Summer Sanibel Sojourn: Sand, Shells, Sun & Sparklers - Update 7/5 About This Page:

[BettyBeBop]

Have a great trip!!!

[Colexis Mom]

Great pictures Amy! Glad the camera finally arrived! Have a magical time!!

[elisa1006]

So glad your camera came in!!!! Have a wonderful trip. Can't wait to hear all about it when you get back.

[duck addict]

Smart lady! test the camera before the trip

[OhToodles!]

I'm so happy the camera arrived in time. And the photos look great - very clear.
Have a fabulous time!

[sophierushmom]

Have a safe and great trip!!! Look forward to reading all about it.

[iamgrumpy]

So I finished packing the big stuff last night and was in bed before Midnight which for me is early since most nights I can’t fall asleep until 4 or 5am. But of course I was soo excited my body decided to get up at 4:38am. I couldn’t fall back asleep so I got up and finished packing, and getting things ready. I got ready, and then went onto the computer to wait for my mother’s alarm to go off and then get her moving since she tends to putter around in the morning and I had to pick up the rental car by 9am and it was already 7am! Come on Ma Hurry up!!!
I also had a bowl of cereal as I waited and then once she was up and somewhat ready to go get the car we left, it was about 8:15 by the time we were in the car on the way to drop off some trash before driving over to International Dr by Wet and Wild to pick up our car that would be our wheels for the trip. We made good time and were in the office by 8:45am. There was another lady in the office, she happened to be from Orange, Ct. and we discussed moving down here, what we thought about it, did we miss CT etc. We gave her tips on what to see and do in Cocoa Beach, and gave her directions on how to get there. She had booked her trip about 4 days ago, and they were having a rough time of it due to the lack of planning. She was nice though. Once she was done, Pierre helped us take care of the paperwork, I got a Chrysler Seabring Convertible and we were given the keys and told where to find our vehicle. Mom drove me over to the car, I got into the Convertible, the seat was all the way back and the seat back was all the way down looked like the last person drove while sleeping or something. I didn’t notice this before getting in and fell into the car it was quite comical, I put the top down and we played follow the leader back to the house.

Here is a photo of our Convertible... Taken in Fort Myers



Well I should have lead the way because MOM …NOT ME…got LOST!!! We ended up in Lockheed Martin’s compound and had to explain we made an error and they let us turn around. For once it wasn’t me who got us lost!

We got home, we loaded the car, mom took a quick shower since she skipped that to go get the car, and then we did one last trash pickup around the house before leaving and locking the door, and heading out for Fort Myers. We did stop to take out some cash at the ATM and then onto SR-417 to I-4 to Route 27, then onto so many other route numbers I couldn’t tell you all of them. But let me tell you this! If I ever EVER ever see another cow or orange grove I will scream! 17 miles on one road, no people, just cows, and more cows and a few orange trees. We stopped at Burger King for a quick snack for lunch and having left around 11am we were needing it by about 1pm.

On the way we did see Florida's Natural Orange Juice Factory and had to pull over to take a few photos...Tourists


We arrived at the hotel around 3pm and checked in.

We are staying at the Country Inn and Suites, it is a great hotel, the room is a good size, it’s a 1 bedroom suite with 2 queen size beds, we are near the elevator, and they give you free breakfast, cookies in the afternoon. If you ever come to this area would definitely say this a great hotel to stay in.

Here are a few shots of our hotel room nice if I do say so myself..






There are 2 closets, and that is a good thing since well we packed so much we actually had to leave the lawn chairs home as nothing else would fit in the car. The trunk had been completely full, and the back seat was stuffed with the rest of our stuff. Nope we are NOT light packers if we flew I'm sure we would have paid so much in over weight baggage fees to pay for at least 4 extra seats

At about 5:30 pm and we headed out to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things, and have dinner. Tonight we are going to Red Robin. Mom and I loved this place they have a location in CT that we went to a lot, but Orlando doesn’t seem to have one, and we found one here in Ft. Myers so we are going there for burgers, and strawberry lemonade YUM!! Dinner was absolutely delicious but trying to find it was absolutely hilarious since neither of us realized that the GPS unit wasn’t as up to date as we thought and well, the road we were going to was not in the GPS unit so good thing I wrote down somewhat what roads we needed were except we missed the first turn off so we had to make a U-Turn, well no U Turn allowed so we had to go about 2 miles the wrong way and make a course correction. But I had a bright spot in this, I got a phone call from a very special Passporter friend named Stephanie, who I got to meet and spend time with when her family was visiting WDW in Early June.

