J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge, Sanibel Island, Fl.

We took the drive through the J.N. "Ding" Darling Refuge, on Sanibel Island.

The charge was  $5.00, for the four mile drive through the refuge. We had Mallery with us, so we didn't visit the Visitor Center and all it's exhibits. You can do that free anytime. Do you see the bird?

Is this better. This is the best I can do with my camera.

All the birds are so far away for pictures.

American White Pelicans and  maybe Double-Crested Cormorants.

Great Egret (Joe said this bird is worth 50 cents of the five dollars entry fee. Four fifty to go)

Love the green around it's eye.

This is a spot where you walk on a boardwalk over the water.

Red Mangroves reflected in the water.

And a snake swimming below. ( Joe said the snake is worth 75 cents)

Sure glad I am up here.

You can't see it, but there were a bunch of holes in the mud and little pinching, what looked to be crab claws waving out of the mud. Very weird looking. At first I thought there were a bunch of white wiggle worms in the mud. ( Joe said they were worth $1.00, even though you can,t see them. We are at $2.25)

Not sure what kind of snake. Best, I could come up with was maybe a yellow rat snake or mangrove salt marsh snake, from my research.

The snake was under that boardwalk.

Farther down the road we come to the lookout tower.

Birds were too far to get pictures.

But just up the road I could get a better view than from the tower.

More American White Pelicans.

You tell me!

I looked down and saw this snowy egret right below me, from the road.

I know it's a snowy egret because Joe's sister Renee told me snowy egrets have yellow feet. ( I'd say he is worth at least 75 cents. Joe didn't see him because he is still in the car. It is in the low ninety's, so he is enjoying the air).

This is the last trail, about 1/4 of a mile.

The trail is on the boardwalk all the way.

A pretty red flowering bush.

Shady Hammock Tree. Mallery knew where the shade was!

Looking back at the Shady Hammock Tree. There were informational  postings along the trail, but we had to read them quickly as we had an appointment to see a motor home that was for sale on Sanibel Island.

This is a midden at the base of the information post. A midden, also known as a kitchen midden, or a shell heap (when they contain a large number of shellfish remains),^[1] is a dump for domestic waste. The word is of Scandinavian via Middle English derivation, but is used by archaeologists worldwide to describe any kind of feature containing waste products relating to day-to-day human life. They may be convenient, single-use pits created by nomadic groups or long-term, designated dumps used by sedentary communities that accumulate over several generations.

The Calusa were the name of the people who first inhabited Sanibel Island.
We did not see our $5.00 worth, according to Joe. I guess you have to be a real birder, who has a great camera, or who likes to counts birds. Oh well, I guess we can say, " seen that, done that!
We saw the 4 slide 36 foot motor home that was for sell. It does not fit our criteria. The floor plan just didn't work for us. After you have been full-timing for 2 1/2 years, you know exactly what you want. Every time we compare them to what we have for the money, we leave appreciating our Nest.  Newer motor homes depreciate very fast, worse than cars, so we prefer to stay with an older model. It is hard to find a nice older model.

Fort Myers Beach beaches 3/25/2011

We decided to check out Fort Meyers Beach beaches.

I like Fort Myers , because they also allow dogs on their beaches, as long as they are on a leash,

and you pick up after them.

We parked at Fort Myers Beach beach access #21. The beaches are very narrow here.

It could be high tide though, making the beach narrow.

Mallery did a great job walking with us. It was a very warm day, but walking in the water, and because it was windy, she stayed cool.

Joe and Mallery cooling off under the new beach umbrella we brought.

On our second walk in the other direction, we saw this RV park on the beach.

The sand is pretty flat and no shells, which make it great for walking on the beach

When it was time to go, I had to wait for a wave,

so I could rinse all the sand off  Mallery's  legs and belly. The back of my shorts also got rinsed off from the big  waves.

As we drove home, we stopped at Red Coconut RV Park, to get the price sheet for parking on the beach. Front row or row #1 is $97.00/day, or $612.00/week, and no monthly rates. If you want to stay in the park across the street, it will cost you $65/ day, $440/ weekly, or $1560.00/month. The 4 mile drive home did take us 30 minutes due to traffic, but that weekly rate is what we usually pay for a month.

Sanibel Island Lighthouse & Bowman Beach

While at Indian Creek RV Resort and Manufacture Community, one morning we looked out our windows, and saw a stream of bikers going by.

Joe went out and took this picture as I was still in my P.J.'s. Later, we found out that every Friday at 9AM, whoever wants to ride, meet at a certain starting point. There are generally 175 riders, with 217 being the most at one time. They ride up and down all the streets in the park, which makes it a 5 mile ride.

We have found that this community is very active. One morning there was a volley ball and tennis tournaments going on.

We headed back over the causeway to Sanibel Island after paying the $6.00 toll.

There are a lot of people that park for the day (free) on the narrow beaches along the causeway, instead of going to the $2.00/ hour beaches on Sanibel & Captiva Island.

Our first stop is Lighthouse Beach. The parking lot at the Lighthouse Beach is also small and we had to wait for someone to leave to park to park the car. This time the wait was a minute or two, instead of 20 minutes like we had on Captiva Island.

The Lighthouse was lit for the first time in 1884.

There was a large bird 2/3's of the way up, but I could not get a good picture of it.

Sanibel's fishing pier is also on the Lighthouse Beach.

View of the causeway bridge and Fort Myers Beach in the distance, and lovers in the foreground.

Anther picture of the bird. It looks like some kind of hawk, or maybe an osprey in this picture.

Lighthouse and lighthouse homes on the beach.

We walked on the beach with Mallery, since we had paid for the parking.

After our lighthouse beach walk, we drove to Bowman's Beach. I like the " No nude sunbathing" on the sign. At a beach in St Pettersburg, we did see 3 different guys sunbathing alone, in what looked to be thongs.

The parking lot at Bowman's Beach is very large. No waiting for a parking spot at this beach.

You cross a waterway to the beach.

The walk to the beach is long,

especially when you have beach gear,

and a dog that gets whimpy in the sun!

Yeah the beach! My arm's were breaking.

We've become lazy beach bums! Check out our newly purchased beach umbrella. (I wanted a colorful one, but the white one was cheaper and would fit any decor in the future)

If you look close you can see Mallery hiding in the shade behind my chair.

Joe pulls her up for a picture.

Lots of shells here. Sanibel is famous for all their shells. All the shells we see are small, but there are suppose to be large one too. I guess everyone has snatched them up by the time we get to the beach.

This is a rough pen shell. I got a pamphet that tells you the name of shell on Sanibel and Captiva. I don't know what is attached to it though.

A cactus flower at the beach.

And of course more birds.

As we approach the birds from one direction, another couple approaches the birds from the other way.

I like Bowman Beach the best so far on Sanibel Island, because it has the widest beach with the most shells.

Mallery loved her walk on the beach, as well as chasing the birds ( as far as her leash would let her go). She was able to stay cool from the ocean water and breeze.