Pine Island

Mango Run – A Summer Tradition

July 17, 2010
Thumbnail image for Mango Run – A Summer Tradition

We made another run to Pine Island today for mangoes. It’s a tradition I started nearly 20 years ago. A new fruit stand has opened for business in a grove I’ve been driving past for years. Instead of wholesaling their mangoes this year they decided to open a retail stand on their property. Today they [...]

Read the full article →

Jug Creek Cottages–Pine Island, Florida

August 29, 2009

Jug Creek Cottages on Pine Island from David McRee on Vimeo. Posted by David McRee at BlogTheBeach.com. A few months ago I was on Pine Island for a couple of days to shoot a video for VISIT FLORIDA about the trip out to Cayo Costa Island State Park and Cabbage Key aboard the Tropic Star. [...]

Read the full article →

Pine Island Fruit Market for Home Grown Tropical Fruit

June 19, 2009

By David McRee at BlogTheBeach.com We drove down to Pine Island today in search of my favorite fruit: ripe mangoes. We hit the jackpot! We also bought 4 pounds of lychees and a couple of medium-sized sapodillas. If you don’t know what those are, I’ll cover them in another blog post in the next week [...]

Read the full article →

A Quiet Walk Among Gumbo Limbos

December 19, 2008

A Quiet Walk Among Calusa Indian Middens and Gumbo Limbo Trees from David McRee on Vimeo. For a long time I’ve been driving past Randell Research Center on Pine Island, FL on my way to other places. When the weather and the moon conspired to ruin my plans for a trip to Cayo Costa, I [...]

Read the full article →

The Cayo Costa Trip That Wasn’t

December 13, 2008

I awoke Saturday morning with a sense of dread about my trip to Cayo Costa, since the north wind had been howling all night. The weather had forecast NE winds at 9 to 11mph. The marine forecast called for 15 knot N to NE winds. The reality was more like 25 to 30 mph winds.  [...]

Read the full article →

Friday Night in Bokeelia

December 12, 2008

The dock of the Beachhouse Lodge is, so far, my favorite dock in Florida.  As you can see, the end of the dock is quite a nice distance from the “real” world. I have to admit that it was pretty chilly for this Florida native, standing on the end of the dock at sunset with [...]

Read the full article →

Beachhouse Lodge on Pine Island–I’m Back!

December 12, 2008

This weekend I’m meeting the VISITFLORIDA video crew on Pine Island, and we’re shooting a video of the trip to Cayo Costa Island State Park and Cabbage Key via the Tropic Star passenger ferry. I’m staying at the Beachhouse Lodge, a place I discovered back in 1993. As soon as I arrived this afternoon, I [...]

Read the full article →