Today is moving day, but only from unit 210 to unit 207 for our 2nd week at Caribbean Beach Club, so it didn't take too long. Then we walked down to the strip mall for coffee and a scone. After lunch, I dropped Linda off at the grocery store, and I went to get the car washed. (finally got rid of all that IL dirt!) Late afternoon we took a short walk north along the beach. Beautiful sunset again.
Sunday - Weather: high 81, low 57. Mostly sunny. Wind S 6 mph.
Easy morning, then we went to the Miromar Mall in the afternoon, since we are going to Sands for supper at Stonybrook Resort, which is just across the street. (more about the supper later) We used to go to this mall when we were staying in the 5th wheel, and we like it partly because it has pretty flowers and several fountains. Also, it has a Starbucks!! Of course, we had coffee and a scone. The Sands are renting a villa next door (literally) to the Ahearns, and they were down here over Thanksgiving, so they decided to have a turkey dinner with all the usual trimmings in January. Great meal, and great company, inculding the Ahearns, the Haltermans and the Drakes from Grundy County, and several others for a total of 13 people. We enjoyed it a lot, and the Sands say they will make this a yearly tradition.
Monday - Weather: high 83, low 59. Mostly sunny. Wind SSE 6 mph. Really getting warm now. Forecast for F.M.Beach is for days just like this until Friday, then still 78, but with 30% chance of rain.
Today we went to Sanibel Island for the day. We had lunch at the Island Cow restaurant, one of our favorites - it's unique, and has a great menu. I had 13 oysters-on-the-half-shell with a side of red beans and rice. Linda had fried shrimp with cole slaw, fries, and hush puppies. All was very good, and not expensive. Then we went to 'Ding' Darling Preserve, where you can ride through a large area bordering on the bay and see lots of waterbirds. This is where we usually see some Roseate Spoonbills, but not this year! Not near as many birds as normal. We next rode north to Captiva Island, where there are some beautiful homes, and at the north end we stopped for ice cream at a small shop. A unique area, lots of neat vegetation, and kind of crowded because it's small - the island is narrow at this end. Lots of traffic coming home, but we have seen it worse.
AT SANIBEL ISLAND
A flock of white pelicans. They winter here, but spend summer mostly in Canada, so we see them in IL when they are migrating. Brown pelicans stay south.
Same. They are large, with a 9 ft. wingspan - brown's are 7 ft. Unlike the brown, they do not dive from on high to catch fish. We don't see whites on the beaches.
Juvenile yellow-crowned night heron, hiding in the mangroves. We almost didn't see him.
Same. Notice the red eye, very thick bill.
Alligator at the edge of the road.
White ibis and two reddish egrets. The one in the foreground looks headless at first!
White ibis roosting in the mangroves. Left one looks one-legged and headless!
Another flock of white pelicans, doing some preening. To get an idea of size, notice the snowy egrets and cormorant with them.
The Sanibel Island toll bridge from the causeway.
They were building it when we first came to FL about 2000.
Looking back at Sanibel lighthouse from the causeway.
Looking at Ft. Myers Beach from the causeway.
Zoomed picture from the causeway of the big bridge going from Ft. Myers on the left
to Ft. Myers Beach on the right.
No comments:
Post a Comment