Day 24 on Captiva

Mon, Feb 25

We arose early enough to go and view the sunrise on the bay from the dock.  There were not many birds on the islands in the bay but many were flying over. Photos of the rising sun:

We have not seen many roseate spoonbills at DDNWR this year but we did see one lone roseate feeding at sunrise this morning:

We all then walked over to the beach to see if anything was happening. As we approached the eagle's tree, we all spotted the eagle sitting on a low branch on the tree.....we had not seen it as close to the ground before. I was glad everyone got a good look because as I walked further down the path I must have scared it off because he suddenly flew away.  Not much seen on the beach...looks like another cloudy day.

We had breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, grapefruit, and orange juice when we returned to the house.  Mike left for Marco Island around 10:00 am.  Since it is too cloudy to sit at the beach, we headed with Cecilia to Periwinkle Place to do some shopping.  Cecilia bought the cutest binoculars at Friday's Child for her grandchildren who both have birthdays in March. We bought some items at The Original Chico's for ourselves.

 

Ibis feeding at Periwinkle Place

For tonight's dinner, we stopped on the way home at Timbers Fish Market and purchased fresh mussels (one of Ce's favorites) that had just arrived from Maine.  It began to sprinkle as we got back to the house.

Dinner was a joint venture tonight.  Al scrubbed the mussels, Cecilia made the salad, and I cooked the sauce, boiled the pasta, and  baked the rolls. The mussels were some of the largest, "plumpest" ones that we  have ever had.  Our mussels with light Italian sauce served over pasta was delicious as well as the tossed green salad.   Luckily, it was nice enough to eat dinner on the porch.

Day 22 on Captiva

Sat, Feb 23

Today we went to Jerry's for breakfast....this grocery has a restaurant that serves a very good breakfast and is very reasonably priced compared to other breakfast spots. After eating we shopped for groceries buying for tonight's dinner.  The pictures below are of amazing South American birds scattered about in the atrium of  Jerry's Shopping Center.

 

We spent the afternoon on the beach and were surprised by 2 adult eagles landing in the tree behind us and spending almost 2 hours in the tree.  I took these pictures with my point and shoot camera.

 

This is the tree that the eagles frequent on the beach.



 We were excited today that our friend and neighbor, Mike, arrived for a visit with us before he goes to Marco Island for a visit with his sister.  He arrived on a flight from Akron-Canton airport to the Ft. Myers airport this evening. We decided to cook in tonight rather than trying to get into a restaurant.  Al cooked at his best tonight preparing some delicious beef fillets and asparagus on the grill.  I served the meal with iceberg salad with bleu cheese dressing and hot rolls. We enjoyed wine with dinner. For dessert, we served Key Lime pie from Jerry's.  We had an evening of great food and wine, conversation, and wonderful company. It was so great to have Mike here for a visit. Our only disappointment was that his wife, Pam, was unable to join him for the trip because of her work.  Mike retired in January so we will be looking for Mike and Pam both to come next year.