Memorial Day Weekend Sanibel Trip 2013

Just a heads up, many pics in this post :-)

You may remember last year for Memorial Day weekend I headed over to Sanibel Island, FL for some beach time with my mom.  This year, did the same thing except my brother also joined us (due to various reasons none of our spouses could make the trip).  I got out of work early from my “day” job on Friday so I made sure my bags were already packed so I could just toss them in the car and go.  

Mom had gotten the same condo unit we were in last year at Sanibel Arms West again and my brother already had dinner going when I arrived (thanks Ran, it was yummy!).  Went for a walk on the beach after dinner and a little relaxing while the sun went down.  

Lots of people had been writing things in the sand...one person had even drawn a HUGE floorplan of a house (you could tell by the things he drew in the rooms like furniture and appliances).  It was low tide and there were plenty of shells, though I only wound up picking up one--tiny, but it’s a stunner:

I was exhausted after a busy week at work (prepping for our annual open enrollment for benefits) so once the sun went down I crashed on the couch to relax and catch up on email and other computer stuff.  I wound up sleeping about 9 hours straight that night so I missed the sunrise Saturday morning, but I really needed the rest.  We went off the island Saturday to do some outlet shopping and have lunch.  Once we came back we stopped at a popular ice cream shop on the island called Pinocchio’s (located of course inside Geppetto’s market) where I came across their totally YUMMY “Dirty Sand Dollar” flavor.  Couldn’t pass it up--caramel, malted milk balls and chocolate chunks in a vanilla-based ice cream, sooooo good!  Oh, and every creation they serve comes topped with an animal cracker :-)

Yummy!

Got to bed at a decent hour so was able to catch the sunrise Sunday morning:

Sunrise to the left

Moonset to the right

And got two fun pics of me and mom on the beach (sadly, my brother had to leave that morning since he had to get back to do prep work for his cafe for the following week):

With the sunrise behind us...

Came across some more fund sand stuff:

Highlight of the morning?  Dolphins!  They were swimming in really close to shore (probably for the little bait fish that swim close in), I took these pics without the zoom from right at the water line:

It was nice to see many people running/jogging/powerwalking on the beach.  Me?  No.  This mini-vacation was for me to relax, relax, relax.  No work, no exercise, no nothing-I even forgot to bring a book to read so just sat in my comfy chair under my canopy tent (which I put up all by myself) and watched the water and the people...and the dolphins of course.  No thinking, no stressing.  Perfect.

After seven hours on the beach (!) we relaxed in the condo before heading out to dinner at Jacaranda.  I had gotten a $25 certificate from restaurant.com before the trip so we had a really great meal for a great price:

Mmm...filet medallions...

The only downside to Sunday?  Since I had put my tent up and wasn’t planning on being out in the direct sun, I didn’t put any sunscreen on my legs.  Normally they almost never burn, never tan-really, even as pale as I am, don’t know why...I mean, it takes me ages to even get a sock tan when race training.  You can probably see where this is heading, right?  Well, my tent isn’t a heavy canvas, it’s a more airy, breathable fabric...and apparently doesn’t block the sun’s rays very well as this is what I wound up with:

No lectures necessary, I already know.  It’s much better now, though I’m dreading the peeling part.  And even though the pic of the tent I posted shows the sun getting under it, that pic was from early morning when the sun was coming from the side-didn't take long for it to get high enough so the tent was casting shade on my legs.  So remember folks, even if you’re going to be under a tent, PUT THE SUNSCREEN ON.  Seriously.

Anyway, Monday dawned a bit cloudy so that made leaving to go back home to reality a bit easier.  It was a nice weekend spending time with my mom and brother, something I don’t do very often.  I’ll leave you with my favorite sand writing from the weekend (which I also texted to DH the night I took the pic):

What did you do to relax over the holiday weekend?

PS-Don't forget to hop over to my other blog, The Disney World Files...I'm doing a fun giveaway for a Vinylmation figure!  Please also share with friends and family-the giveaway goes until June 28th so you have plenty of time to enter (and many ways to get entries) and help me spread the word for my WDW blog :-)  I'll be giving away a Vinylmation figure once a month for the next couple of months!  Good luck!

A non-Disney vacation? Blasphemy! But oh so relaxing...

Every now and then I go on vacation---to somewhere other than Disney World.  Shocker, right?  I wasn’t planning on doing anything over Memorial Day weekend but my mom asked if I wanted to join her at her favorite vacation spot so I decided to tag along.  I didn’t go far...just went over to the west coast to Sanibel Island.  I left after work on Friday (we got out around 1:30pm) and went home Monday afternoon.

When I was a kid our parents would take us over to Sanibel and Captiva Island every now and then.  Now, both my mom and my brother go over once or twice a year and stay at a condo place on the beach (gulf side) called Sanibel Arms West which is where we were for this trip.  We had a nice 2-bedroom/2-bath condo.  We weren’t right on the beach, but it was just on the other side of the little parking lot...like maybe 50 feet away.  Yeah, close enough for me.

Our building is in between these two that are right on the beach--see it back there?

