I think of all the places and things to do in this area, Sanibel Island has charmed me the most, and I will miss this when I go home.
I start the day at a new breakfast placed called the Island Cow, and it is just about as perfect a breakfast place as you can get (by my standards anyway). Great food, great cup of coffee (Starbucks) and great service. The place has that "Ben and Jerry's hippie" kind of feel to it. I order the open-face fritata, and have that served with home fries and toast.
I also notice something on the menu called the "Juan-Bo Special," named in honor of a couple of the restaurant's employees. This is 2 eggs, 2 pancakes, and choice or 2 sausage or bacon. In any other restaurant, this would simply be called the "2/2/2 Special" or "Two for You" for something like this. But here, menu items are named in honor of employees in lieu of pay, in the spirit of the Ben & Jerry egalitarian philosophy. Makes the help feel good, and doesn't cost the restaurant anything.
Anyway, the fritata is excellent, and I also want to try their pancakes (the waitress promises they are light and fluffy, not brick-like), so I order a short stack. Breakfast ends up costing $20, but it's worth it, and this will last me all day.
After that, I had over to Dolce Tesero to use their Internet, read, and continue ingesting caffeine. The owner of play has by now remembered me, and says, "Here, have something with your coffee," and gives me a free homemade chocolate croissant, so I drop a buck in his tip jar. I read for a while and catch up on the blog.
Next, it's over to Billy's Rental, where I get a beach cruiser for four hours. Billy's is having a majorly busy day (I think all the Fort Myers school kids are off this week for spring break), and I have to settle for one of their older bikes, but it works out fine.
My first stop is at the Shell Musuem, which is one of the island's more familiar attractions, but which I haven't made the time to visit yet, so today's the day. I pay the $9 admission, and have a look around at the displays, and have to say it was quite interesting. I didn't know, for example, that shells are generally regarded as the world's first currency, used by the Chinese from the 16th to 8th century BC. There are also many other interesting displays, including shells used as architecture (both as support materials, kind of like mixed into a cement) and decorative. And a display on the Calusa Indians (native to this region of Florida) who used shells in every conceivable way (they are also referred to as "The Shell Indians").
They also have displays of every conceivable shell creature, from the fossilized shells of now extinct species to the most common day barnacle and snail. I think my favorite is the Nautilus, which is not only beautiful, but elegantly designed. With its multiple chambers inside, which the creature can fill and empty with water to achieve almost any level of buoyancy it chooses, it is nature's own submarine and was surely the inspiration behind American inventor Robert Fulton's name for the mechanical submarine when he invented it in 1800.
From there, I bike to the Darling Nature Preserve and bike through it. This is such a nice ride; my only complaint is that the roadway is in sore need of resurfacing.
On the way back to Billy's Rentals, I stop at “Doc Ford’s” for the first time to check it out and to have a cold beer at the bar. (Welcome relief from all the biking!). I pause for a couple of minutes at the reception area to look at all the Randy Wayne White merchandise, including all of his "Doc Ford" novels, which now number 18 with the release of his latest installment, "Chasing Midnight."
At the bar, I am going over the beer menu, and I ask the bartender about a beer I’d never heard of before ... Kahlik. I mispronounce it, saying "KAY lik," but said I would like to try one. Before you know it, the guy sitting to my left says to the bartender ... “Jim, put that gentleman’s beer on my tab.” I look at the guy, puzzled, trying to figure out if I know him or something, but then he says to me: “It’s pronounced kah LEEK, and it’s from the Bahamas. I represent the distributor of this beer for this district, and we would like your first Kahlik to be on us. If you like it, we hope you will tell your friends.”
So how about that for being at the right place at the right time, AND choosing the right beer?!?!? I seem to be having a knack for getting freebies today ... first the croissant, and now the beer. So it's a good day!
(The beer was delicious, by the way, sort of in that happy “middle ground” between a lager and a pilsner.)
I return the bike, and decide again to have a little dinner on the island because the traffic is horrendous. I again go to Island Pizza, and order their small antipasto salad for $6.75 and have that with an ice water. At about 6:30, I head back to the condo and have a nice long shower.
I call the Big M casino cruise, to book a spot on the 10:30 a.m. cruise for tomorrow (Wednesday) and am informed they are sold out, so I reserve Thursday instead.
I watch "Biggest Loser" on NBC. Fortunately, the tie-in with "Fashion Star" is brief, and I only have to endure a few minutes with Jessica Simpson. We lose another contestant tonight, Emily, who was one of my favorites.
All in all, a lovey day today.
Expenses: breakfast, $20; coffee, $2; dinner $8. Total: $30
Bruce
No comments:
Post a Comment