Under the Ficus Trees

The visitor to Captiva can imagine the centuries of adventure here as you stand under the ancient ficus trees which are especially common in the Fort Myers, Coral Gables and Sanibel areas.  This one is growing in the entry parking lot near registration and part of what is called the Resort's 'Scout About' program, a wonderful little kid-friendly program that entices kids to explore some fifteen locations scattered about the grounds.  Each find is a wooden stand that describes something about the natural habitat and offers a color coded wristband.  Collect all 15 and turn them in for an explorers wristband gift and your name on the wall of the Scout About explorers shack.  The two explorers above, map in hand, ran around the island seeking clues, then took turns reading the location descriptions out loud.

This Scout About was a fun one.  To get here, at night, we passed by a little walk-over holding pond that advertised a few signs warning not to feed the alligators please.  We never did see alligators at this particular spot, mostly just families and strollers, but we kept a small part out of the corner of our eyes especially reserved for the low-lying green shadows.  We walked to the backside of one of the resort complexes to the dunes overlooking the roaring of the ocean.  This area was not lit by

streetlamp and without the aid of the small light on the iPhone, completely dark in among the chest high dune brush.  The sun had set and the ocean, without eye-adjustment to the dark, looked literally like another planet.  Carly quickly read the description and we hustled off with our wristbands, living to see another day on the island.

Near Land's End, Captiva, the chairs set up for a wedding