We had a very interesting day without having to go far.
We started out crossing over to Sanibel Island and visiting the J.N. “Ding” Darling National wildlife Refuge. Such a calm and peaceful environment and we saw a few birds – a roseate spoonbill, herons, egrets, and the massive American pelicans which weigh over 20lbs and have 10 foot wingspans. Unfortunately it was siesta and preening time, so not much flight activity.
From the official Identification Guide
We had an especially good lunch at Doc Ford’s Rum bar along with a signature mojito for me😍 Doc Ford’s is well known among Randy Wayne White readers – from Wikipedia: “Randy Wayne White (born 1950) is an American writer of crime fiction and non-fiction adventure tales.[1]He has written New York Times best-selling novels and has received awards for his fiction and a television documentary. He is best known for his series of crime novels featuring the retired NSAagent Doc Ford,[2]a marine biologist living on the Gulf Coast of southern Florida. White has contributed material on a variety of topics to numerous magazines and has lectured across the United States. A resident of Southwest Florida since 1972, he currently lives on Pine Island, where he is active in South Florida civic affairs and with the restaurant Doc Ford’s Sanibel Rum Bar & Grill [3][4]on nearby Sanibel Island.”
Lucky for us that the Fort Myers Sand Sculpting competition was in full swing. Amazingly intricate sculptures created from sand and water.
We got back to our beach for another beautiful sunset – our last in Fort Myers Beach.
Every year in summer they go in for sand sculpture here at Frankston beach, and people come from like over the world to take part. Usually their is a theme or story which changes every year. It usually takes a couple of hours to see it all. Is Sanibel a permanent or seasonal display?.
>
Sanibel is seasonal – just for one week. There were a number of piles of sand that hadn’t been created I to a sculpture and also sand artists from all over – mostly Canada, USA and Europe. I think it was a fairly small exhibit, but fun nonetheless.