Sanibel Day Two

We finished up day one with dinner at a restaurant called The Timbers. It has 2 restaurants actually; one more of a sports bar and the other a little fanicer. We opted for the sports bar. Bob had a crunchy shrimp basket, complete with cole slaw and fries. I chose the Pacifica Basa, which is a type of Vietnamese fish (?). The server said it had a very mild flavor. I would say it had no flavor. Very, very bland. Even with a squeeze or 2 of lemon, salt, pepper, butter, I just couldn't taste it. This was no fault of the cook, just how the fish is. It came with veggies and rice (which looked uncannily like the rice-a-roni I prepare at home). I left a little disappointed. I was filled up but my taste buds weren't satisified, you know what I mean? A little frustrating but "oh well".
We were real naughty on that day and decided to have ice cream for the 2nd time (!). This time, we choice a place called Sanibel Scoop. If you can figure out where to park (3 driveways away) and if you can figure out how to get into the building (walk ALL the way around back), you will be greatly pleased. All their ice cream is homemade and they offer about a dozen selections with toppings to mix in, if you chose. I had the brownie batter ice cream with heath bar topping and Bob chose the cake batter with cookie dough mixed in. It was delicious! Very rich, very creamy. Just what I needed after such a bland dinner. The service was great; very friendly high school-age kids. Just lovely. As you can imagine the price was very high. One scoop (which, we were told, is really more like 2 scoops) was $3.25. I just keep saying my mantra, "We're on vacation. We're on vacation."

We returned to our hotel to get a good seat for the sunset. I'm joking here. There is plenty of room to see this magnificence, but boy, everyone comes out for it. We just had our beach towel, planted out butts on it and sat back. It was beautiful. So peaceful. Its funny how quickly the sun goes down. We got some great pictures.

Day 2
Wowie!! What a difference from Day 1. Very, very windy! We got on the beach before 7 am to practice our Sanibel Stope and find us some cool shells. There were quite a few people out there already at that time. We walked for a few miles. Even with the wind it was such a wonderful way to start our day. There is something about the sound of the waves; the rhythmic dance they do. Kind of captivating.
We rode our bikes into town again and did a little shopping. We are looking for a giant conch shell. We recently added on a bathroom and thought it would be not only a nice souvenier but add a nice touch to the decor. We will probably go back to She Sell Seashells by the Seashore to make that purchase.
We stopped by the local grocery store to buy some sandwich meat and buns etc so we can make our own lunches at the hotel. Makes me feel a little less guilty at dinner time when we drop some serious $$.
After lunch we relaxed on the still-windy beach. We drove into town after a few hours of that and got ourselves a real cup of coffe at the Sanibel Bean. We actually topped off our cups before we left so we could have some good stuff to drink this morning. The water in our hotel room is, well, stinky, and it makes a stinky cup of coffee. I am a coffee snob, you know, so that will not do for me. I want to warm it up now as it is around 6 am but Bob is still sleeping and I really don't want to wake him up. I may have to risk it.
So, where was I?
We had planned for last night to be our anniversary celebration so we found a NICE restaurant to have dinner at. After getting some advice from the locals and the regular visitors, we chose The Thistle Lodge. It is a restaurant on the grounds of a nearby resort. It was VERY nice. During our dinner there were 3 weddings going on at the beach. We were voyuers.
Bob chose the Char-Grilled New York Steak Oscar (what is Oscar?) and I had the Hickory Nut Crusted Mahi Mahi Filet. They each came with some very unusual but VERY delicious sides. I wish I could explain how good this food was. Oh my goodness, I wish I was still eating it. For dessert, Bob had the Creme Brulee and I had a Chocolate Molten Lava Cake. Combined with fabulous coffee, these desserts were the perfect end to a perfect meal. Does all this sound expensive? Oh yes. It was. We dropped $100 on this meal. We resolved beforehand not to worry about the price. We will never again celebrate our 20th anniversary so we decided not to care about what it cost but to just go all out. I am completely guilt free.
We hustled back to our hotel to watch another sunset. As we settled down on our beach towel, Bob picked up another shell like the ones we had been looking for. He handed it to me and inside he had hidden this beautiful emerald and diamond ring that he had had made for me. I can't wait to show you. Its gorgeous. Apparently, the emerald is the stone for the 20th anniveresary. (Who knew?) What a wonderful ending to a wonderful evening/anniversary.
W