Crazy 8: 2015-01-11

After spending a wonderful holiday season with family and friends, we arrive back to Crazy 8 with Buster and Bailey in tow. Legacy Marina is hosting the Great Loopers' Reunion so Crazy 8 needs to vacate the slip she called home for the last two months. The weather is not the best, but we unload the car and get our supplies on board. After a long two days of travel and cleaning, we gear up and head to the City Tavern in Ft. Myers to cheer our Buckeyes onto VICTORY! Our son attends OSU. His freshman year, they were bowl ineligible, This, his senior year, they are in the national championship game! It was a great night for some duck hunting!

O-H

The following morning we head to Sanibel Island. We need to pass through the miserable mile once again. At this point, we have navigated this stretch many times; it does not ever get any better. It is still miserable. We pass under the bridge to Sanibel. We are near!

Bridge to Sanibel. $6 toll from Ft Myers.

Where is the grass?

Sanibel Harbor Marina

The weather at Sanibel is not the best. It is cloudy, cool and rainy. Definitely not beach weather but it is perfect for bike riding. As the marina is quite a distance from all stores, restaurants and beaches, we rent bikes to explore the island. There are over 22 miles of bike paths on the island and they actually are as busy as the roads.

Bike path

Sanibel is only 3 miles wide, at the widest point, and only 13 miles long. It is home to approximately 6500 residents, but at peak season, there are over 22,000. I think we are nearing peak season. The roads and bike paths are quite congested!

Sanibel is known for its land conservation; over half of the island is set aside to preserve the abundant and diverse wildlife population. To keep with this theme, buildings along Sanibel's coastline must be no taller than the tree line.

A popular historic icon is the Sanibel lighthouse. Sanibel Lighthouse is the first lighthouse on Florida's Gulf Coast, north of KeyWest.

Sanibel Lighthouse - 98 feet

Sanibel is also know for it's shelling. Although the weather has not been the best for our own personal shelling, the shelling on Sanibel is ranked by USA Today as the 7th best of all of Florida's Attractions. That is saying a lot!

We enjoyed our time at Sanibel Harbor. Although the coconut palm trees at the marina were a little treacherous as one coconut fell and missed Tom by inches.