Marco Island, Florida.

We just had the best 3 days of 2010. On Tuesday we drove 2 hours south to Marco Island and the Hilton Hotel on the beach. Lunch at Hilton, on the porch, was delicious potato strings wrapped around 6 large shrimp and fried - and crab cakes. Then we checked into our jr. suite with its own balcony.

Then we went across the street to look through a small Outlet strip mall that included Chico's (my favorite dress shop). Then we went back to the hotel for a swim before supper. Supper was absolutely delicious crispy young duckling breast, no bones, with a wonderful sauce and finely chopped fruit. After dinner we walked the beach.

Wednesday breakfast at Hilton and drove about 15 minutes to Rookery Bay Estuary. Because the place had "rookery" in the title we expected to find birds. They might have them during the winter (migration) but all we saw was 1 egret and 1 cardinal. They even had the normal walkway thru the acreage closed to the public. We still saw some interesting nature, crabs, lizards.

On the way back to Marco we spotted another Outlet mall with a Coach handbag shop. We went for dinner at 5pm, still at Hilton, we were the only diners there on the terrace. I had delicious prime rib. After dinner we went for another swim in the hotel pool. Also watched sunsets both nights.

Before leaving for home on Thursday, we had a long walk down the white sand beach and made the pictures you see here. There was absolutely no sign of the oil spill from the BP disaster out in the Gulf of Mexico. Just clean white sand beach!