Sanibel Island 2013 Day 3

I was eagerly anticipating day 3 of our trip because that's the day we were meeting our friend Captain Brian.  If you're not familiar with him, then go check out his blog.  Brian is a licensed Captain, and is extremely knowledgeable about the land and sea around Sanibel.  He can customize a boat trip for you whether it's shelling, birding, exploring or dolphin watching that you're interested in doing.

8:00 am found us at McCarhty's Marina, and Brian was already loading up his boat.

This guy sat and watched us as we climbed aboard and set out for our day of exploring...

On our way out towards Cayo Costa we passed this recent ship wreck...

We had placed a request to find shells and see wildlife, leaving it up to Capt. Brian to plot our course.  First up was a huge pod of dolphin and we had a great time sitting and photographing them as they swam and played around us.

We also spied a flock of pelicans and shore birds...

Brain in his signature straw hat!

We really enjoyed seeing this large specimen...

By lunchtime we were starving, so we headed over to Tarpon Bay Lodge for lunch.  It felt good to get out of the sun for awhile.   We enjoyed the casual atmosphere, the decorations and especially the delicious food and excellent conversation. 

But we weren't finished shelling yet - Brian had a few more spots in mind before we called it a day.

 

I think we had a pretty good haul, don't you?  Chablis found both of those gorgeous whelks, a broken scotch bonnet and a couple of angel wings.  I found a lot of sand dollars and some shiny olives.  We also gathered a good bunch of whelks, cockles, venus sunrays and one perfect nutmeg.

I'll be honest with you - our day with Capt. Brian was the highlight of our trip.  We had a fun and relaxing day, full of surprises, shells, animal life and good food.  It just doesn't get any better than that.  Thank you Brian for planning a perfect day for us!

If you're in the Ft. Myers area and you are looking for a great day on the water, I suggest you give Capt. Brian a call.

If you missed my post about the cool Sanibel Island table we made, then go back and check it out.  I'm linking it up as an entry at Homespun Happenings.