Sanibel Isand 2013 Day 2

Day 2 of our Sanibel Island dream vacation dawned bright and sunny, so we packed up our beach bags and headed down to Blind Pass.  Almost immediately we saw Pam from ILoveShelling on her way to a tennis date, but she was nice enough to stop by and chat for awhile.  We were so busy talking that I forgot to take a photo - sorry Pam!  But it was so nice to see you and get to visit for awhile.

Pam pointed out how much the beach had shifted since the last time we were there.  I've never seen those pilings before as they are usually buried underneath several feet of sand.

I was quite intrigued by this barnacle encrusted oar that washed ashore.  I really wanted to take it home with me.  It was pretty cool looking.

Since our stroll down the beach didn't net us any great shells, we turned back and headed for the back side of the bridge.  Several fisherman were standing atop and casting their lines out into the channel.  To my horror, a pelican flew underneath the bridge just a fisherman cast his line and the hook snagged the pelican in the wing.  For about 15 minutes there was utter confusion as fisherman ran across the bridge, leaped over the side and worked to free the frightened bird.  They finally succeeded and the pelican immediately flew off.  It was quite a sight to see, but I have to say that the fisherman were very concerned about the pelican and worked quickly and efficiently to free him.

After the excitement died down I snuck off and found a geocache hidden nearby.  Can you see it?

I just loved the delicate flowers on this plant....

I have to say that I was sorely disappointed in the shelling here.  Usually this is a pretty good spot for us.  We waded in the channel, scooped sand and even dug a few holes, but didn't find many keeper shells at all.  Finally we gave up and just sun bathed for awhile.

By noon we were hungry so we chowed down on some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and headed back to our beach, where we went for a super long walk eastwards.  This year was really the year for pelicans.  I don't believe I've ever seen so many here...

This cutie just caught a fish and I snapped the photo mid swallow....

Exhausted, we finally made it back to the hotel where we showered and changed for dinner...

On the way through our parking lot, we ran into this turtle charging across the lot like he meant business....

Then we charged over to The Timbers, which is my favorite restaurant on the island and we had stuffed shrimp for dinner...

After dinner we took a leisurely stroll up our beach, and watched as the sun slowly sank. 

Chablis snapped this photo of me and I think it's one of my favorite pictures from our trip...

 

See you tomorrow, which was my personal favorite day on our vacation!

Sanibel Island 2013 Day 1

If you ever want to visit a true island paradise, then you have to go to Sanibel Island, Florida.  The place is magical and just being there does wonders for my soul.

Less than half an hour ride from the airport, we approach the toll bridge...

and eagerly look forward to our first glimpse of the famous Sanibel lighthouse...

This year we chose to stay at Shalimar Resort.  I have to say that this place was one of the cleanest places we've ever stayed on the island and everyone who works here was extremely nice.

 

 

 

We also had one of the best views we've ever had.  We chose to stay in the motel and we booked the second floor, end room, which is practically on the beach....

 

You don't get much closer to the beach than this - what a view!

 

 

 

 

 

We wasted no time jumping into our swimsuits and hitting the beach.  I don't know about you but I can't wait to kick off my flip flops and get my toes in the sand.  This year the water's edge was littered with pen shells, but thankfully, no red tide to be found.

 

After a stroll along the beach, deep breaths of fresh salty air and a quick dip, we showered and headed out to Captiva for dinner.  This year we gave RC Otters restaurant a try.  We've never eaten there before, but it quickly landed on our list of must-do restaurants.  Decorated in shades of purple and blue, the funky restaurant has a musician sitting outside playing the guitar and singing beach type music.  A friendly waiter, a pleasant atmosphere and delicious crab cakes hit the spot!  We will definitely be back.

 

You know me....  I have to find a geocache no matter where we go, so after dinner I dragged Chablis down the street to find a geocache.  Hidden just off the main street, it was behind a curtain of brush and looked to be up this tree.  Hmmm....  a girls gotta do, what a girls gotta do!

 

 

 



Success!  I even found a TB inside that I snagged to take back to Chicago.  It was from the United Kingdom and had never been to the states, so I think I'll take it around to visit some caches before releasing it again.

After embarrassing Chablis with my tree climbing antics, we headed down the road to the public parking lot and decided to walk out to Red Fish Pass to watch the sunset.  It was a perfect evening to be out on the beach.  No bugs for a change, light breeze, very few people and a killer sunset.

 

 

 

After sunset we stopped at The Bubble Room and got a piece of their Orange Crunch Cake to take back to the room for dessert.  Sorry, no photo of the cake as we devoured it before I thought to take a photo.  Take my word for it tho - it was YUMMY!!

 

Come back tomorrow for day 2.





Cache Crazy Tuesday 5-21-13

Join me over at Cache Crazy to hear about some great geocaches we did in Rockford, Illinois.  See you there!

PapaNonny Hit 1700 Geocaches

Congrats to the PapaNonny Team on hitting 1700 geocache finds.   We made it a family affair on Mother's Day, and hit a couple of really nice geocaches which I'll tell you about in a few days.  But in the meantime, way to go mom and dad!!

American Bass Anglers

One of Louie's passions is bass fishing and he likes to fish many of the tournament tours on Kentucky Lake.  He does pretty well and finishes in the money from time to time.  Two weeks ago he fished in the American Bass Anglers Weekend Series and came in fifth place.....

We decided to ride over for the weigh in and there were quite a few people there.  The day had started out cold and rainy.  By weigh in time the rain had stopped, but it was still quite chilly out.

This is our buddy Charlie.  He was all smug and posing for the camera cuz he thought he had more weight in fish than Louie.  Guess again Charlie!

Louie and his co-angler Ben getting their fish out of the live wells....

Standing in line for weigh in.  The fish are kept in water so they don't die.  After they are weighed they are placed in a holding tank and then released back into the lake.

Here's Louie smirking because he just found out his 5 fish weighed more than Charlie's 5 fish did.  LOL!  They have a running bet each tournament on who gets the most weight.

The tournament allows a total of 5 bass per angler.  The person with the most total weight in fish wins the tournament.  The winner of this tournament was David Gnewikow with 5 fish weighing 26 lbs. and for that he received a check for $ 2890.00.   Louie ended up getting 5 fish that weighed 21.29 lbs.   He was happy with his 5th place finish and pleased to get a check.

I don't remember what Charlie's total weight was, but it was enough that he received a check too.  Way to go Charlie!  There's a lot of friendly competition going on out there between Louie and Charlie.  I think it keeps both of them on their toes.

Ok Louie, here's to finishing a little higher up in the next one and to beating Charlie again!