2014 Trip to Captiva Island

Friday, Jan 31, 2014
This begins my daily blog of our annual trip to Captiva Island on the west coast of Florida west of Ft. Meyers and Sanibel.  I will be writing about our daily activities and meals or.....doing nothing but relaxing the days away. 

It's that time of year to head to Captiva Island for a few weeks of sun and surf and warmer temperatures.  It will be a nice getaway from freezing temperatures and snow in Ohio. We delayed our travel plans by one day to avoid the bad weather that hit areas this week in Georgia and the Carolinas which created dangerous driving conditions.  We also changed our normal  route avoiding going through Kentucky, Tennessee, and Atlanta , Ga. and instead we headed south on I77 going through West Virginia, Virginia,  North Carolina and South Carolina with a stop over in Rock Hill, SC.  This was a wise decision and our first day of driving was uneventful except for a long traffic backup in the Charlotte area north of Rock Hill.  The first day drive was about 485 miles.

We arrived in Rock Hill about 6:30, about an hour later that we should have. We spent the night at a Quality Inn near an exit on I77. We had dinner at Senor Nachos adjacent to the inn.  Surprisingly  the food was good and the Margaritas even better.  We do not eat Mexican food often but enjoyed Chimichanga  and  Enchiladas.  Early to bed to rest for the second of our journey.

Movies of Captiva Trip 2013

 

Captiva Trip 2013 Movie

Part 1

Part 2

Last Day on Captiva 03-16-13

 We left Captiva on Saturday March 16. I did not write any posts for our last week March 9-March 16. Maybe if I find my notes, I may complete my detailed journal for the missing days. But probably not. I will be posting videos that will show more about our stay. 

Day 35 on Captiva

Fri, Mar 8

Bailey Tract

Shop

Lunch Turkey potato

Beach

Dinner Mussels

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.