Honeymoon Day Nine (Tuesday, September 26, 2000)

[I kept a bit of a diary of our honeymoon 10 years ago. I think I will share it, sort of “as it happened”. There are 11 installments. Enjoy.]
Sally hits the beach again as I try to finish off my Clancy novel. This one’s pretty good, by the way. About 10:30 we go to Mel’s again but this time we bear gifts, or at least a birthday card for Jackie, one of our favorite waitresses. We also take the wedding pictures again since Jackie wasn’t there yesterday. We get birthday cake with breakfast 🙂
It’s then another lazy day until lunch time. We run down to Fifth Avenue again and eat at Bully’s Fifth Avenue Grill. Sally’s been here before and almost doesn’t recognize it–it used to be a hole in the wall and now it’s bright, cheerful, and even has tablecloths on the tables … our waitress (Missy) remembers Sally from last year when she and her parents ate at Bully’s. Sally has an egg salad sandwich (grilled) and I have the bacon cheeseburger with fries. We then take a look at some more shops on 5th but don’t see anything we absolutely can’t live without.
In our bid to add to the condo’s comforts, we make a quick trip to Wal-Mart to buy a throw for the couch. Sally finds a nice one for fifteen bucks. Returning home, Sally goes back to the beach for a while and I finish The Bear and The Dragon.
Then it’s off to Noodles¹ for the dinner part of our day. Noodles is in a strip mall at Yahl and Pine Ridge on the north side of Naples (there’s another one on US 41 in Bonita Beach but this one is the original). My bride orders Fettucini Alfredo with a side of portobello mushrooms. I order Chicken Parmesan with no sides. Our waiter, Aron, brings a big colander full of Italian and foccacia breads on which to nosh. Big mistake. Our meals are big enough for any three of the Indianapolis Colts’ linebackers, with enough left over to feed our cats. My meal contains at least five boneless chicken breasts piled over a huge bed of homemade noodles (I should have mentioned that the hook at Noodles is the homemade pasta). By the time Sally is too stuffed to eat another bite, it still looks like she has barely touched her meal. Luckily there are doggie bags. The price is VERY reasonable; we’re not wine drinkers so we get out for under thirty dollars with enough food left over for at least two meals. Our advice to would-be diners: Share a meal.
The staff, I might add, are great. Refills of iced tea and diet coke appear almost magically (“almost” because Aron can’t remember (but gets it right) that I had diet, not regular coke).
We make a quick stop at Barnes and Noble so I can find a book I wanted but couldn’t find at Books A Million, then head over to the Ritz to see if we can get a cocktail. I am, unfortunately, not dressed for the occasion, given that I’m in shorts. The maitre d’ is quite gracious about this–I get the impression he gets this a lot :)–but “sports casual” isn’t quite enough to get into The Club or (I am somewhat surprised to note) the Lobby Lounge, either. So if you decide to pop into the Ritz for a cocktail, remember two things: The Club opens at 9PM and you need to be dressed “business casual”.
So we roll home and I promise Sally that we can come back tomorrow night and I’ll wear my long pants.
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¹ Sadly (too many sadlies), Noodles moved a few years later to a more upscale venue down the street, where the prices went up and the quality of the food and service suffered.