Next Stop, Chautauqua

Hayden In Costume

We are both up early because we want to be on the road, so we get back to the lake at a decent hour. And the girls are off to school by 7:30, then Jill to work, so there is no sense in hanging around.  We have been away for two weeks, so Chautauqua sounds good, even with snow and  a frozen lake.  The morning here is clear skies, amazing after of weekend of rain and sleet.  We never saw the sun, nor went outside with the girls, other than to a restaurant or dance performance.

Yesterday, as I mentioned was eaten up by the dance competition in a high school about 45 minutes from Bristow.  We were all up early Jill, Evie, and Hayden were off by 9:30, Drew, Halle and I following at 10:15.  Hayden was in four dances but they were spaced out in such a way that you had hours between dances.  So, we watched her dance at 11:00, and she did not have to be back on stage again until 4:00.  So we all drove to an upscale mall, and decided to eat at a chain called Firebirds Wood Fired Grill, really modern and interesting decor inside, and by the time we left it was half filled with parents of other dancers I assume.  The food was quite good, though most of us had soup and salad, with great homemade bread.  The girls had toasted cheese, with a couple of sides, though they were not very hungry.

Dinner at Firebirds

Drew and I dropped the girls off about 2:00 and because we had another two hours, we did some browsing at REI, then went to the nearest BW3, had a Sam Adams Seasonal, and watched the first half of the Michigan State/UConn game.  We got back to the auditorium in time to watch the presentation of trophies; they are given half way through the competition and at the end.  At least fifty to a hundred trophies and ribbons were given out for various dance groups.  Hayden did not get back on the dance floor until about 4:30, and it lasted about five minutes.  She would not be on stage for another hour and a half so Drew and I decided to take Halle home because she was worn out from sitting around.  We did not mind.  Hayden danced well but there were many kids on stage so it was often hard to pick her out but she has made great progress as a dancer over the past year and seems to love it.

Hayden, Upper Right (with red scarf), With Team

About 6:30, Drew and I ordered pizza, so we could enjoy it watching the second half of the Michigan/Kentucky game.  We got enough so when Evie, Jill, and Hayden arrived home, they could also have some. I put Halle to bed around 9:00 and we lay in bed talking for about 15 minutes.  It's amazing how talkative kids can be when they are supposed to go to sleep...she's a master at it. The dancers did not get home till around 9:30, exhausted but hungry and thirsty.  So we sat around unwinding, talking about the show, with pizza and beer, until  10:30 when we all sort of pooped out and wanted to get to bed.  A long day but fun to watch Hayden, fun for her.

Too Much Rain In Virginia But At Least It's Not Snow (Like Chautauqua)

The Bissells

Sunday Morning at 7:30, in Bristow, Virginia

Up at 5:30 on a rainy morning in Virginia, more rain forecast for today.  It snowed in Chautauqua last night so I should not complain.  Both Drew and Jill are up now, at 7:00, getting ready for the big day, Dance Studio competition for our granddaughter Hayden, literally an all day event.

Yesterday was a dreary day, but fun with our granddaughters, though we did not do much, hang around the house, take a couple of small shopping trips, then go out for dinner.  Evie and Halle tried to get in an early walk but got soaked, as it rained from early morning on, much of the day.  I went off to Sports Authority, looking for bear mace/pepper spray, yep, that's right.  No luck so I found a great sun blocking shirt at half price, so I bought it.  Who knows what that means other than it's probably hot and does not breathe like most shirts.  The newest gimmick I guess to keep us healthy in the sun.

Later morning, Jill, Evie, Halle and a friend drove to the Merrifield Nursery, an amazing place, filled with just about anything green you might want, plus all kinds of garden related products, even a small cafe and the best part, free popcorn.  Evie wanted to pick up some geraniums but they do not have their flowers in yet, so we just browsed a bit, bought the girls a couple of small items, and went home for lunch.  Because it was a rainy afternoon, with little to do, we decided to watch a movie and were able to get THE BOOK THIEF, a fairly new movie that had a PG rating.  It was pretty good movie, hard to watch at times, because it's set in Nazi Germany, where a family hides a Jewish man, and we see the horror and racism of the regime, through the eyes of a young girl, struggling to grow up in this period, after having been sent by her mother to a family to live because she, too, is Jewish.  Hayden really liked the movie, especially since her class had studied the Holocaust in school.