After having a very nice chat with Miss Stephanie, we were in like Flynn, found Red Robin Easy Peasy, and luckily a space was open right in front. We went inside, no wait what so ever. Our server was Ryan, he was originally from Melbourne, and we discussed why we thought Red Robin should open in Orlando, and he agreed. Mom had the Royal Red Robin Burger, and I had the Original Red Robin burger, the only differences are that Mom’s came with a Fried Egg on top and no Relish, and Mine had no Egg, and it had Relish on it. They both came with French Fries and we both had Freckled Lemonade which is Strawberry Lemonade. The Lemonade is delish and I didn’t even miss the soda tonight!! They put real sliced strawberries in the lemonade and well, after dinner its fun to fish the strawberries out and have dessert
Some shots of the restaurant, and our Meal...




And one of Red Robin... (the "real" red Robin appears on Tues/Thurs Evenings )



On the way back we did find a street that we think is named for our Big Papi (David Ortiz Red Sox) since well we are turning into another Dyan where everything reminds us of the Red Sox... Any who...




After Dinner, we headed out and stopped at Publix where we got beverages, and some snacks for the room, since we have a suite we wanted to have stuff to snack on at night. We headed back to hotel we made it back in no time, no getting lost and it only sprinkled a little bit.

Speaking of weather, today was partly sunny, and with sporadic spurts of rain. I am talking rain drive 2 miles down the road and bright sun kind of spurts of rain so nothing too bad and we did have the top down this morning and evening so it worked out!

We are just relaxing in the room watching the Devil wears Prada, I uploaded photos to my Computer and Smug Mug Account, I peeked on Facebook for a little while but didn’t want to use up too much internet time, plus I like this whole vacation idea and I intend on making full use of the disconnectedness of it all!

Well My friends that was our first day. Nothing over spectacularly exciting other then WE ARE ON VACATION and we didn’t get overly lost, We got to see lots of wildlife and we are on VACATION Yeah I could learn to love this!

Today we…..Drove to Fort Myers Florida and Had dinner at Red Robin
The Result was….Way too Many Cows, Too Country for us, but Dinner was FANTASTIC
The Best thing for today was…Getting to drive a convertible and getting to Fort Myers
The Worst thing for today was…. The Backroads we had to drive to get here
The Weather was Party Cloudly with some sporadic rain spurts
A Magical Moment… Checking in at the hotel, for the week, and being greeted with fresh cookies and a wonderful room! Glad we drove!!

[mcc0313]

Sounds like the trip is off to an amazing start...hope the rest just gets better and better.

[duck addict]

You get orange groves and and cows. I get rice fields (=lots of bugs on car and windshield) and peach and prune orchards

Glad all started well (except for Angela getting lost and your lousy gps )

[Wendyismyname]

Well well well, what can I say about all the cattle?? Did you get chicken or BEEF at Burger King?
How did the orange groves smell?? Sounds Heavenly to me!

Love, love, love the Country Inns and Suites hotels. glad you are enjoying that suite! It'll sleep 6--it's the kind we always get when we stay there. Those closets are huge too, so I'm sure you've got the room!

Where's the pictures of the beach? I need to see sand and waves!!

Enjoy your vacation girl! I'm happy you guys are able to finally get away!

[lauriep]

Hotel sounds perfect, car looks cool, seems like you're enjoying the new camera, great meal at Red Robin.... and you're on VACATION! It's gonna be great!

[chezp]

What a great surprise to get an update from you Amy - sounds like it's a great start to the trip.

[Kenny]

Great start, Amy!!! YOU'RE ON VACATION!!!

I think, however, that if cows and oranges are a problem... you moved to the wrong state!!

[lauren-roxy]

Great start Amy!!! Your room looks great!! We love Red Robin and just ate there on Saturday.

[KandJluvdisney]

great start amy
love the pics with your new camera
hope you have a lot of fun
hurry back with more please