Newlywed bliss did not last long for us. As many are aware, moving in together is a huge adjustment! Though we saw each other every single day during our engagement, things changed immediately after that blissful honeymoon. Frank went back into a job he tolerated (at best). I continued working a part-time job at a retailer and tried to learn what it meant to be a wife. Cooking did not come naturally to me, especially because our galley kitchen had hardly any counter space to speak of. Cleaning often fell to Frank, who enjoyed using it to release pent up energy. Augustine, our bullmastiff, provided me with welcome company as well as his own challenges, primarily health issues. We continued to see Frank’s family on the weekends, but we slowly attempted to figure out life as just “us.”

That new life in Toledo was short-lived. In a very brief amount of time after getting back from Jamaica, Frank proposed we embark on our next adventure. “My two goals growing up have always been to 1) Get married, and 2) Move to Naples. I know most people retire there, but why wait? I want to move there now rather than later. In Naples, every day feels like a vacation, and I want to live among palm trees.” (Frank truly Loves palm trees, it’s a thing.) I considered this proposal and thought to myself: “We have lived here for a year and a half already. We have spent a great deal of quality time with his family. We have no kids yet-”

Frank began applying for jobs in the Naples area; as a result, within two months of marriage, we moved! Just like that, Frank achieved his second major life goal!

Life in Naples

We loaded up our car and sent our belongings onward in a moving truck. This moving truck somehow got delayed for two weeks, so our earliest experiences focused on us sharing an air mattress and using lawn chairs while we watched “Lost” on my iPad. Yet, somehow, those weeks remain some of the sweetest memories we have of our early marriage!

If we do the math, we see that we relocated to Naples, FL in, yep, July. While Frank conveniently worked just up the road from our new apartment, I took Augustine on walks in 95°F weather with nearly 100% humidity. The intensity of that heat and humidity will remain in my memory forever. Given the outrageous heat, I fell into a habit of spending all day inside, on the couch, watching movies. (My love of movies rivals Frank’s love for palm trees.)

As summer slowly turned into fall, I had to figure out how to make better use of my time. Luckily, I discovered Pinterest, our new apartment had a Fantastic kitchen, and Publix was just down the street! Therefore, I learned how to cook! For a little background, all members of my immediate family, i.e. my mom, dad, and brother, can cook extremely well; thus, growing up, I never really needed to learn how. However, now I was married, my husband worked full-time, and I did not work at all. Clearly, I had no excuses! As it turns out, I inherited some “good cook” genes and all I needed was practice! Now, I love cooking and relish sharing culinary classics with loved ones!

Things to Do

Our apartment complex also had a lovely pool, though in retrospect we spent far less time there then we ought to. Instead, we found ourselves more frequently driving a half hour south to Marco Island. We brought Augustine to play with other dogs in Mackle Park, a lovely and relaxing dog park nestled in a neighborhood. Those afternoons and evenings always produced a deep sense of calm and appreciation for how beautiful life can be.

Later highlights from this time period included getting to share in the wedding festivities of some dear friends we made in the area, Nick and Jessica. We still cherish a deep friendship with these wonderful humans, no matter the time passed or distance between us! We also had an excellent time at the Edison/Ford Estates in Ft. Myers-a detailed post of that experience awaits! However, we did have to evacuate twice. Once we escaped nearby forest fires that ravaged our local area, and another time we left to avoid the brutality of Hurricane Irma. We experienced quite a few highs and lows throughout our year and a half in that tropical paradise!

FOOD

Pelican Bend

As will be abundantly clear, Frank and I are incredibly food-motivated. Most of our fondest memories from our various nomadic stops revolve around food. As far as Naples goes, our favorite special occasion restaurant came from a special recommendation from Frank’s family. Pelican Bend, located on Isles of Capri, sits roughly halfway between Naples and Marco Island. My first visit to Pelican Bend, I “did it wrong.” They have a menu full of food, of course, but certain things on the menu stand above the rest. Here’s the “right way:”

• Start with a wedge salad with the house garlic dressing (must have a love for garlic, but there you go). If extra hungry, the seafood chowder gets the job done as an extra appetizer. The entrée can only be one thing: the sautéed fish. A lightly breaded orange roughy sautéed in a whole lot of butter and lemon juice paired perfectly with some form of potato (French fries, baked potato, or sweet potato-the only optional part). If still hungry after all of that, key lime pie satisfies as a great dessert!

My first time, I ordered frog legs and only sampled Frank’s fish-and I never made that mistake again. The frog legs, while fine, could not compare to the deliciousness of that sautéed fish. Over the years since living in Naples the first time, whenever we visited and whenever we received visitors, we happily shared our love for this place. Also, we made sure that people followed the prescription above-no alternatives, no substitutions. Sure, this may seem rigid and uncompromising, but one should not waste a trip to Pelican Bend!

Other Local Delicacies

In addition to our love for Pelican Bend, we enjoyed several other local restaurants. For yummy and cheap hibachi, Hibachi of Japan II got the job done. With fresh seafood relatively easy to come by in the area, the fish restaurant Grouper and Chips also promised a delicious night. Yet, as much as we liked both of these restaurants, nothing could compare to an extra special delicacy we stumbled upon just up the road from our apartment. A local fisherman and his family sold stone crab claws under a tent from the back of his truck. We regularly bought a gallon-sized bag full of large claws for the same price we would have paid for a dozen from a nice restaurant, or even Publix! Those stone crab claw nights will always remain a treasured memory from that very special time in our marriage.

The Next Adventure

Eventually, at the beginning of 2017, I too started a job, as well as online graduate school for clinical mental health counseling. Though Frank more or less enjoyed his job, eventually he felt the travel itch again. Therefore, I reached out to a dear friend from college who lived across the country, and she agreed to let us come and stay with her for a quick visit. That quick visit very quickly changed our lives forever.

Tune in to my next post about how we fell in love at first sight with the city of Chicago!