Scooter Babes and a Trip to Marco Island

Well, they wouldn't rent us Harley's until we demonstrated our competence on something a little smaller, so off we rode on a couple of scooters. It was a blast.

We motored to the end of Espero Island and back, checking out neighborhoods along the way.

There is something about riding in the open with the wind in your hair that is a natural high -- convertibles do it for me, as do bicycles, horses, Harleys, boats. . .

Lots of homes in the neighborhoods had converted their yard from green plants to desert scapes with gravel areas.

Although we had proved our cycle prowess on the scooters, we decided to leave the Harley rentals to another day and set off for Marco Island which turned out to be quite an upgrade from Espero and Fort Myers Beach. No tourist look here. Instead, pristine landscaping, tree-lined and high-rise condo-lined thoroughfares, well-behaved traffic and pedestrians -- a place for everything and everything in its place as the saying goes.

We decided our on South Marco Beach as the venue for our evening sunset watch. Lots of shells here, as is the case with Sanibel and Captiva, but different ones. Most notable were the conch, all occupied by sizable snails. Seeing them we understood the signs we'd seen with the admonition "no live shelling." These shells were off limits to collectors unless they'd been vacated by the owner. Also saw more rocks than at the other beaches.

Another beautiful sunset to end our day.