Day 22 Captiva

Today continued the Cullens' visit.  Mike and Al were up very early. I walked to the beach around 7ish and saw several brown pelicans and shore birds:

Saw a few dead fish on the beach killed by the Red Tide.  Birds were checking them out:

As I was coming back, Mike was leaving to pick up his brother, Fran, who spent last week at the nearby Castaways with fishing buddies.  They returned and joined Al, Pam, and I for conversation, coffee, and pastries on the porch.  We checked out the eagles' nest  before going to the Sunset Grill for breakfast. 

We all had a great breakfast and enjoyed the beautiful views from the window at an inside table.

We so enjoyed our visit with the Cullens ....only it was too short....as they left after our meal.  

We drove to Sanibel to buy some fresh produce and flowers at the Farmers' Market. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the beach. We walked to the beach for the 6:30 sunset.

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For dinner we had hambugers grilled by Al with all the fixins and baked beans.

Day 15 on Captiva

My Sunday morning began with a walk to the beach just at sunrise.  Al was already on the porch with his coffee.  Again the beach was quiet but I enjoyed the walk and took some  photographs.

 

 When I got back to the cottage I snapped some shots of the nest.  Only this chick was seen.

I saw that Pam was up and Mike had already gone to Jensen's to  pick up his brother, Fran. Pam and I joined Al upstairs and had coffee while we waited for Mike and Fran.  After we became acquainted with Fran and had more coffee with pastries, bagels, and fruit, we went outside to check on the pool and the eagle family on what was a beautiful day-warm and very sunny.  It was an enjoyable morning keeping a watch on the nest and hanging out poolside.

 

 The five of us then took a walk up the street to take a view of the bay from Margarethe and Rene's dock.  There was one white pelican, who soon flew away, along with terns, gulls, and brown pelicans sitting on the sand barge.  A fishing boat with some people was anchored near the deck.....we watched as a swimming brown pelican tried to steal a sheep head fish from one of the fisherman as she pulled in her line but the pelican lost.

 

 Some of the scenery along the way:

 

After our walk we all decided it was time to eat breakfast or lunch.   We went to the nearby Sunset Grill just beyond the Blind Pass on Sanibel Island.  Our timing was perfect as we had no wait and arrived just ahead of the lunch  crowd

 

Mike and Fran each ordered corned beef hash and two eggs. Pam ordered cakes and eggs-two buttermilk pancakes, eggs, hash browns and meat of choice. Al had his usual order of Bagel and Lox-toasted bagel served with smoked Salmon, tomato slices, capers, onions, and cream cheese.    I ordered Eggs Captiva -homemade crab cakes and poached eggs on a toasted English muffin

\ topped with hollandaise sauce which was enough for two people.  I should not have ordered so much.  The food and setting was delightful and a good breakfast was enjoyed by all.  This restaurant certainly has an island feel about it and a great view as well.

 

Mike and Pam said their farewells and then headed with Fran in tow to visit Mike and Fran's sister for dinner before driving back to Naples.  We enjoyed their visit but it was much, much too short.

 

Al and I then took a drive through Ding Darling.  I will continue in another post with more details on the rest of Day 15.

Day 28 on Captiva

Fri, Mar 3
 It is hard to believe that March is here which means we only have 2 weeks left on the island and that Cecilia will be going home tomorrow. We hate to see her go. Coffee this morning with whatever you wanted. The weather is cool...in the 50's.  We went to see Don and Lillian Stokes talk at DDNWR center at 10:00 but left at 9:00 to make sure we got a good seat...sometimes the room fills up quickly and some get shut out. Lillian and Donald Stokes are well-known in the birding and naturalist worlds, the authors of many books. They also author a popular birding blog featuring Lillian’s photographs of birds, butterflies and landscapes. On Friday, they covered topics of making better photographs by knowing your camera and of bird identification.  She is really selling Canon new camera SX50.

 

We went to Sunset Grill for brunch at about 11:30. Cecilia and I both chose Banana Nut Bread French Toast.  It's interesting how much we like the same foods.  Al had two buttermilk pancakes and two eggs served with sausage. 

After eating we drove up to the end of Captiva Island showing Cecilia some of the sights including The Bubble Room, Andy Rosse Drive, Mucky Duck, Chapel by the Sea, Captiva Cemetery, etc.

 

 We saw our friend Mike at the sight of the house that he is building on Captiva Drive on the beach  and stopped to say hello. 
After returning to the house, Cecilia worked on packing some shells for her grandson and packing for her return home. Too windy and cool to go to the beach again.
We had a casual dinner at Lazy Flamingo at 5:30 at the bar. Our timing was good because the place became crowded shortly after we arrived. We had some oysters and the usual fried food and shared among us.  Cecilia's chicken tenders were a bit dry...make note to pass in future. It is hard to believe that Cecilia leaves tomorrow....seems like she just arrived.  Sorry her last dinner was not the best.

Day 37 on Captiva

We went out early this morning to see the sunrise over the bay.  The morning was filled with sounds of birds waking and sights of the early fishermen on the bridge and in the bay. This is a wonderful way to start the day.

The pictures of the sunrise say it all.....no commentary needed here. Our day was rather quiet spending time on the porch and at the pool.
We met Mike and Helene for dinner at the nearby Sunset Grill, a favorite of all of us.  I had seabass encrusted in a lattice crust with risotto and Al ordered the lobster tail also served with risotto.    Mike had grilled swordfish with mashed potatoes and Helene ordered the seafood pasta. The wine was ZD Pinot Noir which was new to us.