Halle and Her Granny

Around 6:00, we went off to eat, to a new Portuguese/South African chain called Nando's, which speciality is peri peri chicken.  It's fairly new and I am sure I ate at one when I was in Cape Town, South Africa, back in 1995.  Unfortunately, it was packed, over a half hour wait or longer, so we went off to Glory Days, a wing place like BW3, only better according to Jill and Drew.  It's like a sports bar, so we were able to watch Dayton lose to Florida, but the kids liked it and the wings were good, as was the draft Blue Moon. We stopped at Zinga, for the kids, a yogurt ice cream place, that has all the fixings for a great Sunday.  You make your own, they weigh it, you pay and out you go.  I had vanilla yogurt with nuts, marshmallow and hot fudge, my all time favorite.

We went home, the girls and Evie watched Legally Blonde in the basement, while Drew and I stayed up to the bitter end, watching Wisconsin finally win in overtime, another game that seemed interminable with timeouts, foul shots, commercials, and officials peering over a TV screen, deciding what was the right call.  What a bore.  We were all in bed by 11:30, tired from doing nothing.

Today, Evie, Jill and Hayden head off to the dance competition at 9:30, probably will not return home until 9:00 tonight, after all the competition and the awards at the end, a very long day.  Drew, Halle and I will head over around 10:30, take time out in between dances to get lunch, watch some B-ball, then go back and watch more dance when Hayden's team is up.  We will leave early, not staying the entire time.

A Bristow , Virginia Morning

Halle and Hayden, With Sun Dollars and Fighting Conch Shells,  From Uncle Rich

Up at 7:00 after another restless night.  I must need my own bed.  It's almost 8:00 now and I have been up with Drew, watching the results of last night's March Madness games.  We were too tired from our drive to stay up and watch the last two games,  two good ones of course.  It looks like a cloudy and wet weekend here in Virginia, but no snow.

Halle and Hayden, with Coco

We had a good drive to Bristow yesterday, just over six hours, what we expected.  I cannot say I enjoy driving much on # 95 but it's the fastest way north or south on the East Coast.  If you're fortunate enough to be on the road at the the right times, you move well.  If you aren't, the road can be a real problem, as it was heading south on #95 out of Washington, D.C yesterday afternoon.  We stopped  at Mickey D's, the only time we tend to eat there.  I ordered a chicken biscuit for breakfast, something you cannot get in the north, not bad if you like chicken at 9:00 in the morning.  We took a couple of back roads, off of #95, to Bristow, windy and narrow but a nice change from the straight arrow of the freeway.  We got to Jill and Drew's around 2:45, just as expected.  Drew was home early from work, so he helped us move our bags in downstairs.  Hayden came home around 3:00, so grown up I can hardly stand it, in her skinny jeans and new Ugg boots.  We drove to the school to pick up Halle who, when she saw us started running, as always.  What a cutie.  Jill worked at the real estate office till about 4:00 and when she got home, we caught up on all the family news, neighborhood gossip.  We had a couple of Blue Moons, to start dinner, opened some wine and Jill made juicy lucy's for dinner, burgers stuffed with cheese.  I grilled them outside, and with sweet potato fries, we had our dinner.  Everyone loves juicy lucy's so we were all happy.  The girls went to a school play at 6:30, did not get home till about 8:00. Jill and Drew have done a lot of work on their dining room and living room putting up crown molding, and painting.  But Jill is not quite sure of the colors, so she and Evie spent a good amount of time trying to come up with the perfect shades.  We then talked and watched some of the first basketball game on TV, then hung out with the girls till about 10:00 when we decided to all go to bed.

No big plans for today, hang out some, perhaps go to Merrifield Nursery near by, perhaps out to dinner tonight.  Tomorrow is the big day, an all day dance competition for Hayden.  We cannot wait to see her perform.

