Well, life in Naples, Florida moves a little bit slower, and therefore, our blog may slow down as well. This will be Amy's 5th year, and my 3rd year in Naples. It's fantastic to be back to a place where we can almost call our second home, a place where we have friends and my family close by. Activities and exploring, definitely take a back seat here. We've pretty much done most events and exploring around Naples, but i'm sure we'll find other things to do. In the meantime, we are enjoying this awesome weather!! We both have started work and moved into a gated community. It's a quaint little furnished 2 bed 2 bath condo on the 5th tee of an Arnold Palmer Golf Course. I have started work in Marco Island, and it has been Crazy!! I've almost got a full case load after doing over 20 evals in a week!! We have a handful of people slated to come down as well as
some events here and there, so we are enjoying being back so far. Our first weekend here we
surprised our friend Amanda and new born son Ian with a visit. He's the cutest baby, and we thoroughly enjoyed finally seeing him in person. That weekend we also attended the Naples Swamp Buggy Races with Jim, Amanda, Joanna, and Ian. We drove back into the woods via dirt road to a huge racing "track". The track was a trench dug in a figure 8 shape, filled with thick brown mud. In the distance you could see the owners of the swamp buggies, proudly displaying their confederate flags, mullets and remaining teeth, camping in tents, and cooking outdoors. Soon, the wondrous roar of twin V8 engines came about and the swamp buggy time trials took place. As they came off of the starting line, we soon realized that this race track had varying depths, because as the buggies drove in front of us, they began to sink to the depth of the drivers neck!! After all the time trials, several of the buggies had to be towed out by big Caterpillar Tractors. Per Amy's recommendation, a few of had to try "the big one" sandwich which is a heart clogging conglomeration of sliced beef, 
liquid cheese, french fries, and coleslaw, all piled 
atop a
liquid cheese, french fries, and coleslaw, all piled 
atop a bun. The sandwich was pretty good, not an amazing sandwich, but good. I think we all had a 
really good time, both people watching and watching the time trials. The next week we just worked, but looked forward to wine tasting at ABC Liquors with our old friend Sarah. Now, we've been wine tasting throughout the US, but wine tasting at ABC liquors in Florida is always an experience. We go to every wine tasting they have available, so we know most of the staff by name (and they know us too). Basically you take a huge store, put 15-20 tables and load them with 4-7 wines at each table(along with food from local vendors/restaurants and some liquor vendors too!) and you go to town. We got there, met Sarah, Mark, and Mark's dad Tony, and frequented most of the tables. We must have sampled over 40-50 wines!! It's a great happy hour after a long week. Afterwards, we went to the Ale house to finish off some pitchers of beer and to share an order of chicken nachos. Amy then had a "girl's night in" on friday with some friends, and on Saturday we went to Naples Farmer's market and ran some errands. Sunday Morning we went to Ian's baptism. He's only a month old, but he
really good time, both people watching and watching the time trials. The next week we just worked, but looked forward to wine tasting at ABC Liquors with our old friend Sarah. Now, we've been wine tasting throughout the US, but wine tasting at ABC liquors in Florida is always an experience. We go to every wine tasting they have available, so we know most of the staff by name (and they know us too). Basically you take a huge store, put 15-20 tables and load them with 4-7 wines at each table(along with food from local vendors/restaurants and some liquor vendors too!) and you go to town. We got there, met Sarah, Mark, and Mark's dad Tony, and frequented most of the tables. We must have sampled over 40-50 wines!! It's a great happy hour after a long week. Afterwards, we went to the Ale house to finish off some pitchers of beer and to share an order of chicken nachos. Amy then had a "girl's night in" on friday with some friends, and on Saturday we went to Naples Farmer's market and ran some errands. Sunday Morning we went to Ian's baptism. He's only a month old, but he 
doesn't cry much, and is a really great kid. He was very good throughout the whole ceremony, and was not finicky at all with the tons of people that insisted on holding him. We went to the BBQ hosted by the Flemings after the ceremony and went home to watch the Superbowl and get ready for the next week of work. Man!! I miss those 3 day weekends!!! Next weekend, we hope to do a bit of hiking in the Everglades, and go to SeafoodFest located in Everglades City. The superbowl also signifies the starting of Baseball Season!! I can't wait for Red Sox Spring Training!!! So, all we are enjoying our time here, and would love to entertain some northerners stuck in the snow, so let us know if you would like to pop in for a visit. Thanks for reading and until next time...
The last picture is of the Swamp Buggy Queen. She's happy at the time trials, but after the races the next day she gets thrown in the muck as per tradition. I hear mud is good for the complexion though so I guess she'll have the advantage over next year's pagent competition.
