Day 34 on Captiva

Thurs, Mar 7

I cannot believe a week in March has already passed. It was 44 degrees when we woke up this morning and 32 degrees in North Canton.....something is wrong with this picture???

We headed to Ding Darling this morning around 9 am and found many birds feeding at the ponds. We saw many osprey, ibis, great egrets, great blues, white and brown pelicans,anhingas, reddish egrets, and tri-colored herons. A highlight was seeing a king fisher hovering in the air for about 5 minutes.  It was one of the best birding days of our stay. Pictures of some of the sights below:

 

 

After our drive, we had a breakfast of OJ, poached eggs, sliced tomatoes, and biscuits...Al had a grilled hot dog with his eggs.  The day did not warm up much higher then 60.  We dressed warm and took a walk to the beach and then to the bay.

Beach

Bay area

Dinner tonight at 6 at Il Tesoro....the earlier time is best because the reservations get backed up as the night progresses. This is a very small and noisy restaurant but the Italian food and service was great.

 

The house basket of rolls was served warm along with a plate of freshly grated Parmesan cheese and a trio of cruets with olive oil, balsamic, and spicy olive oil. We shared a Caprese Salad of  fresh tomato, mozzarella and basil, roasted peppers, baby greens. Al ordered  Veal Chop with black figs, portobello mushrooms, and truffle oil served with fettuccine.  I had Sea Bass Tesoro -Toscana-style seared and sautéed with artichokes, sun dried tomato, mushrooms, white wine, and garlic, served on a bed of Parmesan risotto.  We ordered glasses of Pinot Noir and Pinot Grigio. We finished our meal with creme brulee with coffee and espresso. This was a delicious dinner!!!

Day 33 on Captiva

Wed, Mar 6

Cloudy...started raining about 8:30 ....temperature this morning was  66. This blog is beginning to sound more like a weather report because the only thing to write about is how cool and cloudy it has been.
This morning Al had his weekly massage at 10:00.  We had lunch of grilled cheese-tomato sanwiches with soup.  Mostly a quiet day making cards and Al on the computer. He has finished 2 books  John Grisham "The Racketeer"  and Stuart Woods "Collateral Damage" .

It rained on and off all morning but sun came out in the afternoon but winds made it chilly still.

For dinner Al grilled steaks wrapped in bacon and I served with sauteed mushrooms, baked sweet potatoes, and tossed salad with blue cheese dressing and blue cheese crumbles. 

This is one boring post. Hope we do more tomorrow.

Day 32 on Captiva

Tues, Mar 5

It was only 46 degrees this morning. We need some hot weather! By 1:00 I had caught up with my blog posts through March 4 doing about 6 posts today.

For lunch I made tuna fish salad sandwiches with tomato and lettuce.

The temperature reached 74 today. We went to the beach but it was a bit windy but we stayed out for a couple of  hours. The birds seem to be coming back slowly. The willets were in a flock and the terns numbered about 24 or more. One lone skimmer was with the willets. We also saw several sanderlings, black bellied plovers, and ruddy turnstones. We think we saw what may be red knots but not definite.

 

 

For dinner, we went from lobster last night to hot dogs tonight. Al enjoys Hebrew National brand all beef hot dogs and we found them at the grocery and I "permitted" him to buy them.  It is not a food I let him eat often but if he is a "good boy", I will allow them once in a while.  He grilled the dogs and we served on buns with homemade potato salad.  It was a picnic like meal but it was too cold to eat outside. Looking for warmer weather tomorrow and the rest of the week.

Day 9 on Captiva

Sun, Feb 10
Began the am early with coffee and pastry.  We went to the Farmer's Market around 9 am and found it to be very crowded especially the parking near by.  We finally parked in the parking lot of Herb Strauss Theater and walked over via the path way about 5 minutes away.  Not bad and away from the crowd of cars.

There seem to be more vendors at the market this year. We remembered most of them from last year. We bought a bag of mussels, radishes, lettuce, limes, eggplant, strawberries and a fresh bouquet flowers and a rose to mention some of our purchases.

