Tuesday, March 29, Day 25, Sanibel Island, Captiva Island

We started our day visiting Sanibel Island, a barrier island.

We then went to the Sanibel Moorings botanical garden. This is a large motel with walkways which are between the individual units with the beach in front of it and across the street is more of their units along the dock side.

This garden is different because of it not being an area that is within a garden setting but a commercial business.

Throughout these units are well signed plants and trees.

As we were going through the dockside area we stopped in front of a tree, large in size, few leaves and looking like it was on its last leg. A lady, Bette, came to her porch and started telling us about the Shaving Brush Tree. She was a semi-tour leader for this area. The blossom within 20 minutes goes from a bud to flower. She brought out some pictures and I asked if I could take a picture of her with the tree and Shirleen. She was a delight to visit with!




Hybrid Hibiscus

 

Orchids



We then drove up the line; this is a nicely designed island. There are no semaphores, no buildings over 45 feet – for a two story with a park under area. The designed quietness is a pleasure to experience, I can see why this becomes an island retreat. Nice quiet beaches, seashell hunters abound.

We ate at Doc Ford’s Rum Bar and Grill with a couple of rum drinks, Shirleen’s Sanibel Sunset with Blackbeard spiced rum and coconut Jack rum with a splash of amaretto, fresh squeezed Florida orange juice, pineapple juice and grenadine, I Doc’s special with lime, sugar and mint – refreshing.

The spinach salad was loaded with bleu cheese, spiced pecan, granny smith apples, caramelized onions and a smoked bacon dressing and I finally had a Cuban sandwich, ham, roast pork, Swiss cheese and a pickle on a  pressed and warmed bun.

I was wearing my Banff shirt and an older couple walked over to us and asked if we lived there? I said visited, he said they were married 55 years ago and had honeymooned there, both had a smile on their face as I am sure many happy memories flooded forth.

Touring the “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge was next on the agenda. We take the tram again was the way to go for us. Andrew our tour leader, closing in on 80, and a pleasure to be with,


Andrew with hat

  was a birder himself, he was able to tell us what birds we were looking at, history of the island and its original people - the native Calusa Indians who were the first-known residents of the island. The interesting point about these Indians was that they were all over 6 foot tall with some 7 footers. Famous explorer Juan Ponce de Leon five foot four inches found these giants with their boat 4 foot wide, 30 to 40 feet long, big enough to carry these big Indians. He was also believed to have discovered Sanibel Island – which he named “Santa Isybella” after Queen Isabella -- in 1513. We went to a boardwalk where had it not rained the day before we could have seen the mangroves exude the salt from its end leaf area, some were able to find some salt left on some of the leaves.

This is what a new mangrove looks like, it looks like a nut, the root is coming out of the bottom and will detach itself from the branch and can float for a year beofre it will die if it does not to\ake root.The mangroves are cleaned by little crabs that look like spiders and the size of a quarter. Before the 2004 hurricane, the trees were crawling with these, but they have not rebounded as fast as one would expect. Again the three types of mangroves, black, red and white, the leaves produced the colors for the Indian clothing and paintings.

Again we were able to see an alligator, a couple feet off the tram. An interesting point was a group of white pelicans with black underwings which were out in the lowlands. These are supposed to migrated by this time, but were determined to be young ones liking the warm weather.

These pelicans can be sighted in Minnesota. I have spotted them high in the sky travelling in a tight formation.

We have an hour before the Seashell museum closes, off to it. This museum is really nice, not like the one postings ago. The displays are done well, here are some pictures.



Sea Shell Art

 We thought we would take in the sunset – known as the greenflash. This is where at the last minute of the sunset when it just about sinks into the gulf there is a wavelength that flashes green. The gulf having no islands in the way, allow one to see this flash, if it is not a red sunset or cloudy, like ours. Far north on Captiva Island was where we decided to try and catch it. We have time to eat at the Greenflash Restaurant. Shirleen had some nice delicate coconut shrimp, cauliflower and broccoli with a au gratin potato; I a pan seared scallop with a light lime sauce with spinach and spaetzles – a different form, looked like the were sliced thin like a coin and boiled in water then fried in butter.

Shirleen mailed the grand daughters, Danielle and Abby, in the northern most mailbox on Captiva Island.

As we could not get to the only parking lot at the tip of Captiva we went to the church by the Sea and its cemetery. Well no parking permitted, so we visited the old cemetery,

this one goes back to the turn of the century to recent burials. Marked with seashells even on some of the old graves indicates visitors make an effort to remember.

Got to our room at 8:30pm, pooped out so I waited to write-up the days activities. A great day!! jerr