Life In Bonita Springs

Southwest Florida Summer Restaurant Crawl 2011

Hemingways is now out of business, FYI

In an effort to update and reorganize the  Bonita Springs/Estero Top Ten restaurants on this blog, I invented a little group on Facebook and Meetup to organize a way for a few local Bonitians and Esteroans (sp?) to join me.  We have about one hundred - forty members now and we’re growing. 

The first restaurant to host us was Hemingway’s Island Grille at Coconut Pointe in Estero Florida.  We had about twenty participants join us and we immediately started scheduling the rest of the summer restaurant meet-up tweet-up Facebook-up locations. 

The next is at Bamboo Cafe in Naples, Florida.  You can find more info about it on the Facebook and Meet up group links above.  It’s not too far of a drive from Bonita Springs and down by the docks and the pier so you can find something else fun to do when you go, also.

What can I tell you about Hemingway’s that would benefit you as a local or even a visitor?  To begin with the decor is fun, relaxed, tropical and there really is something on the menu for everyone.  Some of the guests had mojitos … and it looked like they were going down easy! 

By the way, there is a children’s menu. While I don’t have little people around the house anymore, I do check for you moms and mommy bloggers.

I can attest that Hemingway’s does have the best bottled water in town, and the lobster ravioli was absolutely delicious.  Sunday, will officially be my “cheat day” while the Southwest Florida Restaurant Crawl is in progress. 

By the way, there were so many people that showed up at Hemingway’s that I barely had time to eat and actually didn’t realize everyone had placed their orders until their dinners came.  That actually presented a unique opportunity to poach some onion rings and salmon spinach salad from a few other members … and their orders were delicious, also.

Hemingway’s turned out to be an excellent venue for a group, a noisy group at that.  We stayed in the bar area which had high top tables, room to walk and room too skoooch tables and chairs together to make groups bigger and smaller. 

With the help of the great servers at Hemingway’s, we eventually we owned every table and had them all in a row, peppered with the debris resulting from consumed dinners and appetizers.

As we left Hemingway’s, the live music in the courtyard between Pagelli’s and Hemingway’s was just beginning. The performers are always fantastic and the music styles and bands changes frequently.  On this particular evening there was a tenor singing and it was just beautiful.  Even the weather cooperates in evening.  Once the sun goes down the weather is just gorgeous.  It’s a beautiful way to spend the evening in Florida.

If you’re thinking of trying Hemingway’s Island Grille, feel free to visit their official site, here:  Hemingway’s Island Grille (now closed).  Their address is Coconut Point at 8001 Plaza Del Lago, #113, Estero, FL 33928  Phone: 239-495-7240.

They’re Almost Everywhere in Bonita Springs

Meet Pecker, My Grand-Bird

So there I was minding my own bees wax on the long holiday weekend when the ruckus started. Our quiet little street of less than twenty-five homes has had an on again, off again battle with a little home wrecker who is currently living across the street from me.

While I’d consider myself to be a rather diplomatic and tolerant person my patience occasionally runs thin, most especially when the poor manners of others start interfering in my life. There is a certain peace and quiet that I’d come to enjoy living on a street where most of the residents have already packed up and gone back to their cabins on the shores Gitche Gumee or wherever they go.

Since I was one of the only people around who was baring witness to the blatant property destruction and what I considered parenting bordering on neglect I decided to intervene. I knew full well that what comes around goes around and when the little twerps figured out that I was the person that turned them in, they’d turn on me.

At the risk of looking like the typical “get off my grass, you darn kids” old lady down the street I went over and assessed the situation. Snotty nose brats with dirty faces and unkempt appearance … and yes, I was wonder just what sort of cooties were in the emulsion dried in their corners of their mouths.

How long is an adequate amount of time to watch little ones not being cared for before spiriting them away or notifying the authorities, anyway?

Have you ever tried Googling to find services that can intervene? It’s pretty easy to find resources for paid services that can help in just about any abuse or neglect situation; they’re at the top of the search engines.

The free services are really hard to find. The smaller 501(c)(3)’s don’t have pay per click campaigns or nerdy people that make them show up on the front page of Google.

What I learned in my quest for to find help for these little stinkers is that everyone has an opinion when there is questionable care of a living creature involved but nobody really wants to get their hands dirty or spend any money. Maybe it’s the cooties, maybe its fear of retribution from the parties involved.

