Did You Know?

This thought provoking short video is from the YouTube Did You Know series - fantastic!.

TERI'S BIRTHDAY IN SANIBEL ISLAND

We celebrated Teri's birthday with a day in Sanibel island. She is as young as when she was 20!

We had lunch at a very nice seafood restaurant with an old Florida atmosphere, on Sanibel Harbor between the boats and coconut palms. The roof has the open beams of homes of the original settlers and a sophisticated seafood menu.

We had an excellent lobster salad and fresh caught local grouper.

Here is the restaurant at harbor side.

Beautiful homes and condos line the harbor channel with boats at their docks. The channel opens to the harbor and then to the Gulf of Mexico. Sanibel is no longer an idyllic tropical island. It has long been taken-over by big money.

A very nice yatch among the tropical Hibiscus flowers.

At the mouth of the harbor, beyond the white sand bank you can see the Sanibel causeway bridge.

After lunch we headed to our favorite beach.

After lunch we set-up a beach camp at our favorite Sanibel beach just North of the lighthouse from the 1800's.

TENNIS DOUBLES AT THE RV RESORT

We enjoy the fun, sport, and great exercise of tennis with other RVers and friends at our two new US Open quality courts.


We play non-competitive round-robin (not team) doubles. We have players at a range of skill levels, and everyone shares play time equally. Round-robin play is M-W-F anytime between 9 and 11 am.


This way to play tennis is convenient for our relaxed RVer life style in that we don't need to feel obliged to show-up every time.


We play as long as we like and as often as we like. Players here are not sticklers for pro-level attire either.



The main challenges are to improve our own level of play, have fun, and to avoid injury!

Returning a shot.

This is the female of a male and female pair who come to watch tennis. Actually, she is scouting for an opportunity to dive into pond and capture a fish to take to their nest which is in the mangroves about a mile or so from the RV park.

Some of the tennis group getting together for lunch after play.

TOWN OF BOCA GRANDE

The marina where we enter the town of Boca Granda on Gasparilla Island.

Many large yachts were docked at the marina. Our group is departing the tour boat and taking the short walk to downtown where suddenly you feel as if you stepped back, maybe 70 years, in time.

A modern day golf course just past the marina.
Condos and large homes outside of the historic downtown area.

There are a number of marinas for the boats and yachts of the folks who visit the island.

A popular new restaurant in the downtown area. It is housed in an old railroad station.

This street is typical of the streets in the old part of the island. There are still folks who have lived here for generations, but most of the inhabited part of the island now has houses and condos for the wealthy who spend a few weeks a year on the island. Many of the workers have to come by boat as they can no longer afford to own property on this island.

DOLPHINS FOLLOWING THE BOAT

If you look closely, you can see dolphins coming out of the water near our boat. A friend of ours, who has a camera that captures the picture in a nanosecond, had wonderful shots of the dolphins completely diving up and out of the water and then down again along side the boat.

These two shots are the best we could get, but oh how exciting it was seeing these dolphins travel along side of us for quite some time.

Another attempt below to catch the dolphin completely out of the water.

SIGHTS ALONG CAPTIVA, CAYO COSTA ISLANDS

Calm waters and a sailboat ready for another adventure in the protected waters of Charlotte Harbor.

One of a number of houses built on stilts into the harbor waters.

Yachts parked at the Boca Grande marina at Gasparilla Island.

Folks passing us would wave, and we also had the company of dolphins both to and from Captiva Island.

Another luxury boat enjoying the calm waters.

BOAT TOUR TO BOCA GRANDE

On the map above, Walter plotted our route on protected waters between the islands. If you look at the bottom right of the map, you can see Ft. Myers Beach which is about 2 miles from where we live at Gulf Waters RV Resort.

A map view of where Boca Grande on Gasparilla Island is located in southwest Florida.

Beautiful homes are located along the entry to the marina at Boca Grande.

Inside the large boat that brought us the 2 hour ride from Captiva Island to Gasparilla Island. The day was too chilly to sit on the outdoor decks.

The boat we traveled on. About 70 folks from Gulf Waters RV Park where on this trip. It was nice having the boat to ourselves and knowing all those aboard.

Waiting to depart Boca Grande for the return trip. While the weather was sunny and nice enough to enjoy the upstairs deck, it was still too cool to stay outside for the trip back.