Slice of Heaven

December Camping Tour

Post #4

Probably my most favorite day of the whole trip was the day that we went to Sanibel Island. We brought our bikes along on this trip for this very reason...to bike around the Island and are so glad we did it! It was a peaceful, restful day filled with things our nuclear family unit loves to do together. We started out riding in the Ding Darling Nature Preserve. Elsa even got to go along with us for the whole day...she is doing very well learning to walk/run alongside my bike. There were tons of birds and other wildlife, but the highlight of the time here was seeing alligators, close up and in person! We probably biked about 4.5 miles, not a whole lot, but it was beautiful and we took our time and stopped to see lots of things along the way.

We ate lunch at a restaurant recommended by our friends Sara and Ryan, Cheeburger Cheeburger, in the little town on the island. It was good, and since the milkshakes were recommended, we got those too. The menu for the milkshakes included every flavor literally imaginable, probably 100flavors listed. Eric could read and decide for himself, and Leah already knew what she wanted without looking at the choices, but Bay wanted to know what his choices were. He could have sat there and read it himself, but it would have taken him an hour, so told him i was going to read it to him only ONE time and he would have to listen carefully and stop me when i got to one that sounded good. So, I read through the ENTIRE menu, all 100 of them, (all listed in alphabetical order). When I got to the last one...V for Vanilla and he still hadn't said which one he wanted, I said, "Bay, which flavor do you want?" he said, of course, "Vanilla!" We all got a good laugh out of that!

Lastly, we visited Bowman's Beach on the Island and had a fabulous impromptu time. It is amazing how the beaches are so different all along the gulf coast. The first one we visited was calm water, chilly water, wide flat beach, and tons of shells. Bowman's Beach was totally the opposite...the water was rough but much warmer, no shells and a much sharper drop-off at the surf line. Anyways, the kids had no bathing suits, but we took off our shoes and let them play in the waves. Bay got soaked all the way up to his hat. Elsa had a blast letting the waves chase her and then she would attack the foam. The sun was sinking in the sky as we were there, so the pictures captured our mood very well. It was a great end to a great day.