Driving in to Sanibel is pretty nice, you get to drive over the causeway which is three bridges hopping little land areas.  The first bridge is pretty steep (I certainly wouldn’t want to see it during a race!) so it looks like you’re driving up into the sky...so steep you can’t even see the buildings on the other side.  The next two are mostly flat.  When I was driving over the second one, I was passed by a pelican flying along the side of the bridge going the opposite way.  Then onto the island and a couple of minutes later I’m pulling in to my home away from home for the holiday weekend.

Friday night I was just all tuckered out from a busy week so just relaxed in the condo.  My mom made us dinner (nice perk of having a condo instead of a hotel room, a kitchen so you don’t have to pay to eat out every meal) and I wound up falling asleep just after 10pm.  I got to sleep a little over 9 hours before finally getting up in the morning.  After some breakfast I grabbed a chair, my beach towel and book and headed across the walkway down to the beach.  No worries--I was smothered in sunscreen and didn’t turn pink at all.  A few hours on the beach reading in the morning until the temps started to soar (we got all the way up to 93 on Saturday), then out for some island shopping before heading to the Jacaranda Restaurant for dinner...with a restaurant.com gift certificate of course.  They had some amazing olive oil infused with garlic and rosemary to dip our bread in (along with parmesan cheese...yum!).  

Trail down to the beach

These little birdies were so cute running from the waves on their tiny birdie legs...

Now this is the life...

Storm coming in Saturday night after dinner...it was a doozy!

Shortly after getting back from dinner we had a crazy storm-torrential rain, wind and lots of thunder and lightning.  Had a great spot on our screened in patio to watch the show. Early to bed again so I could head back out to the beach early...can’t believe I was already out there by 7:45 or so on Sunday. This time I had an umbrella for shade and stayed on the beach until noon.

A good book, sun, sand, waves...ahhhh......

The birdies liked the beach too

Saw several people both Saturday and Sunday jogging on the beach, including some lady in a bikini and flip-flops jogging at a pretty good clip...IN FLIP-FLOPS.  Nuts.  One guy came by at about the same pace the marathon leaders passed by when I was working the water stop at the Disney marathon in 2010.  Me?  I had no desire to move any faster than a very...very...very leisurely stroll.  Maybe with another “very” in there.  I was even doing some shell-hunting.  For me, beach=relax.

Monday dawned a bit cloudy but I still went out to sit and read on the beach for a couple of hours before packing up to head back home.  It may sound boring to some of you--just sitting on the beach and reading for the whole holiday weekend, but for me it was pure relaxation.

If you’re looking for a nice place to have a beach vacation here in Florida, I highly recommend Sanibel.  One thing to know before going though--this is very much a shell beach.  There are tons of beautiful shells all over the place (including small conch shells--but PLEASE check first before just grabbing them up, many still have the animals inside.  Please put those back in the water and move on until you find an empty one!)...so you may want to bring water shoes or wear sandals to walk the beach in-ones you don’t mind walking in the water while wearing.  Right by the water’s edge is usually better, but right before and right after there are shells everywhere so it can be a bit ouchie on your feet.  Regardless, it’s still a fantastic place to relax.

Don’t forget to walk all the way down to the lighthouse...

Sanibel Arms West on Dwellable

Sometimes you just need a break

I’m tired of thinking about training...tired of thinking about how I’m eating... and after a busy January (WDW Half & Marathon Relay on back to back days, then ING Miami Half 3 weeks later), and then adding in the Princess Half at the end of February...well when I went to Disney World for the Expedition Everest Challenge, I just wanted to have fun (mission accomplished on that...just bummed about the loss of my Running of the Ears red hat which flew right off my head on the EE ride and which Disney has not found yet *sniff sniff*).  And now it’s time for a break.  

You may have noticed I posted my EEC report on May 7th and haven’t posted for the last week and a half.  That was on purpose.  I’m taking a break from running/walking, not watching my diet too closely (though I’m not off the rails, just enjoying some things I normally try to stay away from) and not constantly thinking about those same things.  I’ve been working some more on my other blog (The Disney World Files-which by the way if you have any ideas for some topics that not every Disney blog in the world has already done to death, please share and I’ll see what I can whip up *wink*) and work has been crazy busy-I’m in Human Resources and am a mostly one-person benefits team with our annual open enrollment coming up next week plus we've had some wacky problems cropping up during this payroll week that had me working overtime.  

I’ve also been researching into becoming a home-based Disney travel agent (using a host agency, not on my own) to supplement my regular job and help support my run/walk/race habit.  I’ve got a couple of offers to consider, just wish there were more responses so I can really see what’s else is available and do a really good comparison before deciding to jump in.  It’s something I can do at home and is something I already enjoy doing.  Since I’ve been doing Disney for about 35 years and go so often, I’ve got the knowledge...and being able to share Disney with others-bonus!  If anyone out there has some feedback or info to share, please let me know (thedisneyworldfiles at gmail dot com).

This weekend I’m helping my brother at his cafe during the indoor flea market at the Pembroke Pines Senior Center...then the following weekend (Memorial Day weekend), I’ll just be resting and relaxing, maybe go to the pool (and catch up on race reports!).  After that, it’s time to get back to business to get back into the right healthy shape for the WDW Tower of Terror 10-miler at the end of September.  Until Memorial Day weekend is over, my mind is switched off of race training and strict eating.  I need the break...sometimes we all do.

Looking forward to watching the sunsets on the beach.....