We had to wade through 3 feet deep water to get to the main beach.  I guess the shore line used to be different.  Some mangrove trees started growing on a sand bar and now there in kind of an inlet that you have to pass through to get to the outer beach.  So we decided to limit our beach gear to what we could carry.  This is the castle that we made with two shovels and a bucket.

 The water was wonderfully warm.  We spent most of the time in the water finding shells.  They were plentiful and quite large!  Our best haul yet.

Another beautiful sunset on the beach. 

Then after, when we were wading back, we were eaten alive by sand flies.  You can't see them, you can only feel them biting.  We all came home with dozens of bites. That part we could have done without!  Another nice day at the beach!