12/11/00 - A Day in Naples, Florida Naples, Florida is a really neat town -- one of the neatest features are that all of the avenues in town end with a ramp out on to the beach. One of the avenue's actually ends at Naples Pier! Naples is also an expensive town to live in, average house prices near the Gulf are anywhere from 1 to 7 million, and many seem to be quite huge. If you have never seen the sun set in the Gulf of Mexico, check out the end of pictures below. Of course they don't do it justice, but you could use one of them as a Windows background. :) Some interesting stats about Naples: * If you ate at 2 restaurants per day, it would take 3 years to eat at all of the restaurants in, and near Naples. * In 1960, Hurricane Donna wiped out quite a bit of Naples (including Naples Pier, which was rebuilt). Most of Naples as it is seen today was built up after 1960. * Housing prices have tripled in the last 10 years.
Here is the Naples Trolley car we took on our tour. The tour lasted 1 hour and 45 minutes.	Inside the Trolley car, we were the youngest people on the tour... ;)	Once we were done with the tour, we walked Naples beach.
The Naples Pier!	Another view of The Naples Pier.	Walking out on the Pier -- the Naples Pier extends 1000 feet into the Gulf of Mexico.
A look into the Gulf -- a ray of sunshine shines down on the water.	A view to the south from the Pier.	Another view into the Gulf -- a ray of sunshine shines down on the water.
We are almost to the end of the Pier!	"Hey! We made it!"	Interesting shot of the shelter at the end of Naples Pier.
A couple of guys cleaning their catch of the day.	A look back down the Pier.	WHOA! Look in the water...
...it's a shark (insert Jaws theme music here)...	...nope, its a couple dolphins! They were showing off for about 15 minutes!	'CAUTION: Sting Rays Present Shuffle feet along sandy bottom while walking or wading in Gulf waters.'
A view to the north, each one of those poles seemed to have a pelican on it!	The sky is clearing up! We'll come back for a nice view of the sunset.	Here is a view of one of the bridges that take you from the Avenues of Naples on to the beach.
After walking the beach and Pier, we popped our bikes out of the Jeep and rode around Naples.	Parts of Naples reminded us a little of Traverse City.	Here is a view of the end of one of the Avenues.
The Naples Pier entrance!	After biking around town, we came back to see the sun set.	The pelicans flew by, and were diving into the water for dinner.
The sun is just getting ready to make its appearance.	A house on the Gulf of Mexico, estimated cost = over 5 million. the red thing is an anchor, and if you look near the middle of the house you can see the chain that connects it.	HOLY PELICANS BATMAN! Standing close to that many pelicans was kind of freaky.
Another shot of Pelican City.	The sun, finally making its appearance, about 20 minutes before sundown.	A close up view of the beach.
A view of your hosts. :)	A cool alligator in the sand! (No, we didn't make it... ;)	A castle in the sand?
Time for nature's daily show. Quite a few people gathered around to watch the sun set.	Something about watching the sun set over the water is very hypnotic...	Going...
Going...	Gone.
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