Sanibel Island, Florida: Lighthouse Beach and Fishing Pier

Today we headed to Sanibel Island.

We picked up a friend Sierra met in Feb at the Fulltime families rally and off we went.

We had such a fantastic day visiting many places on Sanibel Island. I'm going to break this next few posts up into individual sections for each beach we were at or else this post would be way too long.

As soon as we crossed onto Sanibel via a $6 toll causeway, we stopped at the visitors centre to figure out where we were going. It's a cute little building from the outside and we picked up a free shell guide so we could identify some of the shells we found. Love the sign...for all us snowbirds!

The first beach we headed to was the Lighthouse Beach and Fishing Pier. To get here turn left on Periwinkle Way from Causeway Road.Go to the end of the road to the light house fishing pier and a boardwalk nature trail thru the wetlands. We headed straight to the beach.

When you think you scored a beautiful shell, make sure you take a close look inside to ensure it doesn't have a live snail inside. It is illegal to remove anything alive from the beach. You are allowed to take shells but only if the creatures are no longer using it.

Sierra and Scout found a dead horseshoe crab.

There were many sea stars and other creatures found as well.

 

Everyone walked ahead to the pier but I stopped to watch the dolphins for a while.

By the time I got to the pier everyone was on their way back.

There was an Osprey nest close to the pier with a baby in the nest.

We walked back along part of the nature trail and found a snake and a tortoise.

We loved our time here at Lighthouse beach. The shells and wildlife were amazing! We hate to leave but there is so much more to see here on Sanibel Island.

Bokeelia Wharf, Pine Island, Florida

We loved watching the sunset and dolphins so much yesterday at the Bookeelia wharf that when mom arrived today we decided to go again.

This time the girls brought their swim suits and had a great time wading in the shallows.

Their first discovery while swimming were these little jelly fish.

Soon after they found some shells...

Which turned out to be hermit crabs.

We didn't see any dolphins tonight but there were lots of pelicans and jumping fish.

And the sunset was another beautiful orange sky.

When it was time for us to leave we let the hermit carbs go and they disappeared into the sunset!

Tree Frogs and Coconuts

Sierra is always on the hunt for frogs, toads, lizards, snakes... and so she quite often has mini terrariums for a day or two before letting them go.

Aayla isn't as lucky quite so often but today was her day to shine too!

 Can you guess where this little frog jumped? Yep! Right up on my camera. I love Sierras expression!

All this frog hunting is hard work so off she went in her Jeep to find some coconuts and she found quite the score.

Bokeelia Sunset, Pine Island, Florida

Tonight we took a drive to the North end of Pine Island to a little place called Bokeelia wharf. We were in search of sunsets and dolphins, and we were not disappointed!

A wonderful evening full of dolphins, sunsets and so much more! A sweet little area and I highly recommend a trip here to watch the sunset yourself if you are even on Pine Island. We loved it so much that tomorrow when Grammy Sue comes for a visit we are going to bring her back here!