Hayden Loves Her Dog

On The Road To Florence, South Carolina That Is

Spectacular View From Our Hampton Inn

More New Friends, At FATZ, in Florence, South Carolina

A restless night for me, so I am now up, sitting at the Hampton Breakfast Buffet and it's 6:15, quite a few people up this early actually, ready to hit the road like us, either north or south.  We have around a 6 hour drive today, to visit daughter Jill and family.  We want to get there before #95 gets the Friday afternoon traffic.

Yesterday's drive was a cakewalk compared to or trip down.  No wrong turns, no 'long cuts this time, just straight highway driving, with heavy traffic occasionally but that's to be expected, and no accidents or stops along the way.  We made it out of Florida in just over six hours, which is what I hoped for, then arrived in Florence, just before 5:00.  Not much to say about a ten hour drive.  We did notice lots of pine trees down along the highway in South Carolina; the same thing coming down, a result we assume of heavy winds or snow fall.

We relaxed in our room till about 6:00, not sure where to go for dinner.  The gal at the desk suggested a restaurant literally across the street called FATZ.  It was a local place so we decided what the heck. Maybe we would end up striking up a conversation at the bar with some locals or travelers, as usual. We hit the jackpot again, and ended up talking with a really neat couple from Florence, Debbie and Gary McCall-Smith.  Both are from Florence, and like us, were sitting at the bar at FATZ, enjoying a beer and dinner.  They were fun to talk to, live on a nearby lake, and Gary travels quite a bit, so he knows where Chautauqua is, unlike most people.  They are dog lovers, board various kinds of foster dogs, and were picking one up that night to take care of for friends.  I also struck up a conversation with  fellow sitting next to me, very talkative and outgoing, from just outside of Albany.  He's a Syracuse grad so we commiserated over our teams, Ohio State and Syracuse, being beaten by Dayton.  A good guy, he lives in what seems to be a small valley in Upstate New York , with a very different temperate zone from the rest of the New York state, so spring starts early.  We talked basketball and football because he played it in college.  If you can somehow open the conversation with others at a bar, we find most people like to talk, especially those who are on the road like us.  Debbie and Gary were a little different since they live in Florence, but they, too, were friendly and we enjoyed getting to know them, even exchanged emails.

We got back to the room about 8:30 and I watched Dayton beat Stanford, surprising most people but I have to admit I liked seeing Stanford get beat by Dayton and fairly easily.  The game seemed to last forever, either a foul or timeout every two or three minutes made it seem interminable.  I wanted to watch the UCLA/Florida game scheduled for 9:30, but it did not start till 10:15, so I just went to sleep.

It's about 6:45, I am still in the breakfast room, with about thirty five other travelers, a busy place this early in the morning.  We should be off by 7:30 or 8:00, arrive in Bristow around 2:00 if traffic is decent.  We cannot wait to see our granddaughters, Hayden and Halle.

The Bar

Gule Gule (Farewell in Turkish) to Sanibel Island

7:25 AM

7:35 AM

Linda and Rich

We got up early, just before 5:00, so we could be on our way by 6:00, missing the rush hour here in Ft. Myers, getting to Tampa hopefully after the rush hour on #95.

Yesterday morning was cold and windy, not much of a beach day, just 57º so we drove off to the J. N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel, an amazing birding spot.  It's a four mile stretch of one way road called Wildlife Drive, with areas to stop and park and either hike or just take pictures of the birds. There are also trails just for bikes or hikers as well.  We spent about an hour driving through it, stopping mostly at wide open water ways, where hundreds of birds would congregate.  The most obvious were Great Egrets, Double Crested Cormorants, White Ibis, and White Pelicans, quite different from the Brown Pelicans we see on the Gulf.  We also saw from a distance a Roseate Spoonbill but could not get a good picture of it.  We drove mostly on the Gulf Drive, staying off of Periwinkle Way, the busiest street.  Along the Gulf Drive, we passed one condominium or resort after another, as they go on mile after mile, with some homes or residential neighborhoods on the other side of the street.   On the way back, we stopped Bailey's, another grocery store, to pick up some sandwich and chips for our ride north tomorrow.

