Snapshots from Sanibel Part I

The unexpected part about our trip in mid-December was the weather.  The high in the Springs the day we flew down was higher than the high in Sanibel.  (Should that be "on Sanibel" because Sanibel is an island? . . .)

Most days, though, it got into the low 70's.  While this is colder than the usual, it felt great for us.  It was nice not to sweat AND to have temps high enough to enjoy the beach.  And, yes, the water was ice cold.  Since when does that deter a child from a beach?

***

The very bright side to this weather was that the same storm systems that ushered in the cold front also churned up the sea and washed thousands of shells from the deep to the shore.  Sea urchins.  Sea biscuits.  Coral-covered sea fans.  We walked to the beach our first afternoon there and were stunned at the bounty.

Before that day, though I'd been to Sanibel many times, I had never collected a really great shell by myself.  Gayl had boxes upon boxes of them already washed and bleached, and we would take some of hers home.  Her collection alone was a marvel:  How does one woman end up with 3 cubic yards of sea urchins? 

I now know the answer:  She goes to the beach after a big storm.  10,000 sea urchins died at the same time and got washed up.  I made a sampling in six different spots of this beach.  In sections of 9 square feet, the average number of sea urchins was 58! 

We gathered.  The kids were even more delighted than I was with each find.

On a day soon after, Gemma, Josh and I were walking up to the lighthouse on the shore when Joshua spotted a star fish.  I looked a lot closer.  He was right.  That sucker was hard to see because it was the same color as the sand.  We picked it up-it was about the size of my palm.  Small and cute and brilliantly designed.

Two minutes later, he spotted another.  And then another.  He has eyes like an eagle.

Then Gemma and I started spotting them, too.  It was as though Joshua had taught us what to look for.  But here was Gemma's emotional arc:

First--kind of a little jealous that her brother was finding these awesome star fish.

Second--absolutely thrilled that she could find them, too.

Third, and here is our human nature, summed up in her statement, "I want to find a really big one!"

How quickly treasure wears out.  And we didn't find any big ones.

***

I have mentioned that Gayl and Pedro hope to move soon.  They have been divesting themselves of Gayl's massive collection of antiques, collectibles and memorabilia because their new place won't have the room to store it. 

She is almost done with this process.  Their "basement" is first floor below their home that must sit on pilings because of hurricane codes.  So it's a 4 car garage, and half of that used to be full.  Now, she's down to one wall. 

Which prompted Gemma to say, "It's not any fun to go into Grandma's garage anymore." 

***

Pedro's atemoya tree was producing while we were there.  This is a Peruvian fruit he remembered from his childhood and tracked down here in the States where a California grower has developed a hybrid ideal for Florida. 

You won't find this fruit in stores, I imagine, because they would not ship well.  Bryan thought they were OK.  The kids liked them, but in small doses.  And I ate the heck out of 'em.  When ripe, they are soft enough to break in half with your hands.  Then you use a spoon to scoop out the flesh, which is white and with the texture of a mango.

It has big black seeds, beautiful as beads, that are easy to spit out.  And it tastes like nothing else I've ever tasted.  It's a citrus.  Kind of.  It's sweet.  Atemoya.  If you ever get the chance to eat one, eat it.  (Which is advice you would need if you ever met this fruit without an introduction.  Given only its outside appearance, eating it might not seem like a good idea.) 

***

Bryan went deep sea fishing our first Friday there.  I went with him back in 1998, before we were engaged, because I had this young, romantic notion that couples were supposed to share each other's past-times and Bryan loves to fish. 

About 36 minutes into our trip aboard the "Bobby B," I threw up and continued to do so until I ran out of gas and fell asleep in the door jam of the boat.  My afternoon was better as I was empty and the water was calmer.  I spent it sitting on the captain's deck, where I asked Bobby B to tell me his sea stories.  He had quite a few.  I'm pretty sure that some of them included drug use that he did not mention.

Since then, I have not gone out.  But Bryan tries to each time we visit and each time, he hardly catches a thing.  It's not because he's a "bad" fisherman.  Give me a break.  You drop the bait down where the captain has parked the boat and you hope that something bites the hook.  It's not like he's tying his own flies. . .

This time, Bryan went out and everyone on the boat caught the legal limit.  He came home with 3 big ziplock bags full of grouper and snapper. (The crew cleaned the fish for him.) 

And, for the first time in my life, I ate an entire meal of fish.  Twice, actually!  The fish was so fresh, it didn't taste like fish.  It just had a texture and tasted like whatever spices Gayl had used for the dish.  So, in this sense, it was delicious.

***

We took the kids out one night to see all the Christmas lights on the island.  The business go all out.  But the best display of all was by the Sanibel Community Church that had decked out their entire courtyard and all their palm trees and hung a beautiful sign, 'Wise Men Seek Him' by their beautiful, huge nativity. . . I had an easy time imagining how much Jesus enjoyed their decorations.

We drove into the parking lot so the kids could have a good long look and Joshua exclaimed, "I want to be a church!!"

Why?...

"So then I could be all lighted up!"

***

Another from Joshua:

What is your favorite Christmas song?

