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Sanibel Spring Break 2009 – Saturday & Sunday

dave — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 23:27:17 +0000

Saturday
On Saturday we went to the Twins game. The spring training park is in Ft Myers at the home of the Miracles, Hammond Stadium, and Sam had obtained tickets. We headed over early sans Bette who was still feeling sick. We parked on the ball fields ringing the stadium, and crawled over the tailgaters who must have arrived sometime last night.

The tickets were a reasonable $21, seats in 203-5-3, with a great view of the field. I love small parks. We briefly considered selling the extra ticket, but thought the extra space might be nice too.

I was waiting in line in the right field bar/concession area, and after a subliminal crack, a foul ball bounced off of a garbage can not 4 feet from me. If the garbage can was not there, I would have a) made a spectacular grab, or b) been killed. I prefer not to know how it would have ended.

Premium Beer Served: Lots to choose. Started with a Land Shark, but switched to Dominican Republic Presidente beer, which had a nice color and taste. Plus, very fitting for a baseball game.

Sunday
We spent Sunday sand castling. Sam & I dug, Bette snoozed, and Karin sat in the beach chair for moral support.

We headed out to dinner to Il Tesoro, located in the old Twilight Cafe location. This translates to “The treasure”, but all we treasured was finally leaving.

Sam and I split a bottle of Colle De Duca for $30. Was good. We decided on the Grilled Calamari for an appetizer for $9. We had never had grilled Calamari before, and it was quite good. I miss the oily part though.

We had various salads; Arugula and the Tesoro Spin Salad. Ok.

I had Pollo Fiorentia ($19), a chicken breast folder over some filling. We also had Lobster Ravioli ($28), Pollo Fiorentia ($19), and Pescatora Risotto ($24).

The sad thing was, the food was good. It just took over an hour to see it, and the waiter (coded AJ on our receipt, but since the head chef is A.J. Black, probably not correct) was a condescending jerk. He would run over once every 20 minutes and say, “it looks like it is up next” and then scuttle up to the counter to bring food to another table. Other tables came and went before we got our salads. We had to ask for bread brought automatically to other tables. I like to dawdle over dinner, but come on. Finally the preggers Karin blew up at him and he pretended to care. No offer of free entree, no offer of free dessert, no apology. He got a bad tip, and I will never go back. Never.

Il Tesoro, 751 Tarpon Bay Rd, Sanibel. (Zagat Review from yours truly)

Sanibel Spring Break 2009 – Friday

dave — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 02:40:35 +0000

Friday

Arrived on time. Waited a bit at the Enterprise counter, got our car, a Toyota Camry. I kind of liked it, Bette found it hard to back up – bad visibility. It had a little storage area in the front with AUX jacks for the MP3 player. Zippy. Nice. Uneventful drive down from Tampa. Took a little side trip to North Fort Myers to see old family friends, Dorothy and Ron, who winter on a golf course and move to Wisconsin in the summer. Not a bad deal. Nice to see them.

Karin and Sam rented a Mitsubishi convertible. The back seats were impossible to sit in, especially with my hip. It was fun in the front seat, though. We ended up driving when all four of us had to go anywhere.

First night dining was at the resurrected Twilight Cafe. We had visited the previous incarnation twice before, and were sad to see it missing last year. They took over the old Riviera restaurant digs on West Gulf and reopened, with the same wonderful marinated grilled broccoli. We met the chef, Chef Robert Parks, who seated us and confirmed, yes, this is the same Twilight Cafe, and yes, they had the broccoli…

Based on a NPR story, Wine critics Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher from the Wall Street Journal said to never buy wine by the glass, cuz you don’t know how old it is. So Sam and I split bottles this trip. For this night, we did a McWilliam Shiraz. And we had the Combo and Mozzarella appetizers.

Karin had the Build your own Pasta, with the Sausage and Bolognese options. She complained that the pasta was not cooked enough and the dish was very wet. Sam had the paella (Shrimp, scallops, grouper and mussels tossed
with saffron rice, peppers and chicken stock), and seemed to enjoy it, even though it was different than the classic Spanish paella. I had a wonderful New York Strip, done rare (topped with crumbled bleu cheese and crispy fried onions with roasted garlic and red pepper mashed potatoes – not South Beach!). Bette had the blackened grouper and loved it.

We left happy (except for Karin, perhaps) and I welcomed Chef Parks, standing behind the bar/counter back to Sanibel. Nice to see a good place come back.

Twilight Cafe,
2761 West Gulf Drive, Sanibel Island, FL

Sanibel 2008 – Fun with Sam and Karin

dave — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 15:34:27 +0000

Friday 21 March

Barely beat the snow closings out of MKE airport. Arrived on time in Ft Myers. Karin and Sam were at the Twins game. We stopped at the “used food store” (Dixie’s Discounted Wine) on Bonita Beach Rd just east of US 41 for some wine and discount food. Then we had to stop at Publix. The detour is not worth it. Checked in at West Wind. Got a drink at the pool bar and waited for Karin and Sam.

Dixie’s Discounted Wine • 9080 Bonita Beach Rd, Bonita Springs,FL 34135

Saturday 22 March

I rented a 24 speed recumbent bike on the Internet the previous week from Billy’s Rentals. They delivered it to the West Wind to keep it from disappearing like the rest of their bikes — thanks guys! It has chopper style handlebars, which is a whole new trick. I finally got it to go straight, but turns were a problem. Fast hard turns would put me on the ground. With my hip acting up, it was torture.

Rode around the island to the lighthouse. Overcast but warmish; good riding. 15 mins into the ride, it started to rain. We kept going to the lighthouse, looked around, and headed back up Periwinkle for lunch at the Lighthouse Cafe, the “hippie” cafe next to Sporty Seahorse. Great food, great atmosphere. And busy — prepare to wait. We ate lunch, but split a banana pancake just to try it — it was warm and gooey in the middle. Sam wanted to come back the next day for breakfast. So we did.

Karin bolted back on her bike. Sam followed her, and Bette and I stopped at a few shops on the way back. It started to clear up a bit and we got back in time

Dinner with Sam and Karin at Sanibel Steakhouse. We had the Crab Cake appetizer, yum. I had the 16oz NY Strip, I think my favorite cut, with baked potato. Mmmm. Karin and Bette had the 12oz NY Strips. Sam and I started a bottle of Dynamite Zinfandel. Bette and Karin had a glass of Nobilo Sauvignon Blanc. Sam had the blackened Ahi tuna. Yum, but when in a good steakhouse, I get a good steak. Dessert was Chocolate Lava and a Keylime Pie slice to go around. Recommended. $80/ea for 4 people w/o gratuity w/wine. Pricey but good.

Billy’s Bike Rentals – 1470 Periwinkle Way
Lighthouse Cafe – 362 Periwinkle Way
Chip’s Sanibel Steakhouse – 1473 Periwinkle Way

Sunday 23 March

Decided not to do church. The sun was out. Time to build a sand sculpture. Sam had borrowed the book on Sand Castle building from Sons of the Beach and was raring to go.

Started with some simple columns and structures. I played with the dump method of sand. Working out of the bucket was a good way to do it. Then figured out the Padre Island snow balls. Cool. Taught Sam.

Then started the octopus. Started out as a pile, but soon saw that a sea creature terrorizing the village would be very nice. Karin built up some tentacles and buildings and upholstered everything. Sam and I moved the sand into position and Sam and Bette lugged water.