Cloth Napkins

Cloth Napkins on Sanibel Island Vacation
 
Hello to all my friends and cloth napkin lovers!  We have just returned from a wonderful Sanibel Island Vacation in Florida and thought I would share a little of it with you.  (And, yes, I did take our own cloth napkins, but back to the story). We stayed in paradise at the most perfect resort, called Ocean’s Reach Condominiums, on Sanibel Island. It was absolutely awesome!! If you have never been to Sanibel, let me suggest it, along with Ocean’s Reach.  Sanibel is a little out of the ordinary in that there are no fast food places, no tall buildings, lots of lush tropical foliage, flowers everywhere, and wildlife like you can’t believe.  Our stay at Ocean’s Reach was perfect!! We checked in on Friday afternoon and the staff greeted us and made sure we had all of the necessities before going up to our unit. We stayed in unit 4D4, see our condo along with all of these other fine Sanibel Island Accomodations here. When we unlocked our door and stepped in, we knew we had really arrived. All of the rooms were exquisitely decorated and the unit was spotless.  We looked out the front slider to the Gulf and the beach was right there, if fact it was just 19 steps to the water.  Can you imagine being that close to the ocean?  Why, it was so close I could smell it and hear it from our bed at night.  Our condo was brand new and everything we could have possibly wanted was right there, including a beautiful, private, screened lanai overlooking the Gulf.  There is also a large pool oceanside to use that is kept comfortably heated and from the deck chairs you can watch all of the activity at the waters edge. Check out these Sanibel Island Pictures. Sanibel is very well know for the shelling, and the beach in front of Ocean’s Reach is ideal. The water is usually calm and on the shallow side which makes it great if you happen to have children, and the dolphin sightings are frequent. In fact, I was slowly meandering down the beach one morning looking for shells, and glanced up and right beside me, perhaps eight feet out from the shore, was a dolphin matching my stride. It followed me for a short while and then dove under and was gone. I was so thrilling to think it came that close to me and had singled me out. Wow!

      Sanibel sits east to west instead of the normal north to south, and this allows the island to catch shells easily and they then collect on the beach. The best time to hunt for shells is at low tide or after a storm. It is very a popular shelling place and everybody walks down the beach bent over at the waist so as not to miss that one rare, treasured shell, that the walk is dubbed the “Sanibel Stoop”.  It is really quite a sight!  Acording to many of the shellers on the beach, this particular stretch in front of Ocean’s Reach is well known for turning up a few rare ones. I found many shells during the week, but nothing out of the ordinary according to my book.

     We found many interesting things to do while staying at Ocean’s Reach. They have bicycles to rent and there are bike paths everywhere on the island, so you can even ride bikes to go to breakfast in the mornings, and our favorite place is Jerry’s. Outside at Jerry’s are all of these huge cages with the most beautiful exotic birds. I love to stop and visit with them.  Also, a very interesting place is the Sanibel Sea School, where you can go for the day and sign up for classes in many differentsubjects. This is a place for all ages to enjoy.  The Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge is another very famous attraction.  The refuge is part of the largest underdeveloped mangrove ecosystem on the United States. It is world famous for its spectacular migratory bird populations.  J. N. “Ding” Darling is one of over 540 refuges in the National Wildlife Refuge System administered by the U. S. Fish & Wildlife Service.  The entire complex is approximately 6,400 acres of mangrove forest, submerged seagrass beds, cordgrass marshes, and West Indian hardwood hammocks. The wildlife viewing is incredible. Go to Ding Darling for more detailed information.  One of my favorite places to visit was C.R.O.W., which is the clinic for the reahabilitation of wildlife.They do so many things I can’t even begin to tell you all, but there is one educational program given daily on the grounds of C.R.O.W. every Monday through Friday at 11:00 AM for the entire year and again at 1:00 PM every Sunday through the winter season. This is a must see in my book. You can go to C.R.O.W. to read all about it. Well, these are the only things I managed to do this last week beside sit in the sun and read, and pick up shells and more shells. I am back in the world of reality now, but I’d like to think I am a little better because of Ocean’s Reach Condominiums. Check it out and think about it for your next vacation. It truly was a paradise within reach, and don’t forget your cloth napkins!