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March 25, 2006

Ritz Carlton - Naples, FL

These past few days I've been in Naples, FL with my boyfriend, Brent, and his parents.

Looking down on Florida from the airplane:

Brent's family invited me to stay with them at the Ritz Carlton Golf Resort in Naples for 4 days and we had such an amazing trip! I flew down on Tuesday to meet Brent and his family who had been there since Saturday. Brent, his dad, and his uncle came to pick me up at the airport and then the four of us drove to Brent's aunt and uncle's house in Estero, FL. Brent's parents and his aunt and uncle played some golf while Brent and I played in their pool. Brent has pictures of this on his camera but refuses to walk downstairs to get it, so you can blame the picture delay on him.

When I say "played" in the pool, you have to understand that boys don't know how to play nice with girls, so basically I spent the entire time getting thrown around and nearly drowned by Brent who seemed to be enjoying himself. At one point I got slugged pretty hard in the shoulder but Brent had the excuse of "You can't blame me! I was flailing!" Brent flailed a lot at my expense.

After swimming for a couple hours, we got dressed for dinner and read for a little while until Brent's family got back.

Looking down at Brent from the 2nd floor in the house:

The six of us went out to dinner somewhere in or near Estero where we had some great Italian food and I heard some really funny family stories. After dinner, I drove to Naples with Brent and his parents to the hotel we stayed at, the Ritz Carlton Golf Resort. My room was across the hall from theirs and it was gigantic! I had a huge king sized bed with a featherbed on it and a down comforter that actually made me feel like I was sleeping in a cloud. My bathroom was huge too with three separate areas, the shower, the sinks, and the toilet room (which had a phone in it by the way). After exploring my room and then getting Brent's official tour of the resort, I finally went to sleep after a very long (but also very fun) day.

The next morning, Brent and I went for a walk with Brent's parents around the resort grounds and into a few of the neighboring communities (still part of the Ritz Carlton). Everything there is so beautiful. We saw a bunch of turtles in the lake and a big white egret. After our walk we made our way down to the pool where I got a much needed suntan.

The fountain outside the resort:

The pool (Brent's parents are sitting on the chairs in the background):

Brent and I read our books while sunbathing:

Brent and Me after going for a swim:

A bird eating out of someone's lunch tray:

Here's a whole series of completely unnecessary pictures that I'm only putting up because I swore on my life I wouldn't delete them. Brent thought it would be a good idea to take my picture constantly throughout the trip while I wasn't looking so that my pictures wouldn't look "posed." Well, they don't look posed, they look silly. Oh well. Here you go Brent:

That last one is especially flattering....

Those pictures were taken at one of the little tables by the pool where people could sit to get out of the sun and order something to drink/eat. Brent got a virgin pina colada and I got a Diet Coke because I'm boring.

Brent's dad came over to join us after the "photo shoot" and I took this lovely posed picture of them:

Brent and Me:

After we baked out in the sun (with plenty of sunscreen Mom!) I took a shower while Brent and his dad played some tennis. When I was done getting ready, I watched the second half of Brent and his dad's tennis match with Brent's mom. Brent won in a close match and said he'd help me with my tennis this Spring at school. After tennis we all went over to the big comfy rocking chairs outside looking over the golf course. The Ritz Carlton is so beatuful and everything was set up so nicely.

Out on the deck:

Brent and me holding hands...aww:

And here we go again with Brent's random photos of me that I promised to keep....

Me sitting in one of the rocking chairs:

Again:

Don't worry, I do it to him too later on.

Brent wearing his tennis gear, walking inside:

After enjoying the scenery for a while, Brent and I went up to our rooms to get ready for dinner at the Sanibel Steakhouse (not in Sanibel). This picture is either 1. another of Brent's random pictures of me or 2. the picture I took of myself to see if my smile looked weird.... I'd go with number 2, I do strange things like that:

Before we left to meet Brent's parents in the lobby, Brent and I set up my camera on the timer mode to get a picture of the two of us sitting together, but as I walked over to sit next to him, Brent scooped me up, creating this adorable picture:

Ha! I finally got him! This is Brent in the middle of a sentence while we were down in the lobby waiting for his parents to be ready for dinner (amazing, I wasn't last one ready)!

Isn't he handsome?

This is a random picture looking up at the Ritz Carlton from the end of the driveway. I love palm trees:

View of the resort from across the lake:

At the Sanibel Steakhouse Brent and I had our very predictable filet mignon cooked medium with french fries. It was very tasty, but the best meal was yet to come....

Thursday morning we all woke up early and got our stuff together for the beach. Around 9:30am we packed into the car with all our bags and books and gallons of sunscreen and drove a couple miles down the road to the other Ritz Carlton where we went to the beach. Guests at the Ritz Carlton Golf Resort are allowed to use the Ritz Carlton at the beach as well as the golf one. When we got to the beach it was a little cloudy out, but the sun peeked through and I think we managed to get a little tan anyway. Brent, Brent's dad, and I went for a walk down the beach where we saw a fisherman who had just caught a baby hammerhead shark. It was really cute, but it was also a little scary that there were hammerheads lurking about. We didn't see any other sharks, but we did see a bunch of dolphins jumping out of the water right in front of us where we were sitting.

