Pine Island

Without fail, every time I travel somewhere new, I fall in love with the place, start looking online for property to buy, read the history, and spend my time immersing myself with the locals.

Pine Island, FL is no exception. It’s near Cape Coral and my son suggested I go there.

We spent January in Cape Coral and rented a four bedroom house through VRBO. That’s a whole story in itself.

Anyhoo, we rented the house with the idea that we would invite family to come for a week at a time and share the sunshine away from our Midwest winter.

The first week our visitors were both of my sons and their families. My youngest son and his daughter went exploring one day and when he returned he said, “Mom, go to Pine Island…it’s got your name written all over it.”

Since it was only about ten minutes away, my husband and I drove over there. From the moment we drove over the first bridge and into the village of Matlatcha (pronounced Mat-lashay), I knew I was ‘home’.

This has happened to me several times before when I have visited somewhere I’ve never been before and a feeling comes over me that feels like all is right with the world.

My husband on the other hand did not share that same feeling…and never has.

That first visit to Pine Island was just a quick drive through to see what there was available to residents and tourists. As I was oohing and aahing at everything, my husband was trying to set a new world record for speed. He couldn’t get off that island fast enough.

I knew that if I really wanted to enjoy this new found treasure, I’d have to do it myself. Or with my sister who was arriving the following week, and would find this place equally as amazing as I did. Her husband would be less than tickled pink.

As soon as we got back to the house, I called my sister and shouted, “Guess what I found?”

So for the next several days when I needed groceries, I headed to the island by myself.

Sure, there was a grocery store closer to the house but I wanted to get as much island time as possible.

After some research I found out that there are nine-thousand permanent residents and that number doubles during tourist season. The island suffered a lot of damage from Hurricane Ian, including the loss of two bridges, which are on the same road, and the only way on or off the island other than a boat. Some damage was still visible.

The island is self-sustaining with everything from doctors, lawyers, physical therapists, schools, two grocery stores, a VFW Post, Moose Lodge, and Elks Club…and bingo on Friday nights at 6:30! There are several churches, gas stations, farmers markets, several nurseries with amazing tropical flowers and colorful pots, boutiques, and so much more.

Yup…I could live here!

The other thing I noticed, and could really get into, is that there are sidewalks everywhere and each time I visited the island, people were walking or riding bikes. It just seemed so simple and so peaceful.

When my sister and her husband arrived, they were barely unpacked and I said, “Let’s go to the island.” She ran to the car. Her husband wanted to go along so my husband rode along also. BIG mistake. We were back to the house in under an hour.

The next morning my sister and I went back alone! The main roads are like a ‘T’. You drive onto the island from the bottom part of the T and after a bit you can only go left or right. From those major roads are many side roads…and of course they all needed to be explored. Right?

It was stone crab season so several places were selling those along with shrimp and other seafood. We found a seafood store that was amazing with scallops, shrimp, seafood dips (the best crab dip ever), and a variety of fish so we bought some fresh grouper.

I could keep going on and on about how much I fell in love with this little community but I hope I’ve painted a picture that you can envision.

I wish everyone could experience this magical, peaceful place.