The house (Manatee Manor) was beautiful. It had four bedrooms, each with their own bathroom, which comfortably fit the nine guests. Each bedroom also had outdoor access to a porch or balcony. Mark and I were on the second level of the house with a private south-facing balcony. It was so nice to hear the crashing waves and breeze through the palm trees while falling asleep. There was a third floor porch that had a view of the beach access.
On the first day, I met Joe from Tampa and Heather and Jennifer from Seattle. We spent the afternoon getting to know each other and catching up. At dusk, we watched the sun set into the water; my first, I'd never seen that before. It was gorgeous. Mark and I watched from the beach, where he husked a coconut picked from the tree on the way out. I tried my first fresh coconut milk and meat, both with taste nothing like what I'd expected given the condensed milk and dried coconut I'd previously had (and hated!). Mark also pointed out the little critters on the beach: sand flea and baby clams. It was amazing watching the waves uncover the clams when they rolled in, and the clams stand themselves up to bury back into the sand. John found an anole (FL lizard) for me to play with as well (Do you know they sell for $9.99 at the pet store?). After dinner, we watched the home movies of Natalie and Rhett's wedding from June 2006, and hit up the hot tub.On the second day, after breakfast, Mark and I inadvertently went shelling. Really, I'd wanted to go jogging on the beach, but we started gathering shells as we meandered north. Along the way, we found that John (Mark's dad) had discovered a shark's tooth on a nearby piling. We explored until we hit an impasse at high tide and turned back. There looked to be a sandbar which we might further explore when the ocean was a little more calm. I poked at an ice cube looking thing, which Mark exclaimed to be a jelly fish. Yeah, I scared myself there. We collected one hoodie-pouch of shells: sea urchins, coral, and a variety of smaller shells.
(Being from Massachusetts, it's hard to imagine that the beaches are naturally composed of these beautiful shells. Up at Rye and Hampton, we have clams, muscles, and snails - none of which are beautiful. When my brother Nick had his shell collection, we'd buy shells from stores like Natural Wonders.)
After spending the late morning shelling, Mark went off with his parents for lunch and I joined Natalie and her friends for a sunning session on the beach. Alas, I have not much of a tan. We tried to fly an acrobatic kite, but the wind had died down. So we happily conversed while sitting in the sun, then made our way to the hot tub. I gave yoga on the beach a try and it's remarkably difficult to center yourself in a setting with unaccustomed sounds and also to hold downward dog on sand (I slipped a lot). After dinner, we played poker and then John re-enacted he and Natalie being capsized in Mark's sailboat.
(A few weeks back, on a rough day, John and Natalie capsized in Tampa Bay. Quite scary, but they're both okay.)
John came out dressed as a pirate and told his tale with embellishments. Jennifer and I played the part of Natalie, earning Mardi Gras beads for participating in the tale. Natalie has this all on tape, and I can't wait to see what retards we look like! I had to put my head through a pre-inflated life vest, and both Jennifer and I wound up with black circles around our eyes from tricked-out binoculars.
We tried to go down to the beach and find crabs. There were a lot of crabs on the beach when and where Natalie and Rhett got married, and there was some hilarious footage of that evening. We thought there might be crabs on North Captiva too because we'd seen their holes and I'd seen one while we sat sunning ourselves in the afternoon. But alas, there were none to be had. We do however have more footage of moonings, less mine. Natalie and friends took the golf carts on a night exploration, and Mark and I headed for the hot tub and then to bed.
On the third day, we attempted to have lunch at Barnacle Phil's (where Mark and his parents had gone the previous day). The service is slow, but the food was pretty good. The kitchen however lost Mark and I and his parent's orders and we sat there for over an hour. I realize that we're on vacation with no plans, but still that seems crazy. We left and decided to get a pack of hot dogs from the general store and grill them at home. Turns out though that the general store had a tiny selection but did have a small restaurant where we finally were able to have lunch.
Mark had looked at Google Earth for where we were and noticed a giant sandbar at the southern-most point of the island. Between our location and the sandbar was a national wildlife preserve with paths. One path looked like it came out near the sandbar, so we took a golf cart to the preserve. However, no carts were allowed, so instead we parked at a public beach access. We walked along the beach (~1 mile) to the sandbar. There were thousands of shells. Piles of tiny ones. Larger ones blown up on the beach. Medium ones when wading along the beach. We collected hundreds (maybe even a thousand) in three or four plastic grocery bags. We also spotted flamingos and a tidal pool.We watched the sunset and walked back towards the cart. We'd meandered quite a distance (1.5 - 2 miles) and there was maybe 20 or 30 minutes of sunlight after the sunset. We walked back as quickly as we could given the soft sand and our flip flops. Along the way, we rang into two raccoons along the water's edge. There were a few tough spots where we'd waded past brush along the water's edge. But finally we made it back to the cart and headed for the house. Thankfully, the battery didn't poop out on us! We'd taken the better of the two carts, and this one had a low charge, while the other wasn't retaining a charge. Who'd ever think of needing a multi-meter on vacation?! I might pack one next time.
Dinner was spaghetti and I was famished. Then I spent the evening sorting and cleaning my hundreds of shells. My fingers were pruny and it was late getting to bed!
We checked out at 9am Sunday morning. I packed my treasures carefully. We took the ferry back to the dock, and realized that Rosemary (Mark's mom) had forgotten her laptop. We had lunch nearby at the Lazy Flamingo so we could retrieve it at the next ferry delivery. Then we headed home to Lakeland. I played with Bear (Mark's dog). We had Checker's for dinner (sorry, Arby's; Checker's has the better fries.). I had a chili and cheese burger, fries, and a chocolate banana milkshake. It was total heaven. (On the way down, we'd stopped at Sonic. We don't have any up north, but we get the advertising for it.)
This morning, Mark, John, and I went to a local breakfast place before our 11am flight. Mark had biscuits and gravy (yum!) and I had eggs, bacon, grits, and toast. This belle-in-training does like grits after all.
I did find my cell phone in the truck. Mark and I had a mini-adventure coming home. We got off one exit too early from the highway and wandered into Tewksbury. Unfortunately, since we don't have road grids, we turned back from whence we came and back onto the highway.
It was a good vacation. I learned lots about the critters around me. I bonded with Mark's family. And especially with Mark. Little kisses to show affection. Indulging my OCD shelling. During the sunning session on Friday, Rhett talked about how both siblings turned out to be complete unselfish, wonderful people. This doesn't usually happen in a family; one maybe and the rest are self centered. It was wonderful to hear these remarks about Mark. I am one lucky, lucky girl.
(Photos from Ray B. Holmes, Inc and North Captiva Island, Florida)
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment