With six days left in our Sanibel stay, we crammed in as much as we could, starting with the two Naples markets on Friday and Sunday.  Truth be told, if we hadn’t already paid the vendor fee for the Friday event, we probably would have skipped getting up early and the hour drive for what we suspected (accurately) would be another poor showing.

We are finally planning far enough ahead to be on top of seasonal items this year.  Behold Rosemarie’s glass and seashell ornaments.

The only great thing about running back and forth to Naples is the always enjoyable drive across the causeway.  Even PKM seems to enjoy this part, and the Osprey’s are always there to great us.

Fortunately Sunday’s market was very solid, and the experience only re-enforced in our minds the need to pick our vending events in Naples a bit more carefully next year.  Regardless of the money, we always find something worthwhile to buy at these events, usually produce or delicious prepared food.  This month it was the chocolate croissants from Tartine & Tartelette, the Guacamole from a vendor I can’t recall, and the medium heat salsa from Sinful Salsa, though the array of olives was quite tempting as well.

In between events we got to visit with October Rose, who was on vacation from her permanent home in the mountains of India.  She and her sister Barbara joined us for an afternoon on Sanibel.  We returned the visit on Monday at Barbara’s Cape Coral apartment where we enjoyed white wine, vegetable stew, and an unsuccessful attempt to see some manatees at a nearby park near an electrical generation plant that often draws them into the warm outflow channels from the cooling cycle.  The weather was just not quite chilly enough at the time of our visit, perhaps next time.

No manatees, but we did like this big tree across from Barbara’s apartment.

We also managed to connect up with Key West friends (and geocaching buddies) Stan and Marilyn who were staying with their nephew on Pine Island, the next island inland from Sanibel.  We took a short tour of Sanibel and Captiva with them, spent some time on the beach shelling, and capped the visit off with lunch at Pecking Order (though some people chose to order from Subway next door.)  Given the expense of Sanibel, it was nice to find another affordable joint with top quality food.

The remaining few days were taken up by a whole lot of shelling as Rosemarie sought to improve the quality of her keepers and the volume of her crafting supplies in anticipation of a lot of shell oriented items to be sold at markets throughout 2018.

We keep restaurant outings quite limited on the island, but couldn’t resist a late brunch at Over Easy Cafe where I enjoyed one of the more beautiful versions of Eggs Benedict I have every had.  It used Nova salmon in place of the traditional Canadian bacon, and spiced up with red onions, capers, and sliced tomato.  In our five or so years of visiting Sanibel and Captiva, I think we have dined at fewer than a dozen of the 50 plus eateries there.  Someday we might actual make it to the more well known establishments, such as Island Cow, but for now we are happy with the few price conscious gems we have found and hope to visit again.

Come on, even if you don’t like poached eggs that looks fantastic, right?

For our last afternoon we took drinks and snacks up to Lighthouse Point, and were rewarded with a small pod of dolphins that put on a show with their shallow water, near shore hunting.  Between that and another great sunset, it was a fantastic finish to a great Sanibel stay.

Next post: our triumphant return to Central Florida where we close out the market year strong and enjoy the holidays with friends and family.