We welcome you to our home and hope that you enjoy the casual, tropical, cottage-style living it provides. With views of the water from almost every room and many amenities we feel confident that you will have an enjoyable, fun, and relaxing vacation!

Open the eleven meters of glass doors (34ft) makes to feel like you are outside even when you are in the kitchen, dining room, master bedroom, and living room. Spend time in the private pool or walk down to the dock to fish for a while where you might even see manatees or dolphins! We see dolphins almost every day, sometimes swimming right under our dock. They love to show off, and are very people friendly. Grill freshly-caught fish (we recommend buying it at the Prawn Broker fish shop down the street if you haven’t caught it yourself) at the grill in the outdoor bar by the pool while you watch sailboats pass by in the canal. Our home has 200 ft of frontage on the water of three intersecting canals leading to the river and on to the Gulf of Mexico.

During dinner be sure to turn on the pool light and listen to the water falling into the pool. At night, as the air cools, don’t forget to enjoy a margarita while relaxing in the Jacuzzi. When you’re ready to go to bed you’ll find three comfortable bedrooms (one king-size and two queen-size beds) each with a ceiling fan and two full bathrooms all on one level (easy for senior citizens).
We also have central air conditiong and heat. We find the need for either is seldom in the winter.

Some other amenities you will find are:
Outdoor shower
Private pool
Private spa or Hot Tub

Well-kept gardens
Newly-remodeled kitchen
Central Heat and Air Conditioning Systems

Town & River neighborhood is located on a maze of canals where boating is a primary focus. Our next-door neighbors have a boat that you could rent and the canal is seven feet deep which is convenient if you would like to rent a big boat. It takes only about ten minutes to reach the expansive Intercoastal Waterway (like a beautiful highway for boats) which leads you to many breathtaking islands, fun restaurants and bars, and great beaches.

In this quiet residential neighborhood, (our home is at the end of a culdesac) you’ll find many friendly neighbors from across the country and the world.Just accross the street, our neighbors are German and French. Our house is conveniently located about 25 minutes drive time (note: all times given are averages and vary depending on the month) from the airport and is in short walking distance (about 10 minutes) from ten restaurants and cafes, drug store, bakery, fitness center, bank, dry cleaners, shopping, bars, and more. You can reach even more if you use the two bicycles we have available, or just tour the quiet neighborhood streets.

There is so much to do and see in Southwest Florida! We are lucky to be located right in the middle of it all. We recommend planning to spend some time at the lovely and subdued Sanibel Island (25 mms by boat, 10mns by car) where you’ll find a nature sanctuary and some of the best beaches for finding shells. You also can’t miss visiting the lively and exciting Fort Meyers beach (45mns by boat, 25mns by car). Dress for fun in the sun: average temperatures (depending on month) range from 24 to 33 degrees Celsius for the high to 12 to 23 degrees for the low. Most of the time it's in the 70's or 80's. It is called the Sunshine State for a good reason.

This area is well-known for the many golf courses designed by some of the best professionals in the world. Just down the palm-tree lined street at the entry to our neighborhood you’ll find the winter homes of Henry Ford (Ford vehicles) and Thomas Edison (invented the light bulb) that have been turned into museums. There is the Barbara B. Mann Theater where you could experience some major American musicians such as Willie Nelson, B.B. King, and others. For dinner head over to the Broadway Palm dinner theater. There are mini-golf courses, motorcycles and kayaks for rent, trips to see manatees, and nearby movie theaters. There’s a casino boat where you could spend the day gambling on the water. You’ll find many scuba shops if you’d like to hunt for lobsters or check out an underwater wreck. For the shoppers in your group there are two “outlet” shopping malls within 30 minutes drive where you will find extreme discounts on designers like Tommy Hilfiger. Want to experience some American culture? Attend a Minnesota Twins (go Twins!) or Boston Red Sox baseball team spring training game at the beautiful outdoor stadium located just 15 minutes away.

Like nature? Visit the famous Florida Everglades (about one hour away). There you can take air boat rides and get up-close with alligators and other friendly Florida creatures. The Florida Keys (Key West is most southern, just 90 miles from Cuba) can be reached by car (4-6 hours) or by taking the Key West Express boat, right from Ft Myers Beach. Disney World in Orlando can be reached by car (in about three hours) as can Miami (2 ½ - 3 hours).

Here are some links to get you started:

Basic site about Ft. Meyers
http://www.visitflorida.com/Fort_Myers

Fort Myers and Sanibel Island
http://www.fortmyers-sanibel.com/

Florida Everglades
http://www.nps.gov/ever/index.htm

Naples & Marco Island
http://www.paradisecoast.com/

Miami and South Beach
http://www.miamiandbeaches.com/Index.asp

Florida Keys and Key West
http://www.fla-keys.com/

Disney World
http://www.visitorlando.com/

Our dates are generally very flexible. As this is our second home we can arrange to be in our other home (during any season) the times that work best for you, no problem. We do not need a simultaneous trade.

We would be open to the right opportunity in most parts of Europe.

Open to any dates

This does not need to be a simultaneous trade (for example if you'd prefer to come to Florida in summer or fall that will work just fine for us). Our Florida Home is a second home, just tell us when you want to come here. We love to travel, and are open to sugestions. We especially like to be near the beach.

We are always looking for places across the world, but because our daughter is married to a Norwegian we are especially interested in staying within RyanAir’s reach of Oslo (France, Italy, Spain, Holland, Denmark, Greece, Turkey, to name a few). If you have a property in Norway that you would like to exchange you would even have the opportunity to meet our daughter Molly and her husband Johannes beforehand if you would like more information on our house or the local area.

We (Katie and Dale, in our 60‘s) have been married for 40 years. We have two children (Molly and Tim, in their 30‘s). We were born and raised in Minnesota where we had an yellow pages advertising business (before that Katie was a nurse).

We retired from that in 1998 and now spend half of the year in Minnesota (May through September and December) and the rest in Florida (when not traveling). We love gardening, boating, golfing, snowmobiling, fishing, motorcycling, and, of course, traveling. We are considering offering our log home in beautiful northern Minnesota for a home exchange in the future. It is located on lovely Big Trout Lake, which is one of a chain of thirteen connected lakes, carved through the beautiful majestic pine trees.

We do not have any pets or small children (our first grandchild born October 2011). We have never smoked. We take pride in being generally very tidy and will take impeccible care of your home and ask that you will do the same in return. Our hope is that we might find others who would like to do home exchanges more than just once. We are very excited about this opportunity and look forward to hearing from you!

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