With Marc's delayed passport and all, our pre-Midwinters dawdle became a post-Midwinters lounge instead. After a lovely relaxing Sunday night with Mike and Dotty, we headed south on Monday, by which time even Eustis was basking in nice, warm sunshine. The plan was to possibly visit Marc's ailing uncle in Clearwater (he was too ill to receive visitors) and then stay overnight in Treasure Island, just south of St. Petersburg, where we would have our annual dinner at Sculley's, a lovely waterfront restaurant with fine sea food.

Tuesday morning, we headed south, past Fort Meyers to Sanibel Island where we toasted our favourite fictional hero, Doc Ford, in his "home" Doc Ford Rum Bar and Grille with a lunch-time beer or two. Then it was on to Captiva, connected to the north end of Sanibel. On Captiva, we were hoping to once again splurge and stay at the lovely Tween Waters Inn.

We were immortalized in pixels and had fun talking with a couple who were waiting for an inside table to have lunch. The wife was a freelance travel writer and we had fun discussing digital cameras, 300 dpi magazine requirements, etc. But the best fun was when they came back out after eating: The lady said she had asked for one of the very few window seats. She was about to say something when they were led to a corner nowhere near the ocean view, but before she could say anything, a busboy rolled up a large window on where, and stopped right beside their table: a window seat indeed!!!

By 0900 hrs on Wednesday morning, Al had already driven the length of Captiva and Sanibel (right down to the lighthouse at the south end of Sanibel while awaiting the 0700 hrs opening of the Sanibel Bean to feed his addiction to Starbucks-like coffee. After a subsequent great complimentary breakfast at the Inn, we stopped here, where ...