Sanibel Island, Florida

Day 3 in Florida: O Camera, Where Art Thou?


So today I woke up with the excitement of visiting Sanibel Island. Of course all this can happen only if Tom is well. I gingerly ask him how he feels. He smiles. His flu symptoms are completely gone.

So I prepare for him two scrambled eggs, two toasted slices of English muffin, apple sauce, fresh strawberries and blueberries, and apple juice. He eats the whole thing. His appetite is back.

So Sanibel Island, here we come! I pack my iPad mini. That will be our camera for the day, or rather, the rest of the week. We wanted to pack light and from the iPad mini I can upload pictures directly to Facebook. How easy is that?

We are getting onto Sanibel bridge which seems to climb into the sky. Hurry take a picture! What do I do with your breakfast picture? It’s too late. Oh that scenery is sooo beautiful. Open the cover...too late we are past that. Let me take a photo of you against that amazing background. The sun is so bright I cannot see what I am taking a picture of.

At the visitors center, we are told of the birds we will see. One type of bird comes from above the Arctic Circle and flies 24/7 for seven days without resting or eating. When they land here in the wildlife refuge, they are just about dead. It takes them three weeks to replenish their sustenance enough to fly to the tip of South America. Again no rest or eating until they reach there. Where are those birds?

Tom is noticing so many things; birds in groups, bird alone, birds drying out their wings, and others just dosing. He notices plants, lizards, fish, and crabs so unusual that I have to look at them to really have them sink into my brain. Otherwise I will file them away into the deepest filing system and forget that I have ever seen them. He tries to take pictures. He cannot zoom in and out. He could have had a field day in a place like this.

Oh Camera, Where Art Thou? I have a good camera recommended by my art teacher. It can do so many wondrous things. Our desire to travel light took away all the artistic memories we could have created. So hopefully we can come back again next year, a little better prepared and with a little more travelers’ sense.

Life does not always happen the way you imagine it would. But that in itself is an adventure in life.