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

[Colexis Mom]

What a great start Amy!! More please!!

[DrDolphin]

Sounds like a wonderful beginning to your vacation!

[iamgrumpy]

Originally Posted by mcc0313

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

Thanks so much! We are definitely having fun!!!

Originally Posted by 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 )

LOL Glad there were no bugs here, I hate those more then I hate cows at the moment I'm such a Bugphobic person.

Originally Posted by 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!

Funny... and BEEF and now I'm kicking myself for not taking photos of the two signs I saw with the "Beef its whats for dinner" I saw by the cattle farms Dang it... too bad we are driving home a different way or i'd take the photo for ya

Beach Photos are coming up soon... I mean we are doing a Beach vacation... Patience Grasshopper...wait... Patience Wendy.. remember I don't like bugs.. but I do like friends

Originally Posted by 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!

Thanks I love my new camera, but having issues learning all the different settings...more then I am used to!! But I love it!

Originally Posted by chezp

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

Glad I could surprise someone

Originally Posted by 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!!

No Right State, wrong road I love my Big Sprawling Urban Jungle that is Orlando....not the countryside known as not Orlando

Originally Posted by lauren-roxy

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

I'm trying to talk Mom into eating there again this trip...we shall see!

Originally Posted by KandJluvdisney

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

Thanks and we are having tons of fun!

Originally Posted by Colexis Mom

What a great start Amy!! More please!!

Thanks Marnie!

Originally Posted by DrDolphin

Sounds like a wonderful beginning to your vacation!

Yes a great beginning, just to figure out how to slow it down so it won't end so quickly!

[iamgrumpy]

We set a wake up call for 7:30 this morning, while we are on vacation we also want to make sure to take advantage of the FREE Breakfast we get by staying here. So we were up and ready pretty much before 9am by the time we finally stopped hitting the snooze button We are on vacation after all that snooze button is allowed!

We headed downstairs they had a pretty nice set up which I'll take a photo of tomorrow since I didn't bring my camera with us down stairs. They had Make your Own Waffles, Omelets, cereal, yogurt, bagels, danish, all the fixings, Orange, Cranberry, Apple, Fruit Juices, Coffee, Tea, Hot Cocoa and they also had Fresh Fruit. Quite a selection for a free (Yes FREE) breakfast! Two thumbs up for this Perk!!!

After our breakfast we went back upstairs go the final touches on our day bags completed we were ready to head to the beach. We loaded into the convertible and headed towards the Sanibel Causeway. The Causeway is a set of 3 bridges that connect Sanibel/Captiva to the Mainland. It goes Bridge, patch of land, Bridge, Patch of Land, Bridge, and finally Sanibel/Captiva Islands.

On each patch of land is enough space for public restrooms (think rest area kind) and a few parking spaces to stop and take photos and fish etc. I would guess no more then 15 cars on each side of the high way.

Here is a shot of us coming over the first bridge looking towards Sanibel...


Well, I tend to have a lead foot so we missed the pull off for the first parking area, so we went over the 2nd bridge and stopped on the Middle Patch of land. We wanted to collect a few shells, take some photos and well we are on Vacation we can stop if we wanna

Here is a couple shots we took at the parking area,before looking for shells...




We got a good handful of shells, and then headed onto Sanibel, we wanted to go to the beach we stopped at in 2008 and it was pretty easy to find since there is really 1 road that you follow. We found Bowman's Beach Rd. That was the road we wanted since we were going to Bowman's Beach and right at the end is the Parking area. For those who have Handicap Parking Placards parking at Bowman's Beach is free. Others have to pay I want to say $2 for a certain amount of time 2 hours maybe I could be wrong since we don't pay for it.

Here are some shots of our drive onto the Island...

(we stopped to buy a Sand Pail and Shovel)


Got Traffic?




We found a shady parking space, and gathered the beach towels, the Beach Blanket, the Beach Umbrella, the Sand Pail and Shovel (hey we are on vacation...so what if that is a kids toy ) our beach bag with all our goodies and ourselves! Whew we didn't forget anything... Oh wait what about Beach Chairs...Phooey! Tomorrow we will stop at Wal-Mart...We were supposed to buy those yesterday but skipped it and forgot before heading to Sanibel! Oooo well...sitting on the ground won't kill us!

