Waking up before the sun is easy to do when you have a State Parking goal to accomplish! As the number of parks go down (30 left), the amount that I visit in a day go down as well. For the most part, the parks that I have left need to be traveled to via some type of water craft!
To get to Cayo Costa I booked a ferry boat and headed down south through Sanibel and over to Captiva Island. I was not sure how long it would take or the traffic situation so I arrived about an hour and a half early. I checked in and then took a little walk down to the beach.
When I came back, I spotted a bunch of people walking to the dock so I followed along, thinking we were just boarding a little early. I showed my ticket and sat right by the entrance. I began to look at the passengers and then the crew and noticed that everyone on board was Spanish, except me! I did not hear one word of English and each person aboard was looking at me as if I didn’t belong. I must have showed my concern all over my face because a member of the crew came over to me asking me a question in Spanish. I expressed to him that I could not understand what he was saying and then he proceeded to tell me, in English, that I was on a chartered boat for a private party. Hahaha! What? Off I went back down to the dock and over one boat to the right!
The ferry ride to the island was about 20 minutes and the weather was perfect! We got to see a few dolphins, which made many people happy but I was more excited about being on the island! As we docked I grabbed my chair and cooler and I went to seek of the perfect spot. The wind was very strong and really helped to keep the heat down but it did put a small damper on my exploration. I put my bags on my chair to keep it down and went on my way. There were a ton of shells and lots of other sea items all around me, washed up on the shore. I watched as people swam in the ocean and combed the shore for the perfect shells to take back with them as souvenirs. I only wanted to find the perfect sand dollar and as luck would have it, I did! I’m going bring it home to someone special that probably has a million already!
A few hours later I was back on the ferry and heading to my car. I honestly could not have asked for a better way to spend my morning!
