by Marlene Graham www.TheMostInterestingWomanInTheWorld.com
www.naplestouristcenter.com, www.pineislandtouristcenter.com, www.bonitatouristcenter.com, www.marcotouristcenter.com www.esterotouristcenter.com www.napleshomefinders.com
Pine Island is a very, very laid-back island on the west coast of Florida, located about 20 minutes 
or so west of Cape Coral and 30 minutes or so west of Ft. Myers. When they say that Island Time Zone begins here, they mean it. Time does in fact seem to stand still on Pine Island, or at least move so slowly you don't realize it is passing by. And as we all know, in today's world that's not such a bad thing.
Nothing is perfect in Pine Island which is much of its charm. Take for example the "most likely" self-proclaimed doll lady of Matlacha, the entry town to the island. Zoning apparently doesn't prohibit the "Ride 'Em Cowboy" horses from lining the front of her colorful shop/dwelling. By the way you will find portions of similar horses along her side shrubbery and her back yard from which you will see an amazing bay view.
From the southernmost point of Pine Island, you can see the very "casually" upscale and world-renowned islands of Sanibel and Captiva. Pine Island will never be one of those world-class islands because it lacks beaches, and so its fortunate fate is to be what you most likely imagine a fishing village to be: A little grungy, a little eccentric, but a place where the people really seem to enjoy their lives whether they are fishing off a bridgeway; growing and selling tropical fruit; playing bingo at the American Legion; or attending one of the island's creatively fun annual events such as the Mullet Toss Championship which celebrated its 18th year of existence May 2009, and the not so aged, but no less fun, "Battle of the Paddles" where you make a boat out of a piece of plywood and then race competitors. At the same time you will find interesting lodging, tasty dining, and just overall friendliness.
That's why I love Pine Island. I actually live in Naples Florida where as a real estate agent and owner of the Downing-Frye Realty on 5th Avenue (www.napleshomefinders.com) and my own private tourism center(www.naplestouristcenter.com), I am entrenched in that community. And though I absolutely love Naples which on the surface with its fancy shopping, beautiful clean beaches and thoughtful zoning seems quite the opposite of Pine Island; I, on the other hand, give Pine Island Florida so much credit for having the nerve to be what it is.
Pine Island is 17 miles long (North to South) and two miles wide from Matlacha to the open water. Pine Island is basically a "T" except that the stem part is shorter than the cap. Matlacha (MAT-LA-SHAY) is the entry point from the east. (You go through Matlacha and then further west until you reach the town center. To the left about eight miles or so is St. James City. To the right you go past Pineland, which would be a left hand turn, and go straight about eight miles or so into Bokeelia which looks out on the immenseness of Charlotte Harbor.)
Some people refer to Pine Island as "country waterfront," and I have to say that is a reasonably fair description, though I like to think of it as a modified Key West. At least the Matlacha portion.
So now I will tell you with a certain amount of pride about my most recent trip to Pine Island. (I don't get out that way but once a year or so.) And though I did allude to this earlier in this article, I must now confess: You are reading words written by an official "Mullet Tosser."
As a woman who has traveled all 50 states of America three times in her life, and the author of the book "Headfirst Into America," I have probably had more than my share of adventures. So whenever something "interestingly new" smashes its way onto my "windshield of life," I get excited. Maybe that sounds funny; and maybe I do find myself unnaturally attracted to oddities, but I can't help it. I'm guessing that's probably the reason I bought the domain name WeirdFlorida.com. (Incidentally, I felt compelled to make that last statement so my boyfriend won't think the sentence previous to the last sentence is in reference to him.)
So back to "Mullet Tossing." It just would NOT leave the windshield.
Now keep in mind that my sources tell me that "Mullet Tossing" is not an idea original to Pine Island, and the truth is even though it's been going on here on an annual basis, many Pine Islanders have yet to attend, much less have participated.
FLASH BACK, FLASH BACK ...
I originally learned about the event from reading the Naples Daily News, and so on a beautiful Saturday afternoon I convinced my normally status quo boyfriend that this would be a fun thing to check out since I certainly didn't expect to be participating. As it happened, it didn't take much convincing to get him to head that direction. In fact, even though we live only an hour or so from Pine Island, we took the slow route along the beachway, along Bonita Beach and Ft. Myers Beach, making one stop along the way at the new Doc Ford's restaurant located just under the bridge that connects Ft. Myers Beach to the city of Ft. Myers.
