The year was 2021. The month was February. The world was still under the spell of Covid virus. I was dealing with the news of my mom’s death. I did not know then but a couple of weeks later, my dad would pass away too. Due to the virus, we were all cooped up without any ability to travel.

Moment I got my first vaccination, I hit the road. I needed to get out somewhere and decompress. Deal with my mom’s news and the constant feeling of getting stuck in a place. It was me and my friend Avi.

If you notice the break in the beach where the water goes in, and then follow to the first multi-storey building a bit to the right – that is the Sheraton I had escaped to.

That was my first trip after Covid!

I had just come back home from office meetings for a couple of days in St. Pete. And immediately turned around to go on a vacation with Sharmila. And what do you know? We flew right over St. Pete. I can see the pink Vinoy hotel where we stayed in!!

We flew over the Sanibel Causeway and right there below, we could see the hotel we are going to stay in!!

Our first stop will be that beach. We will see how the hotel looks from there!

Looking back to our hotel…

That is Fisherman Key behind

1993 was the first time Sharmila and I had made it to Sanibel Island together with a few friends. If you did not realize already, Sharmila is the girl in the middle.

And today, we were there – thirty-three years later. We need to come back here with our old friends sometime…

We were strolling by the seashore when this school of dolphins showed up, unannounced. There were five of them that we could count. They hung around for a full fifteen minutes!

Next on our tour, we went to this sanctuary. We were not sure what to expect. Maybe some wild animals? A crocodile? In reality what we saw is a lot of birds. You can see the large American pelicans, the standard pelicans and the small spotted sandpipers.

Back in Alpharetta, our Saturday morning Farmers’Market stops around late October. Not so in Florida!! Here it opens in October!!

We had a great time spending the whole morning in the Market. There were some fresh fruits, crepes and baked goods to be had. And picked up two bags of coffee beans too!

Given Sharmila’s vocation, every vacation means we check out the local art scene. Went to three art galleries in Sanibel Island and one in nearby Estero. In the very first one, we made friends with this wonderful lady Ludmilla. She escaped from Slovakia during the Soviet era and found love in art in Cleveland. She has moved around a lot in America and Canada and has stuck to her love of art. She is one of the artists in this co-op gallery and was the manager today.

What was very intriguing is how much she knew about Indian culture – specially Aurobindo. She was delighted to find out that we hail from exactly the same part of India as Aurobindo did. She has not been to India yet! Hope she is able to go to Auroville someday!

Incidentally, if you have not seen a small stand-up bit by the Finnish comedian Ismo on the topic of “She sells sea shells by the sea shore”, I highly recommend it!

You must have encountered this many times in your beach trips. You wake up in the morning, pull the curtains and the glass doors are frosted. This is a natural phenomenon. You had the air conditioning on given the heat of beach places. But the outside was humid – again, it is a beach place. So the humidity outside collects on the cold glass door and condenses – giving that frosty look.

I woke up this morning to this same frosty glass door. The problem is that we did not have the air conditioning on. It is freezing here in Florida. How did the condensation happen then?

Usually, I am used to those slightly tilted blades that pushes the air down. This one reminded me of the design of the first plane by the Wright brothers!!

We first went to the small island village of Matlacha. It is billed to be a old Florida fishing village with a lot of bright art work on the walls. During our drive there, it did seem that the village got terribly affected Hurricane Ian and is yet to recover.

From there we went to Pine Island. This one has recovered a bit more but still long ways to go…

It says “Hubby Holding Area. You rock while the women shop”

Loved the halo around the sun

The sunset reflected on the restaurant doors