Recap: the final chapter

Thursday was an easy-does-it day. After Wednesday's epic 4-hour bike ride to Captiva and back, I was done with the bike. I had probably been more active, as far as biking and running, than I would have been at home. Granted I had more free time on my hands, but still.

Once everyone was up and about, we made plans to visit a local mall that I had heard about, Coconut Point in nearby Estero. This mall had just about every store my kids love. It took us a while to find it. I checked out a map to the place, but it was a little off, so we ended up driving around a little before I eventually had to stop and ask a local where it was. Turns out we had given up and turned around less than a half-mile from the mall!


The massive Coconut Point Mall. There's so much more than this picture shows.

When we got there, we were overwhelmed by how sprawling this place is. 110 stores, 27 restaurants, a movie theater, over a million square feet of retail space. Huge. We stopped at Aero, Am Eagle, Hollister, Barnes and Noble, Disney store, Claire's, and a few other shops. We were also there on iPhone 4 day. We could have easily spent an entire day there, and we may do just that the next time we visit SW Florida. There are still about 100 stores we didn't visit!


Me and my vacation beard. Didn't shave once on this trip. I don't know how you bearded guys do it.

Friday was our last full day in Florida, and so we decided to make it another beach day. We got packed up and headed back to Sanibel. We went back to our new favorite beach, Gulfside. The water wasn't quite as clear as before, and the waves were rolling that afternoon. Once again, we got lucky and had a beautiful afternoon. No sunburns this time either!




The girls, the beach. Good times.

On Saturday we packed up, cleaned up, and headed home. Uneventful, as far as road trips go.
So now, life gets back to normal. Booooo!