Mosquito's, rain, urbanisation or why to hate Florida

After our successful visits to the Everglades we arrived in the rain at the Gulf of Mexico. Our hotel room with direct access to the garden with swimming pool lacked light in this weather so we quickly left again to search for a restaurant downtown where we hid for the rain.

After our lunch we decided to walk to the beach now that the rain had finally stopped again.  As Beertje didn't want to sit in the stroller, I had to carry him which made the 8 blocks to walk in the heat quite far and the Naples city center was quite disappointing to me. There were some nicer buildings but it felt very residential, posh and not very vibrant at all.
3 blocks before the beach, on the sidewalk on the main street I all of a sudden felt a big mosquito attack. Out of nowhere, they were everywhere. I smacked and smacked and rushed forward while trying to protect Beertje but I could feel it was too late. They had bitten me countless times ( I stopped counting at 60 on my shoulders and back) right through my DEET covered clothes.  Bastards. Miraculously they had ignored Beertje but Jan and Kabouter were their victims too to a lesser extent.

While we stood at the beach for a few minutes, I could't wait to rush back to the hotel and take a shower. I couldn't care less that there was a pier a few blocks further. I felt filthy from sweating, sun screen and repellent mixtures and I was crazily itchy and hot.  All of a sudden I felt extremely restless and I had the feeling I went nuts. I couldn't breath gently anymore and I couldn't hate Florida more than at that moment.  "The sunshine" state where all elderly people went on retirement....what a mockery. How could this rain/mosquito monster be welcoming to weak people anyway? Why would anyone want to spend the summer here if you had to search rescue inside all the time? Besides the Everglades, Florida was just an accumulation of culture-lacking malls and community resorts.

While I was sulking in the car with Beertje that I wouldn't mind going home at this point of the trip, Jan searched in pharmacies for itch medication (and an ice cream for him and Kabouter).
Fortunately a shower, the swimming pool and the medication brought some coolness and relief and a cocktail at the restaurant cleared my mood a bit in the evening.













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