Escape to the Beach 2006--Part 1

[lavendertook]

Back from five days in Florida on Sunday--tanned but not burned--yay! Beaches are indeed good for the soul--we had a lovely time and this is definitely not the last time I will set foot on Sanibel Island--it's still gorgeous.

We took two days driving down to Clearwater Beach, me squeeing at the first appearance of Spanish moss and palmettos in the undergrowth, as always. Driving wasn't bad until we passed thru Mouseville--we found traffic to be pretty heavy throughout Florida, about as bad as the DC area, which was the one downside to the road trip. However, we discovered that the second disc of Kate Bush's new album is just the perfect thing to be listening to as you cross the inter-coastal waterway and approach the beach after dark.

The next morning we got to have breakfast on a porch out on the beach, which is such a luxurious feeling. Arrrr! we got to watch a pirate ship go by as we munched as well--so much of this trip was all about the breakfasts--could mererid and I be more hobbity, I ask you? I think not. We saw a couple dolphins curl their fins out of the water as well. The sand was as white as I remember and the water even greener, and this was mererid's first viewing of a Florida gulf beach.

We took a day there to recoup, then took the wonderful long, high roller-coasty bridge over Tampa bay on I-275 on down to Sanibel Island.

To be continued . . .

Comments

[mererid.livejournal.com]

Things learned on our trip, part 1: I am most certainly a hobbit in Florida, with my humidity-induced waves and curls, a heightened appreciation for decadent breakfasts, the stubborn rough patch on the edge of my heel that refused to soften no matter how much sand and crumbled sea shells I walked through, and a healthy sense of trepidation toward large man-made constructions located over large bodies of water. o_O

You forgot that cool heron that was just hanging out on the beach with us the first night. :D

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Yes you are. I'm a bad hobbit on the last one because I love that sort of thing. It's the cat in me. (-;

I did! Ty for the reminder! (-: What else did I leave out from this part?

[rosamundeb.livejournal.com]

Love it!

(have you been to Sanibel before? I'm interested in how it's changed post-hurricane)

Where's Clearwater?

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Yay! Ty.

Yes, when I was a kid my folks brought me to Sanibel, and my mom teaching me to beach comb turned me into a rabid mollusk fancier for several years. I haven't been there until now because I couldn't afford to. I took a couple trips to Florida a few years ago, but only stayed where there were hostels and there aren't any in or near Sanibel. I can't tell if it's changed, but the beach is as I remembered it--piled with shells. Have you been there?

The town of Clearwater is directly west of Tampa, and Clearwater Beach is across the intercoastal waterway from Clearwater on the Gulf. I discovered the pretty beaches there a few years ago because they have a nice hostel there.

[rosamundeb.livejournal.com]

Went there a few years in a row to photograph birds in the Ding Darling nature preserve, and on the beach. I usually stayed at a (relatively) cheap place just before the causeway to Captiva.

I'd heard the beautiful evergreen trees that used to line the street that runs through Sanibel had all fallen down.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Was that a good place to stay? I really loved this cabin.

The island was quite tree-d, but I don't remember seeing a defining line of evergreens along Periwinkle Way, so they probably were gone. I can't remember what it looked like before when I was a teen, though.

[rosamundeb.livejournal.com]

It was cheap! Ummmm... good? Well, they had cabins like yours, and those were probably good. But I was by myself and going as cheaply as possible, so I ended up with tiny rooms and noisy window air conditioners.

They were very "soft" evergreens, if that makes any sense.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Cheap is good. (-: I just googled up Castaways--they look great! I was impressed with our cottage and it seemed plenty big to me because I live in a little efficiency. I really loved our cabin and the part of the beach we were in was pretty and well shelled. it was cool enough we could turn off the air conditioner at night so we could hear the ocean. The first couple beach pics I've linked above is the beach at Tropical Winds. How was the shelling up at Castaways? We drove up to Captiva and went out onto the beach there by the old church and it was gorgeous but not very shell-filled.

*shakes head* What are soft evergreens?

[rosamundeb.livejournal.com]

The shelling seemed great to me!

Soft evergreens... ummmm... think loblolly pines? They look kind of... soft? *L*!

Actually, what I heard is that the trees they had there were something exotic, like... Australian Hemlocks? And they have very shallow roots. So everybody knew it was just a matter of time before they got knocked down in a hurricane.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

OK. I think there were some about, and it didn't feel bare there driving along, but I didn't have a sense of it being a tree-lined road, so a good part of them probably were downed.