A very relaxed Brent on the beach:

Brent with his parents:

Me:

The beach:

Brent and Me:

The Ritz Carlton on the beach:

Brent walking in front of Gumbo Limbo, the beachside restaurant (also a part of the Ritz Carlton) where we ate lunch:

The stretch of land between Gumbo Limbo and the Ritz Carlton was very green and lush. There were a bunch of Ritz Carlton employees wandering about with machetes which I thought was pretty funny. I decided not to take their picture, though, because... well, they had machetes and you never know how the locals will react to having their picture taken.

Green:

After about six hours of relaxing, reading, and napping at the beach, we headed back to the resort where we got showered and dressed for dinner at Campiello's.

I think this is the "does my smile look weird?" picture I was talking about, but I actually sort of liked how it turned out because it gave me accidental cleavage, so I'm keeping it:

Brent and me all gussied up Florida-style:

Brent trying to watch Poker on TV while I tried to take pictures (I won-- you can't keep me from my compulsive picture taking):

Brent and Me again:

And again:

One more time:

When we arrived in Olde Naples, or "downtown," we went to Tommy Bahama where Brent and his dad bought some shirts. The power went out briefly which was pretty exciting, and then everyone cheered when it came back on a minute later. The store had an interesting setup, the men's side was on the right, the women's on the left, and in between there was a Tommy Bahama restaurant. After a little shopping (I think the shopping in Naples rivals Greenwich Ave.) we headed over to Campiello's. At Campiello's, we had the most amazing bruschetta ever, I mean it, and then some homemade pasta! Brent, Brent's dad, and I ordered the tagliatelle which was homemade tagliatelle pasta with spicy lamb sausage and sauce. If you like lamb, you must hop on a plane right away and get yourself down to Naples, FL to try Campiello's tagliatelle. After dinner we sipped cappuccinos and Brent and his dad had gelato, then we took a quick walk down the street again.

Campiello's:

Naples is such a friendly area, everyone says hello as they pass even though they clearly don't know us, and the sidewalks were filled with people chatting and mingling even late at night when everything was closed. The streets are so beautiful there, there are gorgeous lit up fountains everywhere you look and all the trees have Christmas lights reaching out to every limb (or just up the trunk of the palm trees). Speaking of Christmas, apparently at Christmastime, the streetlights are replaced with fake snow generators so that as people walk down the sidewalks, they're showered with "snow" to make it feel like a white Christmas. Snow without the freezing temperatures? I'm there!

Downtown Naples at night:

A beautiful lit up tree:

Putting my photography skills to work to take this picure of Brent on the sidewalk:

I thought it would be cool in black and white too:

We found the one man in America who doesn't know how to use a digital camera to take this picture of us. He was very sweet... but oh man:

When we got home, Brent's parents went to bed and Brent and I went down to the hot tub where we saw these snails all over the walls! Not the hot tub walls, but the walls around the entire pool deck:

The water was boiling hot so we didn't last long until we had to get out and go to bed.

Friday morning, Brent and I got up and got some breakfast to take outside to eat. We shared a giant blueberry muffin and drank some coffee on the Adirondack chairs looking out over the golf course.

Brent at breakfast:

I've decided that eating breakfast outside is one of my new favorite hobbies that I probably won't do again for a few months.

Golf course:

Brent and me at breakfast in front of the resort:

After breakfast, we showered, got dressed, and headed out to lunch at the Ritz Carlton Golf Club right next door to the resort. Brent and I had sandwiches with Brent's parents and then came back to the resort to play some pool before leaving.

Brent "breaking:"

I asked Brent if I could break and he gave me a look, so I had to prove him wrong. I managed to tap the yellow ball slightly out of the triangular thing which I am counting as a victory.

Me shooting:

Brent allowed it when I scratched about ten times on the 8 ball (that's what boyfriends are for!) so when I got all my balls and the 8 ball in before he did, he said "Good job sweetie, after only a few losses, you managed to win." Yes I did.

After playing pool for a while, we got back in the car and headed down Alligator Alley for Miami where we all flew home. I was on a different plane than Brent and his family because they were going to Hartford and I was going to NYC, but luckily I was sitting next to two very nice women who didn't try to talk to me. The ride home was a bit traumatic when we hit some turbulence, started swaying from side to side, and then started going in a general downward direction while the plane made scary plane noises. I actually thought we were going down, and I don't think I was the only one because I saw a number of nervous faces all around. We landed safely, however, almost exactly 24 hours ago. Brent and his family were so nice to invite me to Naples with them and I had an AMAZING time! You should all visit sometime, it's worth the scary plane trip.

Posted by lauren at March 25, 2006 10:37 PM

Comments

Posted by: brent at March 26, 2006 12:21 AM

Posted by: Lauren at March 26, 2006 12:35 AM

Posted by: jocelyn at March 26, 2006 11:01 AM