Day 20 Captiva 2019

Friday, Feb 22
We were up by 7am.  We went out to the beach from 9-10 and found a few shells and saw a lone dolphin swimming by but no birds on the beach.

 Dolphin in the center

We had a breakfast of poached eggs, sausage, toast, juice, and strawberries.   We went to South Sea shops about noon. We bought Al Olukai sandals slides with velcro straps at Regatta. Headed back to porch and then back to the beach about 3pm. We saw another dolphin just as we arrived and he was swimming closer to shore between waves and shore.

Al on the beach

We had dinner at 5 at Doc Ford's Captiva.  Arrived before the crowd and were seated in a quiet booth. We shared a dozen fresh oysters on the half shell. Al ordered Mussels appetizer - Steamed in a broth of roasted garlic, shallots, Roma tomatoes, fresh basil, white zinfandel and a hint of cream and butter.  I had Calamari salad - Lightly battered calamari tossed with mixed Everglades greens, cucumbers, tomatoes, a sweet and sour vinaigrette dressing and topped with crispy wontons.  We shared the dinners. Manhattan and Mojito for drinks.  Enjoyed a delicious meal and great service.

Day 41 Captiva

Today is the last day on the island. Photo captures the beginning at the day looking past the pool.

I took a walk to the beach at daybreak as shown in this video.

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Photos of the Beach at Daybreak: 

Lonely pelican in the gulf:

There were people playing tennis on the property next door today as well as yesterday.  It looks as though all construction, landscaping and decorating has been completed and the owners have now moved in.  I snuck over for some pictures while I was out this morning. 

Our cottage can be seen on the left of this photo behind the court. 

 Entrance to property:

After my walk, I made a large breakfast using whatever was left in the fridge...poached eggs, biscuits, tomatoes, ham, and grapefruit, and juice.   Finished packing and loaded everything we could in the Escalade.  Then we headed to the beach about noon to take advantage of another beautiful afternoon in the sun and sand.   The gulf was very busy with passing boats and yachts and kite surfers. 

                                          

Photos of Boats:

And Kite Surfers:

And several dolphins swam by but were hard to photo.

After a couple hours on the beach, we headed back to the pool for a final swim and look at the eagles.
We headed to Lazy Flamingo at 5:30 and found it already busy and we had to wait about 20 minutes for seats.  The place was very chaotic and service was very slow.  We had to wait for our order of ice cold oysters on the half shell.  We shared orders of peel and eat shrimp and fried oysters served with fries and coleslaw.  We did not leave the restaurant until about 7:30 after sunset.
We are ready to leave early in the morning.  Hate to leave.

Day 31 on Captiva

What a beautiful morning today!  Al was up at 6 and I was up by 6:30.  I did a post to this diary and after coffee I headed to the beach for a walk and some pictures.  There were more people out this morning than other mornings.  A lot of fishing and shelling going on.

 

Yellow Brigade is back this year.

 

Early Birds

 

Made this shot of the eagle nest:

 

After my walk, I made breakfast of eggs, sausage, broiled Parmesan tomatoes, and toast and served on the porch.  Not to waste the beautiful day, we took off for the beach around 1:00. Our favorite spot was already taken so we had to shift down a bit but what a great afternoon we had...... even had some dolphins swim by and one went like a torpedo chasing something near the shore.

 

 

Al enjoyed resting, reading, and listening to the radio.  Did I mention he got his

Bluetooth earpiece working again??  He was so proud of him little self!

 

There were more birds on the beach today including some terns.

 

About 3:30 clouds rolled in and covered the sun so we headed back to the cottage.  I think we were the last to leave the sandy shore.  We settled back in on the porch with beer and books.  And a little later had chips and guacamole.  Margarethe and Rene came over and replaced the cover on the gazebo.  Will have to make use of that tomorrow.

 

I prepared Yellowtail Snapper for dinner.  I made another Veracruz Sauce but with a different recipe than last time.  Used onion, garlic, jalapeno pepper, tomatoes, capers, olives, and lime juice.   I placed the cooked sauce in a baking pan with the snapper sprinkled with salt, pepper, and cayenne and baked in the oven.  The fish was so very flaky and a bit zesty with the cayenne.  Enjoyed with rice and green salads.  Another great and tasty dinner served with glasses of wine.