Vacation plans

We will be leaving this Friday for our summer vacation.  I know.  Everyone else is starting their school, and we're just now going on vacation.  Because of recitals in May, drama/dance camp in June, and Ashley's camp counseling in July, that leaves August for vacation.  Actually, we have taken an Aug. vacation for years to go in the off season with less crowds and cheaper rates.  This year we decided to do something different.  Well, going to the beach is not different, but the location and circumstances are.  We are going to North Captiva Island in Florida, which is south of Tampa, and about a 12 hour drive from here.  The thing that is most different about North Captiva is that there is no bridge over there, and no cars at all on the island.  Transportation is by walking, biking, and golf cart.  There is one restaurant and no "amusements", except for a pool, tennis courts, the beach, a bird santuary, biking, kayaking, fishing, etc.  There is only one tiny store, which may or may not be open, and has outrageously expensive groceries.  ($12 for a gallon of milk, we're told-really!)  There are only 50 year round residents on the island, and we were told we'd probably be one of only about 30 guests this time of year.  We are renting one of only 2 homes directly on the beach.  The others, under the new requirements, have been built behind the sand dunes.  This is where we are staying.

We have a huge private beach, and have been told since it is the slow time, we probably would see very few people anyway.  Our rental comes with bikes, a golf cart, tennis rackets, 2 sea kayaks, and beach chairs and umbrellas.

We will get to the area on Saturday night, and finish our grocery shopping on the mainland on Sunday early afternoon.  We catch our boat to the island at 3:00.  Okay, this is the stressful part of this vacation to me.  We can have 2 suitcases per person, plus your groceries.  That means absolutely everything has to be packed in a suitcase.  The books and tapes the kids will use in the car, the laptop, buckets & shovels; no little individual makeup bags or medicine cases.  I know 12 suitcases is a lot, but today, I'm trying to figure out how this is all going to fit.  Plus, I don't have that many suitcases!  We also have to take extra toilet paper and paper towels.  The other part we've had to plan today is food.  Since we won't be buying at the little store, and it is too expensive to catch a boat back to the mainland for food, we have to be sure we have plenty of food for the week.  So we've been menu planning today, but trying to come up with meals that the older girls and I don't have to spend a lot of time cooking.  We were told the sulfer is really bad there, too, so we have to figure out how much bottled water 6 of us need for a week of drinking and cooking.  I can't even figure out how we're going to get all those groceries in the car to get *to* the boat on top of all of our other luggage!  Everybody is going to be holding groceries in their lap! 

Otherwise, I'm excited and finally looking forward to it.  It should be an adventure--but I hope not too big of one.  And, say a prayer for no hurricanes or tropical storms.  I want to see lots of sunsets from my deck overlooking the Gulf!  I might be able to check in sometime during the week, and I'll be thinking about you all, with the Sand Between My Toes !