I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order. ~John Burroughs We worked around the house again today and then to Sanibel Fish House for an early dinner with plans to head to the beach for the end of the day. The Fish House did not disappoint, I had the shrimp basket and Hubby had the oysters, of course you have to end the meal with a piece of shared key lime pie! We headed over to Gulfside City Park and noticed the Gulf was once again very clear with a few small waves....unfortunately the shells once again were pretty scarce. However the temperature was amazing, and I love to watch the birds along the shore and flying overhead and just take everything in around me! Beach therapy is the best therapy I know of!
Someone had gotten very creative down towards Casa Ybel...
A place to sit and watch TV!
A dinosaur! (I think)
As the sun began to set, Hubby and I noticed some small shells rolling along in the surf and we managed to pick up a few...the water was clear, you just had to be patient and wait for the wave to clear to see. We ended up doing okay..
Hubby's finds
My finds
Hubby found a small golden olive!! That is a fairly rare find!!
...and he found a PINK juvenile fighting conch!
Of course, I can always find some pretty scallops!!
As we were getting ready to leave, we were passing a group of fishermen, we heard one of the reels begin to spin....turned around and saw this young guy had quite a fish at the end of his line!
We stood there for several minutes watching, and he drew quite a crowd before it was over! After 10-15 minutes we began to see the result of his fight.
A ~5 foot shark...someone mentioned a lemon shark, I know it was really beautiful! Here are a couple of videos I took of him catching it, then releasing it!
During this time, I turned around and managed to catch my AWWWW of the day with some beautiful color behind the palms of Gulfside City Park.
Today is our last day, :( ...not sure of our plans, but maybe one more shelling journey to share?! ::Hugs:: Cheri
"Some of the secret joys of living are not found by rushing from point A to point B, but by inventing some imaginary letters along the way." ~Douglas Pagels
We had another relaxing day yesterday, as I had hoped, we went to Gramma Dot's for our Anniversary meal about 2:00, My Dad and Mom had given us some cash in a very appropriate Anniversary Card, so once again, they treated us to some amazing island food! Thanks AGAIN Mom and Dad!! :) I had the fried Grouper and Hubby had the popcorn shrimp caesar salad! Yummmo!! It was very nice, a little busy when we got there, but quickly died down. Of course we had to share a piece of the best Key Lime Pie to finish it off!! We came back to the condo and did another version of the Corona commercial, waiting for another beautiful sunset to the end of another perfect day!!
I walked around in "The Grove" which is a little picnic area next to the pond at the back of the condos and snapped some more pictures...they have beautiful plants, gardens and lots of butterflies!!
I took this picture the first day we got here...was so pleased to see an egret first thing....I realized later that it's plastic!! We've had a lot of fun with it since!! :)
Royal Poinciana tree near the grove...you can see the pond is still overflowing from all the rain last week!
Double Hibiscus
This is Larry, he is doing is own version of the Corona commercial...he relaxes on one foot, no chair needed!!
Just before the sun began to set, Hubby and I had noticed that there were a lot of birds, more than usual diving in to the Gulf. Obviously there were several fish out there and it was feeding time! Hubby went up to the condo to refresh his drink and I walked down to the water with my camera to see if I could see what they were. I could see motion, looked like possibly minnows, maybe something a little larger...I went to about ankle deep and tried to look deeper into the water to see....about 15 feet in front of me all of a sudden a fin came out to the water.....just like in the movies, it pierced the water, with a wake behind it!! I quickly stepped back out of the water (with my mouth open I'm sure)! Suddenly I realized I was standing there with a camera in my hands so I managed a couple of pictures and this short 15 second video....look closely you can see his tail behind his fin....he is not a small one!!
We have seen small sharks on Sanibel that people have caught fishing, and I believe I saw a small one in the water years ago, but I have never seen this!! Hubby and I decided a couple of years ago that we wouldn't go in any deeper than our knees...and NEVER if the water isn't clear enough to see our feet. We might take a dunk, but still only knee to thigh deep....we might rethink that now!!
So now, we decided to relax and watch the sunset....mind you, I kept an eye on the water too!! :)
The shelling was not very good, not even enough to clean so we will combine tomorrow's catch and take pics....tides are getting lower, and getting closer to sun-up so hopefully we will have some good shell pics to show you in the next couple of days!! Full moon is Thursday!!
