Lots of people spend their holiday vacation in this part of Florida and the roads near the Beach area are crowded. Since we're living here for now, we're going to wait until the tourists go home to visit more of the local attractions.
So we've spent the first week of the New Year in quieter North Ft. Myers, where Upriver RV Resort is located. Most of the time, in fact, we've just been hanging out at the resort itself. 
Staying home is definitely not a sacrifice! The weather has been beautiful. We're getting acquainted with a lot of nice people. This is a very friendly park with a lot of activities — some of which we have enjoyed already and others that we are signed up for. Things really start to get active in January in snowbird resorts. This is near the boat landing and informal group gathering spot. There is also a rec-hall building for scheduled activities. The Canal goes out to the Caloosahatchie and here you can see across to the power plant which is the one that warms up the river across from us, where we went to see the manatees during Christmas week.
The swimming pool is plenty big enough to get some exercise, or just float around looking at the blue sky. Which is pretty fun to do in January.
(Really, I'm usually wearing a swim suit when I'm here, but on this morning I was out on a photo-safari and just stopped by to say hi to people.)
The West side of Upriver borders on the Caloosahatchie Preserve. The official entry to this County Park natural area is down the road, but we found out last week that it's possible to walk into it from one corner of our park, making it easier to explore. It's a wetlands park, with a great variety of semi-tropical plants. So many that I'm going to do a supplemental picture post. It makes a lovely walking area.
The Upriver Canal is on the south side of the resort. The homes along it are mostly park models; we've rented a dock space for the boat we hope to have operable soon. (We're waiting until we get it into the water to post about it. So more to come — with any luck at all!)
Our RV is parked in the center area of the resort, so we have no view. It is euphemistically called the super-site area, or as some of the people in other parts of the resort call it–The Land of the Giants–but it's really just a parking lot. The sites are big enough so that you aren't right in your neighbor's space, and as the name implies, are long and easy to get into. It's very close to everything, so it isn't hard to walk to the canal or the natural area when we want a view — or to the pool or recreation room for the activities.
Below is the park egret surveying our house on his daily walk.
It's a nice place here. We'll be spending lots of winter days "at home" even after the holiday tourists leave. We're happy to be here.
