We have had such an amazing vacation! We are already thinking about when we want to come back! The girls are doing so great, especially with no naps. Thank you Dave & Kelly for letting us stay in your beautiful condo!
The girls are excited for their first time on the plane! They both did great on the flight. Bryanna was excited for the chips and soda and Adelynn napped on me. I was so afraid their ears would pop and hurt like mine do, so I kept making them take sips of their drinks. Thankfully, no one had a problem with that.
We went to Bahama Breeze after landing. I was so excited because it's been years since I've been to one and I love it!
Adelynn's first time in a pool! She wasn't too sure about it at first, as you can see, but she warmed up to it fast.
Beautiful sunset our first night here - view from the balcony.
The bridge to Sanibel Island
We decided to go to Bowman's beach because we heard it had the best shelling and was great for kids. We paid for parking and had to walk a few minutes to the beach. We didn't mind the walk because it was so beautiful with the Palm trees and tropical landscaping.
We weren't sure what to expect from the water but we were so pleasantly surprised! It was much more tropical than expected (definitely not like our water in Connecticut, not as turquoise as the Caribbean, but still really beautiful).
Adelynn hung out on the blanket for a little while playing with her bottle and then eventually took a nap in her tent. Bryanna had a blast running around, collecting shells, dumping sand in her hair and playing in the water. It was such a perfect beach day - sun and a little wind so that we didn't get too hot.
She hated it! It probably didn't help the fact that she was so tired. She took a nice nap after this.
There are so many birds here that we don't get to see in CT. One of them being the pelican. We enjoyed sitting on the beach watching this pelican swoop down and catch some fish.
I was scooping up handfuls of shells and then one time something moved, so of course I screamed and ran to tell Scott! He went down to the water to see what it was and found out it was a Sand Flea (Mole Crab or Sand Crab). He caught one for Bry and put it in a bottle - she called it her little pet.
Our awesome finds!
We came back to the condo, showered and then headed out to Ft. Myers Beach. Poor Adelynn's eyes are so sensitive and has such a hard time in the sun. She is actually smiling in the pictures below but squinting at the same time.
We found a cute little restaurant on the side of the pier. We were looking for a place to eat on the beach and found this one, it had a band playing too!
All the older ladies kept laughing at Adelynn. She kept cracking up, maybe because she had a full tummy and the sun wasn't shining in her eyes? It was pretty funny.
One of the things I wanted to do while vising Fort Myers was visit Lakes Park. I have some faint memories when I was a child going to this beach and have seen pictures of me as a child here, so I was excited to check it out and see if it jogged some memories. To find out it was just a short walk from where we were staying was too good to be true!
There is a beautiful path taking you to the park. It almost looks like a jungle with all the palm trees and palmettos.
We have been searching for alligators everywhere! I have been keeping an eye out while driving and haven't had any luck, so after seeing this sign, we got a little too excited! We didn't see any gators but had fun looking for them.
Watching big sissy
I'm laughing at this picture of Adelynn because she looks so angry when in fact it's her eyes that are so sensitive to the light she is squinting. I need to get this girl a pair of sunglasses!
We walked the whole way around the Lake. On the way back we spotted so many Brown Anoles and to make it fun Scott tried to catch some. I think he tried for about an hour with no luck. Those things are fast! I don't think he would have caught one anyway since he seemed a little scared, LOL!!!
Next stop, Shell Factory Museum! Actually, we took a quick detour to see the location where my Grandpa's old business was located, Neal Way or No Way. There wasn't much there and looked much smaller than I remember. It's hard to believe that a building that had a house and work garage and many semi trucks could fit on that lot! It was nice to see the area after 20 years.
The Shell Factory is a really fun place to visit. They say they have the largest gift shop in the United States and I believe it! There is also a zoo that has some unique animals - we saw a cute Wallaby that had a baby in her pouch. We also saw some porcupines, alligators (finally!) and Bryanna got to feed the birds in the Aviary and the animals in the petting zoo.
There were so many different types of shells in the gift shop - one of them was being sold for $2,300!!!
I'm not too sure about all these taxidermy animals but the kids loved them.
She loves to put her feet up on the bar on the stroller just like her big cousin Audrey!
Entrance to the zoo
Can you see the large peacock in the background! This is in one of the aviaries where you can feed the birds.
A dinosaur section!
She fed the goats, a pony and some cows.
Finally an alligator!
Bryanna was begging to go to the beach again, so we drove to Sanibel Island for a second time. It was very hot around 10am, so we decided to go to the Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge that is located on the island. It was a great way to stay cool because you drive through the park in your car. We saw some pretty cool animals! No gators though.
This Great white pelican was just hanging out along side the lake and there were some little crabs running along side him.
We found an Osprey! Bryanna was so excited because she just learned about these birds.
There was a lookout area where you walk through the mangroves to the lake where there were lots of jumping fish. On our way back to the car we noticed these crabs were all over the mangroves. Bryanna made a comment as we were walking to the lake that she saw a huge spider and that Daddy didn't kill it! It wasn't a spider but a crab! They were everywhere!!!
This is some kind of Ibis
Next we went to the nature center.
Bry looking for an Osprey
Scott still trying to catch a lizard! haha!
We walked down this path because we heard there was a baby alligator down there. We tried so hard to find it but we couldn't see it.
Next we headed to Fort Myers Beach again. Bryanna was begging us to go to the beach with the powdery sand. The wind had picked up a little making the beach tolerable.
Bryanna running down the beach pretending to be a sand piper
So cute how she had her feet crossed while sleeping
We ate dinner at the beach again. Someone was happy to eat!
After dinner we went to the beach to watch the sunset...it was beautiful!
After the sun set, we walked along the beach until it was dark. We read a sign saying if you are on the beach past 9pm then you might see a sea turtle, so we were hoping for that. Along the way we found a sand dollar, some starfish, hermit crabs, sea anemones and some sea shells. We were lucky it was low tide so it was perfect for finding shells. I asked Bryanna what her favorite memories were and she said, "pretending to be a sand piper while chasing them down the beach and staying up late past my bedtime to walk on the beach and catch new pets."
Sad to be headed back home
