Lighthouse Beach

Vacationing on Sanibel/Captiva in late October/early November is pure bliss.  The air temperature is 85+ degrees and the water temperature is 75+ degrees.  My aunt so lovingly refers to this phenomenon as the "Sanibel Bubble".  We can be sitting on the beach looking out across the bay to Fort Myers, Bonita and Naples and see serious clouds, but be basking in the hot sun completely unaffected by any cloud cover.  It also rarely gets a direct tropical storm/hurricane hit.  ::Knock on wood::

Getting back to the specifics of our trip this year....our Monday and Wednesday were spent enjoying the most gorgeous beach days at Lighthouse Beach on Sanibel Island.  This beach is just a short walk from our condo.  It is on the Gulf Side, versus the small private beach that we enjoy on the outside of our patio which faces San Carlos Bay.  Lighthouse Beach is full of white sand, as well as many many shells.  For those of you who don't already know, Sanibel is practically world reknown for its shells (has to do with its east/west positioning).  However, as a visitor who gets out of bed around 9-10am and shows up to the beach around 11am, don't be surprised to find that a lot of the huge, fully intact shells are missing in action.  Shelling is taken seriously down here and, you know the saying, the early bird gets the worm!!

Lighthouse Beach

We passed the time on these lovely days by.....

....sitting on our beach chairs sipping vodka pineapples

.....lying on our rafts in the bath-water warm Gulf of Mexico....

 .....taking long walks on the sand bar....

....checking out shells and hermit crabs....

....playing with our shadows....

....spotting sting rays....

FYI -- this is really rare for this time of year.  Sting rays can be found in more abundance in August.  Here's a tip, make sure to shuffle your feet as you wade out in the water because that will make them swim away.  If you don't and you step on one, then these normally not aggressive creatures may just jab you with that incredibly pointy tail

....finding sand dollars

FYI -- you can't take "live" shells from the beach.  Tuck did return this one to the water shortly after this picture was taken :)

....playing paddle ball....

Hope you enjoyed our beach shots!  I have more to share from our Captiva sunsets, which are unparalleled in my lifetime