iloveshelling cruise to Cayo Costa

 

I was lucky enough to be on Sanibel during Pam Rambo (of I Love Shelling fame) cruise to Cayo Costa.  Just in case he's not recognizable in this photo, that is none other than captain Brian Holoway at the wheel of Captiva Cruises boat.  You can look at his blog here..Capt Brian's Observations

You may access Pam's blog here..iloveshelling

Both are excellent to help with your Sanibel withdrawal symptoms :)

 

We have landed and have disembarked to go our own ways.

 

 

Luckily for me, there were lots of things to photograph because the shells just weren't there.

Don't get me wrong, there were plenty of shells, just not enough for all the people that had taken the cruise.  You pretty much had to be the first few off the boat and you had to high tail it ahead of everyone else.  The lady who did that found plenty of beautiful shells.

 

I am just not that competitive.  Plus I was busy taking photographs.

 

The Periwinkles on this tree are the closest I came to lots of good shells..lol

 

Not that I am complaining.  It was a beautiful day

 

And I have seen these drift trees so many times on Capt Brian's blog and I really wanted to take my own pictures of them.  Although Brian's are much better.

 

It was still so cool to try to capture them.

 

At times it was like I had the place all to myself.

 

 

And of course I had to capture the birds

This is another boat that pulled up as we were getting ready to leave.  Love their sunny yellow umbrellas!   Just remember if you take the cruise - sit up front and be the first off the boat if you really want good shells.

 

Ok..you shell lovers, I have teased you long enough.

 

 

Here is part of my overall haul....most of these found on the beach in front of Sanibel Inn.

 

 

Hope you've enjoyed these posts on my love of Sanibel because I have more to come......until then Thank you so much for popping by!  Please make my day and leave a comment. 

 

May all your dreams come true..............

The Inns of Sanibel

There are three inns on Sanibel Island and I used to get them terribly confused.  I could never remember which one was which.  I knew that one of them is on East Gulf Drive and one or two of them are on West Gulf Drive.  The Island Inn, Seaside Inn and Sanibel Inn.  Well, I know one of these that I will never have difficulty remembering again and that is the Sanibel Inn.

 

I ended up booking our trip later in the year than I normally do.  The condo complexes that I usually use were unavailable.  My five year old niece Kenna was not going to be joining us this year so it ended up being just myself and my brother.  I decided to try one of the inns this time.  I went back and forth and back and forth trying to decide which one to use.

 

 

 

I am the travel coordinator for all of the divisions of the company I work for.  I use Expedia a lot for our travels and based on the volume that we do, I am one of their elite members.  It just so happened that the Sanibel Inn had a special arrangement with Expedia to treat Expedia's elite members "special".  So I chose it.  I booked two Ocean View King hotel rooms with balcony.  One for myself and one for my brother Kenny.

 

 

Isn't the office so stinkin' cute!  It was overcast on the day I walked around with my camera.  But you can still see the wonderful plants and the lovely landscaping.  The brick driveway adds to the character as well, don't ya think?!

 

 

After booking I sent a fax and requested that our rooms be side by side.  We were sharing a car and being next door would just make everything easier.  I also mentioned that I was a VIP with Expedia in the note.

 

Well, let me just say that I was blown away upon check-in.  They upgraded, at no extra cost, us to a two bedroom condominium.

 

EACH!!

Both of us!!!  Kenny had a two bedroom condo and I had my own two bedroom condo with great ocean views. 

 

 

 

And that wasn't all.  Upon entering the condos, I saw that they had left us welcome gifts.  Each of us.  A nice bottle of wine.  A nice beach tote and a wonderful beach blanket.  WOW...OH WOW!!

 

 

Talk about feeling special.

 

I was blown away.  This is my unit, I can't remember if I took any pics inside Kenny's.  If I find them I will share them later.

 

And that "special' feeling didn't end there.

 

I noticed on the front door that there was a "do not disturb" or "please service room" card that you could place in the lock on the outside to let housekeeping know what you desired.  Housekeeping?  For a condo?  I've never heard of such.  But yes, you could have housekeeping daily, DAILY, if you wanted or needed it.  Crazy, huh?  Crazy GOOD!!!

 

The view through the screened in patio.

 

 

The Beach

 

Another great thing about the Sanibel Inn... Beach Chairs and Beach Umbrellas!  Yes, the other condos had them too, BUT you had to wrestle with them and drag them back and forth from the beach yourself.  Half the time you couldn't get the umbrella secure enough and you end up chasing it down the beach on a windy day or out to sea.  Yes, out to sea.  I remember strolling on the beach last year and looking out at the ocean and seeing an umbrella upside down floating further and further away.  I thought, "poor schmuck!".  Then I looked at my spot and realized that schmuck was me!! lol

 

 

Well not this year, thanks to the Sanibel Inn my umbrella was anchored firmly each day..

 

Well that's it for now.  I have so much more about the Sanibel Inn to share.  And of course some more beach shots and shell shots...............so stay tuned, my friends and Thank you ever so much for stopping by.

 

 

Dreaming of Sanibel