{"id":2142,"date":"2016-12-29T20:37:46","date_gmt":"2016-12-30T03:37:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/?p=2142"},"modified":"2016-12-29T20:37:46","modified_gmt":"2016-12-30T03:37:46","slug":"bonita-springs-a-popular-spot-for-snow-birds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/golf\/courses-and-travel\/2142\/bonita-springs-a-popular-spot-for-snow-birds","title":{"rendered":"Bonita Springs a Popular Spot for Snow Birds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dave Davies is one of the many Michigan snowbirds who found his way to Southwest Florida \u2013 in this case \u2013 Bonita Springs \u2013 and stayed. While attending the University of Michigan, he won the Detroit City Handball Championship, and still returns to Michigan once each summer for a reunion with his pals at Burt Lake, near Harbor Springs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an annual gathering of \u2018old broken-down\u2019 handball players,\u2019\u201d he joked while steering me, in his black car taxi service, on a 15-minute drive to the Southwest Florida International Airport from Altaira, the new (under construction) luxury residential tower in WCI\u2019s posh but tasteful Pelican Landing development. Construction of the tower, which looks over The Colony Golf Club, the Gulf of Mexico\u2019s Estero Bay and the acclaimed Lover\u2019s Key State Park, signals a revived economy and a demand for residency in Bonita Springs \u2013 which sits between Ft. Meyers and Naples \u2013 from plenty of Michigan transplants and second home owners. Statistically Michigan is one of the top-three states to send visitors \u2013 and buyers \u2013 to Bonita Springs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI once drove a fellow from the Ft. Myers airport to the Ritz Carlton who told me he was from Detroit,\u201d Davies recalled. \u201cI asked him what he did for a living. He told me he worked for the Detroit Red Wings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Making conversation, Davies says he asked the fellow what he did for the hockey team.<\/p>\n

The man told answered, \u201cOh a little of this and a little of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davies, a tennis fan with little hockey knowledge, knew that tennis star Anna Kournikova, a South Florida resident, was dating one of the Red Wing players. So he asked his passenger if he\u2019d ever met Sergei Federov?<\/p>\n

They both laughed when eventually Davies figured out the man in his backseat was hockey superstar player Steve Yzerman!<\/p>\n

Since then, Yzerman himself has moved from Michigan to Southwest Florida to manage the Tampa Bay Lightning.<\/p>\n

\"Kara

Kara Hado Minoui, who promotes WCI’s Altaira Sky Homes, with a touch of home for Michiganders: a Ford-logo bun<\/p><\/div>\n

Davies, by chance on separate occasions, has also driven rock stars Eric Clapton and Robert Plant, but he says General Electric CEO Jack Welch was the best tipper. Welch is an esteemed corporate titan, but it is Thomas Edison and Henry Ford who were the best-known business moguls who had homes in the area. Michigan visitors looking for a touch of home can even lunch, dine, or drink at \u201cFord\u2019s Garage,\u201d an elaborately-themed homage to the Ford Motor Company in the Miromar Outlets. The casual restaurant is an like an Epcot-quality attraction\/experience including a full-sized Model T with spinning tires and the occasional smoking\u00a0 backfire suspended over the bar. Menu items are named for an automotive elements or personalities \u2013 such as \u201cEdsel\u2019s Hot Pretzels,\u201d and \u201cFirestone Shrimp\u201d – and the burgers have the iconic script Ford oval logo toasted into the top bun. The restroom sinks are made of tires with gas pumps for faucets; cloth napkins are ringed by fastener clamps; and vintage photography covers the walls. See AltairaWCI.com or FordsGarageUSA.com for details.<\/p>\n

Michael Patrick Shiels may be contacted at\u00a0<\/em>InviteYourself@aol.com<\/em><\/a>\u00a0or via TravelTattler.com\u00a0His talk show can be heard weekday mornings in\u00a0Lansing\u00a0on 92.1 FM.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dave Davies is one of the many Michigan snowbirds who found his way to Southwest Florida \u2013 in this case… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":2143,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[1044565,2834,606,998820],"class_list":["post-2142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-courses-and-travel","tag-travel","tag-michigan","tag-florida","tag-steve-yzerman"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2016\/12\/Ford.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}