We drove out to Ave Marie, a new planned town founded in 2002. It is based around the most incredible modern Catholic church and a Catholic university (moved here from Michigan by Tom Monahan of Domino's Pizza) working together with the Collier group who donated the land. They have 600 students this year but are working towards having 6000 students and offering degrees including Masters and Doctorates. We watched a Romanian stone carver working on a very large white marble face for the church (the Angel Gabriel asking Mary to be chosen mother to Jesus). There was a beautiful Christmas wedding going on inside so we had to wait for that to conclude before going inside. The entire community is based around family so there is lots of recreation -parks, waterparks, gymnasiums, indoor pools, etc. There is a small downtown plaza with the essentials -book store, coffee bistros, restaurants, etc with one large grocery store just opened. Also a nice golf course with reasonable rates.
We then drove out to Ft Myers Beach, Bonnito Beach and Estero Bay -a funky, busy, beach holiday resort area. Everyone out walking around in shorts & swim suits checking out surf shops, tiki bars, etc. Definitely a young persons hangout !! Lots of HUGE homes along the waterfronts (as in pictures).
No comments:
Post a Comment