The Hinckley visit was a great success.

The week before Sam, Jess, Ben and Oliver arrived was spent getting the boat ready for their visit and Ben's 6th birthday party.  Their plane touched down at the Ft. Myers/Naples (RSW) Airport at 6:30 pm and Grand Mar, Popov, John and Brandi were there to meet them.  Even though it was a Saturday night, we decided to brave one of the popular beach spots for dinner, Parrot Key Carribean Grill.  Needless to say, it was late when we finally got to the boat.  We thought the plan would be to put the boys to bed in the "V" berth and then when Sam and Jess were ready to go to sleep we'd move the boys out to the main salon and the parents could have the forward cabin.  Sam and Jess decided they didn't want to move the boys so they slept Sam on the settee and Jess next to the table!  That seemed to work well for everyone, but it meant no blogging as I usually do it when everyone is asleep...

We headed off Sunday around noon (waiting for the tide) and powered at idle speed (strictly enforced all long the waterfront here) and arrived at Picnic Island around 3:00 pm.  There were still a lot of weekenders on the island, but we ventured ashore and played a bit on the shore.  By sunset, everyone had cleared out and we had a peaceful night.  The next day, the island was ours and we took full use of it.

Ben got to dig, Oliver got to wrestle an alligator, Sam got to sail, Jess got to ride the alligator
and the boys did lots of adventuring.

Dory also got in a lot of romping, running and swimming and digging. 

Brandi and John took some time to be with everyone and spent time at the beach both across the street from our marina and a bit south of here on Barefoot Beach.   They all spent a day at the Shell Factory which has an animal park as well as a very large (and somewhat cheesy) gift shop. We hosted  Ben and Oliver for a night while the middle generation did some bar hopping.  Danny was able to join them as he was between assignments - one in Orlando and the next in Naples.  The weather was perfect all week and even got to enjoy the small pool here at the marina.

Try as they might, Ben and Oliver never got the hang of using our CCYC communicatiors, but had lots of fun trying.

It was hard to pull Ben and Oliver away from the beach, but they did enjoy a family adventure out on the Hobie Mirage Sport Kayaks.  We were sorry to be sending them back to another 8 inches or so of snow, but that's the way this winter has been treating the rest of the country this year.

We only had one medical interruption to their visit, Dan had an MRI of his back to see if that would answer the nagging question of his pain and nausea.  It did show some stress spots in his upper and lower back, and luckily time seems to be the solution to the situation as he is feeling much better - - - finally!  All in all Dan saw 10 different doctors in the past month!!  We're done with all of them at this point.      ~~~_/)~~~M&D