Boca Grande and Pellican Bay

I guess we're not welcome here!!

Downtown and on the beach at sunset at Boca Grande

After securing the anchor and the tether to the mangroves at Boca Grande Lagoon we dinghied ashore for a short walk into town to stretch our legs and pick up some provisions for dinner that night aboard the boat. Hudsons is a little grocery store about the size of a typical convenience store--it's the only one on the island--but it has absolutely everything. It is ingeniously stocked including an excellent meat and seafood section, wine selection and everything else one might need. Instead of having 7 varieies of baked beans, for instance, they have only one or two---but, they have baked beans. It really is a gem, and the prices are not too bad. We picked up a couple of very nice steaks for our feast that evening.

While we had planned on renting bikes the next day it turned out to be cheaper to rent a golf cart for a couple of hours---so we did and toured the island. We drove to the southern most point where it looks out over the pass out into the Gulf. It was very windy this day and the pass did not appear very hospitable. I would not have attempted it under these conditions. The beach was gorgeous, however and we decided to walk back later that night to enjoy what promised to be a beautiful sunset. After a brief nap in the sun we returned the golf cart and went across the street to the legendary "Temp" (Temptations Bar and Restaurant) for a glass of wine and an appetizer before returning home for dinner. (We had decided against dinner at the Pink Elephant after previewing their prices--besides, we have found that we enjoy eating on the boat more than throwing a bunch of money at fancy restaurants where we tend, too often, to be disappointed in the quality. It's a different thing if we are familiar with the place and the quality of the fare----Like my Uncle Bob said to my Aunt Sally years ago when she was trying to get him to take her to some fancy restaurant that he hated, " Crap Sal, you can't eat atmosphere!!!"

So it was back to the boat. On the way back we happened upon a little specialty store that had some very nice looking crab cakes. We bought some and had them for dinner before returning to the beach for the sunset pictured above--you really can't very often capture sunsets in photos can you? Once in a while with luck.

The next morning we waited for a thick fog to lift before setting out for Caya Costa Island and State Park where the sign, pictured above telling us we weren't welcome on the island, hung on the park headquarters building. You can tell from Diane's expression how she felt about it.

After motoring in 0 wind for about an hour we worked our way very carefully through the shallows that guard the entrance to Pellican Bay where we dropped the anchor, had lunch and dinghied ashore.

After paying our $4 at the ranger station we set out on the 1 mile walk across the island to the Gulf side to an incredible beach. We dropped our back pack and towels. etc and continued walking another mile or so down the beach picking up shells, sand dollars and small brown (dead) urchins that had washed up on the beach ( a lady showed us how you can dry them out, scrape off the spines, shake out the remaining dried up innards, and you have a very pretty shell --just make sure you do the drying-out part outside and away from your olfactory senses.) WE spent quite a while on this gorgeous and mostly deserted beach--caught a few rays and then took the mile long walk back to the ranger station where we splurged with a cold diet coke from the small store they have there---They were out of Snickers ice cream bars.

It was a great day---one of a little exercise but a whole lot of relaxing. Life is Good!!

Next morning we were underway back to Burnt Store Marina. Decided to sail on by it as the wind and water were perfect for a very nice, comfortable, quiet sail around the bay. We arrived back at our slip in time to prepare for dinner with our new friends, the Oredniks--I hope I spelled it right. They are the friends of friends from back in Houston and they live down here 4 months out of the year--the rest of the time in the Chicago area. After dinner they introduced us to some neighbors who have been sailing their trawler here for many years and are quite familiar with the area waters. It was a delightful evening with some of the many new friends that we have met along this journey. This has truly been one of the best, but totally unanticipated features of this trip--meeting and getting to know people along the way.

Tomorrow will be laundry and cleanup day and then Superbowl!!! Go Steelwers!!!!

Oh yeah---I forgot to mention. My cousin Jane lives in Ft Lauderdale and we have been planning on seeing her somewhere, sometime during our stay in Florida. I e-mailed her about getting together and she wrote back that another cousin--Marsha Nelson--and her husband,Jim, are coming down from their home on Lake Michigan to spend a month at Siesta Key, just south of Sarasota--not 2 hours from here. So, we are now working on the logistics of us all getting together for a little mini-reunion. I've even suggested to my sister, Barb, up in freezing Pittsburgh that she come down as well and she's looking in to it. Whodathunk??

Well, it's time for me to make the coffee and wake ujp Diane. It's now Superbowl Sunday. Tomorrow we pick up a rent car and start to do some land side exploration. Looking forward to it. So far we really like this area.