Great Egrets Hanging Out At Ding Darling

Great Egret

Great Egrets and A White Ibis

White Pelicans and Double Crested Cormorant In Back

We were home by 11:30, decided to relax, do some packing, hoping that the winds would calm down some in the afternoon so we could enjoy the beach.  At noon,  there were only a few chairs on the beach, a few people walking it.  So we had an early retro lunch for us, at 12:30, of fried bologna sandwiches on toast, chips, and a beer.  A good way to begin the afternoon.

Sanibel Beach, Late Afternoon Fun

Around 2:00 we went down to the beach, and Evie and I decided to take a long walk, down to the Lighthouse and back.  It was windy going but not too bad coming back.  We walked quite a ways beyond the Lighthouse until we had to climb over some walls and decided to turn around.   We were gone probably about two hours, then read on the beach until 5:30, when we went up to get clean up because we were going out for dinner on our final night.

Beach Ladies Enjoying A Glass Of  Wine

Dinner with Holzheimer's and Murphy's

Our Kind Of Bar and Restaurant

Linda and Rich invited their good friends, Jill and Murph, over for drinks and appetizers, then dinner at the Lazy Flamingo.  We enjoyed talking with them, as Jill is a real character, really fun to be with. We did not leave for the restaurant until 8:00, and because Jill knew just about everyone in The Lazy Flamingo, we got a table almost immediately.   We loved the atmosphere,  not fancy but busy, lots of people enjoying themselves and the food, no pretension, just good food and service.  We laughed and laughed as Jill told story after story, talked with all the waitresses, as we enjoyed our meals.  We didn't leave until 9:30, bid the Murphy's farewell as we were leaving the next day.  They have been offered a condo on Marathon, in the Keys for a week, and tried to convince both Linda and Rich and us to come down and spend the week with them.  I wish we were a bit more footloose and fancy free.  But we miss our children and grandchildren, so we will head north tomorrow.

This ends a great week in Florida, thanks to the wonderful hospitality of my sister Linda and her husband Rich.  We both enjoy the same things, walking the beach, swimming, reading in the sun, and good food and drink. We cannot thank them enough.

A Stew Like Kind Of Day: Sun, Wind, Clouds, Rain, Blue Skies

7:30

A Rose Between The Thorns

Tuesday Morning

I was awake around 5:30, stayed in bed, hoping I would get back to sleep, but couldn't so I turned the coffee on at 6:15, in a dark living room, the Gulf just beginning to be visible from the lanai. This is our last day on Sanibel and I think we will be lucky with the weather though it's going to be a cool day at the beach.  At the moment, it's 55º (6º at Chautauqua), cold by Florida's standards, the high will get only to 68º, with winds up to 25 mph, much like yesterday.  But it will be sunny, mostly clear skies, and no rain.  A perfect day for walking and reading on the beach.

Black Skimmers

Love Letters In The Sand

Yesterday was threatening when we got up, but we decided to go for a long walk anyways, as rain was not supposed to come till 11:00 if you are to believe the weather map.  So off we went, like yesterday, a couple of miles east on Sanibel, to the Lighthouse and pier, the same walk we took yesterday.  I have to admit I am getting somewhat bored with the sameness of the walk though, like any where, it's always different if you look carefully... the people, the beach, the clouds, the water.  I guess I just don't look close enough.  We were gone about two hours and by the time we returned, the sun was out, the wind was whipping our backs, knocking over chairs on the beach it was so strong.  We went back to the condo around 11:00, and Linda and Rich had just gotten back from shopping, picking up a couple more of the great steaks we had on Sunday, with mushrooms, of course.

We went down to the beach around noon, till 1:30, though it was quite windy and cool, so different from the other days.  It was not unpleasant, just cooler and windier then we were used to.  We came up for lunch about 1:30, Evie staying down at the beach.  We ate out on the lanai, and just as we sat down, it began to pour, sending everyone running from the beach back to the condos.  Evie managed to bring our bags up but got soaked.  Within a half hour, the sun came back out, and eventually, we all returned to the windy beach, to read though not swim as it was too cool.

