Sanibel Island Vacation Diary - Day 3

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[11 minutes, 14 seconds]

Friday, June 17, 2005.

Fred: Once again, Susan was hitting the beach early and I slept late and that's just the way I like it.

Susan: That's just a pattern that has been established.

Fred: Susan says that's a pattern, so that's fine. I told her that that's why I come here is to get some sleep. I got up a little earlier. I got up at about 10:00 today and I have a business, so I had to make a couple of phone calls and dealt with a couple of business issues.

The good thing is that, this year they have installed a high-speed wireless network access router, so you can either go into . . . they have a conference center . . . I wouldn't call it a conference center really, but it's just one little building, one room and they have two computers with a couple of printers and scanners, table and chairs if you needed to have a little conference you can go in there and access the internet. Use the computers for whatever you need to do and so they have the wireless network. You can actually sit on the bench outside the building or just sit on the front steps. You need to get a key from the main office to get in during their regular business hours and go sit down in the air conditioned room. So it's a good way to retrieve your emails quickly and get online quickly. Otherwise, you're just limited to the dial-up access in the room. Each room has its own dedicated phone line for internet access if that's something that you need. Again, it's just dial-up, low-speed.

When we first started coming here, they didn't have that and it was sometimes hard to get a phone line out because so many people were trying to access the internet, so they spent the money and upgraded the place so that every unit has an extra line for dialing out.

I finally finished what I was doing and went out to talk to Susan on the beach or sit with Susan for a little while and then we came back in and decided to get some lunch. We went to a place that we hadn't been to in probably . . .

Susan: We went there the first year.

Fred: Susan says we went there the first year, so it's called the Lazy Flamingo and, I guess the first time we had gone, we didn't have the greatest experience. I don't know why. Susan has a specific type of food she likes and I guess she didn't find something that she wanted so, but I did, I enjoyed it. We just never had gone back. They actually have two locations. There's one, it's really the first restaurant you come to on the island. If you come onto the island and take a right, it's the very first restaurant you're going to see. You can miss it. It's the Lazy Flamingo. It's the pink sign right next door to the Dairy Queen on the right, if you take a right coming into the island. But they also have another location on the very end of the island. Almost as far to the other end of the island as you can go out toward Captiva. So two locations.

It's got a bar and I am assuming that they have a pretty good happy hour crowd that visits there every day, but it's kid friendly. When we got there there were several families eating with children.

The have a pretty limited menu, but I think they have something most anybody would enjoy. I got a really delicious hamburger, very fast service. I mean, it was probably out to us in probably six or seven minutes. Susan got a Caesar salad and on a few items they offer half portions, which she did and, I'm telling you, if she had gotten the full size of her Caesar salad, she'd still be eating there right now finishing it, because the half size was bigger than most salads that you get at other restaurants when you get a regular sized salad. So take that option if you can, if you're not really hungry, but it was good, I tried her salad and it was good. My hamburger was excellent and I believe we'll go back again.

They have really neat atmosphere inside and out. They have a water fountain, or a little area around the front that's flowing water and that's inviting and plenty of space outside to wait if you need to. Really large parking lot in the back, so I'm sure during the peak season when it's busy there's plenty of space for people to park.

The total bill was $17. Both of us had iced tea and that was it. So we got out of there for $17 plus tip. Not bad. Then came home and decided it was time to hit the beach, so we went on out and we stayed out there for, I guess about four hours. Came in and, here we are. I'll keep talking a little bit later, once we have more to tell. The rest of the day, we went to film a few places that we wanted to cover to put on the web site and then we went to eat at a place called Traders. Traders is obviously a restaurant, but it's also a store with a pretty interesting mix of products from all over the world it seems. A lot of jewelry, they have decorative items for your home, and clothes. Just a really neat place to go if you want to find an item that you wouldn't find at just any other store.

Dinner was excellent. I had chicken with, I guess spaghetti and then Susan had . . . what would you call what you had?

Susan: Uh, Shrimp Tortellini.

Fred: Which she spilled on her shirt and got a little grease on her shirt and had to wear that the rest of the evening, but that was a very good meal. The price tag for that meal was $66.78, Susan did have two glasses of wine, which was a total of $14, so that was a little more than we usually spend. We usually get maybe one glass of wine. I don't drink really, so we got out of there for $66 plus tip. Very good meal. May go back there one more time before the trip is up.

After we went to Traders, we went to a new store called Mango Bay, which is your typical t-shirt place, except that . . . Susan's laughing . . .

Susan: At my book.

Fred: She's reading a book. They have a really good selection of t-shirts, but they seem to be high-end, high quality t-shirts. They didn't have the typical place where you go and select a decal off the wall and they actually print it for you there. They don't do that like the other place that we like to go called "Winds."

So this place is new, brand new. We've never seen it before. They really went all out and all in, I guess you could say. They are occupying this entire, what used to be maybe four or five different stores. They've combined this whole area into one store, so they're really going after the business and hopefully they can succeed. It seems like a really good place to buy your t-shirts and beach stuff, so that's a good place to go. That's right across the street from Jerry's grocery store.

So we finished there, actually I bought a pair of sunglasses and Susan did too. I needed some that wouldn't fall off my face like the ones I've had. After we left Mango Bay, we had to, of course, stop at Dairy Queen and this time I hit the jackpot. Absolutely no one was in there, which is very unusual. Most of the time when we drive by there, there are maybe 10 or 12 people or more standing in line. So I got lucky and got myself a large Blizzard. I think Dairy Queen prices are a little higher here, being on the island, but I'm willing to pay it because I like Dairy Queen Blizzards.

By the way, Dairy Queen is really the only franchise or name brand restaurant that you would ever find on the island. There are a couple of 7-11s, but in terms of restaurants, there are no other franchises. There are no McDonalds, there's no Burger King. I guess they've been here long enough, maybe they got in under the wire. I think the island has probably tried to keep that type of restaurant off the island, but they've been here since, I believe since 1971 and it's a fun place to go and everybody likes to have some good ice cream. So, by the way the Dairy Queen is next to the Lazy Flamingo where we ate earlier in the day, so they're right next to each other there right when you come onto the island. You'll see those right when you take a right and come onto the island.

We came on home and that was pretty much the end of our day. We got some bad news, my wife's parents actually called us that night and let us know that they had to put their cat to sleep. So Tiffany, rest in peace. That's it for Friday.

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