Jan. 3 & 4
On Sat. we went to Estero Community Park to get a parking sticker for the county parks. Most of the places we go (including Bonita Beach and Ft. Myers Beach) require an hourly parking fee. So you have to decide how long you are going to stay, and then you have to watch the time so you leave before time expires or you put in more money to stay longer. We decided this year to just buy the sticker to eliminate all that. It doesn't work everywhere, like at Lover's Key, which is a state park, not county. We walked around Estero park for exercise, and noticed a large fenced-in area where people were sitting watching their dogs play. Good idea - then people walking and kids in the playground don't have to worry about stepping in dog poop! We know there is a dog beach between Bonita Beach and Ft. Myers Beach. Another good idea. We were there once when a man was using a racquet to hit a tennis ball far into the surf and his dog would fetch it. I asked him why he didn't just throw the ball out, and he said his arm couldn't take it - the dog loved to do this over and over.
We went to Panera bread for lunch at Coconut Point Mall, then to the book store. On the way back, along Via Coconut Point, in a large pond, we saw lots of water birds including several eagles.

On Sun. we went to Miromar Mall to get a paper and coffee at Starbucks. Then to church at 11. Lunch at the 5th wheel, to Walmart later in the day, small supper at Dairy Queen. At sunset, took a long walk around the RV park.

WEATHER - Very clear, temp about 78, about 58 at night. Cold front coming on Thurs. with temps down to about 70. Not so cold to us, but FL natives think 70 is cold! The normal temps are 76 and 55. Last year, it set the record low of 32!

LOCAL NEWS - Corruption and greed doesn’t exist just in IL. A local real estate agent is accused of taking investors for almost $3 million in a complicated scheme involving fraud and money laundering. He claims he was doing what his lawyers said and didn’t know any deception had occurred. The accusation is that Cabrera purchased some land and then sold it to investors at a much higher price without telling them all the facts. Then he funneled the money through his father-in-law.

LOCAL REAL ESTATE - The Babcock Ranch is about 40 miles northeast of Ft. Myers and consisted of 91,000 acres of cattle ranch and wilderness. Last year, it was sold to a developer who planned to build a city of about 50,000 people on 18,000 of the acres. He then sold the remaining 73,000 acres to the state. Now construction of the planned city has been delayed until at least 2011.
The median value of a single family home in Lee County (which includes Ft. Myers) in Nov. 2007 was $228,100. In Nov. 2008 it was $106,000 - that’s less than half. In Charlotte County (which includes Punta Gorda) median values have dropped from $177,300 to $97,700.