VACATION!!! Sanibel Island Day 2

Wow!  What a great day (but I'm guessing that the first whole day of vacation always feels this way :)

Izzy, enjoying her donuts with an ocean view....

Joacim was still asleep when Izzy and I woke up, so we decided to let him snooze a bit longer and headed down to the beach.

It was a beach filled with all sorts of stuff!

I have no idea what kind of sea grass this is, but it's pretty freaky looking....like a bunch of strange worms....

A hawk carrying it's breakfast

We found a brochure at the hotel that described a boat outing with a naturalist, and it sounded perfect!  I mean, if we're going to spend the money, we might as well learn something along the way, right?

The boat headed out to Picnic Island, which is a small, uninhabited island in the middle of the bay.  Did you know that the average depth of the bay is only 4 ft????   I was shocked (see...I DID learn at least something!  Money well spent!)

Once we got to Picnic Island, we got off the boat and used the nets provided to search for creatures.

Pretty as a postcard!

Here's a tiny little seahorse that someone collected....it was wiggling all over the place!

She held it!!!  I can't believe it but she DID IT!!!

Here's a quick look at all of the little critters we got to see up close!

This sea slug was pretty cool...it squirted purple ink!!!

Izzy wanted to get her picture taken with the naturalist (Lindsey)!

Wooohoooo!  Dolphins successfully spotted!!!!!!

It was a GREAT trip!  We used Adventures in Paradise Cruises, and I would HIGHLY recommend them to anyone!!!

After the cruise was over, it was back to the pool!

We decided to go off the island for dinner.  I had 3 separate recommendations for Doc Fords, so we HAD to try it!  Needless to say, it didn't disappoint!

I don't even know what the heck kind of mojito this was, but I CAN say that it was damn tasty!

And we had a beautiful sunset as we crossed the bridge back to Sanibel from Ft. Meyers.  What a glorious, wonderful day!!!

A trip to the zoo and a dinner cruise

On day 3 of my parents visit, Joacim and I had a very special surprise planned for the evening.  We didn't have anything planned for the day, though, so we decided to head to Como Zoo (along with half of the Twin Cities, but I guess that's what you get for going the day after Labor Day :)

Izzy LOVES Bri....this was taken at the beginning of the day

We brought Jimmy John's for lunch....notice that their hairstyles are also the same :)

This was taken at the end of the day.  Notice the fact that she's no longer smiling.

pretty little lilly pads

She DID start to smile again after Grandpa suggested ice cream.  We found this cute place called Java Train nearby.

So, our surprise for the evening's activity was a dinner cruise on Lake Minnetonka.  We had heard about Al and Alma's from some friends of ours that raved about it, so after checking out the website, we signed all of us up.  We didn't tell Izzy either (5-year olds aren't always the greatest at keeping secrets, you know)

Izzy and Bri staked out their spot on the boat right away...a nice, big cushion at the back

Grandma and Grandpa wanted a pic together..pretty cute!

I love this little girl so much...sometimes I just want to nibble on her cheek!

I think she spent a majority of the trip rolling around this cushion...Grandpa came over and tickled her a bit

Auntie Bri is a great caregiver to Izzy

This is our "captain".  Young enough to be my child.  

A family portrait that Izzy half-participated in

The waitress told us that, if we ask nicely, the captain would let Izzy and Bri drive the boat

sisters ;)

our own little family portait (thanks Bri!!)

This is the boat we took

I would HIGHLY recommend this to anyone that comes and visits us.  Anyone want to come up to the Great North?????  ;)