The Calm after the Storm

The last week has been alot of stress for us....But we are so very blessed! Let me start at the beginning. Hubby went down to our place in Ft. Myers on Sept. 3, I had to stay home for an appointment, but had a flight out for early on the 8th, would be home in Ft. Myers by 10:00 am!  Sounds like a dream, right....well Irma had a much different plan.  To make a long story short, Hubby was going to 'ride it out' in our place in Ft. Myers, and I was going to fly down just a couple of days before Irma was to hit.....the EAST coast of Florida...we are on the WEST coast of Florida....Irma decided, just before I was to fly, to change her direction, and made her target our beloved Sanibel Island and Ft. Myers! Hubby now was going to try to Evacuate to our home in Virginia with all of the State of Florida! He made it home in 20 hours, the trip is Normally 14 hours.  But he was safe!  We just knew that our place in Ft. Myers was going to be gone, along with Sanibel.  At the last moment Irma turned just a bit to the east and made landfall just south of Ft. Myers on a little Island called Marco.  It and Naples, (south of Ft. Myers) took a direct hit, and man the devastation!! It then just bobbled a little more east, and rapidly deteriorated... we were so very lucky! Much more so than many of our neighbors and friends and so many others! We had NO damage to our place, a few houses in our neighborhood had broken windows, one actually has holes in the roof, some other friends in Ft. Myers had pool screens ripped up and gutters removed...but none of our friends were hurt.  Hubby and I didn't know anything about how our place faired, but a friend of ours drove over and sent us pictures a couple of days later...we were so relieved! We knew we had no power, but headed down, 4 days after Irma passed through, with hopes that we would have it by the time we got there....Nope!! So last night we spent the night camping out inside with no power, cool showers were fine, when its 87 degrees in the house, but sleeping is NO Fun!!  So we came out to Sanibel and found out one of our favorite places to stay on the island had power and would be available....so we booked it!! They offered us a great discount for the last minute reservation, and we were set...a vacation in a vacation!! We went back to our condo and packed up to head to the island and our power came on!!! Are we blessed or what?! Decisions, Decisions....off to Sanibel we went, it had been a few years since we lived the high life on the island, so we went for it!!  What a great decision that turned out to be....all of the public parking on the beaches is closed, at least what we have seen so far! If you don't stay on the beach, you can't get there!!! So I had Sanibel Beach all to myself tonight, nobody but me and the birds! (Aren't you glad I made the story short?) LOL!

Alone, on an beach....could it get any more calming than this? It's hard to imagine that a major hurricane passed by here, just a few days ago!! 

(I forgot my camera at our condo, so used my cell phone, got my finger in a few of these, so had to do some cropping...sorry!)

The beachline has changed quite a bit, much more curvy....

I got out there just after the evening low tide, It was obvious that there had been some rocking and rolling out there recently.....This poor Horseshoe Crab, got buried under the sand....

This is a batfish, unfortunately he didn't make it either...these guys always seem both strange and fascinating to me....

I found several live shells, which is so good to see... Like this Lightning Whelk, which I carefully put back into the water....

This double Jewelbox was live also....

There were lots of Horse Conchs, some live, some not....I got both of these guys in one scoop!

The one on the right was live, so he went back in, the other came home with me, as did these.... a Gaudy Nautica and two more bright Juvenile Horse Conchs

I found a nice size Nutmeg....

and a Double Jewelbox that wasn't live....

I can never pass up colorful Scallops....

Speaking of color....check out this Mussel, it was very large, though not all there, but I couldn't resist the colorful inside!

Found so many Lightning Whelks, Olives....

and especially Banded Tulips....

The water is very dark, like root beer. Not the tropical blue as it should be....

As it gets deeper it gets darker, though it is clear and you can see into it....I believe its from releasing Lake Okeechobee, the storm surge, and the storm....it's always sad to see this dark color, hoping it will clear up to the beautiful blue we are used to soon....!!

I took a little video for you to enjoy..... (once again, pardon the finger!)

Stay tuned.... I'll get it together eventually, right time, right camera....it's just nice to be out there!!!

::Shelllday Hugs::