Sanibel Island Vacation Diary - January 14, 20075 a.m., the alarm clock came early, but we had a 10 hour drive ahead of us and we wanted to get on the road by 6 a.m. At 5:50 a.m. we pulled out of the driveway and began our journey. Our standard operating procedure when driving to Sanibel [Directions to Sanibel] is to eat lunch at Cracker Barrel. Since we were traveling on a Sunday, we were concerned that the wait time at Cracker Barrel would be lengthy, due to large breakfast and after-church crowds. We stopped at one Cracker Barrel and found large numbers of people waiting outside. We didn't even get out of the car, instead choosing to drive down I-75 to another Cracker Barrel. About an hour later we stopped at a different Cracker Barrel, which was just as busy as the first, so we drove across the street to a Burger King and ate quickly. At Sanibel Moorings where we vacation, we had two units that we could choose to stay in, thanks to the helpful staff. When I had made the reservations there were a couple units available, with pros and cons to both. So they said when we arrived we could look at each one and then pick. Susan liked one of the units better, even though it was further from the beach. I paid the bill, then drove our car around to the assigned parking space for our unit. The space was very close to the unit, and we quickly unloaded the car. After settling in, Susan and I decided to drive down the main road to see what had changed since we were here last. We noticed a few new business signs, new paint jobs, new trees planted to replace those destroyed during hurricane Charlie, and some new pavement. Our curiosity satisfied, we decided it was time to eat and we drove back to the Jacaranda, our traditional first restaurant stop. Susan had called from Atlanta to make reservations since we had never been here at this time of year and we were concerned we might have trouble getting in to eat. Our reservation was for 7 p.m. but we got to the restaurant at 6:00. There was no wait, and we were seated right away. Neither Susan nor I broke from our food ordering rut. She got the crab stuffed grouper. I got baby back ribs. We both enjoyed the food. Perhaps our one complaint at the Jacaranda is the slow drink refill service. The restaurant was a bit more crowded than it usually is when we are here during the summer time. After eating, we stopped at Dairy Queen. During the summer, Dairy Queen is mobbed. But tonight was different. We only had to wait in line a couple of minutes. We set down so I could eat a bite of my Heath Blizzard. There was no one sitting at any of the tables. So, here was a clear difference between Sanibel in the summer and Sanibel in the winter. I ate part of the Blizzard then we headed home. I put the remainder in the freezer. Tonight was the premiere night for the TV show 24, so we settled in and enjoyed the show. We turned out the light at 11:30 p.m.
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