Escape to the Beach 2006--Part 2

[lavendertook]

So, we continued down I-75 and on to Sanibel Island, a place I loved as a kid and hadn't been to since, because they don't have any hostels in the area and I couldn't afford to stay there otherwise until now. The Fort Meyers area and the approach to Sanibel Island were the most congested yet, making a 2 hour drive into a 4-5 hour one, and me into a cranky driving thing. And, unfortunately, I was trying to give my Radiohead cd a second try then and that made the lead's wiry voice all the more stress-inducing to me--will give it another go at a calmer time.

So, we only got to our cabin an hour before sundown, and we only had one night there and really wished we could have had more. It was toward the north end of the island and away from the more crowded areas. The cabin they gave us was the one closest to the beach so you could see the ocean out the windows and fall asleep to its rumbles (after I pulled the fucking ticking clock off the wall, that is). And the beach, covered with piles of shells, just as I remembered when I was a teen, was beautifully silky white, gently duned, and unpopulated, the water shading light green to dark blue--heaven, pretty much.

I spend a fair amount of time in my dreams at night seeking good shelling beaches and shell combing--it's a motif of lively well-being for me--hunting and gathering at its most joyful. We shelled and shelled and shelled. We shelled until dark under a full moon and then again first thing in the morning, finding fighting conchs, lettered olives, apple murexes, baby tulips, augurs, tops, bubble shells, ceriths, moon snails, and lightning whelks aplenty--some Florida cones, baby horse conchs, and crowned conchs as well.

We found a grocery store with parrots out front for mererid, who was missing her Bean, to play with, browsed through teh cute lil shell shops during the heat of the day, and drove up to Captiva Island to see the pretty beaches up there.

We really wanted one more day there.

To be continued . . .

Comments

[rosamundeb.livejournal.com]

On the North end? By the Causeway? Not Castaways, by any chance, was it?

Wow, you really know your shell names. Hope you didn't accidentally pick up any live ones. Did that once. Oh... god... the smell afterwards - MEEEEEEEEP!

That "water" pic is gorgeous, with the clouds piled up behind the palms!

Lovely sunset pics. Wow... looks like the weather was great! What were the temps like?

Can you tell I wish I was there? *G* I could have been... but decided not to. March is a bit late; I like to go in February.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

The pic I linked to above is the cabin we stayed in--part of a row of connected cabins. The place is called Tropical Winds. They also have some more upscale cottages set back from the beach a little. They're located a little north of the center of the island off of Sanibel-Captiva Road--what Periwinkle Way becomes after you pass beyond all the shops and then John Ding Darling Park is all along the bay side of the road. I really loved this place and plan to stay there again sometime for longer. Is Castaways the place where you stayed?

I used to know all their Latin names, too--still remember some of them. When I was a teen I planned to be a malacologist--I was into my mollucks. Got shell club magazines, and even had an LP of my then hero R. Tucker Abbott, American malacologist, reading off thousands of Latin names of mollusks so I would know how to pronounce them. Yes, I was quite hardcore. You'll see his name on some of the shell guides you'll see around. I did start undergrad as a bio major.

I did pick up one live conch who was washed up, who I then tried to toss out deeper--I doubt it made it though. Usually if they wash up, they're not strong enough to make it back. When I was a teen I found a live conch and tried to take him home in a bucket of sea water. RIP Harvey. Yeah, the smell. I took some small shells mostly inhabited by little crab squatters back then and it left me guilty and I vowed not to take live shells with original inhabitants or squatters again. Their little beady black eyes. )-:

Isn't it? None of these are pics I took--just ones I googled up. I just got back my pics today though. One day I'll figure out how to use LJ photo hosting. If you want, I could email you a couple of the pretty ones. They come really big on the cd I get printed up and take a long time to send and receive though.

The temps were in the high 70's. Twas lovely. (-:

February is probably still off season too which is better. I'm definitely going back there. We should do a trip sometime!

[rosamundeb.livejournal.com]

Oh, I thought you took those! *L*! Still pretty cool.

70's, eh? Wish I'd gone!

Maybe we should do one together! We probably wouldn't see much of each other, though - *G*. I get up EARLY and photograph for the first 2 hours of the day... go back and sleep... take it easy... and photograph hard for the last 2 hours of the day. Usually Ding Darling in the am and the beach in the pm. I love to shell gather, too, though - and it would be so cool to do it with somebody who knows them.

Mollusks... are they anything with a jointed shell? And, I assume you went to the Shell Museum? *G* And I assume you picked your dates based on the lowest tides being during the day?

Yep, I stayed at Castaways. They have a couple of sister locations though... I'll have to look up Tropical Winds!

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Cool> (-: A proper tropical schedule. I'm usually a night person, but there I get up at first light to go on the beach to shell while you're out birding. So I'd probably be keeping a similar schedule. Sitting in and reading during the height of the sun and going to shops, then out later to swim in the water and walk some more.

Mollusks are what you call all sea shells together with the animal inside them, or around them. The ones with jointed shells are called bivalves. And the ones that tend to be spirally, the snails, are called gastropods. Now I'm trying to remember if limpets are a kind of gastropod or a whole separate class. Hmm. We decided not to go to the Shell Museum--I'm having trouble with a heel and museum walking wouldn't have felt good at all. I went when I was a kid. The dates we went were due to being mererid's spring break week, so it was just by total accident that it happened to be full moon with good low tide times. (-:

Sister locations on Sanibel?

[rosamundeb.livejournal.com]

Ah! Had it backwards! *G*

"Sister locations" - hotels managed by the same management. No, it's not, but it looks a lot like one!