Florida Fun Day 3

The weather looked a bit rough which meant our Sanibel Sea School tour was questionable.  

Sure enough we received a phone call that our tour would be cancelled for today and would try again tomorrow.  The teenagers were thrilled and continued to sleep; go figure!  The adults decided to go for a walk on the beach . . . some sort of water shoe is a must if walking on the beach or going into the water!

Don't be fooled by the clear water because just so have it we came at a bad time.  The issue we have in Sanibel Island right now is the red tide.  As a result of this red tide, we find ourselves coughing when on the beach near the water and there are a lot of dead sea creatures are washing ashore too.  

This also causes the air to have an awful smell and the water isn't the nice clear blue color it usually is this time of year.  Total disappointment but we keep reminding ourselves how awesome the condo has been so far and enjoying just hanging out with each other!  So we let the kids sleep a bit longer and load up the SUV and head to Captiva Island!  On our way we stop at the J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge . . . there is a 4 mile driving tour so perfect!  We stop a couple times and get out to take a closer look at the mangroves . . .

We arrive on Captiva Island and notice while the beaches and water seem much better than Sanibel Island the waves are very strong.  So strong I am hesitant to turn Colin free so we all agree to have lunch at The Bubble Room.  It is very touristy but fun!  They are known for the cakes which we all treat ourselves to a slice . . . tough decisions I tell you!

I finally decided to get the ORANGE CRUNCH . . . a moist yellow cake layered with an almond brown sugar crunch and covered with orange cream cheese icing.  It was good and now see why it is the most popular flavor. 

Since no one really finished their cake, we drove them back to the condo and headed back out to find a beach to hang out.  Most of the beaches have paid parking which is $5 per hour.  We settled on Bowman Beach and the kids had all their beach gear and headed out.  The beach was a little better than where we were staying but after 55 minutes we were all ready to go back to the condo.  If you go be sure to pay to park because they do give tickets!  We did not get one but saw them checking cars and leaving tickets.  It was super HOT outside so we headed right to the pool!  The Sundial has several pools situated around the buildings and one large main pool.  We enjoyed the pool a bit before heading out to look for more shells but there were so many dead fish . . .

. . . we ended up at the big pool!  It is nice to have options to stay cool.  It went something like this:  small pool, beach, big pool, beach . . . repeat!  I don't think I could ever stay at the beach without a pool too!  The beach is really suffering from the red tide and not sure we will be able to go back in the water!