Wednesday Visit to Miceli's Restaurant

Today we headed over the causeway, on our way to Cape Coral for a dentist appointment. I am totally excited because it is almost, beautiful cloud time of year. :) The water was very dark blue today in the bay. Lots of fishermen out on the shoreline, as well as in boats. I also saw a few sun worshipers, laying there frying. Just a quick mention again, about much less crowded traffic conditions. :)

Causeway, also known to some folks, as 'The Sad Lane' as they are leaving the island.













This is my favorite Ft Myers route to travel, McGregor Blvd or State Road 867. I love how it's lined with tall Royal Palms and flowering bushes.


After the appointment in Cape Coral, we decided to take a ride toward Pine Island and Matlacha Pass to see our friend Trey. He used to be a chef at Tween Waters on Captiva, now he is the executive chef at Miceli's Restaurant. The restaurant is quite large. It seats over 300 and has dock space and outdoor dining. Best of all; 99 cent draft beers, the food and service are excellent! We used to go to eat at Miceli's a lot when they were located on San Carlos, just before the bridge leading to Ft Myers Beach. We enjoyed it then, but this is a much larger and better location for them. They have also expanded their menu. Like Trey told us, "If you can't find something you like on the menu, you aren't hungry". :) Needless to say, we found things we certainly liked! For me, it was Grouper strips. The sauce was not the usual tartar, it was a little different and was just a little spicy. I liked it better than any I've ever had.









This is a perfect time of year for out door dining. It just doesn't get any better!





If you are out boating, take a run up Pine Island Sound and stop in at Miceli's. You'll be glad you did! Be sure to say Hey to Trey!

After a great meal, we drove on over Matlacha Pass and on to Pine Island.





We just drove a short distance before heading back, but I was most impressed by the bright colored buildings. These are only a small sampling.











Going back across the pass.

Passing Miceli's.

I was surprised to see new roads and so much open space in this area.

Back across to Ft Myers.

Tree lined McGregor once again.

Entertained by wind surfers on the return trip across the causeway. It was a wonderful afternoon. :)

Saturday Sanibel Thrill!

Wow....I went with friends today at 1:00 PM, out on the Sanibel Thriller! We had a great time. It was a perfect warm, sunny day. The water was just a little choppy, although the boat gave us a pretty smooth ride; it was a little difficult to get good photos. We had high hopes of seeing dolphins, and believe me, we were NOT disappointed!

There was nearly a full load of people on board and we were all looking forward to a fun trip as we pulled out of the Sanibel Marina. Our Captain today was Captain JR Ireland and the narration was done by Captain Elizabeth Ireland.

We were quickly underway and flying around the tip of the island, with the Light House in full view. You will be able to tell from some of the videos that you have to be prepared for wind. :-) And, I should also mention the possibility of some water spray toward the back of the boat, depending on the wind direction etc. We had some good laughs over that.

It was interesting seeing the island by boat from the gulf side, which I had never done before. I had only been on the bay side by boat. The narration was very well done and included lots of interesting, historical information. It was also easily heard with speakers located on the side by each of the seats.

We were skimming along, looking at the resorts, condos and scenery, when Captain JR spotted a pod of dolphin. He circled back to try enticing them to follow in our wake. Soon we had four or five separate pods of dolphin following and jumping in the boats wake. They put on quite a show for a while. When we lost them, the Captain circled back and each time more would follow. I think they finally got tired. :-) They told us that it is uncommon to see that many pods at one time. That was great fun! They were so close and at times jumped very high.

We soon reached the area of Bowman's Beach, which looked very crowded today. Next we went past Blind Pass. You could see the black pipes very well, stretched out across the white sandy beach, that are coming from the dredging area. There is a markable difference in the width of the beach where the re-nourishment is being done.

From there we went along Captiva, viewing the beautiful homes along the beach and on past South Seas. We went a little way up on the gulf side of North Captiva to the area where the eye of Hurricane Charlie cut a narrow pass. That pass has since filled with sand again, but that part of the island is very narrow and still treeless. We could actually see over to the bay side where other boats were passing by.

We went back to cut through Redfish Pass (A great fishing area) over to the bay side and past South Seas' Land's End, the new swimming pools and then headed out further away from shore. The rest of the way seemed to fly by, as we looked at the scenery and laughed over friends getting sprayed with water. We went under the power lines that go to Sanibel from Pine Island. Then we spotted the Sanibel Causeway, which we passed under.

It had been nearly 2 hours since we left the marina, but all too soon, here we were again. Captain JR deserved a large tip because he had to have used up every bit of patience he has, circling around, time and time again to get the dolphins to follow us. Captain Elizabeth should also be a recipient for her knowledgeable narration. They certainly make a great team.

I know I had a wonderful time, and will be happy to recommend this trip around the islands to my family and friends. I've been on a couple of Dolphin Cruises and none compare to this. I plan to go again myself. :-) WHAT FUN!!!

People were already waiting when we arrived.

Everyone getting situated in the very comfortable seats.
On the way out of the Sanibel Marina.
After the first dolphin, I could tell that I wasn't fast enough to do very well with my cellphone camera.
Looking for more dolphin. :-)
The crowd of people at Bowman's Beach.
Wake behind the boat while going faster.
View of Blind Pass.
Looking back at Redfish Pass and the Northern tip of Captiva Island on the left and the Southern tip of North Captiva on the right.
South Seas Land's End.
South Seas' new pool area.

The folks in the back corner were getting a lot of spray on the way back.
Power line from Pine Island to Sanibel.
Nearing the Sanibel Causeway.
Going back into the Sanibel Marina.


We took a lot of video, but because of not wanting to block the view for others, we didn't get the actual view we had of dolphins jumping on both sides at once. That was totally awesome! I hope these will give you an idea of the fun we and the dolphins had. :-) At the beginning of one of the videos you will see a young dolphin with a bigger one. If you look just in front of the wake, you can see several dolphin swimming just under the water.

You may prefer to click on one of the videos to take you to YouTube where you can watch them all in full screen HD. Next best thing to being there.

Grocery Shopping Monday

This evening there was loud thunder for over an hour, with the sun shining. When it was time to leave for some grocery shopping, it began to sprinkle rain, but the sun continued to shine. Seemed like a perfect time to do shopping if it's going to rain anyway. I felt sure there would be beautiful clouds to look at on the way. I was right! It started raining more just as we left the island.

Made a run to Burger King for the fast food craving; after that was taken care of, went on to Publix. (You never want to go there when you're hungry. I've done that before.)


Clouds over lighthouse area.


View between lighthouse and Ft Myers Beach.


Looking toward Ft Myers Beach


Looking over San Carlos Bay to Sanibel Harbour Resort near the east end of the causeway. This resort is not on Sanibel.


The clouds were spectacular all the way.




The drive back across the causeway was beautiful again. Going over, the clouds had been white and dark blue, now the sun was setting and the red glow was changing the colors rapidly. The first thing I noticed was a rainbow over the Punta Rassa area. I just kept looking from one side of the causeway to the other and snapping pictures. Wow, I had a lot of them to sort through because I could only put a few on the blog. It was hard deciding which ones to use. I hope you enjoy seeing the cloud photos as much as I enjoyed taking them.

This is a look back at Sanibel Harbour Resort again.

The sun going down over Sanibel.

Rainbow over Punta Rassa.

Sunset over Sanibel, looking across San Carlos bay.

View over the east end of Sanibel.



Looking back toward east end of Sanibel.


This video is also the sunset over Sanibel taken from the Causeway Spoil island #2 looking over San Carlos Bay and Pine Island Sound.