Marcophiles: An aerial tour

Dave Odom submitted Michael Jurgielewicz, left, his mother Rita and her cousin Daniel Murphy pose for a photo just before they board Dave Odom of Island Hopper's Raven 44 sightseeing helicopter. It was Rita's first chopper ride. The verdict? "Wonderful," says Rita.

Glenn Walton special to the Eagle The view of Marco from an Island Hopper's chartered helicopter offers literally an overview, placing this jewel of an Island in perspective.

Glenn Walton special to the Eagle An aerial view is perhaps the safest and best way to check out this gathering of crocodiles near the Marco Island Airport. Some naturalists call such a group of crocs a nest. Others call it a congregation.

Our friend and neighbor Rita Jurgielewicz, who has visited Marco off and on for several years, now has a home here, and she thought she had just about seen everything there is to see on this Island.

Then she took a helicopter tour of Marco and vicinity. Her reaction: “Everyone who comes here should see the Island that way first. It was unbelievable, wonderful.”

Rita was nervous at first. She’d not flown in a helicopter before.

“I really didn’t want to do it, but I did it for the kids and am so happy I went up. I had never been in a chopper before. I talked to myself to get over my nervousness but once we went up it disappeared.

“The pilot, Dave Odom, was excellent and super friendly. He took us across Rookery Bay, up into Naples, Gordon Pass, the Naples Pier, Cape Romano, Marco beach, Port Royal and more.

“It was very helpful for the future, because having seen it by air, now when we go on a boat or a Sea Doo, we’ll be more familiar with the waterways and markers and what goes where.

“We saw several groups of manatees, plus a shark, dolphins and stingrays. Another impression was how much water there is around here. And once you get way south of Marco you realize how fast civilization goes away.”

The Jurgielewicz’s made their trip via Island Hoppers, the helicopter sightseeing tours and charters company headquartered at the Marco Island Airport.

Owner Dave Odom has been flying helicopters or dreaming about doing so since he was about 10 years old. His dad took him on a helicopter ride while vacationing in Panama City, Fla. That was it. He was hooked.

“About seven or eight years ago I finally decided to buy a helicopter. I was in the real estate development business in Atlanta. We had bought our Marco house in 2000, having looked first at the east coast. It took about a day to figure out I didn’t like that. So we began driving south along this coast from Punta Gorda.

“Marco was the end of the line and we almost didn’t come down that far. But we did and like so many others, we drove over that bridge and thought this is great.”

Dave says the people of Marco have been great to him and his business.

“Marco has been very supportive, the chamber, folks in the hotels. There are a lot of neat people on Marco.”

So, we asked, what’s the oddest thing you’ve seen around here from the air?

“In the Everglades on the eastern side there are a lot of cabins and houses out in the middle of nowhere with no way to get to them but by boat.”

And what’s the best thing you’ve seen from the chopper?

“The best, particularly in the wintertime, is seeing the birds, thousands and thousands of birds. It’s like National Geographic. I never get tired of it.”

Info: (239) 207-4100 or info@ravenair.net.

It’s “hooley” time on Marco

Some Marco Islanders don’t need an excuse to have a party and that pretty much includes the Sons and Daughters of Erin.

For the “hooley” event coming up on Sunday, Aug. 29, however, our Irish and would-be Irish friends have a good reason to gather.

They’ll be showing up at O’Donoghue’s Bar and Grille that day for a 1-5 p.m. party to raise money for the St. Patrick’s Day parade on Marco next March.

The Sunday afternoon hooley (a party) will feature live music, prizes and a raffle — a really serious raffle. They’re selling only 300 tickets at $100 each. The lucky winner will get $10,000, says Kathleen Reynolds, president of the Sons and Daughters of Erin.

“We won’t draw the winner until the parade on March 7th,” Kathleen says.

Entertaining at the Aug. 29 party will be singer Sister Kate and Mike and Mary Jo O’Reagan. You may remember them from their gigs at the Marco Polo Restaurant. Also on the schedule is an appearance by Miss Southwest Florida, Sarah Callahan.

Kathleen assures us that one does not have to be Irish to attend the event at O’Donoghue’s, 969 N. Collier Blvd. Info: 389-0032.

Chris Curle is a former news anchor for CNN and for ABC-TV stations in Washington DC, Atlanta and Houston. E-mail chris@chriscurle.com.

Don is a former ABC News correspondent and bureau chief and a former news anchor for CNN and ABC-TV in Atlanta. His Farmer File column appears Fridays in the Naples Daily News. E-mail: don@donfarmer.com.