Day Four started with breakfast at the Hornyak’s at about 10 AM. We all got dressed, showered, and ready for the day. When we headed out, we went to a different beach in Naples, Vanderbilt Beach. This beach was more crowded than yesterday’s spot. After we found a place to sit and enjoy the sun, we sat and relaxed. Lo and behold, there was a girl there who was from Purdue. We found out that her grandfather also went to Purdue and he lived in Florida and she was staying there. What a small world! After a while, we started to get a little restless, so we decided to get up and take a walk. We took a long stroll down the beach in the water. After we returned from our walk, we bathed in the sun some more and played some football. At about 4 PM, we decided to call it quits for the beach for the day. We packed up and headed back to Tom’s house. Tom’s Mom has made us “enchaladios”, as she called them. They were made from scratch by her own recipe and were delicious. We all had our fill, yet she tried to get us to eat more. After we declined, we rolled ourselves out of the dining room to get showered and prepared for the night.
The night started with a trip to the pier. The pier is where many people go to watch the sunset. We got there a little early so we watched the dolphins and pelicans from the pier (refer to pictures here). We went to the end of the pier close to the time of the sunset, and waited. We tried to get everyone to clap 4 minutes before the sun actually set because as most people know the sun actually sets 4 minutes before we see it due to refraction and gases in the air. No one joined in our early clapping, but we did get a few strange looks. We also met a man who went to Purdue and graduated in the 50’s with a degree in Agronomy (you’ll have to look it up if you want to know what it is). After the sunset, we headed back to our car. When we got back into the car, we looked for a place to park in downtown Naples on 5th Avenue. We found a place to park, and walked down 5th Avenue and checked out all the shops along the street. We saw a shop named “Café Lunavelis” which had special significance to us. After we walked up and down a few blocks, walked into a few stores, and took a few pictures, we headed to the car. We then headed to the Naples local mall to check it out. By the time we got there, it was near closing time, but we got to take a quick look around. It was under heavy renovation, but remained open for business. When we left the mall, we made our way back to Tom’s house. We had a bite to eat and relaxed for a few minutes. We headed to Ft. Myers to pick Cory up from the airport. We went to the concourse where he was supposed to arrive and waited for him. His plane arrived a few minutes late, but he arrived in one piece. We greeted Cory with a few jeers, and then we headed to our car. We drove back to Naples and Cory met Tom’s parents. We spent a few minutes conversing then went to bed. Here ends day four.