Enjoying A Couple of Yuengling's At The Sundial

We braved the winds, though it got better as the afternoon waned; Evie went off to the west end of Sanibel, intending on meeting us at the Sundial for a beer on her way back.  We walked down to the Sundial around 5:00, met Evie and had a couple of beers at the outdoor bar, reminding us of Tiki Bars in Hawaii Nei.  Lots of people around us, at the Sundial bar, the tables, as it's a busy place.  It was fun to see kids walk up to the bar, order their non alcohol drinks, even chicken wings, and sit at the bar eating them.  Where were their parents?  Off living it up, I suppose?

The beach really settled down on our walk back to the condo around 6:30, the wind dying, the sun setting, the waves smoothing out.  We were back and showered by 7:00, relaxed with wine and cocktails till about 8:00, when Rich and I went down and grilled the two inch thick Kobe New York Strips. They were done perfectly, just as good as the other day, along with mushrooms, baked potatoes and salad, fast becoming our favorite beach meal.  We sat around talking about our kids and grandchildren, what else,  until about 9:30 when we got up, did the dishes, then watched some terrible TV before going to bed.

A QUIET FLAME: PHILIP KERR ***

A QUIET FLAME is the fifth Bernie Gunther novel I have read by Kerr, this one set in 1950 in Buenos Aires, where Bernie has gone to escape the label of Nazi SS.  And he ends up meeting some famous Nazis, who also happen to be living there, having escaped the noose of the Nuremberg Trials. He meets Peron, even his wife, and becomes entangled in both ex Nazi and Peronista politics, a bad combination.  Like other novels, he seems to figure out late in the book that he's being used by the Argentinians, as he searches for a missing girl, supposedly Evita's daughter by a former lover.  It leads to a ring of sex offenders, death camps for Jews in Argentina, whether that's true, I am not sure.  I should have looked it up.  And he falls in love with a woman, a Jewess, who helps him find the missing girl if, in his searches, he finds out what happened to her uncles.  Together, they travel to verboten territory, recognize what looks like the remains of a concentration camp, complete with furnaces and realize they are in trouble.  The authorities realize that both are now witnesses to atrocities committed by Argentina in the 1940's and are given a day to leave Argentina and never come back.  Bernie begs his Jewess to come with him but she remains behind, loyal to her aging father.  One of the more interesting Bernie Gunther reads because it's set in South America among a coterie of escaped Nazis, Adolph Eichmann among them.  

Sanibel, 'A Rainy Day Woman"

7:35, Tuesday Morning

7:35, Monday

Shore Birds, Monday Morning

Both Evie and I are up early, 6:30, because we knew rain was forecast so we wanted to get our walk in before it poured.  We were out on the beach, gray skies and water by 7:00, along with lots of others enjoying the early morning cool, either walking, shelling, or just meandering on a cool morning.  It always amazes me how many people, mostly older I might add, are up enjoying the pre dawn morning. I even noticed one woman had a headlight on her cap, obviously she had been out when it was still dark.

Walking, Early Morning at Sanibel

Great Egret

Osprey

We walked about an hour out, to the Lighthouse and beyond, to the fishing pier, then another hour back.  Fortunately, we had no rain and it was delightfully cool, both coming and going.  We were back to the condo by 9:30, ready for a healthy breakfast of homemade granola, yogurt and blue berries.
We relaxed for until about 11:30 because it was raining, so Evie helped Linda with her iPad, showing her how to use iCloud for sending pictures.

Sneaking A Late Morning Beer While The Girls Shopped!

Around 11:45, Evie and Linda went off to a local shopping center, braving what could have been heavy traffic, while Rich and I took advantage of a lull in the rain, to walk down as far as the SunDial Resort and back, about forty five minutes, stopping like bad boys, for a beer at the neat Sundial's bar. Everyone was back at the condo by 1:00.  Linda found a new bathing suit, Evie just helped look.  We had lots of leftovers for lunch, chicken and noodles for Evie and me, a burger for Linda, and a breakfast sausage sandwich with soup for Rich.  I think we must have been hungry.

Wilson's Plover?

