Vacation art is in full swing here at the West Wind Inn, as Griff and Xander dig into a bag of fine-point sharpies and a stack of blank printer paper that I brought along on our adventure. He is the one who chose the words with me for the past two days, and today, after a discovery he made, he selected "surprise" for today.
My favorite surprise of the day was a little ice cream shop - not the one we were looking for, but one we settled for after not being able to find the other. Sanibel Scoops is tucked off to one side of the road, set back a little and without a parking lot of its own. We parked (somewhat illicitly, I think) by the book store next door (which we visited later, so it's kosher, right?) and walked down and around to the ice cream shop, nearly melting in the heat before reaching the bright blue building. To get to the door, we had to walk around the side of the house and across a courtyard reeking of rotting fruit. Heaps of small, overripe, smashed berries were strewn around the yard. I meant to ask the shopkeepers what kind of tree produced the berries, but forgot. Why did I forget? Because the ice cream was so awesome, of course. Frozen blended toffee coffee for me, possibly the best I've ever had. Xander wanted banana ice cream, and surprisingly, they had it, and it was amazing, perfectly smooth and creamy and with just the right amount of banana. Reese is a plain vanilla fan and Griff got adventurous with some melty but tasty watermelon sorbet. But the best part? Eating it in the adorable front room of the house that was decorated with paper lanterns and colorful tile and had several vintage kids' coin-operated rides. All four of us were taken with Dino, who cost only 25¢, had room for three boys, and played the Flintstones theme song while gently galloping. Hanna Barbera and icy caffeination, I love you!
Griff's inspiration came in the form of a mysterious...thing...he found on the sidewalk outside our hotel room. At first glance, we thought it was some kind of dead, dried caterpillar. Then we hypothesized that maybe it was actually a lost lizard's tail (yeah, it was so dessicated and mysterious that we couldn't tell if it were reptilian or insectoid). Our final guess was that it might be the abdomen (tail) of a dragonfly. Who knows. Certainly not us, at any rate. But here it is, in all its enigmatic glory:
Other surprises today included an injured heron and horseshoe crab exuviae at Blind Pass and delicious chocolate-chip pancakes at our hotel's restaurant. Other than that, it was beach time, pool time, a little grocery shopping, some cable TV sampling, shelling, and staying up way too late. Which is just right.
