It is Thursday Jan. 28 as I write this, the second day in a row of wet, soggy weather. Most of the streets have big ponds of water on them and we have standing water on most of our little back yard, with the water coming right to the edge of the lanai. Guess it's a good day to update the blog.
Monday Jan. 18 -- Julie Back to Wisconsin
I cooked breakfast for sis-in-law Julie, Dawn and myself. Dawn and I drove Julie to the airport by
8:30. We parted and did a big grocery run. First to Sun Harvest Citrus for oranges (the Honey Bells are in!), then to Publix for deli, then to Walmart for the bulk of the groceries. We got some good news via email today that our lease application for Summerlin Trace has been approved by the home owner's association there. Hooray! Julie texted from the airport to say her flight was delayed three hours. Figures. Must remind myself not to to use Frontier Airline again next time I book. But, then, what airline is good these days? I made chicken quesadillas for dinner.
Tues. Jan. 19 -- Manatees
Today we wanted to see manatees at the park adjacent to the power plant. We figured there would be a bunch due to the latest snap of cold weather. But first lunch at a new place (for us) called The
Hut, located within the historic Peace Tropical Garden. The gardens are a tourist destination in themselves, founded over 80 years ago by Edwin Peace as a tribute to his Tahitian princess bride, whom he brought along to southwest Florida. His botanical experiments brought him a degree of fame, and he even consulted with Thomas Edison on his experiments with tropical plants in Edison's efforts to find a plant-based substitute for rubber. The gardens are still maintained today, with boardwalks and shell walkways. It is a favored spot for weddings, and this restaurant serves as a reception venue in addition to being a stand-alone restaurant that has gotten pretty good reviews on the Internet. Dawn had a burger and fries while I had a patter of fresh (not frozen) shrimp with fries and a cup of delicious sea food chowder.
Then to the park where we saw about 50 manatees, owing to the cold weather. They come into this inlet strictly to warm up; there is no food source for them in here. We stayed for almost 2 hours because there was so much manatee activity. There was an apparent manatee rescue underway, and we stayed to watch the rescue boat (loaded with about 8 people) head out the Orange River channel toward the Caloosahatchee River to see if they might return with a manatee. But we ran out of time and had to go. We checked the local news that night for word of a rescue, but there was none. I guess not every attempt to rescue an injured manatee ends in success.
For dinner we had lasagna, and I cooked the noodles in the "Fasta Pasta" cooker. Friend Amy, I'm sure making good use of this; I cook pasta or noodles in it probably twice a week.
Thursday Jan 21 -- Sanibel Island
A big day today as we are spending it on Sanibel. We want to find a couple of different beaches today, as we have only gone to Bowmans' Beach. We started by going to Lighthouse Beach, at the far eastern edge of the island on Periwinkle Way. We also stopped to look at the actual lighthouse, built in the late 1800s and still operational. Lighthouse Beach runs right into Public Beach (that's the actual name of it) so we got to walk along two of the "named" beaches on Sanibel Island. That only leaves Tarpon Bay and Gulfside (also called Algier's) Beaches that we haven't been to yet.
From there we went to Island Pizza which has about the best pizza that I've found around these parts. We did a 12-inch "Island Special" which is basically a deluxe with 3 meats and fresh veggies. It was delicious but we should have gotten a 10-inch; it was more pizza than we needed, but then isn't that always the way with pizza?
From there to the Ding Darling nature preserve where we have been a couple times already. The highlight of this drive was spotting an alligator (about a 5-footer) lazing in one of the coves. We got out to view. It sat still for about 5 minutes, and we left. As we drove away in the car, it made a lung for some prey in the water. Wished we had stayed for 30 seconds more! This is as close to an alligator as we have ever come.
After this we continued along San-Cap road to Captiva and had a drink each at the Key Lime Grill and played Gin Rummy until about 5 p.m. at which time the "Bubble Room" opened for dinner. This is a very fun restaurant with toys and collectibles all over the walls and those bubble Xmas tree lights all over the place, hence the name. I had grouper while Dawn had a soup/salad/dessert combo. The highlights were the desserts, which we took back to the apartment for later consumption. Dawn chose the red velvet cake with cream cheese icing, while I went with their award winning orange crunch cake.
We departed for the mainland about 6:30 and made good time to the causeway and over to Fort Myers. We ate some of the dessert, but saved about half for later. Extreme yumminess! This was a busy day and we both fell asleep quickly. Amazing what a day of fresh air and walking will do.
Friday Jan. 22 -- Rain Day
No farmer's market or Fleamasters today on account of heavy rain ... a good inch or more. The rest of the weekend was quiet, too, as we are saving energy and money for the overnight cruise to Key West on Monday.
Rain here too for the past two days. Not too warm either: 60s for highs. Still, we walk two miles on the beach daily, except for today due to constant rain. And we swim when the sun comes out. Our pool is in an alcove out of the wind, facing south. Temps of 60 mean 70 by the pool, and it is heated to 84 degrees.
ReplyDeleteA cold and sinus infection has slowed me down. On Azithromyocin now and on the mend.
Careful around those alligators, a five-footer might come after you. They're fearless. Also, you must start doing restaurant and bar reviews for some rag. We have the Gulfport Gabber here, although there are no reviews. Probably a bad review would lose an advertiser.
Tomorrow we settle up on a new Chev Traverse 2LT. We upgraded from our 2012 Traverse LS--a "plain Jane." The new one provides backup assist with on-coming traffic views, blind-spot alerts in the mirrors, heated mirrors for up North, built in Navigation (but that's $9.99 a month after 3 months). I'll see if I can subscribe for the three months we travel. Also has a trailer package, heated leather seats (oh those are PVC leather seats--poly vinyl chloride; i.e., Uniroyal Naugahyde made in Stoughton). We wanted the safety stuff for parking lots and for the blind-spots (left and right) on the interstate highways. You'll hardly know we traded. It's the same color.