We stayed about 2 hours, It was overcast today, but you could tell rain was heading in from the Gulf so we packed up and started the trek back to the car. The only issue with Bowman's Beach is that it is a very very very long walk from the parking lot to the beach but it is a very beautiful walk through the nature reserve and nicely kept. But we were pooped by the time we got back to the car.

We decided to find something for lunch, we were debating between Dairy Queen Brazier on Sanibel or driving back to Fort Myers and having Sonic. Now if anyone knows me, I am a Sonic Fan, I could eat there every day, but Mom is a DQ fanatic and would eat there every day... So we ended eating at....



Schnapper's Hots which has the best Hot Dogs and we are so glad we both were so hungry we couldn't wait to get to DQ or Sonic! We decided we will be eating there again before we go home. Mom had a Hot dog with mustard, onions, and Relish. (Breathmint for dessert ) and I had the Original Schnapper which had mustard, relish, onions, and a Pickle Spear on the top. It was amazingly good!

After Schnappers the sky opened up and rain came. We drove back to the hotel where we relaxed for a bit, and just cooled off from the heat as it was very warm today.

About 5pm we left for dinner, we headed back over to Sanibel as we were planning to dine at Island Cow which we have heard good things about. The restaurant is quite cute, colorful chairs outside, very festive and very fun. We were seated right away inside (they have an outside area as well) and our waitress was not memerable enough to remember her name but she wasn't horrible. Just busy, so we didn't see her too often just enough.

Mom had a Fried Clams Basket and I had a Fried Scallops basket, both came with Coleslaw, French Fries and 2 hushpuppies each. They give you corn bread muffins for everyone. I had a Sprite, and Mom had a Draft Root Beer.

I Didn't get photos of our meals we were hungry so I realized too late about photos to get decent shots. But I did get some shots of the restaurant.









After Dinner, was noticed the sun was out, and since we weren't ready to head back we went for a drive out to Captiva which is smaller then Captiva but more Ritzy in terms of buildings.

Here are a few shots we took in Captiva, and on the drive around.
Watching the Sun Set on Captiva Beach


Ok its time to go


Sun is starting to set


The Drive back to the hotel...




Ma Slow down!


Yeah That was my attempt at a self portrait!

Yep here is the next Danica Patrick


Heading back to Fort Myers


The Bridge to Where?


Well the hotel is pretty much 1 mile from this bridge and we got back and relaxed in the room before we go to bed. Tomorrow our plans will be to go to Wal-Mart, drive around and tour Fort Myers more, and then Dinner is on Sanibel Island

For more photos since I take so Many and can only share so few here without over loading the bandwith of the Boards You can view my photos on my smugmug site: Click here for more photos

Today we... Went to Sanibel Island
The Result was... Outstanding, lots of fun, a little rain, lots of laughter
The Best thing today was...Schnapper's Hots
The worst thing today was...nothing really but rain wasn't coool
The weather, overcast, with a little rain, then sunny in the evening.
A Magical Moment...Trying a totally random lunch spot and realizing that you LOVE it and having a really odd food choice there and not being afraid to try it this is a big thing for someone as PICKY as me!! So definitely Magic!

That is Day Two My friends! See you hopefully tomorrow for Day 3

[chezp]

What a wonderfully relaxing day!

[lauren-roxy]

What a great time you and your mom are having!!! Great photos!!!

[lauriep]

Just looked at all the great photos on Smugmug--even the parking area is beautiful! And hidden-Mickey muffins. Love the shots of you and Angela behind the wheel. I had no idea you'd be doing a live report and am loving it.

[Colexis Mom]

Another great day Amy!!

[Wendyismyname]

Fantastic! Absolutely beautiful!

[Kenny]

A great, relaxing, VACATION day!!! Looks like you two had a nice day. Cool sunset pictures.

[goofysdtr]

Sounds like a great time so far! Looking forward to hearing more.

