Marco Island

After the business of our week in Disney, it was a time for a quiet more restful week. So we travel down to what is known as the Paradise Coast, at Marco Island.

Today's Route

Leaving Disney World

After such a wonderful dinner on Friday night, we slept until 6am the next morning. In time to load photos on to Flickr before going down to Breakfast and enjoying the pleasures of the Club House for the last time.

We went back to the room and packed ready for our 10.30am departure on the Magical Express back to Orlando Airport. We had a short wait outside the Grand Floridian and the bus arrived at 10.40am and we arrived at the airport at 11.15am. A short queue at the Hertz desk meant we got away from the Airport at 11.45am. 

Picking up the Car and heading South

Hertz has developed a new approach to picking up your car called Hertz Ultimate Choice. You now go to an area with a range of cars of the grade you have paid for and choose the one that you want to take. We had a choice between 30+ cars and picked a burgundy VW Jetta registered in North Carolina. The car had 34,328 on the clock.

Our route was to head out of the airport and almost immediately (within a Mile) onto the Florida-528W. This, along with many roads in the US, is a Toll Road, but it only cost us $1.25 for the 10.5 mile ride. This was an easy flowing road which lead directly to the Interstate I4 on which we travelled for 60 miles towards Tampa. My sister tells me all the maps at our school had been emendated with an additional X on this town! I was obviously to innocent to notice at the time!!

As we were about five miles from Tampa we turned south onto the I75, which stretches from the border with Canada at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan all the way to Miami, Florida. Indeed we travelled on a part of it from Detroit to Toledo, OH two years ago. We should also be seeing the Canadian part of Sault Ste. Marie on next year's holiday.

Today we were on the part of the I75 from Tampa to Naples, 161 miles. We stopped for a Coffee at a place called Bradenton at 2.30pm and turned off the I75 onto Collier Boulevard (Country Road 951) just before 5pm. About ten miles further on we spotted a Walmart, so stopped to pick up coffee, tea, diet coke, orange juice, bread ham and cheese ready for drinks tonight and breakfast tomorrow. Plus of course some Tide to wash our clothes.

From Walmart it was only 11 miles across the bridge into Marco Island and on to our apartment block, sorry condominium, which is the Apollo Condominium, 900, South Collier Boulevard, Marco Island. We arrived at 5.50pm and were warmly welcomed by the two staff on the desk who gave us all we needed to pass the barriers into the car park and get up to our room.

Apollo Condominium

The Apartment is amazing. It is up on the 9th floor, because the American's call the ground floor, no 1 the apartment is actually numbered 1006 (i.e. the tenth floor in US speak). With a lovely combined sitting room and kitchen leading to a room width door/window that leads out onto what I would call a balcony, but which is called a Lanai here. From the main room the hall leads to a bathroom with all the necessary requirements and a bedroom with plenty of space to hang our clothes.

Talking of clothes, we made immediate use of the washing and drying facilities which are shared by the floor, but are just opposite our apartment. We tried to keep our clothes cleaning to a minimum in Disney, given the cost of their full-service laundry. We also wanted to pack light so we each had five of most items, so had only need to have two or three laundered at Disney, so we had a full load ready to do when we arrived here and felt there was no time like the present.

Two hours later all the clothes were washed and tumbled and ready to be hung up. In the meantime we watched the people on the beach from the Lanai and settled in. 

Washing and drying done I wasn't up to driving any more, so we opted to eat at the Sunset Grille, which is on the ground floor of the building - though with a different entrance. The exterior seats of the Sunset Grille have the same view as our apartment, so the sun going down over the Gulf of Mexico is one of the treats of staying here.

Sunset Grille

We arrived at the Sunset Grille at 8pm and were seated straight away. 

I began with that most American of tastes, barbecue wings. In my case the Wings were served by what they called intensive sauce and sides of blue cheese and celery. They really were intense, and just as I wanted, with a strong chilli heat which warmed the whole of my mouth and tongue.

Drew opted for another American favorite - Caesar Salad, this was served with two lovely pieces of garlic bread. It was huge, with lots of crunchy lettuce and large croutons, with just the right amount sauce. It was delicious, but he would have benefited from something smaller.

I was planning to have Ribs for mains, but having had the wings (note we remembered not to order mains with the starters) I realised that would be to much and had a French Dip, which is a sandwich with prime rib dipped in Au jus served on a Amoroso hoagie roll with Fries. This was lovely, the juice mixing with the rib and softening the hoagie to make a real comfort food feel.

Drew also opted for a sandwich and had a roast pork served with sharp provolone cheese and garlicky broccoli rabe on an Amoroso roll with fries. The roll was unusually (for a UK palette) sweet but overall the experience was good.

We were back up to the apartment by 10.15pm and in bed by 10.30pm. A busy but productive day.