We leave the Sea Chest hotel with its expansive bedroom and kitchenette (I love the word “kitchenette” – makes me think the fridge should be wearing a mini skirt) and we hit the road back to Weeki Watchee.<\/p>\n

I’m glad we did.<\/p>\n

It started to rain the moment we pulled in, but we were undeterred. We were here to see Mermaids, dammit! And so was half of the Bible Belt of central Florida apparently. We had some time to kill before the show so we decided to take a small boat tour of the spring run-off down to the ocean. While in line two families were discussing their past weekend which included a trip to Starbucks (they made it sound like they were visiting New York City for the first time) and the sermon one mother was giving another outside of Sunday church.<\/p>\n

“Her beliefs are not MY beliefs because I believe in the GOSPEL!”<\/p>\n

This went on for a while and I eventually stopped listening to the nattering.<\/p>\n

Boat ride over, we headed to the Mermaid theatre.<\/p>\n

It was spectacular.<\/em><\/p>\n

It was the most surreal piece of theatre I’ve ever seen.<\/p>\n

It was America times one thousand.<\/p>\n

It was a cast of 5 kids in mermaid outfits (one doubled up with mermaid\/creepy turtle costume) huffing air from garage tire hoses while they swam round and mouthed the words to songs that were one note off<\/em> from Disney copyright.<\/p>\n

It was unconsciously sexist. The opening number was about how mermaids would make horrible wives, men! Mermaids, we are told,\u00a0do not \u00a0cook or clean so just get use it and look at beauty. The choreography incorporated rump and breast shaking as a metaphor for celebration. There were no Mermen.<\/p>\n

It was not to be missed.<\/p>\n

SharkBoy and I just looked at each other\u00a0when the lights came up\u00a0and burst into laughter.<\/p>\n

We got back into the car and booted it down the interstate to Bonita Springs. After checking into our 90% powerless hotel (a burnt out transformer next to the hotel means reduced room rate!) we headed over to Captiva Island and The Bubble Room Restaurant<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Bubble Room is decorated as if Pee Wee Herman had a psychotic break. Slightly pricey but worth the visit. When we arrived the waiter (dressed in Bubble Scout uniform with a felt roast chicken on his head) sat us in the Honeymoon Nook. We were forced to sit side by site looking out over the restaurant for all to see – THAT WE WERE IN LOVE. awww! I had the Some Like it HOT HOT HOT shrimp (yes, they were) and SharkBoy had the Marilyn Mignon. After desert and drinks, it came to about $80.<\/p>\n

We did a bit of a photo safari after dinner and came across a large scale Nautilus sub in the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea room, from the movie of the same name. The waiter said it was one of 3 left in the world. I touched it. It was like touching James Mason’s beard.<\/p>\n

We drove back home along Captiva Island where the homes start in the $1M range. Beautiful. Just before hitting the hotel we found a tacky mini golf place and SharkBoy won by 2 strokes.<\/p>\n

Sleep came fast.<\/p>\n

<\/a>

Hi! <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>

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Morning over Tampa <\/div> <\/div>

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Weeki Watchee Peecocks <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>

<\/a>

Yep. Rained <\/div> <\/div>

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Hi!!! <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>

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I have no words <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>

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They incorporated bubbles a lot <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>

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Hi!! <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>

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I don’t cook or clean! <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>

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The horror <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>

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Random Giraffe next to… <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>

<\/a>

… a strip mall! I love Roadside America <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>

<\/a>

The Bubble Room. Eat there. <\/div> <\/div>

<\/a>

Captiva Beach before getting eaten alive by fleas <\/div> <\/div>

<\/a>

G’nite! <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We leave the Sea Chest hotel with its expansive bedroom and kitchenette (I love the word “kitchenette” – makes me think the fridge should be wearing a mini skirt) and we hit the road back to Weeki Watchee. I’m glad we did. It started to rain the moment we pulled in, but we were undeterred. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":430,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[23,1963],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9WjY-2EE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deadrobot.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10208"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deadrobot.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deadrobot.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deadrobot.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/430"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deadrobot.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10208"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.deadrobot.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10210,"href":"https:\/\/www.deadrobot.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10208\/revisions\/10210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deadrobot.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deadrobot.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deadrobot.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}