Estero High Rises From Sanibel On A Stormy Afternoon

After lunch, we read, napped, watched some TV, and played on our iPads until around 4:00 when we decided to we needed to get outside.  Evie and I went down to the beach; I read awhile,  took pictures of numerous shore birds, the darkening sky and Evie went for a walk down to the Park and back.  Linda and Rich came down a bit later, to take a walk and we just relaxed on the beach, people watching.  It started to rain, however, so the walk was shortened and we were all up to the condo by 5:45.  We showered, got spiffed up, because we were going out to Cips, a cool restaurant on the island, about 15 minutes away.  Both Linda and Rich had been there the previous week and loved it, especially the poke martini.

Dinner Al Fresco At Cips, Sanibel Island

We had late reservations at Cips, 7:45, to avoid the crowds. Even so, we sat at the bar till 8:15, waiting for a table outside on the terrace,  It's a fairly new restaurant, set in a shopping area, but really quite nice, especially outside. It's like eating at the edge of a natural landscape.  We had a great time, and ordered two appetizers, calamari and the Teriyaki poke martini, cut up chunks of tuna, with avocado, chips, and interesting spices, like coriander, giving it an Indian taste.  Evie and I both ordered the seared tuna for dinner, Linda snapper, and Rich a ginger seafood medley on pasta, all great.  For dessert, we had a concoction of cheese cake, carmel, and sea salt, perhaps some chocolate thrown in as well.  We sat outside, enjoying the sound of a heavy rain on the roof until about 9:30, when we braved it to our car, and drove home in more heavy rains.  In fact, it rained much of the night but this morning, it's cloudy, lots of threatening looking clouds off over the Gulf but behind us, it looks like it's clearing up.  Let's hope for the best today, some cooler weather but also some sun.

A Long And Lazy Florida Sunday On The Beach at Sanibel Island

Beach Bums For A Week

Great Picture By Evie

Both Evie and I are up early, at 6:20, some clouds off over the oeean, and it looks like it could be a rainy day on Sanibel, perhaps a couple.  Let's hope the weather gurus are their usual selves, wrong.

Sanibel Turns Coney Island For A Weekend

Yesterday was another typical Florida day, sunny and warm, all day, so that we were on the beach early, left it late, about 6:00.  I started the day on the beach before sunrise, with lots of other visitors, to see the spectacular sunrise and I was not disappointed, as yesterday's pictures show.  After coffee and writing my blog, Evie and I went for a walk about 9:00, to the Lighhouse, while Linda and Rich went to church, then to the store to pick up dinner.  When we visit somewhere distant, like Sanibel, we always figure we will run into someone we know; well, we were proved right yesterday morning as we ran in to an old student, neighbor, and our son Tom's good friend, David King and his wife, from Hudson, Ohio.  They also mentioned that a couple, the Borrman's were also there visiting,  both of whom were colleagues when I taught at Western Reserve Academy.

Snowy Egret, Black Bill, Yellow Feet

One Of Many Brown Pelicans, Looking For Fish

I headed back to the condo around 10:30, because Rich had promised to make one of his big breakfasts, but Evie decided to walk some more and stay on the beach since she had eaten breakfast earlier.  Rich did not disappoint, sausage patties, home fries, eggs, and cinnamon toast.  We were ready, then, for a day on the beach.

King Boy And Wife Liz

We were all down by 11:30 and as I mentioned earlier, except for a trip up to the condo for a quick look at the basketball games, or to get some food or drinks, we stayed put until late afternoon.  The Murphy's, from New Jersey, sat with us as well, so they kept us entertained.  We read till we were bored, then jumped in the ocean, dried off with a short walk, then back to either reading or conversation about who was going to make it through the NCAA.  Linda did go up around 2:30, made sandwiches, and brought them down to the beach for the guys, a 'good wife.'  The highlight of the afternoon was a young boy, fishing ten yards in front of us, got a two foot snook, to the excitement of everyone on the beach, who gathered around him and watched as he fought the fish and finally pulled it in.  They were not sure what to do with it, eventually kept it and when we went upstairs, they were in the parking lot fileting it for dinner.  By later afternoon, we were all toasty, especially Evie, and 'sun tired', that feeling you get after a long day in the sun and sand and water, a good feeling though.