[OhToodles!]

Great updates Amy! Glad you get there safely - even if it was boring. What a nice surprise to get a phone call from Stefanie.
The two places you ate at today look fun, but the Red Robin burger from the other day had my mouth watering.

[iamgrumpy]

So we were up at about 8am but I had a headache and was not moving as quickly today so we didn't get to breakfast until about 9:30am. No biggie since breakfast was until 10am luckily. They had a different selection then yesterday with Hard Boiled Eggs and Bacon instead of the Omelets. So Mom had a bagel and cream cheese with a hard boiled egg and coffee. I had the same thing except I had Orange Juice and a small bowl of Cereal (Frosted Flakes) as well.

I took a few photos but they came out too blurry for my likes I'll try again tomorrow. But they do a nice spread and I have been very pleased with the selections.

After breakfast we came back upstairs, and got ready to go, we decided we would go to Wal-Mart to find a beach chair, and a condolence card as my friend Victoria's father passed away and I wanted to send her some good thoughts. Then we would head into Fort Myer's Beach and then onto Bonita Springs to see if we could find my grandparents old house. They both passed away and we wanted to see what became of their house.

So once we were ready we headed out, it was overcast today and rain was forcasted for this evening but since it wasn't raining we put the top down and enjoyed the scenery. Wal-Mart is Wal-Mart and not much to talk about we found our purchases and were on our way.

There is a road called San Carlos Blvd, and if you follow it you get to Fort Myers Beach and you can take it all the way to Bonita Springs along the beach areas and past some pretty expensive homes, condos, and Resorts and it was great to see all of these to get a feel of the area.

Here are some shots of the drive...

Getting close to the Bridge over to Ft. Myers Beach


Over the Bridge into Ft. Myers Beach..


Some of the shops in Ft. Myers Beach


Ft. Myer's answer to Disney's Segway Tour...


A State park facilities in Ft. Myers Beach




A Gift Shop in Ft. Myers


A Restaurant and Resort with a "Tiki" theme...


Now on the other side of these buildings is the Gulf of Mexico and we were driving around 35-40 miles per hour when taking these photos to say I am pleased with my new camera is an understatement I LOVE my new camera!

We got into Bonita Springs and saw some very expensive housing, and we hadn't even gone into Naples where I hear the properties are a lot more "grand" and "expensive" But here are a few of the houses we saw...











We made our way into the non beach area and found my grandparents housing community its a 55+ community and is gated so we ummm "were lost" and needed "directions back to the beach" and so we were let in so they could help us with directions and on the way out we just had to swing around and take a look at their old home. It was sold, and looked well kept which was nice. But there is bad history with the whole will and assets and my grandfather's step kids but at least it is making another family happy and that is ok for me.

Here is a shot of their house...



We headed out and stopped for lunch at Subway and then headed back to Our hotel took about an hour with the stop for lunch to get back there. We took a nap and relaxed and luckily got back before the rain started. But it hasn't stopped since so we ordered a pizza and made it a eat in night and just watched tv, and relaxed.

Tomorrow we are hoping to make it over to Sanibel for Lunch at the Bubble Room. and then we will probably have dinner at Sonic, and back to Sanibel for Sunset if the rain holds off but everything is weather dependant and how we feel so nothing is set in stone!

Again if you want to see more photos from today or from Day 1 or 2 please visit my Smug Mug Account because I have taken too many to post them all on Passporter Iamgrumpy's Smugmug Gallery

Today we... Took a road trip to Bonita Springs
The result was... Great to see the ritzy homes and my grandparents old home
The Best thing today was... Driving with the Top Down and singing with the Radio like no one could hear us!
The Worst thing today... was realizing how much I miss my Grandfathers (both passed on)
A Magical Moment... Playing Thelma and Louise and sneaking in to see my grandparents home, and getting away with it!

I hope you enjoyed today, it was very relaxing and I hope to be able to share tomorrow with you as well! I'm a Photographaholic!

[chezp]

What a beautiful area.

[Kenny]

AHHHHH!! Got the top down... the shades on... groovin' to the tunes on the radio!!