day 2 - 1.16
our little hotel includes breakfast with the room....fresh squeezed oj, coffee, tea, some breads, waffles, fresh fruit....so we ate outside in the little courtyard. we then headed out to run a couple of errands in Ft. Myers....& truth be told...a little shopping was done too.
we made it back to the beach early afternoon & picnicked in the sunshine, chatted & just enjoyed visiting & lounging on the beach....all the while being “stalked” & screeched at by one of the many seagulls pacing for food.
once the sun began to set, the evening cooled & we went back inside the hotel...for awhile. here’s a few photos post-sunset & of the night’s full moon
the photo below on the left, is the view of our hotel from the beach...the other photo is taken looking up towards the top of the palm trees...just goofing around with the camera!
we were restless, so we drove up the island to Jacaranda’s...we’d been told they had live music every night. the food was average, the service not great (we all had a good laugh about our server), the music was really nice, and as always, the company was perfect & we enjoyed the evening.
tired & ready for a little quiet time, we all turned in & called it a night.
day 3 - 1.17
the rain was headed towards Sanibel today...& all south of the island too. so we decided to take a little road trip up to Venice...about an hour north of the island.
before we left however, I took a short walk down the beach while everyone else was getting ready.
once we got to Venice, we spent about 27 seconds on the beach. while it was perfect in the fact that no one else was on the beach....we had the place almost to ourselves...the wind was blowing , the rain spitting & the temps droppings made for less than perfect conditions...which of course is why no one was there…bummer
except for the birds…
we drove away from the beach & headed downtown to find lunch...& explore the town. we ate a great little tea room called the Upper Crust bakery & cafe…yummy.
after lunch, we walked the few blocks of Venice’s downtown, going in & out of shops. the rain only came in spits, & it warmed up a little...but not much.
shopping seems to have been our biggest activity the past two days...with the highest marks going to Jill, then Sherri.....Jan showed a lot of restraint, but still came in third,....& I get the lowest marks...I bought batteries!
we drove back to Sanibel & went exploring Captiva Island (although it was dark by now) & ended up back for a light dinner & more mojitos at Doc Ford’s....we know good food when we find it!
tomorrow is going to be an early day...we need to leave by 7am....heading north to Orlando.