Ft. Meyers Beach

6.16

So we ventured into Ft. Meyers Beach today. We walked around an area called "Times Square" and went to the beach for a bit. Needless to say, we were unimpressed.
We had heard that being in Ft. Meyers was like stepping back in time - if the time it preserved was the 80's then I guess that would be correct. Only the town didn't preserve anything - it was rundown and the restaurants were straight out of an old 80s movie. The beach was overcrowded, the water was hot (bath water would be cooler than the gulf was that day) and the water was only up to your wait 50yds out. Although the people of Ft. Meyers couldn't control 2 out of 3 of those things, it still wasn't optimal.
At lunchtime, we jumped over to McDonalds for a quick bite to eat. But when we got there, the restaurant was overflowing with high school kids just out for the summer. There was no one over the age of 17, all wearing bikinis and board shorts and sporting either tattoos or pregnant bellies. And they all wanted just a glass of water. The poor employees were finally forced to tell them that they were not giving out glasses for water unless they were buying some food as well. Although the kids were disgruntled, they didn't leave but rather holed up in a booth anyway.
We stayed for a bit regardless, but only because of the wonderful A/C they had pumping in there - it is amazing what we do for A/C these days!
We went back to the boat after a little more beach time and retrieved the dog. We brought him back on land and ordered a pizza from an outdoor pizza shop. As we stepped away after ordering the pizza, we felt the wind change and increase in speed. When we looked up, we saw a menacing black, green-tinted cloud quickly coming our way. We told the pizza folks we would be back for our pizza and made a mad dash to our dinghy - we had left all the windows on the boat wide open.
We made it in time to button up the mothership and throw Moo inside out of the rain. We headed back in for our pizza, but with the dog realized there was nowhere to go out of the impending storm. The wind had picked up to 20-25knots and showed no sign of stopping. We ran across the street and tucked in on the stoop of a realty office that was set back under an awning. No sooner had we gotten there than the rain began.
It was a fierce storm and soon had knocked out power on our block. Undeterred since we had found a dry niche, we sat back and enjoyed our pizza and the beautiful storm. It lasted for a good 2hours and was very intense, with lightening striking all around the city.
When the rain finally let up we headed back out to the dinghy with fingers crossed that nothing had happened to our boat. On the way back out to the boat, we realized that the anchor light we left on was no longer shining. We checked a few more of the systems once we were on the boat and realized that the anemometer was also out. Both of these are located on the top of the mast, so we think we may have been struck by lightening; although thankfully nothing else seems to be out of order.
All in all, between the bad beginning when we first arrived and the distaste for the city we were unimpressed with Ft. Meyers Beach. Although we have no plans to come back, perhaps we won't be too hasty to judge and will plan a visit to the city on our next go round.