My wife and I love to take weekend trips to different places in our home state of Florida, its a great state for a vacation or even a second or third honeymoon. During the summer resort rates are very low, especially this year because of the Gulf Coast Oil Spill. Despite the fact that there is no oil on 99% of Florida’s Beaches, people are still avoiding the area; this causes resorts and hotels to drop their rates. Anyway, the summer is a great time to check the state out, the crowds are thin and the hotels are cheap.
With that in mind, I’d like to give a big thumbs up to a new place we found last weekend; Chocoloskee Island. In our mind these two areas represent the oldest and newest communities of Florida. My wife and I were already in Naples FL, checking out some Naples condos when I started to follow the map down to the most south western part of the state. It looked like one of the roads led out and ended in an island WAY out in the glades. As it turns out, Chocoloskee island was one of the first settlements in Florida, the first Indians were in on the island 1500 years ago, and the first westerners arrived in 1874. There are less than 500 residents, but it still has a post office and a cafe.
If you make it out to Chocoloskee, make sure to visit the Habana Cafe for some coffee. After that, wander down to Ted Smallwood’s store and check out the the museum dedicated to Mr. Smallwood. Ted was one of the earliest settlers on the island, and was its postmaster for decades along with the owner of the store. After that, see if you can rent a boat or kayak and check out the wildlife around the island; some of the local plant life is beautiful and the area is great for fishing and Audubon.
The island is definitely on the list of places to come back to the island, maybe after we look at more naples fl homes.
