Photo Journal: January 4 - 9, 2014 - Stranded on Captiva Island, Florida

“Stranded” on Captiva Island, Florida

January 4 – 9 , 2014

For the second year in a row, right after New Year’s, we have left the Christmas mess in our house behind and flown down for a long weekend in Florida. Ricardo has an annual executive team meeting and he rents a large house on Captiva Island for a week. The team only needs the house for part of the week, so we use it (and pay for part of it) for the long weekend. This year, we wanted also to take our cousin and exchange student, Luisa down to show her some of the warm part of the US before she had to return to Germany. It was also the week before final exams for the girls, so we thought they could have some quiet time to relax and study (which didn't happen until the flights home).

We all left Iowa one freezing cold winter’s day and flew on a non-stop flight to St Pete’s small airport in Florida. We loved arriving and walking off the outside stairs of the airplane into warm air. We ran to the bathrooms in the baggage area and changed into shorts and t-shirts from our carry-on bags. After we picked up our luggage, we walked outside to feel the balmy air. Even Florida’s winter is warmer than any weather we have in January in Iowa.

We rented a car and drove to the Lazy Lobster near Sarasota to meet my father’s sister, my Aunt Em and her husband, Uncle Bill for dinner. We love to see them and visiting in a restaurant on our way south is an easy way for them to see all six of us. Aunt Em has recently had back surgery and seemed like a new person; she was energetic and vibrant. We have a fun meal and even after flying, the boys were in good spirits. We had another hour or two to drive after dinner to pick up groceries and make our way south to Fort Myers and then west to Sanibel and then Captiva Island.

We stayed at a spacious, modern house situated just over the bridge from Sanibel on the narrow part of the island where it is only wide enough for the road and a house with land on either side of the road. We are on the Bay side or east side of the road. Down our long drive and across the main road, there is a path and the lovely Gulf beach.

The Captiva beach is one long stretch of sand and we rarely see more than a handful of other people on it.

It is remote, private and quiet and we love to be there.

It’s also the home of many native shore birds and birds of prey. Our part of the island looks uninhabited when we gaze out to the Bay;

all we can see are pelicans, hawks, bald eagles, blue herons, and various sea-loving birds.

We were going to stay here Saturday through Tuesday, but on Monday the extremely cold weather hit in Chicago and the east coast and our flights back to Iowa were cancelled. So, we were “stranded” on Captiva Island for two extra days. If one is going to be stranded anywhere, Captiva is a great place to be stranded. We also got the cold weather; it did get down to 45F one night and we had to turn the heat on in the house. But temperatures in the 60s in the tropics are still better than 20 below in Iowa and it was nice to be here.

We visited our favorite ice cream shop on Sanibel almost daily, Poco Loco, which is near Jerry’s Market in a small mall. One afternoon when it was too cold to swim, we hung around a set of restaurants and shops on Captiva at the only four way stop in “town” on the island.