When I decided that enough was enough I searched hard enough until I found help and then I loaded up those little squirts and drove them to the nearest hospital that would take responsibility for them and get them proper medical care.

What I wasn’t prepared for was answering these questions; what is your address and where is the address that you found them? Why? Because they want to know where to return them to their place of origin when they get better.

This is where the retribution comes in. No good deed goes unpunished.

My reward for saving the injured, little vandals and turning them over to C.R.O.W. - the Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife will be healthy, full grown wood peckers returned to where they came from, with a penchant for Styrofoam and something to prove to the “get off my flower boxes, you darn kids” old lady down the street.

In the event you end up with an injured or orphaned critter that needs professional care C.R.O.W. is located on Sanibel Island, Florida. They also offer several drop-off locations across Southwest Florida so you won’t have to channel your inner Doolittle.

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Real Life in Bonita Springs is a project by Chris Griffith dedicated to writing useful blog posts for consumers about the Bonita Springs, Florida area.  Find out what it is really like to live in Bonita Springs, Florida by reading about our fair city. You’ll get the latest in local real estate information, Bonita Springs real estate market reports and a little bit of humor.  If you have topic ideas, feel free to request a story about the idea, after all, this site is just for you.

You can subscribe to a weekly email newsletter by visiting www.LifeInBonitaSprings.com and entering your email in the subscription area on the center pane of the web page or by adding us to your reader by subscribing to this blog. Oh, and if you’re reading this content anywhere else but www.LifeInBonitaSprings.com or Naples Daily News it is probably stolen.

A Hibiscus at Bonita Bay

Things to Do in Bonita Springs and Estero Florida

So, it all started with a search that someone made on Google. They searched “Top 10 Restaurants in Bonita Springs, Florida” and found a post on Life in Bonita Springs, titled the same.  When I went to the post, which I had written years earlier, I realized that more than a few of the restaurants were no longer in business. 

I started questioning locals on Facebook … where’s your favorite place to eat?  Everyone had an opinion and I went to one of the restaurants the following Sunday afternoon.  It then occurred to me that maybe I should invite a few of those Facebook people to join me.  I mean, we’re all friends online and we all like to eat so maybe we should get together tweet-up style for dining and socializing.

The Facebook Group, Southwest Florida Summer Restaurant Crawl was born.  You can click that link to go join the page, by the way.

Anywho, the group grew quickly and then I started to scramble looking for places to get on schedule and formulate some sort of a plan.  We officially have our first event scheduled at Hemingway’s at Coconut Point June 5th.  Go to the group to find more info about that event or upcoming events because we’re doing it all summer.

Also, if you happen to know a restaurateur, restaurant manager or someone who does public relations for local restaurants, let them know about the summer event.  We’re still looking for hosts!

You don’t have to be a Facebook member to join in the fun.  Feel free to contact me directly for more information.

The Vague Verbal or Text Real Estate Offer

It’s only the last week of May and the first verbal offer from an absentee buyer has been phoned in. The calls generally go like this, “I’m so-and-so with Super Happy Fun Slide Brokerage, Inc. and I have a buyer who would like to offer $XYZ for your Doe listing.” Can you ask the Doe’s if they’ll accept that price?

My first question was, “Has your buyer been to the area before and do they know the complex?” The answer, of course, was no so I asked a few other pertinent questions which finally inspired the buyer’s agent to actually go look at the property. What’s a novel idea, huh?

I’ve sold plenty of real estate “sight unseen” but struggle with notion of negotiating any offer, much less a verbal offer from a buyer who’s never seen the property … especially when their agent has not seen the property and then the offer is delivered in a phone call or text. 

Not only did their offer not come in writing but there was no compelling basis for the sellers to even take the offer seriously. My theory is this: You want me to present your mirage to the sellers, so help me to help you and support your offer with some sort of documentation.  What is so hard about throwing that offer on DocuSign and doing it right?

How committed is this buyer or their agent going to be to this transaction if neither of them are willing trouble themselves to even fill out a contract? It’s only about a fifteen minute investment of time. It might be nice for them to make a commitment for sending an earnest money deposit and proof of funds which would actually prove the buyer can pay for the property, too.

As one might have suspected, this particular offer wasn’t exactly full price. That would probably explain why the buyer didn’t waste their time writing up an offer.

