Road Trip – OLD & NEW ADVENTURES – Day 9 – Sarasota Gardens, Yoder's and Sanibel Island

[anji]

Road Trip – OLD & NEW ADVENTURES – Day 9 – Sarasota Gardens, Yoder's and Sanibel Island

Today was going to be busy and one I’d been looking forwards to. We visited Sanibel in 2012 for one night and I just fell in love with the place and couldn’t wait to get back there. Very hot today – 96 degrees.

Erin and Rick had left the house when we woke up. We got ourselves together with some coffee and biscuits, took a couple sneaky photos, said goodbye to the animals and let ourselves out. It was a great house, they were lovely but we both decided that any future AirBnBs would be whole-house type of rentals so that we didn’t feel we were treading on eggshells the whole time.

We went south on Route 41 and by the time we’d reached north Sarasota we were rather hungry! Breakfast was at Crager’s Family Diner and it was just great. Beautiful freshly squeezed pink grapefruit juice, scrambled eggs just done the way I like them and toast. Will had the works with home fries etc.

Next stop was to be the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota. I wanted to go there as they have a huge orchid collection (I do too!) and Selby was my original surname! It turned out on the history of the Florida Selbys that Mr Selby sold his oil business to Texaco and made millions – I’m sure there must be a connection somewhere and I’m owed millions in inheritance!

These gardens were absolutely beautiful – some of the most stunning trees we’d ever seen, well laid out and also next to the sea. The orchids were wonderful.

There were different areas – rainforest, woodland, desert etc.

I braved the rope bridge – not one of my favourite things to do. I could have stayed all day. Highly recommended.

Lunch beckoned. We wanted to go to Yoder’s again. We’d been for dinner when we visited before but we’d arrived really late and they were just closing, so all the other buildings were closed by then. Yoder’s is an Amish restaurant which has been on Man V Food and is legendary for pies, meatloaf and huge portions.

This time we opted just to have some pie and ice cream each. We had to take it away before as just couldn’t have managed another morsel. I had cherry and Will had blueberry with a crumble top. Damn fine cherry pie it was too (if you like Twin Peaks, you’ll get that!). Everyone was really friendly and I love their uniforms.

After our pies we took some time to look around. They have a gift store, a farm store and a deli. The fruit and veg in the farm store was enormous. Why don’t we ever see produce like this at our markets? The deli was great to look round and had some strange things on the shelves. I didn’t know buffalos laid eggs!

Back on the road only to find an accident and a big hold up. I guided us to Interstate 75 and we rejoined the 41 about 50 miles later. Downloading Google Maps so we could use them offline with no data usage was such a great idea and worked every time. It was really fast and never got us lost once. Thanks to the Dibber that gave the tip.

While we were travelling we were listening to 96 K Rock radio show with Stan and Heany. This was so funny – extremely irreverent and they wouldn’t get away with it here. Will was laughing so much at one point I thought we were going to have to pull over. They were talking about Tiger Woods getting arrested and were not complimentary about his girlfriend!

Finally, we were over the bridge and the toll and onto Sanibel Island. Hooray! Here come the shells! I’d booked us into a lovely little place called the Parrot Nest and specifically into the room called The Doll House. This turned out to be a little detatched cottage, wonderfully decorated with full kitchen, patio etc. The colours really suited and I instantly wanted to stay forever.

We settled in and made a couple of calls home. The Parrot Next is up near the Lighthouse end of the Island. We went out to explore. At the end of our road was Pinocchio’s Ice Cream Shop (oh dear!), a bakery, the Lighthouse Café and a couple of souvenir shops. We went to the ‘inland’ beach facing the bridge, which was narrow, but the first shell I picked up was a lovely one and my favourite of the holiday.

We went back via Pinocchio’s and had to have an ice cream, like you do. They put an animal cracker on top of each one – their trademark.

The guy working there was a bit frazzled and on his own. It turned out that whenever we went in there or passed by he was on his own – often with a big line outside as it was so popular, especially in the evenings. I felt sorry for him as he definitely needed help!

