The Nykamps visit Ft. Myers

I had the opportunity yesterday to show Mom and Steve around my 'hood (they were in Florida for my grandpa's 80th bday party, which was about 2.5 hours away).

First they received the grand tour of the condo. Mom fell in love with my roommate, Brad. Then we headed out to fullfill Mom's lifelong dream, the #1 thing she wanted to do here in Ft. Myers, before anything else. Dolphins, you ask? The beach? No.

She wanted to go to Sonic.

Yes, the fast-food drive-through place. (They don't have them in Michigan, at least not their part of it.)

After spending a ridiculous amount of time there (mostly because we couldn't figure out how to order, LOL), we headed to Ft. Myers beach, where we spent the rest of our day together. It was actually a ton of fun. I got to see it through the eyes of a tourist again and I have to say, my city if freakin' awesome!! Why people would live anywhere else is beyond me. (No offense.) The beach itself is beautiful, with the white sand and the sparking Gulf. We went out on the pier and actually SAW DOLPHINS. Oh my God, I was so excited. We saw quite a few of them, actually. They were quite active yesterday, which was cool. We could see their fins, tails and backs when they come up for water.

Then we went to the OTHER part of Ft Myers beach--the shops, bars and resturaunts. It's like a city-in-a-city that you can walk around. It's also college spring break time, so needless to say, the place was pretty happening. (Renee--dorky phrase of the day.) Mom and I had a rumrunner at a particular bar and, needless to say, we were both pretty buzzed about a third of the way through our drinks. (Well, one of us was buzzed and one of us was outright drunk--I'll let you figure out who was who.) ;) We wandered in and out of the different stores so Mom and Steve could get some gifts to bring home. The whole time, Mom kept saying how much she liked it down here and how this was the most fun she's ever had (or at least I THINK that's what she said--she was slurring her words so much that it was hard to tell). ;)

Anyway, all in all, I think they had a pretty good time on their last full day in Ft Myers. We finished off our trip with dinner at Hooters (again, a place Mom had never been). They finally got back on the road around 8:30 (past their "curfew" from Grandma and Grandpa, ha ha).

It was nice to have them in MY town and let them see the life I've made for myself here in the last almost-2-years. I think now they can understand why, as great as it is to visit friends and family in Michigan, I'm always excited to get back to Ft. Myers. =-)