Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Feb 20-21 2012 Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel and Captiva

I got up early and walked in Matanzas Pass Preserve again. So quiet and deserted and beautiful.

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I was walking and came face to face with a spider web with this guy- a crab-like spiny orb weaver, it was only 3/8 of an inch big.  A mangrove seed-looked like a jalapeno. They get long and thin and I have seen them floating upright in the ocean.

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Coral bean flower. The beans are poisonous. We got in the car and headed toward Sanibel and Captivia keys. These street signs on Estero send the wrong message to me!

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This lizard was hitching a ride on the hood. The traffic was hideous.  It took 1 1/2 hours to go 18 miles on to Sanibel. We went to the shell museum –pictured. It was very interesting. Sanibel is where most of the best shells are found.

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Here are some of the shells. Then we went to J. Ding Darling wildlife refuge. It was a bunch of mangrove islands. Very lovely. Lots of birds.Funny they were birds that migrate to Colorado in the summer, so we knew what they all were.

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More birds. Here are some of the islands. It was huge and very, very crowded. Mostly a drive thru park, same foliage as Matanzas, but no hiking trails. And very crowded.

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Gopher tortoise crossing. Captiva beach. Captiva was almost all very large houses, all behind beautiful landscaping, tall tropical foliage, so you could not see the houses. There was a small picturesque, fancy shops  downtown. The beach was $2 an hour to park, and almost no public beach. It was very pretty but crowded too.

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Great Blue Heron on the beach. The sand was not white like the other islands, it was all crushed shells.  John in the waves

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John under the big wave. Another 1 1/2 hour drive back to Fort Myers. Ice cream vender on Fort Myers beach

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Out to dinner on Fat Tuesday. We went to a Mexican place on the beach . John was happy, it was spring break.  And an interesting fat Tues outfit. . .

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Sunset on the pier on Fort Myers beach.

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