Naples, Florida

Originally posted at www.svsweetescape.com

On Monday we rented a car and drove the 90 miles from Fort Lauderdale to Naples to visit Brian’s step-mom Pat.

More than 40 years ago Dave and Pat Wagner found their way to the small gulf-side community of Naples Florida.  There they made a life for themselves and Pat’s four boys.   Brian’s father, Dave started working as a night auditor at the local Howard Johnson’s Motor Lodge along with numerous part-time jobs, eventually working himself up the ladder to general manager where he turned that perennial money losing property into a profitable and successful operation.   

Pat, already an LPN worked her way through nursing school and became a registered nurse at the local hospital.  She retired as a manager from that same hospital just last year.

Dave and Pat were great role models for us.  Judy’s career choice as a registered nurse and by extension daughter Jennifer’s career choice, also in nursing can be traced back to the example Pat provided.

We spent many vacations in Naples with our girls and those are some of our best memories.  All of us together.

Dave is gone now and Naples is no longer a small community but we were looking forward to an overnight with Pat.  This would actually be the first night we had slept off the boat since we moved aboard in July.  We spent the evening talking and visiting and went out for dinner at Olive Garden.

We slept well despite the fact that the house doesn’t rock like Sweet Escape.

We are excited that we will now be a lot closer to Naples and Pat than we have been in the past and look forward to being able to spend more time with her in the future and are also looking forward to her seeing Sweet Escape in Marathon.