Instead of here
we are in a lovely Hampton Inn in Cape Coral, FL. It's not quite the same. 
The fire chief on the
island decided to play it safe and have all the visitors evacuated
yesterday afternoon. If you read my last post about getting on and off
the island, you know that is not an easy job. We dropped by the time we
got to the hotel. So far all we've had here is a steady, moderate
rain. The wind is blowing a little. I don't think we've gotten the
worst part yet, but they are still only predicting 20-30 mph winds at
the most. Our hope is that tomorrow afternoon we will be able to go
back out. The caretaker who has taken us and our luggage via golf cart
and trailer to the house says that we should be able to return as long
as there is power. And, since they do not have anyone coming in next
week, they have offered to let us stay a few days extra at no charge.
We sure are hoping to be able to finish our week there.
In the meantime, there
are 6 of us in one hotel room for 2 days!! We got here at about 5:00
yesterday. It's 11:00 am, and so far everyone is still happy. : ) We
do have several board and card games with us, books, the computer, and
the little ones have their leap pads. We have a micro and frig, so we
can make lunch here, and we had the complimentary breakfast this
morning. I'm sure we will resort to some tv by the afternoon--HGTV,
TLC, or whatever channel has Little House on the Prairie reruns.
We have had a nice time
so far. Since we knew we might have to end our trip short, we went
straight in to go swimming after we got there Sunday. Some of them
snorkeled. We found some great whelk shells, but they still had animals
in them, and it is against the law to take them with an animal. We
stayed out on the beach until 8:00 pm. Monday we took a golf cart tour
of the island. It was fun with all 6 of us piled into one golf cart,
flying around those little paths. since that is the only means of
transportation, there are no actual roads, only these paths. Later in
the day we went back out to the beach until after the sun set, and a
thunderstorm popped up and ran us in. It was a beautiful sunset,
though, and we watched the big orange ball touch the water and sink.
Yesterday they came at
about 9:30 to tell us we would more than likely have to leave. The last
boat out was at 3:00, so we made a reservation for it, hurriedly packed
the little we had unpacked, and ran back out to the beach for 2 hours.
Since it was still morning, the water was perfectly calm, and no
current, so it was great for lying on a float and for them to snorkel.
They saw a great big crab and lots of shells. On the way to the boat
the caretaker stopped at a dock. Next to the dock was a manatee. How
very, very cool. He came up to the surface for a breath. We hope we
got a good picture of him.
We had to sit and wait
about 35 min. on the boat. Did y'all know it's hot in south Florida?!!
Just about the time the boat left, there came a pretty strong rain
storm. That was fun. Thankfully, it only took a few minutes to get
ahead of it. Just before we got to the marina, the captain saw some
dolphins, so he slowed way down (this is a large speed boat). One of
the dolphins started jumping over the wakes. Another very cool.
So, here we are,
praying we'll be able to go back out tomorrow. And thankful that this
stormed died down for everyone who was in it's path.
Letitia
No comments:
Post a Comment