The following day we had scheduled on our own to see one condo at Burnt Store Marina. We both loved the marina and amenities, unfortunately, the condo was way too small and old for my taste. When I say small, the current owners had their kayaks stored in the dining room. The storage and closet space was minimal although the general layout was nice. Still, we really did have to consider this one because the marina was so amazing and the idea of having the boat docked literally outside your door was extremely appealing.

Touring the marina, I found the “Ms Cheryl” and took a picture for my friend Cheryl. (She wanted to know if it came with a cabin boy. I told her, “Yes, it comes with a full crew willing to do whatever is needed to make you happy!” Cheryl liked that. Who wouldn’t?)

The Marina is so dang cool. There is an 18-hole golf course, 2 restaurants, a yacht club, a small grocery / ice cream store. The best part is the fact that you can leave the harbor and head starboard to a protected cove and sale to Punta Gorda for dinner or supplies or set a course heading to the port side and sail into the Gulf of Mexico! This place is amazing for golfers and sailors!

We hung out at the Marina Restaurant and walked the piers just taking it all in. I Love the water – well really we both do.

Burnt Store Marina is under STRONG consideration for a retirement home.

We spent a grueling day looking at condos in the Punta Gorda / Port Charlotte area with Debra, our new best friend Realtor. I scheduled to look at 6 condos in 2 different complexes, but, Debra had other plans and we must have toured well over a dozen.

The condos near Burn Store Marina were beautiful, only a few years old and really nice closet space and an attached garage. The problem them, other than they were a little small (which I did not mind), was that they were in the middle of a field with no place to go. True, they were only about a mile or two from Burnt Store Marina, but, other than that, it was a 12-mile drive on an old, two lane country road to get to anything of interest or necessities. Neither of us wanted that – I want coffee shops, restaurants, beaches, music in the park and Tod wants little pubs and anything that makes me happy. (And seriously that’s the way it should be.) We both privately knew that as soon as we saw the location we still viewed at least 8 condos in this complex. Mostly they were the exact same layout, just decorated slightly different – God it was so very tedious after the first 2 or 3. I thought the day would never end.

Next we moved on to the Charlotte Harbor condos. These were in a great location with great amenities, including a pool, hot tub, putting green, community room and covered parking. This place was originally built as a vacation resort, but never took off so they started selling off and/or renting out the units. These were a little bigger than we needed but the price was right and it was a relatively new complex. Again however, we viewed way too many and most had been rentals or repos and needed some extra special TLC which was more than I was willing to take on remotely.  We did see one partially renovated unit that we both really liked so the day was not a total loss.  There was an end in sight of this marathon condo search (beware, of realtors who don’t let go of you once they have you captive). What could be better at the end of a grueling day then a drink at the Celtic Ray owned and operated by Ray from Dublin, Ireland.

Warning: Be very careful when you ask an Irishman for a shot of whiskey.