What I love about Sanibel is that the whole island is dog-friendly. Captiva Island has now closed the beaches to our four-legged friends, but Sanibel is still happy to let dogs frolic along on the beach as long as they are on a leash. Even the water fountains have an adult size, child size, and dog bowl option which is pretty cool! Doodles has been to the beach before, but up in Maine in the winter season. Here at Bowman's Beach (only 3minute drive for our rented house!), she was basking in the hot sun and liked the bubbles at the tips of the waves.
Our two-year old loved collecting shells to throw like rocks into the ocean. For her morning snack time, my husband dug a hole for her to put her legs in to keep them buried in the cool sand - she loved it!
After nap time, Keiki and I went on a Mommy-Daughter date to find the only playground on the island that is in partial shade. It's a small one at the Periwinkle Shopping Place, about the size of a face back yard playset, but just enough to entertain her and keep her in the shade!
After looking at the map we saw there was a butterfly garden on the other side of the shops, and we slowly made our way over in the 106*F heat only to find it was a minimal tree garden to attract them, and obviously too hot for any fluttering friends. So we made our way back to the car for a cool drink of water and a snack instead.
This is Bailey's General Store. It's hidden a the end of Periwinkle Way, before turning up to connect to Sanibel-Captiva Rd. It's an expensive grocery store but no more then Jerry's. We found that the only Publix grocery store is traveling of the island about a 40minute drive and then paying $6 toll to get back here so if you only need one or two items it's best to just stop at Jerry's or Bailey's. And since all we needed was pizza dough and some more juice boxes, Bailey's was perfect!
Pool time is becoming pretty addicting in the later afternoons. The sun is less hot and it entertains Keiki forever! It's nice to have this luxury as an alternative to watching a cartoon before dinnertime. She has had some strong-willed Mommy attachment issues lately so it's usually her and I playing at the pool while my husband cooks dinner. Beach balls and pool noodles are available, but one of her favorite things to do is take the plastic cups and pour water back and forth. She practices so diligently and I love how focuses she becomes not to spill a drop!
Bedtime for the TinyTot is at 7pm so Brian decided to try his hand at catching a photo of the alligators we've been seeing down by the river. I saw a massive one last night, about 1/2 the size of the dock which is over 6 feet and it scared the socks right off me! Then this afternoon Brian saw two swimming right along. Needless to say, he got this close to the dock and realized how scary it would be to see it up close and he came right back in... no need to be eaten by any large prehistoric animals on this trip!
