We arrived at Sanibel Island and we were starving. We wanted to stop at a local place so we ended up at the Sanibel Cafe, which is in the Tahitian Gardens Plaza on Periwinkle Way. You could already tell we were visiting an island that has as abundance of shells, since all the table were nicely decorated with glass covered tops with shell designed underneath. We enjoyed a nice breakfast. Pictured below is the Pina Colada French Toast, which is what Rob got. Here’s the Breakfast Menu Page 1 Page 2
After leaving there with bellies full and spirits high, we stopped at the visitor center! It wasn’t quite opened yet, but it was nice that they had rubbermaid containers with all the information we needed.
Then, it was on to the beach! We found a parking spot in the parking lot on Tarpon Bay Road. It’s about a 8/10 of mile walk to the beach, but it has a nice sidewalk and a restroom right near the parking lot. You can pay with a credit card and it was just $2 an hour. We arrived around 9am and paid for 3 hours of parking.
I can’t speak for the other beaches on Sanibel Island, but Tarpon Bay Road Beach is a nice beach for making sand castles and shelling. If you’re looking for pure white sand beaches, this is probably not the place for you. Rob and I took on shoes off and enjoyed getting a little sand between our toes and walking in the wake of the shore line. I really enjoyed watching this pelican play with a lifeless squid.
There were also trees full of these large Brown Pelicans. As Rob and I were walking up the beach and looked off into the distance at these trees, we really weren’t sure at first what was in the trees. As we got closer we could finally see these amazing birds perched all along the edges of these trees. They slept, cleaned their feathers, spread their wings, and opened their beaks wide. Truly I marvel and God’s amazing handy-work in the creatures.
The kids enjoyed being in the water (although, it was cold) and built sand castles and buried each other.
Sanibel Island would be a lovely place to spend a few days, bring bikes a long or you can rent them there and cycle the entire island, soaking up the sun, relaxing, and enjoying this nature-filled island.
After leaving the beach, we drove over to see the lighthouse, so I could snap a few shots and then it was on to our next destination.
Stay tuned to see where we ended up next!