Our home is a one-story detached house in a boating and tennis community on the Caloosahatchee River in North Fort Myers, Florida.

The house was built in 1994. The plan is open and airy and includes kitchen with breakfast area, living room, dining room, and large family room. The master bedroom has a queen bed, the guest bedroom two twin beds, and the office/study a trundle bed (makes 2 twins). There is also a hide-a-bed couch in the family room that converts to a queen-size bed. The large ensuite master bathroom has both a shower and a separate garden tub; the hall bath has a tub/shower combination. Of course there is central air conditioning.

There is a screened lanai looking out to the river, with outdoor furniture for relaxing or dining, and a small garden with a circulating waterfall. From the family room and the breakfast area, sliding glass doors look across the lanai to the river. The family room also overlooks a lake with a jet d’eau from another large window in a different direction.

The house can easily accommodate 6, plus room for 1 or 2 more on the hide-a-bed couch.

There is a community pool (3-minute walk), tennis courts, and a pier extending into the river for fishing or relaxing. There is also a community clubhouse. Across the street from our front door is the community marina, where many owners keep boats. There is a golf course open to the public, just across the road from the entrance to the community.

This is a condominium community; however, our home is one of 10 single family homes that are part of the condominium association. Residents are very friendly and neighborly. The summer months are very quiet, as many owners here are snowbirds. You will probably have the swimming pool to yourself most of the time in the summer.

We also have a sport-utility vehicle (seats 5) that could be available for exchange.

North Fort Myers is in the Fort Myers-Cape Coral area on the lower Florida Gulf Coast. It is quiet, but with easy access to all the attractions of Southwest Florida, including the islands of Sanibel, Captiva, and Fort Myers Beach, and the city of Naples.

Fort Myers is just across the river to the south, and Cape Coral is directly to the west. We have easy access to Interstate 75 (3 miles), with connection to Tampa and Orlando in one direction, and Naples and the East Coast of Florida in the other. Getting to and from Southwest Florida International Airport is fast (about half an hour) and very easy.

Beaches, nature centers and parks; fishing, boating, kayaking, bicycling; golf and tennis; manatees and alligators, eagles and egrets; historical sites and museums; art festivals and concerts are among the many activities and attractions Southwest Florida offers.

If you’d rather not cook, there is everything from home cooking and pizza to ethnic and gourmet dining available. But if you do want to stock the kitchen, there are also 2 supermarkets within 3 miles. There is also a convenience store and a Walgreen’s pharmacy (it’s almost a convenience store in itself!) only a mile away, and gas stations and neighborhood shopping centers within 5 minutes’ drive. Several department and discount stores are within 15 minutes. Across the river in Fort Myers is the Edison Mall, a major “regional” mall. A bit farther south are the Bell Tower Shops, Coconut Point, Gulf Coast Town Center, Miromar Outlets, and Tanger Sanibel Factory Stores.

If you’re exploring farther afield, most Florida East Coast destinations, including Fort Lauderdale, Miami, and the Palm Beaches, are less than 3 hours by car. Lake Okeechobee is about an hour and a half, as is the western access to Everglades National Park. And for kids (or the kid in you!), we are only 3 hours from Walt Disney World and Orlando’s other theme parks, and 2 hours from Tampa’s Busch Gardens.

We had a wonderful visit to Ireland in July of 2008! It was our first and we look forward to many others.

Open to any dates

Anything considered. Particularly interested in Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. Germany or Scandinavia also of interest for summer of 2010.

We are “young” retired. My husband, Dick, was a parish minister for a total of 40 years in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Fort Myers Beach, Florida. He was also a volunteer firefighter for 23 years in Ohio, and later chaplain of a fire department here for almost 10 years. Linda was (I still am!) a reference librarian, and has worked in corporate, university, and public libraries, and also as a systems designer for a database provider.

We are sailors, and have just finished restoring our 37-foot Southerly sloop. We love traveling, and have made several trips to Europe and the UK. We have also visited Korea and Peru.

We have 3 grown children, and 8 grandkids, but no children at home. We do not have pets.

Our frequent traveling companions, are another couple who are old friends. Besides English, among the 4 of us we speak some or a little Français, Español, Deutsch, and Japanese.

English, Français, Deutsch, Español