We were having such fun munching on spicy "peel and eat shrimp," obligatorily washing said shrimp down with an adult beverage and simultaneously multi-taskingly chatting with the recently migrated-from-Maine bartender of this only weeks-old establishment, that we almost nixed the Pine Island idea when I suddenly remembered reading that this event would end at 4 p.m. By now it was pushing 1:30; but, no, we decided to press on anyway.
Cutting through Cape Coral we continued to wind our way westward through neighborhoods of lot after lot of sparsely landscaped homes. As a real estate agent, I couldn't help but comment on the number of apparent foreclosures in the area and what a shame that was, though I hear the Cape Coral cycle is starting to head into more positive territory with investors buying the bargains. The same with Naples.
And so, suddenly, we were on the sometimes narrow Pine Island road heading for the Matlacha Bridge which seems always to be accented by fishermen. Crossing that drawbridge is forever exciting for me signaling my arrival to a bygone era. That's when we saw the Mullet Championship sign. Yep. There it was. Eighteenth annual. Yep we were to be in the audience, and yep ... yikes! We were a day early!
My boyfriend looked at me and I knew before he said it that when we left the island on this day, we would not be headed back on the next day. But the good news, at least, is he did suggest we stay overnight as an impromptu trip and then be on hand for the 10 a.m. event the next day. Sounded like a great idea. My daughter and son-in-law were back in Naples to watch my teenaged son, and so we began focusing on that idea.
But first we continued onto Pine Island to the town center and to the left toward St. James City, these days a sleepy hideaway for shrimp and shark fishermen; those who like to boat recreationally; and those who just enjoy peace and quiet in this canal punctuated community that looks out bayward toward Sanibel Island. I actually own a home in St. James City and always thought it would be such fun to live there, but after returning from our family's 50-state adventures in 2000, we decided Naples would probably give us the best chance to earn a reasonable living for our family. And so we rented our place in Pine Island through the years, hoping someday to retire there. Sadly my husband passed away three years ago and though it would have made financial sense for me to sell the home then, I couldn't, and so I still have it and still go an look at it once a year or so.
Along the way we decided to stop at Pine Island Realty to see if we could track down my personal Pine Island Realtor, Ken Rudolph, but he wasn't around. During the course of that stop though we couldn't help but notice the multitude of cars parked by a restaurant/bar across the way. A Realtor in Pine Island Realty named Donna, and another lady in the same office, told us those cars were there for the famed Battle of the Paddles which is that plywood boat competition I mentioned earlier. What luck! No mullet tossing today, but there would be a battle of the paddles. Donna also gave us a heads up on an apparently very cool motel in which to stay in Matlacha called the Bridgewater Inn, but when we called they had just rented out their last room. Drat.
Still not sure if we would spend the night, we headed across the street to take in the Paddle festivities. It was hilarious. Some people were comically dressed as they competed two at a time racing up a canal one direction, turning around and racing back. Well that was the theory anyway. One guy did completely flip over in his boat just two strokes or so in, and unable to right it or save it, he started swimming the route. There was a lot of applause on that one, but he couldn't catch up with the other boat and even if he had, I'm guessing he would have been disqualified for crossing the finish line boat-less. The canal was located to the west of an eating and drinking establishment, and so inside there was a band playing and plenty of clinking of beer bottles, sports on the television screens and just a lot of island style Saturday afternoon merriment.
Following the Battle of the Paddles we went down to look at my property located at the end of Sanibel Boulevad. Water on three sides, wow! I have owned this property since 1990 and though I should have sold it in the height of the market when this $250,000 property went to more than a million, I couldn't bring myself to do it. And let me tell you that was a costly decision. But even now as I stood along the seawall looking toward a mangrove island, watching boats meander by, and thinking about how lucky my renters must be to watch the sun rise and set from the same yard, I was thinking that someday they might be me.
Back in the car we learned that one of the motels we had called, the Bridgewater Inn, now had a sudden vacancy; and though our original plan was to drive to Bokeelia, the northernmost tip of the island, our plans were now suddenly changed. Instead we stopped at a local supermarket for toothbrushes and other overnight necessities, then drove back mid-island, turned right and cruised back east toward Matlacha.
