Ft. Myers Trip: Day 3

RECAP:  My husband and I both grew up on the river.  Literally.  The river was just footsteps outside of both of our front doors.  We love the water.  We love the beach.  So when we decided to start venturing further than a day's drive away from our home for a family vacation, we chose the beach.  Ft. Myers Beach, FL, to be exact.  Here's what we did on:

Day 3:

     I've been saving one of my very favorite things about our vacation and it's time for the big reveal!!!  

Ascension Parish

Located just ONE mile from our rental house!!!!!

So beautiful!

We are used to a 15-20 minute drive to get to Mass, so we were super excited to have such a short distance to drive, walk, or bike, to our parish for the week!  The Mass was packed and we later learned that it can take up to, and sometimes over 2 hours to get off the island for Mass.  In fact the church we attended was built just to accommodate all the visitors.  It is just across the street from the beach and everything inside reflects its' unique location.   You could literally walk or bike on the beach to get to and from Mass and although we didn't get to do that this time, because it wasn't practical with the kids, I could not imagine any better way to start a day!

Shell shaped Baptismal Font (the Holy Water Fonts were shells too)

Outdoor Stations of the Cross

It has been quite a few years since I have been able to attend daily Mass more than once in one week, and I miss it so, so, much.  Due to the close proximity of this church we were able to make it to daily Mass several times throughout the week.  Daily Mass was at 8:00 and we did not have to leave until 7:52 in order to arrive and still have plenty of time to park, speak to the priest about Holy Communion for the gluten-free members of our crew, and pray a bit before Mass.  This made the trip a spiritual retreat for us, in addition to just being a relaxing beach vacation, and thus, one of my very favorite parts of the trip!  In case you don't know, the number one component of my dream retirement is being a daily Masser.  I can't wait to go to daily Mass.  I just can't wait!   So within minutes of seeing how smoothly this all worked, I was totally daydreaming about the possibilities of becoming a snowbird daily Mass goer right there on Ft. Myers Beach!   

One more thing about the church and then I will move on.  We also learned there is a cloistered monastery next door.  I am hoping to visit on the next trip!   We weren't sure if it was allowed when we were there this time.

The rest of the day was spent:


On the beach...

At the Pool...

And watching the sunset!

After sunset, we thought we would venture to the north end of the island to check out all the little shops and restaurants.  It only took us 45 minutes to drive 3 miles.  That's about all I have to say about that adventure.  Unless you would also like to hear about how there was nowhere to park once we got there.  

Day 3's weather was cool in the morning, warm throughout the day, and downright cold (to me) that night.  

Here's the fun from:  Day 1, Day 2, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8,  Day 9