shells | Jackieinpdx's Blog

A sunshiny, shimmery, stingray, Sanibel Beach morning

Posted on June 13, 2008 by jackieinpdx

After the horrible thunder and lightning storm yesterday afternoon & evening I woke to a beautiful, clear, crisp blue sky. I decided to get to the beach early today to see if I could find some good shells after yesterday’s storm.

The Sunshine Island Inn provides these little cart thingys, umbrellas, beach chairs and shelling nets. I walked over to the beach and it was pretty empty at 8:45 AM. I set up my stuff and began looking for shells. I can’t stoop over for too long before my back begins to ache.

If you enlarge this photo you can see the skyline of Ft. Myers off in the distance.

There were a lot of shells but once again today I found nothing out of the ordinary.

Got to keep the beach safe for the touri$t$. She so didn’t like me taking her photo.

After some shelling and reading I decided it was time to get into the water. I know from reading the shelling information in my room that you should shuffle your feet to prod out shells as well as frighten off stingrays beneath the sand. Also the book I am reading calls it the Sanibel stingray shuffle.

I got about waist deep in the water and there pop up right in front of me three stingrays each about 12 – 15 inches across. Next thing I know there are a couple of more just next to my right foot. OK, now I am freaked. I stood there for a while and splashed myself to cool off then I shuffled back out of the water.

I read for awhile then decided that the rest of my day would be spent back at the pool. So I packed up my stuff and walked “home”.

It is now just after 4:30 and today’s storm is rolling in. Hopefully it would be as long or as loud as yesterday’s.

Filed under: beaches, Travel, vacations | Tagged: beach, shells, stingrays | 2 Comments »

Sanibel Island – Beach visit & dinner with one of my first Isla friends

Posted on June 11, 2008 by jackieinpdx

The morning started out cloudy and humid. The manager at the cottages said that it was not supposed to rain. So around 11:15 I decided to walk to the beach. The beach path is about 200 yards away then just short stroll from there. It is a very long beach. I think I must have been about in the center of the beach at least to where it curves and you can’t see it anymore. There were people all over bending down looking for shells.

No fantastic shells found today but you can see that shells are scattered all over the beach.

It was not that spectacular to begin with. Then the clouds begin blowing away and the sky was a beautiful blue.

Here a few of the “just ordinary” shells I picked up today. The gold shiny one I thought was a penny and I wanted to pick it up for good luck.

One of my first Isla friends is picking me up for dinner tonight. I first met Jane in November of 2001. I haven’t seen Jane in about 2 years. She was leaving Isla the day after I arrived so we just had dinner to say hola and adios.Jane hasn’t been back to Isla since she moved to Ft. Myers about 1 1/2 years ago. We are going to Captiva Island to The Bubble Room. According to Jean the manager at the Sunshine Island Inn “you either love The Bubble Room or hate it.” Oh, well if nothing else I get to visit with Jane and see some scenery along the way to the restaurant.

Here’s what I took photos of on the way back from Capitva.This is a house not a courthouse or hotel as it may seem. Crap! Can you imagine the money being spent? It looks like it has about an 8 car tandem garage as well as what will be a huge landscaped yard.

Then down the road a bit there is a similar house being built. The money on these two islands is unbelievable! And most of the huge mansion type homes are 2nd or 3rd homes not full time residences.

Filed under: beaches, friends, Travel, vacations | Tagged: beach, shells | 1 Comment »

Summer vacation is planned – Sanibel Island, FL

Posted on May 16, 2008 by jackieinpdx

Next month I will be going to Sanibel Island, FL for a week of vacation. I did a lot of research to find just the right place for me to stay. I do not want to hassle with renting a car. Once I narrowed it down to about 5 accommodations I called them and asked these questions.
1. How far to restaurants?
2. Is there a grocery type store nearby?
3. How far is the beach (if the place wasn’t on the beach)

The last place I called Island Sunshine Inn I got their answering machine. Not a minute later my phone rang with the caller id showing the inn I had just called. It was Jean the inn’s manager apologizing for missing my call. Wow! Now that really impressed me. So we talked for about 10 minutes about the inn, nearby restaurants, stores and did I really need a car. She told me that many of their guests are single women who do just as I plan to and have a great time.

And what exactly do I plan on doing you ask?

Read by the pool, go shelling, eat some good local seafood, walk on the beach and just relax.

I am looking forward to seeing this