We left early Saturday morning from snowy west Michigan. Matthew loved flying on the airplane and really enjoyed the take-off, just as I do.
This picture is Ft Myers beach as we prepared to land.
I love Sanibel Island and this was our third time there. Sanibel is known as the best shelling in the western hemisphere due to the way that it is positioned in the Gulf of Mexico. There were shells for as far as the eye could see. I love to pick up shells and can spend hours and hours on the beach. I was so happy to see that Matthew enjoyed it too. He found so many nice shells.
There were many live shells that washed up. You can't keep these because there are sea animals living in them. We found three of these huge shells that were alive, and about 30 small ones that we had to put back.
Here is my "small" collection of shells from Sanibel Island.
Matthew loved the beaches and even the play park on the island.
We would love to live here. We even found a house that we would like, but thought it might be a tad too large.
So we found one more our size just a few doors down (and still over looking the Gulf).
The sunsets were so beautiful here!! How I can't wait to go back!!!
We also spent a couple days in Clearwater. There are two restaurants that we really like - Frenchy's on the Beach, and Crabby Bill's. On the way to Clearwater we stopped to see the Manatees. Matthew was so excited to see them!
Matthew loved building sand castles on the beach and then coming back to the hotel to hang out in his bed.
Our vacation was fun, relaxing and a great time to get away. We went swimming in the pool a lot and Matthew loved it!
The week was over in the flash of an eye and it was time to head home. Little Matthew was sound asleep before the airplane departed Ft Myers!
As we were coming in for a landing in Grand Rapids, Michigan, it was snowing like crazy and was very windy too. The pilot aborted the landing only 500 feet from the ground. Our hearts about stopped as we felt the plane gain speed and go back up. What was going on???? Within minutes the pilot came on the speaker and said that we had to go around "due to a disabled plane on our runway" (wink, wink). Yeah right! I was about scared to death and all I could do was pray. We went around the air filed and tried again. Fortunately this time we were able to land and everyone cheered! I don't know what was going on, but sure was happy to be back on the ground! I bet they don't have "aborted landings" in Ft Myers!
Once home this is what we found............... 30 inches of snow!!! There was only about 12 inches when we left!
Not to worry though, I brought home a little reading material. As I was snow blowing the driveway this morning and asking myself "Why do we live here?"
Maybe it's time we make the move to a warmer climate. One with sunshine, beautiful beaches, sea shells and loads of fun!!! Anyone know of a couple Accounting jobs in the Ft Myers area? ;-)