"I Wish I Married Christmas." 

***

And another, when we told the kids we'd be going to low tide.  (That is, when the tide is low, low, low, we can walk all the way to the second sand bar.)

"We're waking up early tomorrow to go to low tide,"  Byran said.

Josh asked, "Is there ice cream there?" 

***

We went to the Farmers' market on Sunday morning.  It was the kind I like--e.g. some food grown locally, several merchants selling tasty things in small quantities so we could get a little of this and a little of that--like an amazing wheat bread, a small bag of figs (which the kids had never tried) and, best of all, a wensleydale and cranberry cheese.

Wow, did I ever enjoy that cheese.  Had never had wensleydale before, but Wallace mentions it in one of the Wallace & Grommit movies, so I seized the opportunity to try it. 

The whole experience demonstrated to me how much I like cheese.  Since getting home, I've tried a new one each week from the commissary cold case--a safe bet like Gouda, an unknown like "Blarney," which I have liked.  Hoorah for cheese.

***

We were to fly home on Christmas Day, but our flight was cancelled due to the snow in Atlanta.  3 extra days there!  No complaints here. . .   Bryan had to leave on Monday, the earliest possible, to get back to work.  But my flying alone with the kids is no problem.  They are such pros at travelling. 

(When we boarded this flight, on which we'd gotten the last 3 seats, they saw that we were in the very, very last row.  I was thinking, "Sigh. . . it's going to be hard to get off this plane in time to make our connections."

They were thinking, and saying, "Hooray!  We'll get our drinks from the drink cart first!")

On that Monday, then, Bryan left first thing and the weather had turned cold--down to the mid-50's.  No beach.

I spoke to my kids in my "Attention!  Announcement!  Plans for the Day!" voice.  They know this voice.  They listen attentively when I use it.

"Did you know that when I was a child, my mommy didn't drive?  That's right--Grandma Anne doesn't drive cars.  She never has.  So how did we get places when we wanted to do things?"

Their eyes narrowed.

"We walked," I said. "Now let's get our sweaters.  Off we go."

And off we went.  I love walking.  Getting from here to there.  Or just taking a long walk.  One of the things I loved most about our time in Korea was that I walked nearly everywhere on post, pushing Gemma along in her stroller.  I hardly ever walk outdoors here in Colorado.  How much sense does that make?

I want my kids to appreciate walking, too.  Especially when they have a whole day to spend on nothing in particular. They seemed to sense that it was an adventure.  They knew I planned to call Pedro and ask him to come pick us up when we had gotten "there," and there was something about not having to walk back that made the afternoon spill out in front of us with ripe potential.

Early on, Joshua found a stick of sorts.  It looked almost woven, with pine-cone-like leaves closed in all around it, running its full length.  It was amazing.  He held onto it.

We stopped on a bridge and looked out from there for a while.  We stopped for lunch a little over a mile from the house, at the Lazy Flamingo.  Soon after leaving, I realized we'd left Joshua's stick on the table and we rushed back for it, but they'd already cleared our mess. 

"Did you come back for your Frisbees?"  The waitress wanted to know.  The kids' meals come served in them.

"No," I said, "We came back for his stick."

"A stick?"

I started telling her all about it, trying to describe it, not because I thought she would say, "Oh that?  I kept it for myself, but now that I know it's yours. . ."  I just wanted her to know that it really was an extraordinary stick and that we weren't crazy to come back for it.

I tried to console Josh.  "I'm sure there are more.  We'll look for one the whole time we're walking."  We found several other remarkable specimens--a weed that looks like a starfish, these leaves that are velvety and softer than even lambs ears--but no woven stick. 

We walked into the trailer park (yes! on Sanibel Island!) where they keep exotic birds and a few lemurs one of whom Gemma and Joshua called "King Julian."  (Of course they did.)

By the time we got to the end of our walk--a little shop at Periwinkle Place shopping center where Bryan needed me to get 2 more gifts for his office people--we had not found another woven stick. 

Pedro and Gayl came and got us.  According to the car odometer (which did not measure our foray into the trailer park), we had walked 3.3 miles. 

We told them all about our adventure, including the stick.  Gayl found what we were describing in a book of trees native to Florida, and she happened to know where one such tree was growing.

The next day, after we were done packing but long before we had to leave for the airport, she drew a treasure map for us to find that tree.  It was in the neighborhood and Gemma navigated for us.  There it was!  A Florida North Pine (maybe that's not the right name. . . I would check, but it's 2 AM Sanibel time as I write).  I've never seen any tree like this one.  It's technically not a pine because it's. . .green stuff is not technically a needle.  Not a leaf, either.  It's boughs are made of these woven sticks, attached the same way needles are.  They grow long and beautiful and the kids were again astounded by the bounty. 

***

So, this trip was delightful.  Simple.  The looking and finding didn't happen in Grandma's garage this time.  With a beach and a few extra days and good legs to walk on, it didn't need to.

***

There are a few more snapshots to share, but they will keep for next week.  Here's a hint about them: Amy and Pedro Attend Fitness Class Together.

Yes, Pedro.  The guy who is 84 years old. . .