Tropical Storm Emily

Friends will know that we have had interesting weather conditions on a number of our holidays. In 2008 we had Hurricane Gustav (125mph) meaning we had to stay in the hotel for a day or two and in 2011 we got stuck in New York by Hurricane Irene (75mph). So it was nice to have a slightly calmer wind as Tropical Storm Emily came in from the Gulf of Mexico.

  

Marco Island is under that big yellow blob above. Still the calmer winds of a Tropical Storm, only 45mph, compared to a much faster hurricane, was not awful. However, it did bring in an enormous amount of rain on Monday and the tail also brought rain on Tuesday. 8 inches of rain in a place where 1 inch is normally a high rainfall has the impact of a weather problem we had not previously encountered - Ponding. As the word implies this means the creation of ponds in places where there is no drainage or other way to clear the water other than evaporation. On roads this caused lots of minor prangs. The advice was not to drive in the day time unless it was a requirement. 

We opted to have a very lazy day. I wrote two of the longer blog posts from last week and Drew sat and watched one of the 90 channels available on the TV here. He was particularly amused by one of the CBS WINK reporters who to evidence the problem of ponding stood in a pond and announced that his feet was very wet!!

By 3pm the worst of the rain had passed and people began to appear on the beach.

We decided to stay safe and didn't leave the apartment until 6.45pm. <<Co-pilot's note - that dear readers is a lie, I left the apartment got in the air-conditioned lift, went down ten stories and ran on a treadmill in the air-conditioned fitness centre downstairs. 45 minutes later I got back in the lift and came up the ten stories!!>> Even then the roads were very clear and signs of the ponding on both roads and gardens were everywhere in the area.

Dinner

On holidays we like to mix up planning our eating and taking a chance when we get to a place. We had been in Marco Island for two or three days and had passed Joey's Pizza and Pasta House a number of times. So we decided we should venture here for tonight's dinner. 

Joey's was a great find, a real old fashioned Italian Restaurant with a menu that was so challenging for us to decide on. We had sat there reading it for about 15 minutes before making up our minds.

Obviously we should have read it for a longer period of time, as we probably ordered a little more than was good for us! But I eat all of mine.

We managed to order out appetisers first, which was a good plan. I opted for Antipasto Misto, which was the usual Antipasto, but with a large salad combined. It included salami, capicola, ham, prosciutto, provolone cheese, hot cherry peppers and salad all topped with a sharp and delightful balsamic vinaigrette. It was delicious, but might have been a full meal in its own right! There was a knot of juicy garlic bread on the side. I know I'll dream about this dish in years to come.

Drew opted for the simply titled - Sausage and Peppers. This was also much more than Drew expected. There were wonderfully cooked, tasty chunks of what I know as Salsiccia Fresca, but is commonly called Italian Sausage here in the US. A pork sausage made with fennel seeds. This was served by lightly fried chunks of Green Peppers - a real plate full. Drew loved it.

We had then both ordered small pizzas, clearly we had a different idea of small from that of our hosts. I opted for hand tossed thin crust Italian Beef and hot giardiniera Pizza. The crust was just as I like it thin and crispy. I know this isn't everyone's taste, but it was perfect for me and I eat it all. The meat was lightly browned and the giardiniera (picked vegatables) gave a lovely zing to the whole Pizza. I happily eat every last bit of it, though small it was not.

Drew ordered a small New York Traditional Hand Tossed Thin Crust Pizza with pepperoni, hot peppers, garlic and onions. This was less thin crust than my pizza, more like a traditional Pizza base. The pepperoni was zingy and the hot peppers were jalapenos which were very, very spicy, just as Drew likes it. Not only did Drew leave the crust, but also two of the slices of his pizza, he thought it was wonderful, but he was just too full to cope.

To help walk off our greed we drove to a nearby Publix Supermarket and wondered around looking at their products and buying items to supplement our Walmart shopping. We also saw some lovely postcards, so bought them too.

Here I am calling the lift after arriving back from the shop.