March 11 Sunday Day 14

Well it is off to Sanibel Island this morning. We checked out of the Baymont motel in Bonita Springs. Went up a couple miles to the Comfort Inn and they were packed for that evening, went back to the Baymont and got the next two nights for less than last night, still to much but the traffic bears it.

Again the scenery is European as to home styles and plenty of palms and flowering red, pink and white bougainvilleas. As we are headed up over the bridge a two tone purple and pink 55 Chevy was in front of us. It had a bad sounding engine, like in fast, but kicked out some engine oil. We turned onto the Island and it takes 6$ to cross onto the island, suspect they want to keep out the riffraff but I sunk through. It is like much of this area, large waterfront homes, two to three stories high with guest accommodations. Yards are kept immaculate, I am sure not by the occupant. We stopped by the info center and picked up another 5 pounds of material. Our adventure was headed to the northern tip of the island called Captiva Island, Shirleen found a restaurant that caught her attention, Keylime Bistro at Captiva Island Inn. She quickly found a Keylime Melon Martini on the menu and I a Margarita of the Sea before lunch. As we ordered lunch I noticed a Shrimp to Shore bloody Mary, two shrimp, a skewer of three green olives, two asparagus and a root vegetable I forgot to ask the name of, I hope I should have ate it as I did. Lunch was ordered my appetizer fried shrimp with orange marmalade with horseradish and Shirleen’s fried grouper sandwich with aioli sauce. Some unique trees were found on Sanibel but never found out what they were.

Off to visit Marge and Jim H. in Bonita Springs, this was found easily with the directions Jim gave us. We sat out on their veranda and looked directly onto the gulf, what a beautiful apartment they are renting. They have had this location for the last 12 years, and I can see why. We had some snacks with beverages before we went to dindin.

We went to Marge’s favorite, although full we found the last parking space. We ate at The Fish House, after a couple of Key West ales, we ordered. My grouper tacos were right on along with Jim and Shirleen’s coconut shrimp, Jim said we should try the Outback ones as they are his favorite, Marge had a quesadilla.

We went back to their apartment and watched the sun set slowly in the gulf. Maybe a little clouds but that made it really different. The apartment that they used is for sale, if anyone has over half a million for 950 sq. ft. and a beautiful sunset step forward. Said our do’s and told them we would see them in Burlington next. jerr