We have been wanting to see Sanibel Island for a long time, and it is one of the items on our bucket list. But the weatherman has had different ideas. The best beach weather day in the last week happen be Saturday, with temps in the low 80's and not much wind. Of course, Saturday means lots of families would be there with their children.
Well, not only were the kids there, there were uncles, aunts, grandparents, second cousins twice removed, and just about on the entire west coast of Florida was there! We arrived on the island around 11:30 am and immediately headed to the lighthouse on the far southwest side of the island. We really like lighthouses, and I was anxious to get a couple of pictures.
The causeway bridge requires a $6 toll, so we used our Sun Pass. No problem, Everything is going along smoothly. Parking is $2/hour and there were only a few parking spots, all of which were occupied and a line of several cars waiting for someone to leave. That's ok. We are flexible and figured we could see the lighthouse later, and headed north to the next beach.
Traffic on the island was very congested and moving at a snails pace. In fact, a couple of turtles passed us on the way to the next beach! We arrived there just in time to see the turtles making their way into the gulf waters. They didn't even have to pay for parking!
This parking lot was also full, so we kept our poise and headed up the island to the next beach.
We checked every dang beach along the island until we ran out of island! Now we are at Captiva Island. By this time we are starving, frustrated, and my bladder was signing "Release Me Now!" So, we stopped and relieved our bladders, and ate our picnic lunch while sitting in the car in front of a small strip mall as there was no tables or place to enjoy a picnic.
After lunch, we started back down the island again stopping at each beach along the way. We finally reached Bowman's Beach and Kitty was driving. She skillfully maneuvered the car in front of the line of cars waiting for a spot, and Bingo! We had us a parking spot!! People were so nice and friendly, they kept waving at us and told us to pick a finger! I am not sure what that means, but it must be some type of Florida greeting!! Ha!
By now it's two fifteen and are we both in a great mood after driving around this crazy island for over an hour and half (there are no straight roads going up and down the darn island), having turtles beat us to the beach, eating lunch in the car instead of some pristine gulf view park, and peeing in a chemical toilet that was obviously out of chemicals, desperately needed to be emptied, and had a floor that felt like it was over a Florida sink hole! I was sure I was going to end up calling 911 from a pile of poop!
But, having said all that, after two minutes on this beautiful beach with gazillions of shells, we forgot all about that stuff and spent our time walking the beach, or just sitting in our beach chairs enjoying life.
On our way from the parking lot to the beach, we crossed over this green river, and we're hoping the gulf doesn't look like this!
The gulf waters looked great! People to the north!
People to the south.
And beach bums everywhere!
After all is said and done, we had a great time. But, please take this advice from an old beach bum, don't go to Sanibel on a Saturday unless the weather is bad!
My one and only visit to Sanibel & Captiva occurred some 45 years ago when I flew into its small private airstrip with our Cessna Skyhawk. In those days I used a 50cc Honda scooter which disassembled into two parts for our ground transportation. It’s top speed, with two people, was just a bit north of 40 MPH but it did take us to where we needed to go. It allowed us to traverse both of those islands which were so desolate and uninhabited that we couldn’t understand their attraction. There was a bridge to the mainland, but there was no toll and very little traffic on the day that we visited. I guess that times..they are a-changing.
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