Thursday, October 22, 2009

Captiva, FL

After our wedding festivities, John and I vacationed on Captiva Island in southwest Florida. Captiva Island is stunning area, just north of Sanibel Island. Captiva, with the exception of vacationers, is sparsely populated. Although the island barely has a grocery store, I'm happy to report that there was a Starbucks on our resort's property. My kind of place.

Our resort covered a 3 mile stretch of Captiva; vacationers ride trolleys to get from one end of the resort to the other. Our first evening, we ate at the resort's barbecue restaurant.

We ate ribs and shared a cream soda. After dinner, we took a walk down the road and visited one of Captiva's most famous (or strangest) establishments, the Bubble Room.

What exactly is the Bubble Room? Technically it's a restaurant, but it could pass for a garage sale. Words cannot describe the Bubble Room...You have to visit for yourself. We were simultaneously amused, interested, scared, and completely weirded out. One can spot the Bubble Room from 100 yards away, due to its rainbow colored paint and carousel horse lawn ornaments. The kitschy, 1950's lounge music playing through outdoor speakers lures you in... before you know it, you're transported to another universe...

Upon entering the Bubble Room, we were greeted by several full grown adults wearing scout uniforms. Weird, right? The weirdness continued...one wall was entirely covered with the creepiest Santa statuettes known to man.

Despite the weirdness, the Bubble Room serves up tasty pieces of cake. We purchased this piece of cake to go and ran as fast as we could back to our condo, far away from the Bubble Room.

Yum, cake in the safety of our condo- away from all the creepiness!

Most mornings we ate breakfast on our screened in porch, which had a nice view of the marina. Note the presence of John's two morning staples: orange juice and cereal. This man is easy to please.
Our second evening, we rode the trolley to the other side of the island for dinner.
The sunset was amazing.

The picture below is one of my favorites. It almost looks fake, doesn't it?
But it's not!
After our walk through the marina, we stumbled into the resort's candy store. We had so much fun filling our bag with eighteen different varieties of jelly beans and all sorts of things that are very bad for you.
So much fun, and all it cost was $2.50.

Here are a few of our evening beach pictures.






On the second to last full day of our trip, John suggested we take a little boat ride...

And do something a little dangerous...

Parasailing! Below, I'm starting to get a little nervous at the thought of floating at an altitude of 700 feet, secured only by a rope, harness, and parasail.
John kept his cool, though.
And here we go!
Higher...
And higher...
And higher!
From our lofty perch, we were able to see all of Captiva Island. Below us we could see dolphins jumping in the water, and even a giant sea turtle. The view was amazing. Before we knew it, it was time to come back down.
The boat driver surprised us with a little dip in the water.
It was an amazing experience, and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone!



Our trip was just wonderful, and before we knew it, it was time to come home.

2 comments:

  1. Great photos! If you want more comments, maybe you should start giving away things, like The Pioneer Woman.

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  2. Yah, PW was giving away Cuisinart food processors the other day. Maybe someday I'll give away something good, like $5 street pashimas.

    ReplyDelete