This past weekend, we took Blue Turtle to Salty Sam’s Marina to stay 2 nights and watch the Fort Myers Beach Christmas Boat Parade.  We left Snook Bight on Friday afternoon and took a short cruise over to Salty Sam’s. On our way there, we were escorted by several pods of dolphin (Check out our Facebook page for the video). They were surrounding us and riding the bow of the boat almost the whole way there. Once there and after checking in, we put the dinghy in the water and cruised over to Doc Ford’s for dinner. When we returned there was a band playing outside of Bootlegger’s restaurant very near our slip. The music was great and thankfully, they only played until 9pm.

Saturday, the day of the parade, we planned to have family and friends over later that evening for the viewing of the parade. While Randy and Corey went for a dinghy ride to shore, I cleaned up the boat a bit to get it ready for our parade party. Later that day, we toured around the marina and went to say hi to friends Joe and Glenda who used to be neighbors at Snook Bight and now live at Salty Sam’s. After that we relaxed on the bridge of the boat and watched as boats started arriving and crews were busy hanging lights and decorations on the boats. The way we were were situated in our slip, we had an excellent view of all the festivities in the marina.

Around 5pm, our guests started arriving and things were bustling in the marina. We had food and drinks aboard Blue Turtle and continued to watch as parade boats arrived in the marina. There were all kinds of themes and very creative use of lights and decorations. At 6pm the dock hands assisted the parade boats out of their slips and into position. We relaxed with our friends and family on the bridge and watched as all the boats lined up and headed out for the parade. A couple hours later, the boats began arriving back in the marina and we walked the docks to take pictures and get a closer look at all the boats. The post-parade party was in full swing by then with 2 bands playing and festively dressed folks walking and enjoying drinks. We hung out on the bridge of Blue Turtle and enjoyed the live music until it stopped around 10pm.  The parade was such a wonderful event and I was impressed at the large turn out of boats. Such a fun event to attend during the holidays.

We left Salty Sam’s on Sunday around noon and headed back home to Snook Bight. Randy, Corey and I commented on how much fun it was and hope to plan it again next year. We also enjoyed our first stay at Salty Sam’s Marina and were impressed at how friendly and attentive their dock hands were at helping us in and getting set up with power. We had a great “stay-cation” there and wonderful time with family and friends at the parade.