Up At 315am...Oh Joy...

Well it's around 315am here in Ft. Myers, FL where I have been since last Saturday. This is the first night this week that I haven't been able to sleep through the night. I wonder what I did differently today to cause this. It's been nice getting through the night without having to get up to pass time until I get tired enough to go back to bed and catch some zzzs.

I'm trying to think of the last time I was away for over a week from home. Over the last few years, most of the vacation breaks I have taken have been what most would consider long weekends. Typically 4 or 5 days off as opposed to this nice 9 day break I took this go around. Pretty sure that my face will look well rested after this time off though if I have a couple of these middle of the night episodes I will have circles under my eyes darker than those crop circles in some farmers' field in the middle of Podunk, Iowa.

I spent about 5 hours today at the beach at Gulfside City Park on Sanibel Island. It was great. The air temperature was around 90 I think and the water temperature was in the upper 80s. Put it this way; there was no shock to the system as one approached the swimming trunk's water level height. Most guys would get this. LOL.

Ever since I was way young as Mashmakkan once sang "As The Years Go By", a lot of my more serene moments in life have occurred in or near some body of water. The combination of hot sun and nearby lake, gulf or ocean just lowers the stress ratio by umpteen degrees. Not sure what umpteen is but I am pretty sure that it is more than 1 or 2 as there is a teen in there.

The only thing that was missing today was a beach chair to sit on and a radio to listen to while listening to the gentle roll of the waves in the Gulf of Mexico. My body is just not meant to lay down on the sand regardless of what I am laying on. It's hard to find a comfortable position that lasts more than 10 minutes when sitting on hard sand and trying to read a Steve Martini book. It would have been nice to have a radio with me tuned into the region's classic rock station. Turns out they have a station called the "The Arrow" here that plays Tom Petty, Foreigner and Queensryche. Sounds like my kind of station. Any station that plays "Silent Lucidity" or "Jet City Woman" can't go wrong in my books.

Prior to arriving at the beach I stopped for a late breakfast at Island Cow on Sanibel Island. We had been there a couple of days earlier for lunch and liking that experience I decided to stop in for breakfast there. I got myself a table outside in the shade near to a large fan that kept the air circulating which was a good thing as the air was already rather sticky at 1030am.

I ordered the Farmer's Frittata which is an open-faced omelet with three cheeses. No idea what cheeses though; I'm a blogger not a true blue restaurant reviewer. LOL. In the frittata there was sausage, peppers and onions. They served that with home-style potatoes and grits and a slice of watermelon and of pineapple. I should have said hold the grits and double up on the fruit. For the life of me I just don't get grits. It's like eating papier mache even though I have never eaten papier mache.I just think that it may resemble it in texture. LOL. I tried a forkful and set it aside. It just isn't for me. The frittata though knocked my socks off even though I was wearing sandals so there were no socks to knock off. I have a rule. Sandals no socks. One of my many rules it seems. LOL. But let's face it socks and sandals get you nominated to the geek hall of shame. They serve Starbucks as their house coffee and you can never go wrong with that brand especially if you like their darker roasts. My only complaint is that they charged $3 for the coffee to go with breakfast which seems a little high. Then again I think they mark up the beverages to make up for smaller margins on the food as the servings are quite large for the price charged. I also have to take into the equation that I am in one of the tourist meccas of southwest Florida so chances are that prices will be higher than my hometown prices.

Sanibel Island also has an interesting grocery store called Jerry's Foods that Istopped in for liquid refreshments (Labatt's Blue) and freshly made sandwich for later in the day. Jerry's seems to be an upscale grocery store locations in Eden Prairie and Edina in Minnesota and here on Sanibel Island. I'm thinking the original Jerry had it with Minnesota winters one year and decided to come down to southwest Florida and presto decided that expansion in this neck of the woods was a good thing. Their prices are a little higher than let's say a Food Lion or BiLo and obviously if you are a WalMart shopper you would be scandalized by the prices, friendliness of the store staff and the cleanliness of the store. I liked the store.They have a great bakery section where you can by singles of some great danishes and pastries as well as some freshly baked breads. Given their location their fresh fish selection is outstanding as well Given that this was in essence a beer run I could have just stopped at a gas station but having heard about Jerry's two days prior I figured I may as well stop by. It was well worth it.

Okay that's it for now...