Sanibel Island

I spent a fabulous day on the Island of Sanibel today. I started out the day at the Sanibel Bean where the coffee was smooth and delicious. I joined a long line of cars at the "Ding" Darling wildlife preserve at 7:15 a.m. I joined the photographers with their huge cameras as they scurried to get the best spots. I was wishing I had brought my good camera and equipment, but I was traveling light. I saw some fantastic looking cameras. I looked through one person's lens and could see the fish going down the bird's throat. It was incredible. Next year, I'm bringing my camera and tripod. I spent two hours there convening with nature and took hundreds of pictures with my trusty pocket camera.

Then I went to the Sanibel history museum and the library. Since this is black history month, they had some displays of the first black pioneers to come to the island. Let me just say that they had a rough life. There were two main families who began to marry and they continue to have a family reunion on the island every year. I saw one black guy in the kitchen restaurant while I was on the island. No others in the restaurants or shops. It doesn't look like progress has come too far for the original pioneering family. The original two families were sharecroppers. Their historical ramshackle place was "accidentally" burned down while developing one of the recent island attractions. The tour was interesting anyway. I also learned what a hip line roof was. I thought it was some new fancy roof design. It has to do with the slope of the roof to prevent hurricanes.

I went to all of the bookstores and art galleries on the island. Mostly there were watercolors and sculpures, some neat mixed media pieces and some paper collages and art dolls. I love seeing all of the fish prints (goyotaku). There was loads to enjoy.

Above are some of my friends from the wildlife preserve