November 18-29, 2023 -- Bonita Springs, FL
Written By: Wendy Ptolemy
Photos By: Scott Ptolemy
We packed up our rental mini van and shed a few internal tears, as we said our farewells and drove away from Disney World to Bonita Springs, FL. My grandparents have owned a condo there for over 20 years, so pulling up brought back a flood of memories. It has been almost 10 years since the last time I came, yet it felt comfortable and relaxing to settle into a familiar place. Disney was pure magic, yes, but it was also pure exhaustion. What a better place to reminisce and recover than the beach.
We spent our days in Bonita Springs laying by the pool, digging for shells in the sand on the beach, riding bikes, reading books, and going for walks in the sunshine. My brother and his girlfriend came down a few days after we arrived to spend Thanksgiving with us. It was nice to have almost my entire family together for Thanksgiving (my older brother and his girlfriends were in California at the time) as we are often spread across the globe. The kids thoroughly enjoyed all of Uncle Eric's terrible magic tricks and sword fighting with Aunt Arden.
Thanksgiving morning brought more sunny, hot, and humid weather. While lovely, it felt extremely strange for a girl who had spent almost all of her Thanksgivings in the chilly Midwest or West. We did our customary Thanksgiving morning exercise run and then spent the day cooking, baking, and watching football as about 300 million other Americans did.
One of our favorite parts of our trip to Bonita Springs was DeRomo's Italian market that was within walking distance of our condo. Scott studied abroad in Italy for a year in college, and it truly brought him back. He said it was astoundingly authentic, and he felt like he was back in Italy. I drooled over the massive bakery section. There were about 15 different types of biscotti, 10 different types of cannoli, and a wide selection of pies, cakes, cookies, and other baked goods. The best part, though, were the Northeastern Italians yelling, "Give me some mozzarella!" "I need some more biscotti!" in the thickest New York and Boston accents I have ever heard outside of those cities. It felt like we were anywhere but Florida.
We spent a week and a half in SW Florida, and soaked up every moment of warmth and sun we possibly could because we knew that all too soon we would be battling snowstorms in the mountains of Colorado. On our last day there, we leisurely walked to DeRomo's and got a fresh pizza for dinner. Scott picked up an authentic Italian beer to go with it. We ate outside, and lingered over the deliciously gooey slices of pizzas while the sun set and the mosquitoes started to come out. With the little buggers biting our ankles, we knew it was our cue to walk back and say good bye to warm weather and humidity for a while.
