I can’t believe it’s already been almost two months since we spent a relaxing week with family on Sanibel island.  I’ve been wanting to write a post on our trip with some pictures.  And here I am finally finding the time.  Even though we spent a whole week in Sanibel we didn’t get the camera out as much as I had hoped.  I mentioned in Annabelle’s week 16 update that we went and what a lovely time we had but didn’t talk much about what we did.

We spent most of our days on the beach, walking up and down the shore, finding shells to bring home and watching the birds.  Annabelle was spoiled by Dusty’s family, taking her for walks and entertaining her in the condo when she needed a break from the sun.  My favorite times of the day were early in the morning when the sun was rising and then in the evening when the sun was setting.  So beautiful as a backdrop when we were walking along the beach.

Sanibel is known for it’s shell beaches and wildlife refuges.  An interesting piece of information is that more than half of the island is made up of wildlife refuges, the largest being J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge. One morning we visited the National Wildlife Refuge and took a short tour of the area.  On the tour we saw many of the birds and other animals that live on the island including an alligator.  See the picture with the white arrow pointing at the creature.