16 Jan 2014 - Breakfast at the 5th Cafe

I thought this was a stuffed animal until it turned it's head and looked at me with those big beautiful eyes.

Part of downtown Naples...extremely clean and beautiful.

I think we have officially shed any stress caused by anything! On our way home from the day's outing Wayne and I tried to figure out what day/date it was. He was much closer to reality than I was as he'd taken the car for a brake check-up yesterday and had to make another appointment which gave him an edge. I had no...none...nada...nein...nothing...couldn't even make a good guess...at the day, let alone the date. If I given it some serious thought I could have counted forwards from Senior's Day shopping but I was too full from lunch and too relaxed. It's been a great day.


We were awake early so decided to go downtown to 5th street, visit a nice café, and perhaps stroll through some boutiques and get the lay of the land. I knew it wouldn't be too busy as it was 'Florida cold' today...about 60 degrees...and windy so no beach traffic downtown. I was right and we had no problem finding a parking spot on 5th Street. We went into the 5th Street Café, which looked like a popular spot and decided to have breakfast. I hadn't eaten so had....get this....a scrambled egg stuffed tomato with avocado and feta cheese and a cappuccino. To say it was good would be like saying Wayne occasionally forces himself to eat chocolate. It was amazing and will be served to attendees at my next brunch! Wayne had already eaten but had a wonderful fresh blueberry  muffin.


We walked down the beautiful main street and I went into a few stores to look around. OMG....I am so hooked! The first store was called 'Best of Everything' and was entirely jewellery and accessories. I expect to have a watch in every colour and style as the most expensive was the 'Swatch' style for $10. They had beautiful scarves and hair accessories as well as purses, travel bags...everything was so beautiful and reasonable.
The next store was my favourite....The Wind and the Willow. It was a combination of ladies and little girl's clothing, beautiful stuffed animals, books, jewellery, and countless other things that you would only find in this shop on the entire planet. I looked for an hour, only saw a fraction of what they had and will definitely have to go back there a dozen times to feel as though I was anything close to familiar with this magical store. It wasn't discount but certainly didn't have out-of-sight prices...quite reasonable considering the quality of everything. I went outside to look for Wayne and was looking in the store's window when I saw the dearest stuffed cat that had been made to look (kind of) like a lion....body hair was short with pom poms on the end of each foot and at the end of it's tail. It had the biggest and most beautiful eyes and I couldn't help staring at it....until it turned it's head and stared back at me! It was a real cat and I managed to get a few photos of it before it left the window and went into the store area.
The next discovery was a shoe store that had about a thousand pairs of shoes with my name on them! I especially love shoes that I will never see in Ottawa, hence my love of Mexican shoes and this store runs a very close second. They are much more expensive than those in Mexico but guaranteed to be 'one of a kind' in Ottawa. I'm not sure if my budget can handle more than a pair or two but certainly one pair will be in my suitcase going home!
The entire street has the most wonderful architecture and everything building is white, yellow, or white and yellow. Of course there are beautiful trees, and planters filled with flowers everywhere. There is also a large community playhouse which apparently has an ongoing calendar of very exciting and semi-professional theatre productions, concerts, and opera so we'll be checking that out over the next few months. I think it's safe to say I am smitten with this little downtown area and we'll be back on the weekend for the chalk art festival.
From there we headed towards Tin City and the harbour area but were quickly waylaid by the Olive Garden restaurant! It was always a favourite at home and we missed it when they all closed. We had a great 'supper at lunch' meal and brought enough home to enjoy it all again tomorrow.
The car goes in to the Lexus dealer for new brakes tomorrow and they are giving us a loaner so we've decided to drive up towards Fort Meyers and revisit a few of the beach areas we had enjoyed when we were here a couple of years ago. We picked up the weekly paper which outlines all the activities in the area and our calendar is already starting to fill...including dune buggy races next weekend.
Wayne has found a gym very close that also has yoga classes so I think I'll try a couple and perhaps start doing something to tighten up the 'soft tissue' areas around my middle. I know it's middle age spread but I think it's time to start this yoga routine....yah, yah, I've said that before and all I can do is keep trying, right?
Blogger is once again, giving me grief on posting photos. I keep trying and one of these times, it will take.
 Until next time, keep your toque on tight and hugs and kisses to all. xx