Buffalo Chips Restaurant

 I have driven past Buffalo Chips Restaurant on Old Route 41 in Bonita Springs many times.  The mural on one side of the building is what usually caught my eye.  But, I recently read a very positive review of the food, particularly the chicken wings.  It was time to go inside.

Sally is one of the owners, a niece of the man who founded the restaurant 41 years ago.  He is from Buffalo and is known as the "King of Wings."  Sally showed me around.

Her uncle is a huge sports fan, especially teams from Buffalo, like him.  He attended the Super Bowl many times.  Boxers, football players, baseball players, rock and roll musicians , actors . . . have all visited Buffalo Chips and left photos with autographs praising the chicken wings.

A football jersey signed by retired Buffalo quarterback Jim Kelly is a prized possession.  

As is a robe from Muhammad Ali.  "The Greatest."

1928 Ford Model A

 

The garage showed a gleaming mint condition 1928 Ford Model A.  It was probably not as beautiful when it left the factory floor.  Nor as expensive.

Cobra Kit Car

 I had an itty bitty car repair that had to be done.  (A brake light.) 

While I was there, I got to admire a pretty cool Cobra kit car sitting on the dealer's floor.

Celebration Park

 Celebration Park is a popular food truck venue southeast of downtown Naples.

There are numerous murals.  (Linked to Monday Mural.)

There might be a dozen food trucks, including seafood, Italian, Chinese, Japanese and Greek.

Little Gators

 Our Everglades (airboat) and Big Cypress (swamp buggy) tours were operated by Wooten's,  Wooten's is the successor to tours run by Seminoles in the Everglades.  The Wooten family took them over in 1953.

Wooten's offers guests an opportunity to hold either a two pound or a fifteen pound alligator.  Bands keep the gators' mouths closed.  I would have loved to hold a gator, but my hands were full.

The Everglades and Big Cypress

 While Susie and her family were here, we went for tours of Everglades National Park and the adjoining Big Cypress National Preserve.

Mangroves are usually found near the coast, but they have been driven further inland by hurricanes.

Historically, the Everglades are fields of grass.

Palm trees can't survive in the water, so they die and become the homes of insects, animals and birds.

Alligators prefer fresh water, but they will also live in the inland brackish water closest to the fresh water sources.

Strangler figs climb up cypress trees.

A red-shouldered hawk kept an eye on the tourists.

Royal Scoop

 No visit to Naples for Susie and her family would be complete without ice cream at Royal Scoop.

Ever since the current first grader was two, Susie has taken the same posed photo, with the little one getting a taste of the older one's ice cream cone.  While Susie posed them, I sneaked my own photo.

And, of course, I also photographed Susie and the girls as Susie took her favorite Royal Scoop photo.