We then headed straight to the house and I made lunch.  We had a restful afternoon at the beach.

Dinner tonight was steamed mussels with a light Italian sauce of tomatoes, garlic, celery, onions, and wine served with fettuccine and a salad.  We had enough for 4 but saved leftovers. 

Day 8 on Captiva

Sat, Feb 9
Edited to include sunset photos.

This morning we drove into Sanibel for brunch at Sanibel Cafe, one of my fave breakfast/brunch spots. I ordered the tuna salad with tomato that is served with fruit (melon, grapes and blueberries ) and muffin.  Al nearly always has the lox and bagel platter with tomatoes, onion, capers and cream cheese.  All the tables are filled with seashell displays.The tables each have their own unique arrangement of fossilized seashells. Every shell was hand-picked by the artist, Sue Stephens, from fossil pits around Florida. They date back to the Miocene and Pliocene Eras of the Ice Ages – making them 1.8 to 24 millions of years old – and reflect the many times that the area was submerged beneath glaciations.

We then window shopped around the Tahitian Garden plaza. Then we went to the Sanibel Bookshop for Al to buy Stuart Woods' Collateral Damage which they had to order since they had sold out. We stopped by our fave shoe store Comfort by Design at Limetree only to find it closed.  We always enjoyed seeing Heidi Thibauj there.  We then stopped at H2O Outfitters ....saw our friend Wanda ....Al bought a new Tommy Bahama shirt with wine bottles on the back.  Then to Jerry's for a few grocery items including provisions for dinner. 

 

  Tonight, Al grilled hamburgers that were very good.....served with all the trimmings and potato salad from the deli.  It has been awhile since we had grilled burgers cooked outside with that smokey taste.Photos from the sunset tonight:

Day 7 on Captiva

Fri, Feb 8

We had rain during the night and clouds into the morning.  A do nothing day....coffee and biscotti......roll ups for lunch on the porch.....drive to DT Captiva.....not much changed.....read they have a new post mistress.  Did you know the post office is only opened 10-12 and 2-4 Mon-Fri?  Just a tidbit to share. 

Drove to Bailey Tract.....clapper rails,  a snipe, and a sora have been spotted there....did not see anything but some blue winged teals.  Of course it is mid-afternoon.  Went by Bailey's market for OJ and pastries and a few other items.

For dinner I made shrimp scampi with linguine and salad.  By mistake, I bought  already cooked frozen large shrimp instead of not cooked frozen.....not as good as usual but we made do. How did I do that....shopping in too much hurry last weekend??

Hope tomorrow is a bit more interesting to write about. 

Day 6 on Captiva

We began the day with our usual coffee and biscotti.  I worked on a card for some challenges and Al spent time on the computer. I made B.L.T's for lunch on the porch. We then headed for the beach ....it was the quietest time we have spent there...not even a gull was making a noise. Only one couple there but several people walking by.  This is the fewest birds that we have ever seen on the beach. Around 4:00 we walked down to the eagle's nest located near us but I cannot divulge the actual location since it on private property that we have permission to visit.  The nest has 2 chicks who are a pretty good size which you can see in the pics.

The eagle's nest was the highlight of our day.

 

For dinner, we enjoyed leftover chili served over pasta with salad and warm honey wheat bread (leftover from Timbers).

Day 5 on Captiva

Wed, Feb 6
Up early this morning with our coffee. We drove to DDNWR about 8:30 to check out the birds...were a bit late since there was a low tide early this am and most birds had already eaten and were hidden away. But we did see white pelicans, brown pelicans, cormorants, anhingas, lot of willets and gulls, yellow-crown night heron, great blues, herons and egrets.

We had lunch after we arrived back at the house. I made roll ups with chicken, avocado, lettuce and served with chips. We went out to the beach for a bit of sun in the afternoon and then headed back to the bay to check for the kingfisher and the murre but no sighting today.

Dinner tonight at the Timbers for a seafood dinner. We shared an appetizer of oysters with drinks. Al had the triple shrimp dinner served with salad, steamed veggies, and baked potato.  I had peel n eat shrimp dinner served with clam chowder, steamed veggies, and baked sweet potato.