Even if a verbal offer is full price, there’s just simply more to buying real estate than purchase price.

There are important dates that must be agreed upon regarding escrow deposits, mortgage approvals, home inspections and the actual closing date. Who is paying for the title insurance? Would this be an as-is verbal offer and since there are several boiler plate contracts used in this area, which one are you inferring that you’re verbally using?

The list of potential derailments for the runaway verbal offer train is endless.

Any offer is an offer and it must be conveyed so I called the sellers to let them know about the forty percent off list price verbal offer.

Why? Well, we have to exhaust the remote possibility that it could actually be negotiated to an executed contract. Plus, the seller’s circumstances could have changed since I last spoke to them. What if they suddenly needed fast cash to pay for a new kidney or to buy the silence of their maid/baby momma and actually consider this a fabulous opportunity?

If the sellers were seriously considering it, I’d also let them know that a verbal offer or even a verbal acceptance isn’t worth the paper it’s written on and suggest that they respectfully ask the buyer to present the offer in writing as the first step in their negotiation.

One of these days I’ll have to unleash my inner wisenheimer and ask the buyer’s agent if their buyer needs to run their verbal offer by their attorney before I submit it, just to see what the response is.

I can almost hear the crickets now.

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Real Life in Bonita Springs is a project by Chris Griffith dedicated to writing useful blog posts for consumers about the Bonita Springs, Florida area.  Find out what it is really like to live in Bonita Springs, Florida by reading about our fair city. You’ll get the latest in local real estate information, Bonita Springs real estate market reports and a little bit of humor.  If you have topic ideas, feel free to request a story about the idea, after all, this site is just for you.

You can subscribe to a weekly email newsletter by visiting www.LifeInBonitaSprings.com and entering your email in the subscription area on the center pane of the web page or by adding us to your reader by subscribing to this blog. Oh, and if you’re reading this content anywhere else but www.LifeInBonitaSprings.com or Naples Daily News it is probably stolen.

Extreme Riders Cruisin’ Cafe & Concept Store OUT OF BUSINESS!

Bonita Bay Purple “Margaret” Passion Flower

Sunscreen Would No Longer Be Necessary

Sitting Quietly is Actually a Thing To Do

The great American pass time is sitting on the tush, usually in front of a television or computer.  We spend an awful lot of time indoors.  Too much time indoors, as a matter of fact.

Yesterday, I got a call from Marian from the Choir Project to discuss the ins and outs of all things nerdy that can be done to blogs and such.  She asked me why I hadn’t taken my camera out for a while.  I didn’t really have an explanation other than I just spend too much time in front of the computer, which is probably mostly the truth. 

The rest of the truth is that April and May was just busy.  There have been people graduating from college, visitors from out of town and all of the other “season is coming to an end” things that get packed in when season is coming to an end in Southwest Florida.

The rest of the rest of the truth is that May means Mother’s Day and my mother’s birthday is May sixteenth so I was positively uninspired for a couple of weeks. I haven’t felt like writing, picture taking or doing anything creative.

In an effort to try a little bit harder I first *found* my camera and second loaded up LBD and started driving … somewhere. I ended up at the newest park in Bonita Springs, River Park.   The park is pet friendly, but at this stage of LBD’s life he’s carried everywhere so he’s not like a regular, roaming, don’t-let-your-dog-poop-in-my-grass kind of dog anyway.

It would be a treat (for me) for him to crap in the grass.  I actually had my friend, The Fräulein, say this to me  today just as matter of fact as can be:

“Where is the little brown dog, I want to hold him … but he can’t poop on me, I’m on my way to school after this.” 

The fact that it would be acceptable for him to crap on her any other time is probably just plain wrong.  (I’m thinking that is one of those “true friend” tests.)

At any rate, I ran the dog to the park. It was just he and I and a guy fishing on the new floating docks in the Imperial River.  It’ is so very pretty down there. I would have taken more pictures but having the geezer in tow is sort of like having a baby or a toddler. You can’t turn your back for a second because he’s blind, deaf, lame and ridiculous enough to walk the plank.

So, I took a few pictures but more importantly I took some time off, got outside and took advantage of the great park that literally thousands of people drive by every day. 

If you’d like to learn more about River Park, read also:  River Park at Imperial River | Bonita Springs, Florida.  Maybe we’ll see you there sometime.