Day 38 Captiva

Our stay here will be ending soon...too soon.  This is our last Monday.  I tried to catch up with some email and posts this morning.  Soup and sandwiches for lunch.  Great afternoon at the beach.....waves are really pounding today which brought the surfers out ...tried to capture in video:

Was great birding on the beach today. Great blue heron was here today....first to see one on the beach this year...usually regular visitor in past years.  Captured these pictures:

Great Blue Heron

Willet

Ring Billed Gull

Ruddy Turnstone

Black Bellied Plover  (Corrected name)

Al on the Beach

Today we went to Traditons on the Island, the restaurant at the Island Inn which has been recently renovated and is now managed by restaurateur Andrea Mucciga whom we have followed around the island first at Bellini's on Captiva , then Riviera on Gulf  Drive, then Dolce Vita on Periwinkle and back on Gulf Drive  at Traditions. Traditions on the Beach has been completely renovated and added a full bar and lounge area and has a wonderful Gulf view. 

The musician for the night was Woody Brubaker but is usually Joe McCormick, a favorite entertainer of ours.



Gulf  View at Island Inn



Woody Brubaker

We shared a Caesar salad and Al ordered  flame grilled veal chop served with porcini mushrooms and potato gratin. I enjoyed veal with lemon, capers, and artichoke served dauphinoise potatoes. Al had creme brulee with caramel crust for dessert. After dinner, we enjoyed dancing and after dinner drinks.

Dining Room

Bar and Lounge

Day 37 Captiva

The rain that held off last night for the party arrived early today but was ended by noon. We had planned to go to Sanibel to  the Farmer's Market but changed our plans.  Made some matzo ball chicken soup....great for a rainy day or whatever ails you. We just lazed around and then took a drive and stopped by Chadwick's Shops and Al bought new swim trunks and tank top. A lucky find for him.
Dinner at the Pollack's Diner - Shrimp Scampi over Spaghetti and Caesar salad.

Day 36 Captiva

Early drive through Ding Darling.  Lot of birds feeding at low tide.

Roseate Spoonbills with Ibis.

Cormorants on Island

White Pelican coming in for a landing.

Ibis

Ibis Feeding

After another great birding morning, we ate breakfast at the Sunset Grill which is very close to where we stay. We ate on the porch and could hear the surf and power boats since the beach is directly across the street.  Al had eggs, sausage, hash browns and rye toast. I had poached eggs and toast.

Spent time at the beach in the afternoon. Beautiful day again on the islands.

Tonight we were invited by Rene and Margarethe to a party for Rene's mother, Ella, celebrating her 80th birthday. The party was held at their home on the open roof garden terrace above their garage ( main house on the property where we stay.) This was a beautiful location for the catered dinner ...there was a slight drizzle of rain just as the party began.......that was then followed  by a beautiful evening under the star filled sky. 

About 36 guests attended including Rene's brother Julien from Boston and his girlfriend Michelle from New York., Ella's sisters, Carol and Agnes,  her brothers Anthony and Paul, both with their wives, and cousins from Italy.  Ella's grandchildren, Mirella, Rene IV, and Maxime were there
 also.  Other relatives including nephews and nieces, neighbors and friends were in attendance.
Dinner was catered by Jacaranda including appetizers of snow crab claws, oysters and clams on the half shell, followed by a pasta course of steamed musssels over linguini. A buffet then followed with beef tenderloin in bordelaise sauce, triple tail fish baked over julienned vegetables, and roasted root vegetables. An lovely assorment of desserts including cake completed the dinner.
Music by the  guiartist was enjoyed by all during the evening.

Day 35 Captiva

Spent some time ironing and blogging this morning. Also finished a birthday card.  Al spent morning  paying bills online and taking care of some business.  Therefore,  it is not all play while we are here. Drove into Sanibel for lunch at Hungry Heron.  This is one of the older places where we have eaten for years...it is beginning to become one of the less popular on the island as newer and trendier places come on the scene. Al ordered a half corned beef sandwich on rye  with a cup of clam chowder and I had a half shrimp salad sandwich with same soup.  Portions are plentiful  and good.