Day 4 on Captiva

Tues, Feb 5
This morning was slow going again. After coffee and pastries, I made a card and posted for several challenges. After a brunch of scrambled eggs, leftover steak, and toast with orange juice, we took a walk to the beach.....not many people there...we almost have all the sand to ourselves. The temp is in the hi 70's headed to 80.  We then headed to the bay side where we set and watched the birds....a great spot for birding.  We saw a lot of willets, gulls, white and brown pelicans, osprey fishing, great blues, egrets, snowy egrets, kingfisher and more. A surprise bird that we saw was a thick billed murre swimming by....yes we know that is an arctic bird  but we almost certain that is what it was. We check the books against a blurry photo that I shot and we almost certain even though someone asked if we had been drinking when we told them that we had spotted a murre.
What do you think this is?

This photo was made from a distance and then was cropped from the picture.

If you read our Captiva blogs, you know we enjoy eating good food and we sometimes make your mouth water reading our menus. Well, that was not the case with dinner tonight.  We had the worst meal of our times on the island....and we cooked it.   Al grilled a steak that was too tough to chew....but he had cooked it perfectly medium rare....it was just a bad piece of meat.....not to buy steaks at P.....  any more.  I made baked potatoes that were over cooked in the microwave......you have to understand that I do not cook with a microwave....do not like those ovens. I read how long to cook the poor potatoes but I executed them......were great side for the steak.....were not edible at all.  That left us with sauteed mushrooms and salad and a bottle of wine for dinner.....guess you might say we drank our dinner.  I did not even have a dessert to offer.  Glad we did not have guests for dinner......would have headed to the nearest restaurant.

Day 3 on Captiva

Monday,  Feb 4
Another day sleeping in late which is something Al seldom does.  He was in bed til 8 this morning.  We enjoyed our usual coffee made by Al and served with biscotti.  We enjoyed a lazy am reading and writing on the puter and getting Al's printer to work.  I made chicken sandwiches for lunch. We then drove into Sanibel to go to Bailey's market for some items including a grill brush and then did a quick drive through Ding Darling on the way back.  Did not see much wildlife as it is middle of the day.  We cooked dinner in the new kitchen and grilled steaks outside. I served with mushrooms, orzo, and arugula salad with lemon vinaigrette.  Another early night.
Pictures from drive in DDNWR:

Arrival at Captiva

Best Western Ocala

We were slow getting started this am....a we ate a bite at the breakfast buffet which was very crowded. Al made a bagel, egg, sausage sandwich with cream cheese...he was proud that he thought of  making this. We left shortly after 9am for our final leg of our trip south. We stopped in Ft. Myers at Publix to shop for provisions before heading to the island.  Arrived about 4pm at the rental home.  Margarethe had remodeled the kitchen which has an improved layout and all new cabinets. She did a great job with the design.
Finally I got unpacked and organized.  Had some sushi from Publix with gin and tonics.  Headed to Lazy Flamingo for oysters on the half shell with mesquite ribs, fries, and grilled grouper served with Caesar salad and Texas toast.  We shared our meals so we each had some of all the dishes. We are happy to have arrived safe and sound after the 21 hours drive over 3 days. Weather is beautiful and warm!!

Lazy Flamingo for Dinner

2nd Day of Drive to Captiva

 

Up early today....cold and frosty outside ...must be in the 30's. We left Cecilia's about 9am after coffee, coffee cake and OJ.  We had an uneventful drive to Ocala, FL where we arrived about 6:30 pm and stayed at  a Best Western. The worst part of the drive was through Atlanta but it was not too bad this time.  We saw a beautiful cloud filled sky as the sun started to set just north of Ocala. 

Dinner tonight at Olive Garden which was being remodeled. Al had grilled chicken over romaine in a creamy Caesar dressing topped with parmesan cheese and croutons .  The chicken was too marinated for Al's taste. I had garden fresh salad and shrimp and scallops with linguine in a seafood cream sauce, topped with toasted parmesan breadcrumbs.  We shared a mini dessert of amaretto tiramisu.  Early to bed after a long drive.