The beach was beckoning so we went and got changed into swimming gear. This time we headed for the big Lighthouse Beach. Heaven. As you can see from the photo, it was really busy haha! Lots of seabirds and I couldn’t wait to get up at dawn to collect shells the next day.

Later that night we ate at the Blue Giraffe restaurant. Fish tacos for me and steak for Will with Rum Cooler cocktails. I do find it odd that a lot of places close at 9pm and by the time we left there was only one other table occupied.

We stopped at a drive-through ATM for Bank of the Islands on the way home for some cash. Then back to our little Doll House. This had the most comfortable bed of all the places we stayed in and the perfect air-con… no noise but nice and cool. Earlyish night as I’d set the alarm for sunrise!

Index - https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/sho...4#post12643444

[capecoralfl]

That was the most perfect day! Having been over to Sanibel at least 50 times, I still get excited when we go over the island bridge and see the pelicans following us as we drive over the wide open views of water. Thank you for sharing.

[prettymiarose]

Looks & sounds beautiful! Thanks for sharing maybe I can talk the hubby into going (will have to research the fishing opportunities!)

[Tracy34]

What a fab day...

We love Yoder's... I could just eat some pie..

[dixonsontour]

Fabulous day. The gardens look beautiful as does sanibel.

[collybird]

I just can't get over how quaint all these little hidden gems are, I love the look of Yoder's. You must have had such fun researching for your trip. The gardens are absolutely beautiful too.

[Guest]

I saw Yoder's on Man vs Food!

It looks right up DH's street - proper old-fashioned cooking. Lol, the last time we ate at Perkins (the one just before the Sanibel causeway) - R.C. ordered chicken pot pie. And the waitress said, "That's always a popular choice for older gentlemen." Poor chap!

I've never eaten at Blue Giraffe. What did you think of the food?

SHELLS tomorrow!

[Red]

I have just caught up with your report, I love it. I started it when we were in Florida. we landed on Friday, I read your Crystal River day on the Saturday and we took a road trip there on the Sunday - we had the best time, took a boat trip from the hotel after having lunch there. Poured with rain, lots of thunder and lightning, but had the best captain. Waited it out under a bridge with loads of kayakers', lovely afternoon. Just wanted to say thank you for your report, it gave us a great day out. I am now going to read it all again and make notes for when we go back! 😀

[anji]

Originally Posted by Red

I have just caught up with your report, I love it. I started it when we were in Florida. we landed on Friday, I read your Crystal River day on the Saturday and we took a road trip there on the Sunday - we had the best time, took a boat trip from the hotel after having lunch there. Poured with rain, lots of thunder and lightning, but had the best captain. Waited it out under a bridge with loads of kayakers', lovely afternoon. Just wanted to say thank you for your report, it gave us a great day out. I am now going to read it all again and make notes for when we go back! 😀

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So glad I helped you have a good time - I've had so many tips from people here over the years so it's lovely to get some feedback on helping others Isn't the Plantation hotel amazing?!

Will do the other days soon - just been away for a few days so time's been short!

[anji]

Originally Posted by GopherLass

I saw Yoder's on Man vs Food!

It looks right up DH's street - proper old-fashioned cooking. Lol, the last time we ate at Perkins (the one just before the Sanibel causeway) - R.C. ordered chicken pot pie. And the waitress said, "That's always a popular choice for older gentlemen." Poor chap!

I've never eaten at Blue Giraffe. What did you think of the food?

SHELLS tomorrow!

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Yoder's is sooo good. Go hungry. Love the comment about the Pot Pie - I'd have laughed so much if she'd said that to Will. If she'd said it to me she wouldn't be still standing though!

Blue Giraffe is lovely but we went a bit late - again. Food was very good indeed. Island Cow is our breakfast favourite but not been there for dinner.

Yes shells tomorrow! Been away to France for a couple of days so not had time. Will do soon - promise!