We spent last week on vacation on Sanibel Island, FL. Since we knew Viv wouldn't handle a long road trip this year we wanted to find someplace easy to fly into. I did love Destin but it was a logistical nightmare to try and fly into from Iowa. We had a direct flight into Punta Gorda on Allegiant and about an hour drive to Sanibel Island. We really enjoyed our time on the island....Sanibel has a lot to offer! Looking out the plane window...
I found another condo to rent on VRBO.com. It was clean and comfortable and we had a nice ocean view from our screened in balcony.
We of course enjoyed a lot of beach time. The beach wasn't always very relaxing as we ended up having to chase Viv quite a bit (for the record, Nathan did most of the chasing). She wasn't as into the beach as one would like....I wasn't surprised as I knew most little kids aren't really fans of sand. By the end of the trip she was starting to get the hang of 'shelling'.
There were a few moments of relaxation on the beach...
She loved rinsing off after the beach...
Beach bums....
Sanibel is home to a variety of wildlife and we were privileged to see a lot of it! There were sea turtle nests everywhere on the beach...however, we never got to see one hatch :( I checked everyday!
I found this cool starfish at low tide one night walking on the sandbar.
Viv starting to get the hang of shelling...
Handing Dad a treasure...
We saw a variety of birds, sea creatures like snails, crabs, starfish, sand dollars, dolphins, manatees and tortoises.
Mom with her sand dollar find...and yes, we put anything that was still alive back into the water...sand dollar and starfish included.
Checking out the resident turtles in the lagoon at the resort...
Viv's favorite vacation time was spent at the pool. She loved dipping her cups into the water and pouring them back out again.
We spent one morning at Ding Darling Sanctuary. It's a large part of protected land on the island...home to many birds. My parents had been before during the winter and there are apparently more birds there during the winter months. There's also a shell museum on the island...but we didn't end up finding the time to go this trip.
Sanibel is a shellers paradise....the beaches are filled with them! There are many varieties as well. We had fun finding neat little treasures.
Our resort had a shell washing station and an identification board that was helpful for naming what you had found that day.
The weather was hot and humid our whole week there. The Gulf was super warm...like bath water and the pool wasn't much better. You never really felt like you got cooled off! Like most Florida afternoons a thunderstorm would form and move through. We really only got rained on twice but we enjoyed watching the weather over the water everyday.
The sunsets were amazing every night...
We drove north to Captiva Island two nights for dinner. Captiva is very similar to Sanibel and very quaint. We saw the manatees at a marina on Captiva...they come up to the shore every night to feed. There are no chain restaurants and neither island is commercialized at all. We had fantastic seafood and of course key lime pie!
On our way to dinner one evening...
Soaking up some last minute beach time...
