Tikkabik

It's Wednesday morning, and I'm in full-blown Internet withdrawal. There's no high speed Internet access at the condo, so I'm suffering with dialup connectivity and only sparse connections to check e-mail and post here.

The weather has been absolutely magnificent -- not a drop of rain since we got here. My father in law Ed tells me that April is a dry month in this part of Florida, so that's no great surprise. Temperatures have been in the mid-80s all week, and the humidity is present but not totally oppressive. This is the month a lot of seasonal residents flee for cooler pastures, but Ed's curious about how bad it really gets in July and August.

There's a tremendous amount of development in the Bonita Springs and Naples area -- shopping malls, office parks, condo developments and housing subdivisions have sprouted up like fungus. Residential property values have slipped a bit here, just as they have in a lot of other places, but residents here are confident that they'll rebound quickly. The climate, rate of growth and environment just seem naturally conducive to sustained expansion. Still, the days of real estate "flipping" -- buying a condo pre-construction then selling it without ever occupying it for a 200 or 300 percent return -- are probably over.

On Tuesday we got a late start -- hey, we are on vacation -- and spent the day at the Naples Zoo. It's a delightful place with panthers, tiger and lions, which made us a bit homesick for Max, who Grandma assures us is doing well. They also have a great primate exhibit with gibbons, lemurs and monkeys who live on islands in the middle of a man made lake (more of a pond, really) -- the zoo takes you around in a pontoon boat.

Got plenty of pictures at the zoo, and I'll upload them to Flickr when I get a high speed connection.

Today looks to be a low-key day. The kids want to go to the big swimming pool here at the condo development and also want to take the paddleboats here around the canal. Grandpa's planning a cookout later, with Bob's and my favorite: Baby back ribs.