Thursday, April 9, 2015

Thursday, April 9, 2015

Tonight's picture was taken in April of 2007, on the day of Mattie's fifth birthday party! This was quite the day! It was torrential rain and we scheduled a party at the zoo. The party entailed a walk through the zoo and the policy was birthday parties are a rain or shine event. I understand some rain, but I am talking about flooding. I was very concerned about 15 preschoolers touring the zoo in those conditions, but guess what?! THEY LOVED IT. Apparently it made it more of an adventure and NO ONE else was at the zoo, so it was as if we had the zoo to ourselves that day. The irony was all the animals were out and about in the rain. Typically when you go to the National Zoo you are looking high and low to find the animals, but not that day. They were out frolicking and happy. 



Quote of the day: Wherever there is a human in need, there is an opportunity for kindness and to make a difference. ~ Kevin Heath

We visited Sanibel Island Lighthouse
today! I have to admit out of all the lighthouses I have ever seen, this one is NOT my favorite. It looks like an over sized oil can. Yet with that said, like all lighthouses, it has a history..............

This 120 year old lighthouse sits on a wildlife refuge. Residents of Sanibel Island first petitioned for a lighthouse in 1833, but no action was taken. In 1856 the Lighthouse Board recommended a lighthouse on Sanibel Island, but Congress took no action. In 1877 government workers surveyed the eastern end of the island and reserved it for a lighthouse. Congress finally appropriated funds for a lighthouse in 1883. The foundation for the new lighthouse was completed in early 1884, but the ship bringing ironwork for the tower sank two miles from Sanibel Island. A crew of hard-hat divers from Key West recovered all but two of the pieces for the tower. The lighthouse is located on the eastern tip of Sanibel Island, and was built to mark the entrance to San Carlos Bay for ships calling at the port of Punta Rassa. Punta Rassa became an important port in the 1830s and remained so up to the Spanish-American War. It was primarily used to ship cattle from Florida to Cuba. Until the railroads reached the area in the 1880s, ranchers drove their cattle from open ranges in central Florida to Punta Rassa for shipment to Cuba. The lighthouse was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

In 1972, the Coast Guard proposed discontinuing the lighthouse, but feedback provided by local residents and mariners convinced them to keep it lit. The City of Sanibel assumed management of the lighthouse property, except the tower, in 1982, and city personnel were allowed to live in the dwellings rent-free in exchange for helping to maintain and supervise the grounds. The property was transferred from the Coast Guard to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in 2000. The BLM accepted an application from the City of Sanibel for custody of the property in 2004, and after a lengthy delay, the lighthouse was officially transferred to the city during a ceremony held April 21, 2010. Using a $50,000 state historic preservation grant and money from its beach parking fund, Sanibel City Council awarded a $269,563 contract to Razorback LLC in May 2013 to restore the lighthouse. During the summer of 2013, the contractors replaced sections of deteriorated steel on the tower and then sanded and painted the exterior. The City of Sanibel has certainly shown it is committed to preserving the lighthouse property.

Bailey Tract (part of the Ding Darling National Refuge) is an 100-acre tract of protected freshwater marsh containing a series of five hiking/biking trails that thoroughly explore the area. The trails are of varying length, from 0.25 mile to 1.1 miles.

This was one of the paths we walked on today. What you can't tell is that we were walking in intense heat, humidity, and sunshine. Needless to say after about 1.5 miles, we had it. I am not sure how Floridians walk or bicycle ride in this weather. We see them doing it, but either we are not accustomed to it, or we just can't do it! This is a major difference I see between the East and West coasts of Florida. Being by the Ocean provides breezes that being on the Gulf just doesn't provide.

This was one of the wonderful fresh water ponds we saw while walking around at Bailey Tract.

Of course no scene is complete without a turtle! There was plenty of sun for this fellow to bask in today!

We even saw a Little Blue Heron. A first for us, I never even knew such a bird existed! He has a beautiful blue head!

Surrounding us was this scrubby type of marsh grass!

Along our journey through Sanibel today, I came across this house! I just loved their butterfly and blue bottle display! So I had Peter pull over so I could take a photo of the house!

Can you see the coconuts on this palm? They are so tempting to just want to pick one! However, there are signs all over Sanibel about some sort of disease that has hit coconut palms. The disease has caused many of the trees to yellow and to protect the trees, they have been sprayed. However the spray has caused the coconuts to be unsafe for human consumption.

This afternoon I was so tired, I literally wanted to just go upstairs to our room and lie down! However at 3pm, our room was still not cleaned and worse when we went upstairs to our room we found the door of the room completely open and NO ONE was inside. There was no housekeeper in sight either. That was the last straw! Between other issues I have had at the hotel this week and being tired, I reached my limit. I marched down and spoke to the concierge. I have gotten to know many of these women throughout the week, as they have helped us find restaurants to dine at for dinner. I explained to them my issues with housekeeping and they said they would alert the assistant manager that I wanted to speak with him. By 4pm, I sent Peter upstairs to see if our room had been cleaned yet, and still there was NO progress. So this time I went to the front desk and I let them have it. While letting the front desk have it, the assistant manager was there listening to my rant. Needless to say I got results and someone went immediately to clean our room, but then the assistant manager came to talk with Peter and I about all the problems we had over the course of the week. We sat overlooking this view while talking to the assistant manager. Clearly he understood our concerns about safety and the fact that our room was left open, with the door propped open for anyone to enter, when no one was on duty to clean it. Safety and cleanliness are big issues for me. 

I could have let all of this go, but it is the principle of the matter. First of which is I choose Marriott resorts because I rely on their brand and product. Therefore I expect them to maintain a certain standard. Second of which, as Peter reminds me often, my complaints are always reasonable and sound. In any case, they must have been serious enough because the assistant manager reduced our room rate today and raised our Marriott membership reward status to the highest level possible. Which will help us on all of our future travel arrangements. I was very grateful to be taken seriously. 


For my fellow foodies who are interested in restaurants, here are some of the wonderful restaurants we have eaten at this week in Sanibel and Ft. Myers:

Sunday: Courtside: http://www.marriott.com/hotel-restaurants/rswsb-sanibel-harbour-marriott-resort-and-spa/courtside-steakhouse/5136456/home-page.mi
Tuesday: Doc Ford's: http://www.docfordsfortmyersbeach.com/our-location.html
Wednesday: Veranda: https://www.verandarestaurant.com/
Thursday: Fresh Catch: http://freshcatchbistro.com/
Friday: Traditions on the Beach: http://traditionsonthebeach.com/