We had an awesome week in Fort Myers Beach. The weather was perfect. We saw dolphins pretty much every day. In addition to being a lot of fun, it was also relaxing - opposite of the Disney vacation we had originally been planning. The casual attitude of everyone on the island creates a relaxing atmosphere where you'll quickly realize that "island time" feels like a better way to live.

This is the first big trip we've taken with our digital camera, and we took advantage of that - to the tune of approximately 300 pictures. Obviously we're only posting a fraction of those. But the cool thing about the digital camera, for anyone still not convinced, is that you can take 20 pictures of a sunset just to get three that really stand out.

We took some great pictures on this trip, so we've posted several galleries to the right. Check them out.

When we went to Vegas, we came back and produced some really text-heavy pages about our experiences. There's still certainly plenty to say about this trip, but in this case the pictures really speak louder than words. Still, we've tried to caption the photos to put them in at least a little context.

Beyond that, we do have a few quick notes, which I'll organize by topic.

Culinary Experiences
Our best dining experience was at The Bubble Room on Captiva Island. We stopped in for lunch (it gets pricey for dinner) and had a great time. The servers dress like goofy scout troop leaders - they're actually called "Bubble Scouts" - the decorating is ultimate kitch (think 50s nostalgia with strong Christmas and Hollywood influences), the food is awesome, and the desserts are generous - you could feed at least two people with one dessert. Consider lunch at The Bubble Room, with an slice of their incredible strawberry-and-kiwi-topped key lime pie, a mandatory experience.

In contrast, two other popular restaurants on Sanibel, The Mermaid Kitchen and The Island Cow had good looking menus, pretty good food, but really crappy service. Your results may vary. Brief side note: The Mermaid Kitchen is decorated heavily with (wait for it) mermaids. Parents and/or prudes note that not all of these mermainds are all of the bikini-shell Disney variety.

Finally, it's always good to try something new and local when on vacation. For me, that was at The Lazy Flamingo, where I went out on a limb and tried the conch fritters. They weren't bad, but I find myself craving key lime pie a lot more than conch. Worth a try if you like crab cakes, which is what Jaime said they sort of tasted like.

Dolphins
We saw dolphins from Bowman Beach, Captiva Beach, Fort Myers Beach (where we were staying), Lover's Key... well, we pretty much saw dolphins everywhere (and no sharks or stingrays). But the closest we got was on our boatride to and from Cayo Costa. On the way there the second mate on our boat handfed a dolphin. On the way back, a dolphin swam into our wake, did barrel rolls, then jumped out of the water, did a flip, and landed next to the side of our boat. It doesn't get much cooler than that.

Shells
Going at low tide seems like pretty obvious advice. There was almost no shelling on Fort Myers Beach, but if you went down to Lover's Key you could find some, and shelling was very good on Bowman. Cayo Costa is good for shelling, due to how inaccessible it is. We didn't actually get that much on Cayo (it wasn't low tide when we were there), but another woman found a giant conch shell that was easily a foot long. If you're into shelling, it's also worth checking out the Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum on Sanibel Island, where you can learn more about shells from the area and all over the world.