It is really windy today! It was blowing 30 knots when we looked out the window in the morning. It’s going to be too windy to fish, but we’ll find something else to do. We walked to the beach first thing (after drinking my coffee) and it looked like we were on the Atlantic side with the waves roaring in, not typical of the Gulf at all. When we got back, Eric fixed me some French toast from our leftover baguette. Since it was my birthday, he wanted to fix me something special. 🙂 We didn’t have any syrup but I had bought some strawberry-margarita jelly from the Farmer’s Market and after thinning it, it became a good syrup. Quite good actually, we’ll have to remember that trick.
There are some big storms going to come ashore later this morning so our plans are changing and we’re going sight-seeing. Since we’re so close to Sanibel Island on this trip, we’re driving down to check it out. I went there many, many years ago on a trip with Tom & Beverly when we stayed on the island. I think I may have driven on the island another time since I moved to Florida, but it was a long time ago.
By the time we got there, it was lunch time. We found a place called ‘The Island Cow’ which had good reviews. Thank goodness for the internet. It’s so easy to find places to eat and also check out the reviews to read about others’ experiences at restaurants. While many places on the island sounded interesting, we wanted a more ‘simple’ (read cheap) place to eat.
They had an extensive menu and all kinds of things you could order. We started with fried pickles (Frickles). They tasted great but we had WAY too many for the two of us.
We both wanted something different than seafood. I ordered BBQ pulled pork and Eric ordered a cheeseburger. Both were okay, but not anything that I would go back for. It was mostly about the atmosphere. They had a very ‘eclectic’ decorating style – perfect for an island beach vacation restaurant.
There was seating outside, but with the weather being so dicey we sat inside. By the time we left, it had started raining and they pulled their plastic tarps down for protection. Don’t know if that really protected them later (15+ minutes) as the rain and wind were blowing sideways and lightening & thunder were all around.
We drove almost to the end of the Captive Island (during the height of the storm) when it was coming ashore. We got only so far and then finally turned around. Really – no need to drive further in this driving rain. We passed the Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge so we thought we would wait out the storm and see their exhibits. It was pretty interesting. He was originally from Des Moine, IA and became a big conservationalist for his time in the 1930s. H was a cartoonist for the Des Moine paper and many of his illustrations lamented the disappearing habitat for wildlife. His major contribution was to create a Duck stamp where sales went toward purchase and creation of wildlife areas for migratory duck.
On a former trip, I remembered going on a drive through their wildlife acerage and and as we left, we saw the entrance and decided to make the drive. It won’t be anything that we have to do again. Seeing Black Point drive near Titusville puts this to shame.
By the time we got back to Casey Key, the rain had stopped (but not the wind) and the sun was out. We walked to the beach and picked up a few shells before heading back. Lots of people were out walking since the rain had finally stopped. Eric kept looking for shark teeth but couldn’t find any. We needed Connor (2nd Godson) and his eagle eyes to find some.
We also walked past some markers for turtle nests. I didn’t realize they were in this area. We always saw them on SGI and saw lots of communication about keeping lights off during the hatching season.
Most of the evening was spent sitting outside on our porch and talking to our neighbors youngest son (Blayton), a bright young kid. Reminds me of Connor – very polite, respectful and entertaining. His family is from Polk county and he is proud to share that he is the 5th generation that has been visiting this key. His older brother (Hunter) is upstairs on the phone. Their parents are fishing – crazy. They didn’t leave the house until after 8pm and are still fishing when I went to bed at 11pm. Eric showed me their cooler of fish the next morning – lots of snapper and another redfish. Today was
Darden Travels 