Paradise Found!

Ok we made it.  Got into Fort Meyers around 1:15 yesterday.  Stopped at Bahama Breeze for  lunch and a spicy Mango Mojito (Got to start putting this vacation in the right frame of mind).

After lunch a quick stop at Wally World to pick up some things we'll need for the week then its windows down and proceed with our search for Paradise.

It doesn't take long and you can smell it,  the salt air from the ocean paradise must be close.  Reach into your pocket and get out the best spent $6 bucks of the week.


 
Our home base this week is once again on Laika Lane.  Captiva Cutie is colorful beach themed ground level cottage.   It takes the beach angels about 10 minutes to get on swimming suits and head for the pool.  The first 5 minutes was spent checking out the lizard that was awaiting our arrival on the front porch.
 
 
We broke from our normal routine and hit the pool for awhile.  
 
Then we were off to the beach to see if there was going to be any Kodak moments at sunset.  Unfortunately no it was overcast but sure we will get some good shots later this week.
 
Doc Fords was our choice for dinner. We went much later than we would normally go and it was apparent that this week would be a little more crowded than we are normally use to.  Usually its late May or early June.  I think the 4th of July holiday probably has something to due with the increase in people.  Probably a good thing for the businesses down here.
 
So on the way back from dinner last night one of our beach Angels, Lexi was talking about the 4th of July.  Her birthday is on July 5th.  She asked her mom if she had been born on the 4th of July would she be a nut cracker???  She meant firecracker of course but as you can imagine the adults found it quite amusing.  And yes Lexi you are a firecracker more like one of those ones that has a slow fuse all quite then all of a sudden bang.
 
So Sunday morning  Carol and I are off to breakfast.  Best breakfast on Sanibel IMO.  Lighthouse café.  No need to look at the menu I been waiting two years for the Hungry fisherman a seafood omelet stuffed with fresh crab, scallops and shrimp.
 
Beach today rough!!  You can bet on an early retreat back to the pool from the Beach Angels
 
 
Yep looks like a pool afternoon.     
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Comments

Shelllady said…
So glad to see you made it safely, now it's time to relax and enjoy!! Thanks again for bringing us along!! Love the pool....it would be neat to have a pool that convenient!!

Hubby went down last year on the 4th and said it was crazy with people...make sure you catch the parade and say hi to Pam from Shelllady!! :)
July 1, 2013 at 9:08 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Special Shell

Image
Yesterday evening we had one on the lowest tide we were able to catch this week.   I walked the surf at the shoreline to see if there were any shells. I was able to find a few but the shells have not been plentiful this week.  We actually collected more at Barefoot Beach the other day than we have here all week. As I was walking along I began remembering some of the times on the beach with the Beach Angels.  The younger one "Taylor" taught me a life's lesson that I would like to share with you. Taylor especially when she was smaller was always amazed with collecting rocks.  It was nothing to dump out a pocketful of rocks that she had collected from around PaPa's Koi pond or in NaNa's garden.  They were nothing special they were just rocks. Naturally when we began bringing Taylor to Captiva where the beach is full of shells as far as the eye can see. She did what most of us do down here she began collecting shells. Taylor's shells were cracked, faded, h
Read more

Merica Road Trippin Chapter 5 "America the Beautiful"

Image
While spending our day in Glacier, the rain came in during the afternoon.  Not a lot but enough to muddy up the trails.  We had considered staying an extra day, but with the rain and the fact that there were some ongoing issues back home because of storms while we were gone. We thought we should push on towards our next stop.  We headed to Rapid City, SD.  Our target areas here would be Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial and the Badlands. Mt. Rushmore Birth, Growth, Development, Preservation   There is a secret room carved into the mountain behind one of the president's heads. The Hidden Hall of Records.  Do you know which president?  Who was known as the 5th face on Rushmore?   As we're walking up the Avenue of flags at Mt. Rushmore, people were of course taking pictures and chatting.  What I found interesting was once you reached the end of the flags and approached the main viewing spot for the monument, there was silence, almost like a sign of reverence. While I have seen ma
Read more

In the Blink of an Eye

Image
It's been a rough week this week.  While I generally keep my blog on the lighter side.  My words come from my head, but my desire to write comes from my heart.  My heart this week has felt both pain and Joy some of which I'll share with you today. On Monday Nov. 20th I'm on the mends from a rough couple of days on what looks like could be a precursory strike from a future Kidney Stone.  Spent a couple of days on pain meds, telling myself I'm not going to the ER.  Carol's been battling the crud and been coughing a lot for the past week.  We get a visit from Kristine, our daughter (technically Daughter-in law) but we adopted here years ago when she moved down here from Oregon to carve out a life with our son Ryan.  In her selfless manner, she's here to deliver a spare nebulizer to her Missouri mom, who's been fighting the crud.  Why? Because that's just who she is. She didn't visit for long, and we shared a few passing comments about her not wanting to
Read more

Sand Dollars, Starfish, Stingrays and Sandy Sanibel

Image
We're back home now and I thought I would make one last post to catch up and share some pictures from the week.  Have you ever noticed the older you get how time seems to fly by faster?  I can remember as a child summer vacations that seemed like  they went on forever.  Now a week is here and gone before you know it and a weekend goes by in the blink of an eye.  If I didn't know better I would swear the earth was turning faster.  One thing for sure when I was a kid it was a time when things were much simpler and took longer.  While technology is great, I think it will deprive some of our younger generation from some of the simpler joys in life.  Things like "kick the can" and staying out and playing all day just making sure you got home when the street lights came on. The waters have been clear and full of sea life this trip.  You can stand in the ocean chest deep and see your feet!  We were concerned about how the week was going to go because the week before we
Read more

