In mid-February, Grammy and Kelly came out to visit and join us on a trip down south during a four-day weekend for the kids. Our first destination was the gulf coast, which is across the state, so we stopped at a playground to eat lunch and take a break from the driving.
Around Orlando we started being entertained by a sky writer with several religious messages.
Our first night we stayed at a small hotel on the beach at Treasure Island (just north of St. Pete Beach). We really lucked out on the weather, enjoying some take-out Pizza Hut pizza on the hotel's outdoor patio with a beach view.
Then we headed to the beach for some exciting shelling (for me and Grammy) and fun in the water at sunset for the kids.
The hotel was a basic, older-style, small beach hotel with small rooms. But it was a great find. First, dogs were welcome so Emmett could be with us. It was on the beach and had a heated pool and outdoor bar and sitting areas to relax in and watch the sunset. It worked out really well.
We revisited the beach the next morning before heading out. Another beautiful day. Grammy and I continued to enjoy the views and searching for shells. The kids worked hard to dig a large hole in the sand and fill it with water.
Every time they threw water in, it slowly disappeared into the sand. But that didn't deter them. They ran back and forth over and over, gathering ocean water and pouring it into that hole.
Our next destination was Fort Myers, a cheaper place to stay for visiting Sanibel Island. I had hoped that we'd arrive early enough to head over to the island for a little bit, but the driving took longer than expected. However, just a couple miles before reaching the hotel I was delighted to see the enormous "Shell Factory" sign at the side of the road. Going to the Shell Factory was one of my favorite childhood memories. I didn't remember exactly where it was and had no idea we'd be running into it down there. We had just enough time before dinner to run over there for a visit. (Luckily it was dog-friendly too!)
The inside of the "Factory" (super-large store) was pretty much as I had remembered. The entryway had a museum-type display with shells and their names. Inside were aisles and aisles of thousands of shells to purchase. There were also numerous Florida souvenirs and a few small, random free "museums" inside, as well as an arcade.
I had looked up the Shell Factory out of curiosity when we moved to Florida and learned that it had expanded to a kind of amusement park. Luckily it was still pretty laid-back and approachable. There was a nature park / zoo area that we didn't have time to do, a doggy play area with an agility course, a large outdoor bar area with live music, and several rides you could pay for individually. We had limited time, but we took the kids on a bumper boat ride.
Splash!
It was almost closing time, and we were the only family in the boats, so we rode around for a long time, bumping into each other and riding under the water fountain.
Back at the hotel, we enjoyed another take-out meal outside by the pool. Ronan and Brielle initiated a game of "telephone"...with hilarious results.
We stayed at the Fort Myers hotel two nights, so the plan was to head out to Sanibel Island and spend the whole day there. It's good that was the plan, because it took a really long time to get there. The hotel was about 45 minutes away (which is why we saved almost $200 a night), but it was the traffic that really slowed us down. Yes, this was a holiday weekend, so maybe we should have expected it. First there was the slow traffic over the bridge (and $7 fee to do it), then cars were bumper-to-bumper moving slowly through the island's residential roads, packed with visitors. We were heading to the island's wildlife refuge first, which is a drive-though experience, but we were hoping we'd at least be able to park at the visitor center before getting started. Luckily, there were spaces.
Time for a potty stop. It was such a relief that the kids are older now and we didn't have any potty emergencies when we were stuck on traffic with nowhere to pull over. On our way to the restrooms we were intrigued by this award plaque on the wall...
We didn't know we were going to see America's "best restroom" during this journey...and here it is!
Yeah - it was nice. There were colorful bird murals on the walls and stalls. As you sit on the potty, you can read some facts about a particular bird. While washing hands we shared our new knowledge with each other.
The wildlife preserve was a four-mile road where you can drive slowly to enjoy the views, pulling off whenever you'd like to look more closely at nature. It wasn't crowded, so we felt free to enjoy everything at our own pace and stop whenever we thought we saw something cool. One stop was an observation tower where you could see several types of birds, including really large, white pelicans.
It was certainly a beautiful place and a very nice day, but we didn't see as many animals as I was hoping we would. We all hoped to see pink Roseate Spoonbills, but I guess it wasn't the right time of year. We pulled off at a marshy area that warned of alligators but didn't see any. The recommendation was to arrive at low tide, which was either very early in the morning or sunset, but those times weren't going to work for us. Still, it was a beautiful experience that the kids enjoyed as well.
Our next plan was to find a beach where we could park. There were four or five designated beach areas, each with their own smallish parking lot. This was going to be a challenge, especially since we had two cars in our party. Earlier in the day we had passed by beach parking lots where numerous cars were exiting, so we had hopes that there was actually some turn-over and spaces might be available. We first tried the beach with the largest parking lot on the island. Cars were backed up in the parking lot, just waiting for people to leave. This is when we realized that all those cars we saw exiting in the morning were people who had given up on parking. Ugh. We got ourselves out of there and tried the next one down the beach. Same situation, but this time we were stuck for a while before we could find a way out. It seemed impossible. Now I know why people spend $300+ a night to stay on the island and utilize the numerous, incredible bicycle paths to get around. Maybe next time we can book early enough to get a good enough deal to do that. But today we had to drive.
We decided to give up and just head back towards the hotel, maybe seeing if we could at least hit a beach in Fort Myers. On a whim, Kraig turned into the last beach parking lot. It was full, but there were no cars in line and it was just a short wait for a spot, then for a second spot. We paid the $5/hour parking fee, and we were finally at the beach!
When I was a girl, I was really into collecting shells. I remember loving Sanibel Island because the beach was made of shells at least a foot deep. You had to wear flip flops or the ground would hurt your feet. It's known as one of the best shelling beaches in the world. Over the past four decades the beaches there have changed and are largely sand with nice bands of shells near the water. Still, there were plenty of shells, and it was exciting to find ones that you can't find on the NE Atlantic side.
The kids had a blast playing in the waves together. Ronan was so happily manic that he was talking to himself non-stop, laughing loudly each time he was hit by a wave. I wish I had made a video.
Kelly has a sister in Cape Coral, right next to Sanibel. But Grammy hadn't seen the Gulf Coast in many years (and Emmett saw it for the first time!). It was great to show it to them and bond over collecting shells.
After leaving the island we stopped for more take-out to eat at the hotel pool. Ronan grabbed the opportunity to pretend he was driving Grammy's car.
On our way home, we stopped south of Orlando to visit Bok Tower Gardens for the first time. What a nice surprise attraction.
We began with a visit to the Children's Garden. There were numerous creative areas for the kids to play and learn.
After lunch at the onsite restaurant, we took the walking path up a hill to get to the tower.
The tower (also known as the "Singing Tower") is an impressive 205 feet tall and plays music every half hour. There are also live performances by a "carillonneur". We heard one of the half-hour performances, which may have been recorded (or at least the sound cut off suddenly at the end, which was suspicious and kind of funy). But it was so beautiful.
The reflecting pool in front of it has fish you can feed.
Of course I couldn't resist taking a lot of photos.
Water reflection!
One of the most interesting aspects of the Garden was that it was on a
hill! A Florida hill, so not a huge one, but it's a rare experience here
to be able to have a higher vantage point with a view down below. We
all agreed that it felt like being in wine country in Oregon, with its
rolling green hills (except for the palm trees).
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