Life's a Beach

I was excited about waking up early on this morning because we were going to get to spend the day with our friends, Kelly and Pat. So, I got up around 7am, and Linda and I went for a walk through a small portion of the neighborhood. It was evident, even as early as it was, that it was going to be a scorcher that day.

Justin and I left the condo around 9am so that we would have a little bit of extra time to do a few side trips on the way down to Ft. Myers. First, we stopped off at Gilchrist Park in Punta Gorda. This was a park that my parents used to take me to as a child when we would visit my grandparents. I didn’t really recognize much of it except for maybe the Fisherman’s Wharf area in the distance. But it was apparent that the park has probably changed multiple times over the past 20 years due to weather or just general renovations. The grounds were beautiful and well-kept with a playground, tennis courts, a covered gazebo on the water, an old pier that went out into the bay and a monument dedicated to Ponce de Leon. Even though we were only there for a few minutes, I really enjoyed the experience.

After driving about another 4 miles, we reached the former neighborhood of my Grandma and Grandpa Palmier. When we got to their street and house, I recognized it immediately. You could tell that it had been refinished since Hurricane Charley in 2004 because the siding and everything looked almost like new. One thing that was really surprising to me was how close together the homes were and how narrow the streets were. As a child, your perspective is soooo different. But once again, it was really cool to recognize familiarities from the past as we drove through the neighborhood.

A little after 11am, we arrived at Kelly’s place within a gated community of Ft. Myers called Gateway Golf and Country Club. We spent a good 30 minutes suiting up, putting on sunscreen and packing a picnic lunch. Then, we were off in Kelly’s parents’ red convertible to head to the beaches on Captiva Island.

The drive took a healthy hour because we were about 30 minutes from the islands, and then it took another 30 minutes to drive through Sanibel and Captiva. Although, I was sweating bullets and my hair had blown into several nasty knots, it was nice to have that fresh ocean air and to look at all of the huge vacation homes along the way. At the very edge of Captiva, where the road literally dead ends, was the beach. We had to wait a good 15 minutes for a parking spot because space was minimal, but once we got parked we were on the beach within 5 minutes.

We set up camp, and as soon as we were finished, everyone agreed that it was time to cool-off in the water. Plus, the sand was unbearably hot!! It was nothing like the cool sand at Siesta Key. Every time we went from our blanket to the water or vice versa, we had to run like it was a 50-yard dash. The water was great and there were some wonderful shelling opportunities. But, once again, little to no waves!! I’m starting to get annoyed with this. I think it’s pretty common in the Gulf to have calm waters, so I guess you have to be really lucky to get surf above 1 – 2 feet. Not this time…

Also, pretty early on while we were out in the water (about chest deep), I stepped on something slimy. When I said something, Justin started to come over to me and on the way, he stepped on something slimy as well. Then, Pat was like, “I didn’t say anything, but I think I stepped on something too.” Within about 10 seconds of this conversation, all of sudden we all see a big, dark, flat, sea creature come to the surface about 10 feet away and start swimming parallel to the coast. As it passed people, you’d see them start to freak out because it was hard to tell exactly what it was. The ultimate consensus ended up being that it was a manatee. From what I’ve heard they are docile and harmless, so I’m going to stick with that hypothesis.

As the afternoon trickled by, we basically ate lunch and spent most of the rest of the time in the water. We ended up taking one of our umbrellas from the shore and staking it into the sand out in the water, so we could stay cool and get some relief from the sun at the same time. I also dragged a lounge chair down to the edge of the water so I could relax and allow the waves to lap at my feet.

Finally around 4:30pm, I could see that some rain was starting to move in from the southeast, so I told everyone we should wrap it up. On the way back through Sanibel, we stopped at a little souvenir shop, She Sells Sea Shells so Pat could get a gift for his niece and nephew. Most of the stuff they had there was junk, but a lot of the shells were cool. Right when we got back to the car, the rain started. So, up went the top, and we headed inland towards Ft. Myers Beach.

As we got closer to our destination to hit the rooftop restaurant of the Lani-Kai motel, the lightning display was incredible. It’s not very often that you get to see that around Cincinnati because of all the trees and buildings. But along the coast, pretty much all you do see is the sky and the water line, so it’s fantastic. Once we got up to the roof, it was perfect because all of the rain was well enough off the coast that we were able to sit outside. For dinner, we split a few appetizers of peel ‘n’ eat shrimp and boiled clams. Then, I kept it simple by having a pizza, which I later managed to spill my Hurricane on (didn’t bother keeping the soggy leftovers).

We continued to hang out until sunset, hoping that things would clear enough to catch a good one. But, it just wasn’t meant to be on this night because the storm clouds didn’t want to let up. So, we headed back to Kelly’s place to get our car so we could get back to Sarasota for the night. After a quick dip in Kelly’s pool to rinse off that yucky sand, we hopped in my TSX and proceeded north. We finally got back to Jerry and Linda’s around 10:45pm and after another full day of activity, I got ready for bed. The next two days consist of my favorite place on earth: Disney World. Can’t wait!