Some of today's "BS"

Image
 Today we started our day with some "BS".   B reakfast & S trawberry Preserves Our usual opening parlay into a week of eating out and consuming adult beverages. No better place to start than the Lighthouse Cafe. The crowds seem a little lighter this year.  Not sure why but I know people are dealing with a lot of "BS".  Hopefully my "BS" this week will make you smile. Waitress comes to the table "Hi you all ready to order."  Me: "You kidding I been waiting a year for this" I could go on and on about my breakfast choice but you've heard that before.  Today we'll focus on something else that the Lighthouse does really well.  They make their own strawberry preserves and serve it in a little container.  Take that hot buttered toast and dip it in there.  OMG it's pure heaven. We can't leave Sanibel without taking a few of jars home every year.  It's kinda become a tradition. Lighthouse Cafe "Beach Angel Approved&q
Read more

Soccer PaPa

Image
At the end of February, my life has changed.  No more 9 to 5 for me, every day is a vacation as retirement has officially kicked in!  My blog has been mainly devoted to our experiences on some small islands in southwest Florida, Sanibel and Captiva Island. While I hope to still visit and share more experiences from this magical place, I will be sharing other trips and experiences as we continue to navigate along Life's Highway.   Before, it seemed like I only wrote about the annual trip to that special place. My intentions were to share a bit of humor and to memorialize some of our precious memories and life's lessons we learned along the way.   Most recently, I have become a Soccer PaPa.  No, I don't drive a minivan, I'm not overly vocal when sitting in the stands, and I'm not jumping up to dispute the referees calls (although I have questioned the lack of a call from time to time).  My gosh, since when has soccer become wrestling at the Chase?    Two of our six gr
Read more

Welcome to Marathon

Image
The adventure continues as we head further south, down to the keys.  Home base this week will be Marathon.  On Monday, we have a trip planned to Dry Tortuga National Park.  That is pretty much the only thing that has a time commitment to it.  We're just going to let the week play out and see what each day brings us. We drove through Fort Myers Beach on our way to an overnight stop in Bonita Springs.  I think due to the higher concentration of houses and businesses on FMB the devastation was extreme.  We stayed in a house on the south end FMB back in 2019.  Below is a picture of that house taken in March of this year.  Bottom floor blown out, and what you don't see in this picture is the whole back of the house is gone. Beach house FMB March 2023 When we drove by, all that is left is an empty lot.  Property on FMB is selling for the same dollar evaluation post hurricane Ian as it was before hurricane Ian, house or no house.  There's no doubt that the future landscape of Fort
Read more

Superman & Tweety Bird

Image
Thursday morning it was time for more seafood omelet research.  We went to the Island Cow and I got a what?  answer: Seafood Omelet.  Just seeing if you've been paying attention.  The cow's omlete did have a pretty good amount of seafood but the crab meat was only shreds and there was more shrimp than anything.  There was also a watery consistency to the inside of the omelet that was most likely from not suffciently draining the seafood before adding it to the omlete. So ranking order so far IMO is: 1.  Hungry fisherman @  Lighthouse Cafe 2.  Crab & asparagus omelet @ Amy's Over Easy 3.  Loaded Seafood Omelet @ Island Cow On Thursday the high rollers came to Captiva.  I'm not referring to a group from vegas with money to burn, but mother nature rockin the waves in the gulf.  You know it's rough when you look down the beach as far as the eye can see and there is not more than a hand full of people in the water. We went into the water for about 2 minutes an
Read more

Hey Mike,Mike,Mike Hump Days are not allowed on vacation!

Image
So I have been a little behind in posting to the blog this year.  The time is flying by way too fast.  Wednesday's plan was a day at the beach.  I started off by getting a few shots of the sunrise from the dock.  Nothing like watching the world wake up in paradise.  I was then off to Baileys for some Doughsants.  This was another first for us.  We never heard of a doughsant before but thought what the heck lets give them a try.  I kind of envisioned the light airy texture of a croissant mixed with the glazed goodness of a doughnut. The folks at Baileys are so polite.  The lady at the Bakery counter told me this batch came out smaller than normal so they gave me double the amount for the same price! The outside was like I expected but there was some sort of filling inside a little like a cream cheese but with some sort of flavoring that was not sweet.  Sorry not a big fan of the doughsant   er Doughsants from Baileys We headed to the beach after breakfast the ocean was rolling in w
Read more

Boogie Board Beach Angels

Image
So Sunday started off with overcast skies, a quick thank-you to the man upstairs for giving us such a beautiful place to be, and breakfast at the Lighthouse Cafe.  Best seafood omelette on Sanibel hands down. When we got back we were in "Beach Mode".  Not Marshawn Lynch "Beast Mode" but Carol lets getting moving, time to go to the Beach Mode.  Since the skies were still overcast we weren't  in full Beach Mode which means we didn't take all the usual stuff.  For those of you that have been with us you know how much of the usual stuff we take! I would have to rate this as one of the best Beach Days for the Beach Angels that I can remember.  Our spot on the beach has a nice sandbar running  just out from the shore line and it made for Boogie Board heaven for the girls today. The Beach Angels 2011 The beach angels 2017 It doesn't seem like that long ago we would have to take them up after a couple hours for an afternoon nap.  Ok, that was
Read more