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Sarasota

Tuesday, 12th January 2010

Another day, another city and another motel. We are slowly making our way north, up the west coast, leaving Port of Islands, visiting Fort Myers beach on Tuesday and staying in Fort Myers Tuesday and Wednesday night.

The beach here at Lovers Key State Park is long, sandy and very beautiful. There is a charge to get into the park but no limit on length of stay, although you would not be allowed to stay overnight. We went for a long walk; the sun was shining but while the sun was warm, that cold breeze remains. There was a small forest of long dead, sun bleached trees along part of the shore, making everyone with a camera into a photographer. Further along we spotted some dolphins frolicking in the bay and, as the sun went down, I gave Paul a hair-cut on the bench.


All of the beaches that we have visited have been sandy on both the east and west coasts and the only difference seems to be whether you have to pay to go into a State Park to visit the beach or the beach is free but you have to pay $2 an hour for parking.

Wednesday we visited Sanibel and Captiva islands; connected to each other by bridge and Sanibel to the mainland by bridge for which there was a toll of $8 to cross. These two islands are where the very rich either live or have an additional home, including George Bush (senior), allegedly. First we visited the lighthouse at the south end of Sanibel and took a short walk along that stretch of beach.
There were lots of people looking for and collecting sea shells, known as the Sanibel Stoop! We noticed, both here and on Lovers Key beach yesterday, a lot of dead fish killed by the unusually cold weather.



The two islands are very narrow allowing barely a mansion and its grounds plus the road in some places; so we drove all the way to the far end of Captiva, spending an hour on the beach there and then slowly made our way back stopping at the old wooden chapel by the sea built in 1901 and its cemetery, and then stopped at another beach for an hour to have lunch. Finally, we spent an hour or so driving through the wildlife refuge and seeing more of the same wildlife that we have been seeing.

The homes, that we could see, were very desirable indeed; looking out over the Gulf of Mexico or the inland waterway between the island and the mainland and the Caloosahatchee River.

Thursday 14th January 2010

So, we are now on, what is known as, the culture coast. We haven’t really come very far from Fort Myers but we spent a very pleasant 4 hours on the beach, actually sunbathing, on our way to Sarasota. Yes, it was warm enough to wear shorts and tee shirts. Temperatures are starting to rise but there could be rain on the horizon, at least for the weekend!!!

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