The Lighthouse

We had another terrific day! It started with a walk on the beach at 7:00 AM, breakfast at 8:45, and then a drive to Captiva for our daily Starbucks run. I had a little surprise planned for Tracy since I knew we would have to go into or onto Captiva Island this morning. I had heard good things about The Bubble Room, a restaurant on Captiva; so after coffee we walked over to The Bubble Room. It’s a quirky place with a vintage/old Hollywood theme and wait staff known as Bubble Scouts dressed of course in old boy scout uniforms. We dined on potato skins smothered in bacon and cheese and topped off this artery- clogging appetizer off with a delicious hunk of “tropical cake.” Stuffed to the brim we headed back to Sanibel after taking lots of picture inside the restaurant. We drove back to the hotel and hopped on our rented bicycles and went for a 10 mi. ride to the Sanibel Lighthouse. We were pretty disappointed at the appearance of the lighthouse because we expected something more traditional and perhaps more New Englandy, instead we got a boring and industrial SW Florida tourist trap that resembled a rusty old can on stilts. While walking the beach a cute little girl came up to me and said "you should take my picture" she was adorable all decked out in pink coat, fuzzy black scarf, and loads of personality; she appeared to be 4 or 5 years old, I replied "well yes I guess I should." Later we stopped a man with a fancy camera to ask if he would take our picture; he said “no I don’t want to do that” our jaws hit the sand but we grabbed hold of our confidence and squeaked out a feeble “okay, thanks anyway.” He was a very convincing prankster! He agreed and snapped the accompanying center photo. We peddled back to the hotel and watched some reality TV before heading back to the beach to watch the sunset. Then off to the grocery store to buy dinner and now we’re back at the hotel and poor Tracy is working. I sure hope those people appreciate her and realized what a gem they have. While reviewing today's pictures on my computer the two of the little girl in the pink coat caught my attention because in the photos she looks more like a creepy 35 year old woman than a cute little girl! Tracy and I have nicknamed her Sabrina the Middle-aged Witch because looking back on the encounter it was just freaky. The "child's" mother who was dressed in black from head to toe stood off in the distance while the troll in the pink coat went about casting her woodoo magic on passersby on the beach. It seemed really spooky that her mom didn't seem to think it was weird that her little crumb snatcher was going up to complete strangers on the beach demanding that they take her picture. Wouldn't a normal mother have some sort of reaction in this type of situation?! There was definitely something creepy about that "child"." Goodnight faithful readers.