Boo government shutdown!

I started today off by jumping out of bed and making Jacky go with me down to the beach. I was only 10 minutes past sunrise and wanted to be on the beach at first light. The only person out was our neighbor looking for shells. She must have started before the sun came up! The water was still pretty rough and there weren't many shells to be had. So I switched to birding and was more successful with that.

 

Sunrise on Sanibel Island!

 

I believe these are Sanderlings which were everywhere and highly amusing as they hurried everywhere, chasing waves (actually trying for the coquina shells that would burrow down after the waves passed)

 

A pair of White Ibis that seemed to choreograph their movements (actually they were timing their movements to the waves coming in).

 

The lovely Snowy Egret with yellow slippers for feet and that wonderful plume on her neck....

 

Here's a beautiful Osprey which we ended up seeing all over the place. Very abundant!

Also found this on the beach...a dead baby shark!

 

The rest of the day was supposed to be spent at Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge! But because of the government shutdown, the refuge was closed. Knowing how quickly the government resolves it's issues, I highly doubt we will get to visit the refuge this trip. That MUST mean I have to come back sometime!

Ok, Plan B I guess. First we went over the Causeway to Fort Myers and found the Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve. There we went on a boardwalk that took us back in time to the Jurassic Park age (well, that's what it looked like). Very cool, but quite hot at 91 degrees! We were hoping to see quite a lot of wildlife, and we did see some...but you had to be very quiet and look hard. Here we saw our first up close alligator, well, his eyes anyway - awesome!

 

Also quite a few gar in the water -

 

Here's an Anhinga sunning in that peculiar way of theirs...

 

Also a large soft shelled turtle who kept trying to climb on a log that would roll with her attempts. I must say, I felt sorry for her. She did finally manage to climb on for a short while!

 

Next, lunch at ...Pincher's Crab Shack! We enjoyed delicious sea food. Ben tried raw clams for the first time, as well as had some steamed ones. As you can see from the picture, I don't think it was Maggie's cup of tea...

 

Back to our private beach for shelling and sunset. Maggie and I found a treasure trove of shells and had a hard time leaving it, even after getting rained on! But the sun was setting and we needed to save some shells for others. No worries, we will pick out our favorites and take the others back to the beach before we leave.

 

Waiting for the sun to set...

 

 

 

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More Sun!

Because everyone was a touch sunburned and we slept in today, we decided to do a little shopping on the island. There's several shops that specialize in cute island clothes, cute t-shirts, boxes covered in sea shells, anything and everything you could possibly want on an island vacation. Saying this, of course we came back with several bags between us. Some of them were actually bags of groceries since 4 people who spend the day on the beach seem to develop an appetite. Yes, I don't quite understand the correlation between sun, sand, water, and food. But it's there, I'm sure there's been studies done...

This is a painting inside of one of the shops. The painting was so well done, I felt I was right there!

After a late lunch of leftovers and whatever we could hunt up in our pantry, time for a short nap while we waited for the tide to go out. The best shelling is one hour before and one hour after low tide. Tonight's was at 5:03pm. Around here you really watch the tides so you know when to go. We went back to our private beach where the water was so clear yesterday. Well, today was a whole nother day and the waves were crashing and the water was all stirred up. I suppose that meant the shelling would be good once things settled down. I actually spent more time taking pictures of birds feeding than finding good shells today. Here's a few of my favorites.

 

The shells are everywhere but you have to find the unbroken ones if you can. That is the trick. Oh also to find ones that are empty! There's a reason there are so many shells on the beach - just in the shallows live the ones still alive. Of course, it's also why the birds are all there! The true 'shellers' look for piles of shells deposited by the waves and will rake through them looking for good ones.

 

I will take pictures of my best ones tomorrow for you. Still looking for certain shells that are supposed to be found here. It's the hunt for them, you know. I can buy them all at the store for .50 to $3.00. But that's not the point.

Today is a very special day. Today is Ben and Maggie's 7th anniversary! They decided to have a picnic on the beach but here is a great shot of the two of them...

I think Sanibel Island is a perfect place to celebrate an anniversary! Jacky and I are celebrating ours too, although it happens on Oct 30. Happy Anniversary Sweetheart!

Another sunset to watch....each is as beautiful as the last.

My favorite picture of the day though, is this one...

 

The Great Egret looking for dinner and not minding me a bit!

 

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Sun!

The day started out sunny, warm, humid...just like all good beach days should. Our tentative agenda had us touring the 'Ding' Darling National Wildlife Refuge which happens to be about a mile from our cottage. Unfortunately they had the wildlife drive closed until Oct 1, and the walking/biking trail also for repairs. I hope the government doesn't shut down because if it does, the refuge will shut down too. So, fingers crossed, we will be able to go there later this week.

Plan B. We drove the length of Sanibel Island and then Captiva Island. They aren't very big so it didn't take long at all. The road is small and surrounded by tropical vegetation. The houses are brightly painted and it's all very quaint! We even pulled over at the local Post Office so I could take a picture of the P.O. Box.

 

After a quick lunch of Mac and cheese and spam, we headed out to the east end of the island to Lighthouse Point. The beach there is supposed to be very good for mini shells. So out we head and find a good spot to put up our beach umbrellas. There were a few people out, some fishing, some sunbathing, some swimming. The beach itself is very narrow because they leave the dune area for the nesting shorebirds as well as nesting sea turtles! It all makes for a very natural beach.

So here is Ben and Maggie enjoying the beach...

I didn't take many pictures here, too busy walking in the water, looking for shells. We actually didn't a find too many here. Ben and Maggie are the experts - they go out in waist deep water and find shells with their feet and pick them up. Sometimes out there the shells are still inhabited so they have to be thrown back, but there are some nice empty ones too! I personally don't like picking up things I can't see...the water here was pretty stirred up and there were boats close in to shore. At the fishing pier people were pulling in some pretty big fish. There were also Brown Pelicans, Royal Terns, Laughing Gulls, and even an Egret and a Double Breasted Cormorant by the pier. I didn't have my camera so no pictures, sorry!

We left a little before low tide, went for ice cream at Pinnochios. It was very good, I had a Key Lime sorbet and 1 whole scoop fell off onto the ground :-( but there was plenty left to fill me up. We went back to our cottage and walked to the private beach that we were out on last night. Along the way we came across these White Ibis just doing their thing. The birds here really let you get close!

The water was clear and almost at low tide so we were able to walk quite a ways out and find some good shells. We watched the sunset again, not as pretty as last night but still lovely, and headed back home after the thrips came out and started biting.

 

 

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Off to Florida!

Early to start, up at 3:45 am to get ready for our trip. Got the dogs all settled in the barns, Uli on my lap and away we go! Surprised at the amount of traffic on the road at 6 in the morning. Dropped Uli off at Anna's. Her roommate was very excited to see him....and he was excited to be there!
Flight went well - straight shot to Florida where we met up with Ben and Maggie. Lunch at Red Robin which was delicious and I ate too much but we had to star the vacation right! I got to see an alligator in the ditch by the road, as well as a wood stork. Exciting!
Our cottage was open and cool. Lovely! We walked down to the beach and started finding shells immediately. The sunset was beautiful and it was a perfect ending to the first day of our vacation.