Friday, July 30, 2010

Summer Vacation '10

A great last few days at Captiva with plenty of fun, sun and KIDS. Enjoyed beach time, bike rides, "Big Blue" (rest if peace), and beautiful sunsets. . .

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Summer Vacation '10 - Horizon Format

Felt inspired to go horizontal. . .Will be closing out and packing up tomorrow for the journey home.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Summer Vacation '10 - Day 10, Fishing Trip

The boys enjoyed a guided fishing excursion today that went much better than expected (aside from Dave, not a lot of fishing experience out there. . .).
Starting at sunrise, Capt. George got us set up with tackle, bait, rods and the right places to drop a line.
We ended up catching and releasing over 50 fish, with 4 keepers (three spotted sea trout, one flounder).
An exciting morning of new experiences and a great fresh fish dinner this evening (followed by desert courtesy of Bubble Room!).
 

Friday, July 23, 2010

Summer Vacation '10 - Day 4-7

The past few days have just flown. . .typical Captiva days of beach time, sandcastles, biking, tennis, walks and swimming at the pool. We have enjoyed sunny skies and warm weather all week long, but today, Tropical Storm Bonnie rolled in and changed all that. Not as bad as we expected; the rains have been steady and the winds picked up, but not nearly the carnage we expected. It did give the boys time in the surf with the biggest waves yet!
 
We also picked up Dave, Lannette and Maisyn at the airport last night as they are joining us for the week. We enjoyed their company today for more fun at the beach (and pool) as well as shelling (Dave pulled several large whelks from the sand) and of course, a fresh seafood dinner. Maisyn seems to love the water as much as Lexi and they are looking forward to hours of swim time together.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Summer Vacation '10 - Day 3

Pretty exciting morning, as it was both Lexi's and Jack's first trip to the beach! Both were extremely brave, as they did not waste any time jumping in. Water was warm, but there were the usual stories of large fish, sting rays, and sharks. . .but no official spottings, and certainly not enough to hold us back. In fact, Jack not only swam in the ocean, but paddled out to the buoys with the boys. We had a great time finding a few starfish, playing a little tennis, and swimming at the pool before it poured this afternoon (which apparently has been pretty common around here lately. . .a quick, afternoon shower to cool things off).
 
Temps not too bad, the water not too hot, but the "no-see-'ums" out in force. . .Tonight had dinner at R.C. Otter's and took a stroll down to the beach at the Mucky Duck. No sunset to write home about, but beautiful darker cloud formations. That, along with the lightning show last night, and the afternoon storms today, has started things off with exciting weather patterns here at Captiva.  (Also wanted to report to the Powells that Sally was successfully released back to nature last night, much to the delight of her family. . .)!

Summer Vacation '10 - Day 1-2

THE JOURNEY TO CAPTIVA
Don, Cullen and Jack headed out on the open road the morning of Saturday, July 17. They stopped along the way in Metropolis, IL (home of Superman, of course), had some of their favorite Dippin' Dots, and later met up with the north-bound Powell family in north GA. The Powells had a stow-away salamander in their van (we named Sally), which they passed on to us to return to her rightful home on Captiva as soon as we arrived. Later, the boys had a late-night swim at the hotel and sipped hot chocolate 'til the wee hours.
 
Day 2 was even more exciting as we approached the Florida border. It was Jack's first trip to the Sunshine State, so we took in all the sites in along the way, which included spotting the first palm tree, sampling fresh oranges at the first road-side stand we could find, and testing Jack's patience as we drove for endless hours to reach Tracy, Brogan and Lexi at the Ft. Meyers Airport Sunday night, finally arriving at our destination (South Seas) around 11pm; unloading the van, and passing out from exhaustion after a long day of excitement.