Florida Summer Trip - Day 2 Part 1

Trying to figure out how I would get some exercise while on vacation was a bit tricky, but we settled in on a plan to do a few easy hour runs and also some open water swimming practice.  So, I started off the day with a nice 6 mile run on the beach which even at 7 am which smoking hot.  The temperature was still fairly mild but the humidity just hits you right in the teeth and I was fully soaked with sweat within minutes.  It was nice to run on the soft sand, but was always a bit dicey trying not to twist an ankle or get wet from the waves washing up.

As you can see above, day two also featured a healthy dose of the beach and water.  I'm fairly sure these guys could live on the beach if it were allowed, which is exactly why we try to get there every other year.  They just absolutely love it.  This day had some slightly bigger waves and Gavin and Gage even borrowed a boogie board from some others that were around us.

One type of seashell you can find, though sometimes rare are these sand dollars.  What was unique about this area was that if you went about chest deep into the water the floor was covered with living sand dollars.  As you can see, this one may have been "borrowed" from the ocean floor to get some fresh air on our beach chair.

Toward the afternoon, we headed to the northern end of the island to see the Sanibel lighthouse and pier.  However, on the way we had to stop at this famous Pinocchio's Ice Cream.  There are a few things to note about Pinocchio's: 1) They sometimes only accept cash which can be a problem as the ice cream is rather expensive and 2) The portions are absolutely huge!  Gavin and Gage made out like bandits with probably the equivalent of a pint of ice cream mushed onto the top of a cone.  I had some amazing Maple Walnut ice cream, as well, but we probably didn't need dinner after those servings.