Late Afternoon Tired

Holzheimers and Murphy's

We showered, relaxed with drinks, and Linda had bought some shrimp for an appetizer, so Rich and I watched games and nibbled on the shrimp while Evie was teaching Linda how to transfer pictures from her iPhone to her iPad and iMac.  We are all Mac fans.  Around 7:45, Rich and I went down and grilled burgers, met some people from Indiana, very friendly like the people from the night before who were from Canada.  Vacations seem to bring out the best in people.  We had a simple dinner, burgers, grilled onions, the works, and a salad.  After dinner, we tried to find a game that interested us but the one team we wanted to see, Creighton, was getting killed, and the other games were just not that interesting to us.  And we were tired from the hard day in the sun, so Rich was the first to go off to bed to read, but the rest of us followed.  We did not find out who won a couple of the  games until this morning on the computer,  Our interest in the games wanes, as the tournament progresses.

A Boy And His Snook

Savage Tans Cometh (Loggerhead Cay On Sanibel Island)

Sunrise, 7:30 AM

The Busy Beach at Dawn

Shelling at 7:40

Dawn

It's 6:45, a vast ribbon of clouds hang over the ocean, pink above, then clear skies, the beginning of, we hope, another great day on Sanibel.  Because of the clouds, the sunrise may not be as spectacular as usual, on a cloudless morning.  But I decided to walk out to the beach around 7:15 and took some amazing pictures of the sunrise.

Our days here at becoming predictable, comfortably so, as I am up early, everyone follows at their own pace, then about 9:00 Evie and I take a long walk, this time west on the beach, in the already warm morning sun, admiring the sand sculptures as we went, to Gulfside Park and back, about an hour and a half.  The park is a refuge, mostly for birds set right on the water, forested and cool, with a parking lot for visitors, rest rooms, so that those who don't live on the beach have a place to go.  We made the mistake, again, of walking into the wind, much cooler than our return.  We are getting quite tan, what else at the beach, despite slathering ourselves with suntan lotion a couple times a day.  I usually forget to put some on, like my father so I am told, and discover, for example, my toes are beet red.  Evie, like her Dad, seems unaffected by the sun, never burns and is already a dark brown, the envy of check out gals at Wegman's when we return.

Sand Sculpture of An Alligator

Sea Horse of Shells

Reclining Nude

We stayed on the beach with Linda and Rich, reading and walking some again, till we decided to head up for lunch.  Evie put her chair down at the ocean's edge, dangled her feet in the water, and zoned out while the rest of us talked.  Rich and I went up to the pool, swam a bit in the warm pool water, rinsing off the salt, then went up and started the bacon for BLT's for lunch.  Not much is better after a beach morning than bacon tomatoes, bread and lots of mayo!  We lingered over lunch, sitting outside in the shade of the porch, then Linda and I watched more basketball, and Rich and Evie went back to the beach.

The Guys, With Shirts, A Beer, and Corn Balls

We were all down beach side by 3:30, stayed late this time, till about 6:00, as it was partly cloudy, a bit cooler, making it more comfortable to be in the late afternoon sun.  We talked quite a bit with the Murphy's, Evie took another hour and a half walk, while the rest of us dozed and read, cracked open a couple of beers. We did not want to leave the beach so we just lingered until  we started getting hungry.  We quickly showered and were ready for cocktails by 6:30.

And early afternoon, Evie had poached some chicken thighs, so there was not a lot to do for dinner. Around 7:15, Rich and I took the cooked thighs down and grilled them with barbecue sauce, while Evie cooked wide noodles in the chicken broth, and Linda made the coleslaw, a Davis/Holzheimer recipe from way way back...barbecue chicken, noodles cooked in broth and coleslaw.  Yum.

We stayed up till 10:30 watching various games, Rich complaining loudly when one of his March Madness  teams was doing poorly.  The rest of us could care less really.  I think I could get used to life here at the beach though there's not much to get used to, just waking, walking,  coping rays, as we used to say in the old days, and eating...what a life.

As I wrap this up, Linda and Rich are in church, Evie's getting our room in order, straightening up the kitchen and living room before taking a walk.  We will be back around 10:30 for a big breakfast, I hope. After all, it's Sunday.