Naples Eco Tour (October 2015)

I love all the fun and new adventures we are able to find while living in this area.  It is such a different environment than both Dallas and I were raised and I constantly find myself amazed at the diverse plant and animal life that surrounds us daily.
On groupon we found a great deal for an Eco tour out of Naples, a city about 1.5 hours west of Fort Lauderdale and located on the gulf coast.  Dallas was such a sweetheart to indulge my nerdy education side in order to go on this fun adventure.  We drove over to Naples and took the 11am tour that lasted a couple hours.  We of course brought lots of snacks and our bathing suits for the adventure.

A few pictures before the tour left the docks (these pics were obviously PRE getting my hair colored that month!)

Naples harbor was very beautiful and reminded us of Fort Lauderdale on a much smaller scale.  Gorgeous homes lined the waterways with lots of different boats passing by.

Since our boat was slow moving, Dax was free to get up and walk around which he loved.  We made sure to constantly be on the look out for animals, especially dolphin and alligator.

Within a few minutes after getting into the mangrove islands, we found several dolphin!  It was so fun to watch them play and catch food.  

Goofing off with Daddy!

I wanted desperately to see manatee, but sadly all we saw were the warning signs...and LOTS of birds.  I thought this nest was pretty incredible.

In the middle of the Eco tour, they took us to an uninhabited island and gave us each little bags to collect shells if we wanted.  At first we were a bit unimpressed as they dropped us off on some rocks and told us to follow a path through the trees.  We walked about five minutes and were happily surprised when we came out of a clearing onto a gorgeous stretch of beach covered in beautiful seashells.

We immediately set up camp and jumped in the water!

The ocean was so warm and we had so much fun playing in the calm waves of the Gulf.

After playing in the water, Daddy and Daxton went on an adventure for sea shells.  Dax filled his entire bag with beautiful sea shells to bring home.  After their long walk along the beach, Dax came back and lined up each of his little sea shells for me to see.  He was so careful with them.

After an hour or so of relaxing at the uninhabited beach, they called us back to board the Eco tour.  We had a relaxing ride back through the mangrove islands and into Naples harbor.  Dax continued to look for marine life along the way.

It was such a fun adventure together as a family!
We LOVE any time that we get to spend with Daddy!!