| Wayfarer
Midwinters Lake Eustis Sailing Club * February 2-4 , 2007 after the Midwinters - 1 pics mostly by Marc Bennett & Uncle Al |
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With Marc's delayed passport
and all, our pre-Midwinters dawdle became a post-Midwinters lounge
instead. After a lovely relaxing Sunday night with Mike and Dotty, we
headed south on Monday, by which time even Eustis was basking in nice,
warm sunshine. The plan was to possibly visit Marc's ailing uncle in
Clearwater (he was too ill to receive visitors) and then stay overnight
in Treasure Island, just south of St. Petersburg, where we would have
our annual dinner at Sculley's,
a lovely waterfront restaurant with fine sea food.
... |
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Tuesday morning, we headed
south, past Fort Meyers to Sanibel Island where we toasted our
favourite fictional hero, Doc Ford,
in his "home" Doc Ford Rum Bar and
Grille with a lunch-time beer or two. Then it was on to Captiva,
connected to the north end of Sanibel. On Captiva, we were hoping to
once again splurge and stay at the lovely Tween
Waters Inn.
... |
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| Lucky us! We got a lovely
third-floor ocean (Gulf, really!) view room for Tuesday through
Thursday. ... |
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| And what a lovely view it was!! ... |
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| After checking in, we went up
the Gulf side to our favourite Captiva beachside bar, The Mucky Duck. ... |
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| Early February, what a ... ... |
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| ... perfect place to ... ... |
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| ... have a beer!! ... |
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We were immortalized in pixels
and had fun talking with a couple who were waiting for an inside table
to have lunch. The wife was a freelance travel writer and we had fun
discussing digital cameras, 300 dpi magazine requirements, etc. But the
best fun was when they came back out after eating: The lady said she
had asked for one of the very few window seats. She was about to say
something when they were led to a corner nowhere near the ocean view,
but before she could say anything, a busboy rolled up a large window on
where, and stopped right beside their table: a window seat indeed!!!
... |
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| By 0900 hrs on Wednesday
morning, Al had already driven the length of Captiva and Sanibel (right
down to the lighthouse at the south end of Sanibel while awaiting the
0700 hrs opening of the Sanibel Bean
to feed his addiction to Starbucks-like
coffee. After a subsequent great complimentary breakfast at the Inn, we stopped here, where ... ... |
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| ... Sanibel and Captiva meet. ... |
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| Looking north from the
"causeway" along the west shore of Captiva: tempting but we would save
it for later! First we wanted to check out a bunch of the Sanibel side
streets and of course, a stop at the lovely Sanibel Island Bookshop was a
must. ... |
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| It was a lovely, warm, sunny
morning as we went to the beach at the south end of Sanibel and the ... ... |
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| ... Sanibel Island lighthouse. ... |
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| We decided these must be the sea
oats that you hear about in books set in these parts. ... |
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| These flowers were sure enough a
lovely alternative to February in the Toronto area! ... |
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| Aaah! Ya gotta ... ... |
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| ... love it. ... |
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| We walked the beach a bit ... ... |
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| ... got our feet wet, and
generally had a great time. ... |
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| We even cruised through the ... ... |
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| ... Ding
Darling National Wildlife Refuge. ... |
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| We saw all kinds of ... ... |
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| ... birds. ... |
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| And man!! Talk about beady
eyes!!! ... |
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| If the beach wasn't close enough
to napping facilities in case a nap became called for, our balcony had
... ... |
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| ... lovely afternoon sun in
which we could drink beer or read the USA
Today which Marc gleefully noted ... ... |
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| ... showed our location as the only orange spot
in the entire eastern U.S. |