We Bid a Fond Farewell to Sanibel Island

We're sitting in the airport at Fort Myers, Florida, waiting for a flight back to Philadelphia and home. We've just spent a pleasant four days on Sanibel Island, just west of here.

We stayed at an older beachfront resort called The Island Inn. It's a small and very laid back sort of place. The main activity here was none at all. We sat on the beach, we collected seashells, and did some very minor shopping. I threw in one exploratory bike ride out to the east end of the island to Lighthouse Point.

A word about seashells and beach-combing. Sanibel Island, and its neighbor Captiva, are awash in shells. I imagine they formed from shoals of shells deposited by currents unique to the area.

Sanibel is a quiet spot. The beach was not crowded and many of the homes, rentals and resorts seemed slightly populated. The Island Inn folks told us they were full, however, and said that the weeks around Easter are often the last big push of their tourist season.

Soon it will get too warm here and most of the folks who winter in Sanibel will head north. Probably some of them will be in Lewes this summer.

Fishing and Birds

I found this Osprey hanging out on the rooftop of a small building about halfway out the Naples Fishing Pier, in Florida, last month. He(?) was hooked, with a fishing lure hanging from his beak. It didn't seem to have affected him too much, though he seemed very tame and was letting a few of the regulars feed him by tossing small bait fish out onto the deck for him to swoop down and grab. Otherwise, he flew around the pier a few times and then perched, watching things, on top of a fake owl.

There were plenty of gulls hanging around and a fair number of pelicans in the water below looking for fish as much as the retirees and tourists on the pier.

And there were birds that I didn't recognize. The fellow at right was swooping in close. I think he was after the fish that the anglers were offering to the Osprey.

Second Golf Game of 2008

I almost broke 100! I scored a 102 on the par-72 course at the Naples Beach Hotel and Golf Club in Florida. Had I not had a complete blow-up on the par-5 14th, I might have done it.

It turns out that using the 5-iron, which looks remarkably like the sand wedge when you are flustered (5 vs. S) , in a green-side bunker is a bad idea. When you've already hit a tree, the water hazard, and a half-submerged log that bounced your ball right back at you, on the same hole, these things happen.

I was playing in my walking sneakers and with rental clubs (very nice clubs), but had a wonderful time (except for the 15th) I played the first nine with a dad teaching his 15-year old the game. I played the second nine with an older gent who plays that course regularly and either his son or son-in-law. These guys were playing very well and they helped me raise my game a bit, I think.

The course was built in the late 1920s and has been redesigned a few times since. It is mature and tree-lined and, though flat, fairly challenging. And nice folks, too.

And... We're Back

We're back in Delaware after most of the last week at the Naples Beach Hotel and Golf Club, in Florida.

We flew down to Tampa early on Monday and drove down to Naples from there. We stayed in a vintage hotel on the beach in Naples. We swam, we sunned, and we burned a bit. We visited the zoo and the everglades. I golfed. Th e girls shopped. We ate at a variety of restaurants, from a classic burger joint to a relatively fancy place.

I took about 380 photos, and Colleen took a few more. So far, I've only posted a few from the Naples Zoo and the beach view from the Naples posted at right. I'll get through the rest and post more in the next few days.

I liked Naples, but it struck me as very like the Rehoboth area on steroids. They have very large developments in Florida and the sheer volume of shopping malls and restaurants on the main drag was daunting.

But the weather is so nice. And the Golf of Mexico shows many moods. And I got to spend five days disconnected from the world and with my wife and children. I like that.