Al had an appointment with a massage therapist....he has problems with his shoulder and back and having a massage with a qualified therapist relieves some of the pain.  Dianne Johnson's office is behind the Village Shops  and he would recommend her if you need a massage. For a future reminder I all including her link here.  I passed the time away by checking the Village Shops but did not buy anything.

We decided to stay on Sanibel and eat at Matzaluna - the Italian Kitchen.  Since it was still too early for us to eat, we had drinks and an appetizer of Calamari Fritto at their bar.....well it was Happy Hour so why not get  happy. For dinner in the dining room,  Al ordered Veal Saltimboca...escapoles of veal baked proscuitto, provolone and sage cream sauce.  This was a bit different preparation of the dish than we have had before....Al was not crazy about the cream sauce and lacked the flavor of sage. I had Eggplant Parmesan...lightly fried and baked with mozzarella and sauce pomodoro with penne pasta.  Way too much sauce and cheese.......eggplant was in there somwhere.  I have not been able to find eggplant parmesan as great as the one from Maplewood  Restaurant in Vineland, NJ. This was not one of our best dinners ....may be better to try their pizza if we come back.

Day 34 Captiva

I spent some time surfing blogs this morning.  I won 2 blog candies that ended on March 1.  "Winner, winner, pants on fire!!!"  Think I should have bought a lottery ticket since I feel so lucky.  Spent more time writing on our Captiva blog.  Al was on the porch doing surveys and surfing the web.
We had a lunch of egg salad sandwiches and tomato soup. We headed to the beach about 2:30....was hot but clouds moved in and cooled it off a bit.  We saw several dolphins in the gulf .... they were much closer to the shore today.

I prepared a frozen PF Chang dinner -  Ginger Chicken with red peppers and broccoli and served over Jasmine rice and a side of green salad. These dinners are very good and easy to make.  Just enough for 2 servings. Have never been to a PF Chang restaurant but these are very good frozen dinners.

Day 33 Captiva

This was to be a rainy day but it turned out to another beautiful day.  I spent the morning catching up with posting the last few days at Captiva. We headed to the beach for the afternoon which we spent reading and watching the dolphins.
We went to Timbers for dinner. Al ordered an appetizer of assorted 6 oysters from 3 different regions and an entree of  Blackened Scallops served with fries and  a salad and I ordered sauteed crabcakes with rice pilaf and a salad.  Enjoyed with drinks and wine.
This was a restful day for us because  I pulled a muscle in my back and was not moving around very well.  Hope to be able to move around better tomorrow. 

Day 32 Captiva

Today is the first day of March....where did February go?  We have been here in Captiva the whole month and it flew by....it is true what they say "Time goes fast when you're havin' fun!".
We began the new month with one of our favorite things to do ---- birding at Ding Darling!
It was an absolutely wonderful day out on the drive ....so many birds of all kinds and everywhere you looked. So much of what we saw and experienced was not captured in our pictures and is hard to express in writing.  One of the best experiences today occurred as we stood on the edge of a pool of water by the drive......at one point a group of several flocks of shore birds flew directly over our heads so close that we could hear the swooshing sounds of their flapping wings as they flew in unison....was exhilarating. These flocks move together gracefully in the air as if they are flying to music. This is something that can not be captured in a photo and it happened so fast that we could not capture in a video. But it will remain captured in our birding memories forever.

Click to enlarge to see some of the shore birds in flight.

We saw several birds in flight as they moved from one side of the drive to the other. They had been feeding on one side and we guess that they then moved to another location as the feeding areas changed or another area was better for sunning.   The most beautiful birds in flight are the Roseate Spoonbills flashing shades of pink and the White Pelicans with their massive wings spread wide.

White Pelican takes flight.



Tri-colored  Heron dances for his food.



Mergansers at play.

White Pelicans rest after eating.

After our great time birding, we had a picnic lunch at nearby  Bowman's Beach which offers some of  Sanibel's best shelling, and some of the island's most remote beach space. There is a quarter mile or so walk from the parking lot and the great picnic area to the beach, in which you'll cross a wooden bridge over freshwater.  Of course there are  many more people here than on our beach which offers much more privacy. We only walked out to view the beach and left because clouds were moving in.

Spent rest of afternoon watching movies and working on blog and editing pictures. Rained rest of day.
Easy dinner tonight...made frozen Bertolli dinner of pasta with shrimp,red peppers, and asparagus and served with salad.