Sanibel Warming

Yesterday it was still a little cool, but I went to West Gulf Drive access 2.  It was windy and a little too chilly for me to stay long. 

Today was much warmer and was up a little over 70.  The sunshine felt hot if you were out of the wind.  A perfect day for bike riding and spending time on the beach.  There were bicycles everywhere on the bike paths, which included a lot of family groups.  The island is extra congested this week and I'm sure those who came from the north are happy with the warm temperature. 

 This afternoon I went back to resident access 1 on West Gulf Drive.  There were a lot more people out today.

The water was very calm and

there were some shells.

I don't remember if I mentioned that I got a cute little, 2 1/2 month old, Lhasa Apso puppy for Christmas. He's been keeping me pretty busy.  He went to the beach with me today because I didn't mind if he got dirty, because he was getting a bath when we got back home.  He found everything strange and had to check it out. 

He liked the shells, but I think he was most happy to find a tiny little girl walking on the beach who wanted to play with him for a while.  After she went on her way, he sat down and rested for a while.

We had a fun time at the beach!  Not so much with the bath later!

Winter Cold Reaches Sanibel

I wanted to watch the sunset this evening with the Grand kids, even though it was getting pretty chilly.  The wind was fierce and cold!  Sorry folks up north, I know you have much worse weather.

There was pretty heavy cloud cover so we didn't see much sunset, but what we did see was pretty.  The wind was blowing the water so hard that big pieces of foam were blowing through the air.

 We went to Lighthouse Beach to see how things looked there.  As we drove into the parking area, we could see there was a lot of beach wrack all over the place!  The birds were having a great time, and so were some people that were brave enough to wade through ankle deep water to search for something they considered treasures. 

We were not dressed appropriately for the occasion and I have been sick with sinus problems, but before we knew what had happened we were walking through the muck, picking up things along the way.  The kids were having fun looking at a lot of things they had never seen on the beach before.

Lots and lots of pen shells, big cockles, paper figs, sailor ears, urchins, starfish, and other things mixed in.  We were only there for about 15 to 20 minutes, but we had a great time.

Christmas Eve on Sanibel

I'm behind again, as usual.  It's been very busy here with the two Grands.  We are having a wonderful time. 

I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas day.

On Christmas Eve day we went to spend some time on the beach.  The pictures below were taken at resident access 3 on West Gulf Drive.  It was warm, around 70 degrees, but felt much warmer in the sun.

There were people in bathing suits and when I made a stop at Pointe Santo, I saw around a dozen people having a great time in the pool.  The Gulf water is a little too chilly for me to walk in now. But if I saw some good shells rolling around, I would be in there in a flash. :)

I picked up a few shells, but nothing great.

As I was leaving the beach, I started looking in the high tide line and found a couple of nice starfish and a few sea urchins that were already dried up and ready for the taking. :)

I think the pretty landscaping at access 3 looks quite festive for the holiday.

We took the two Grand Children to Tween Waters for a Christmas Eve dinner and to see the lighting.

There's nothing like a Christmas Eve sunset

before dinner.

We ended our meal with some home made peppermint ice cream.

After dinner we drove around Captiva to look at the pretty Christmas lights.

Know where this is?

Ho Ho Ho!