Sanibel Island, Florida, Then and Now

From Key West we traveled North about five hours to our next destination, Sanibel Island. As many of you know, Hurricane Ian wiped out almost all of Sanibel Island as well as the only bridge to get to Sanibel and Captiva Islands. We are so thankful that we were able to visit this beautiful place before Ian hit although I am confident that Sanibel will come back stronger and better than ever. Hopefully we will be able to visit again one day.

We stayed in another lovely Air BnB condo located right on the bike path and close enough for us to bike to the downtown area as well as the natural area and Captiva Island. We were also just a very short walk to the beach and what a gorgeous beach it was. By the way, the condo we stayed in was completely destroyed by Ian. Sanibel was a great place to relax, after the hustle and bustle of Key West, it was a quiet retreat. We spent time riding the bikes to different beaches, looking for shells, sitting in our chairs on the beach, watching sunsets, and enjoying the restaurants and bars. We biked to the lighthouse one day, Ian tried to take it down but it kept standing and with some repair it is as good as new or so I hear.

The sunsets were absolutely stunning and we could see one every night at our beach just across the street.

Our beautiful condo which is completely gone now after Hurricane Ian

Our beach and yes, it was always this empty. And the shells! I love to pick up shells even though I have more than enough and don't know what to do with them.

Another perfect sunset and check out the green flash on this one

Our first night there and a friendly lady took our picture for us

We were able to ride our bikes to Captiva Island, too

This is a natural area right in the middle of Sanibel. Nice Bikeable park with easy walking paths, too

We found this sand dolphin on the beach one day

Another shot of our beach

We saw many pretty Christmas decorations on Sanibel, too. Here is Santa climbing a palm tree

There were so many beaches to discover on Sanibel

This is in the natural area on the Island

This is the Bubble room on Captiva Island. It's a restaurant decorated with many bubble lights

Here is the lighthouse that stayed standing during Ian but it did lose a leg which was quickly repaired

There are so many restaurants but this was one of our favorites

This is how we spent a lot of our time

We always found it funny to see snowmen in a place where they never see snow.

We went on a dolphin watching boat ride that was jist as it advertised. There were so many dolphins right up by the boat. Definitely a must do

The bike trail is so nice and runs all around the Island

Our beach again

The pool at our condo

When we left Sanibel Island, we talked about how we would definitely be back. It almost took over as our favorite Island ahead of St. George. It was that nice! Little did we know that Hurricane Ian would do so much damage. We still hope to return, just not as soon as we planned.

This was the last stop on our Thanksgiving trip 2021.

Our next adventure will take us traveling down Route 66.