Captiva Island, FL

A few years ago, we were invited to a destination wedding on Captiva Island. We try to keep destination weddings to a minimum–otherwise we end up spending all of our vacation days on weddings. But this one was for a dear friend of ours, so we couldn’t miss it. Besides, even though I’ve been to Captiva, hubby had not.
After flying into the Fort Myers airport and picking up our rental car, we headed off to find our way to our hotel. We cut through Fort Myers, crossed the toll bridge onto Sanibel Island, then continued up through the island until we reached Captiva and Tween Waters, which would be our home for the next 4 days.
img_1457We had an incredible view from our screened in porch. The resort was fairly small, yet cozy and adorable. There was an array of rooms to choose from–be it a single room or a 3 bedroom cottage.
For meals, there were two restaurants to choose from and the pool bar. We generally had breakfast each morning at the Captiva House.  Lunch was usually a sandwich or a salad at the Oasis pool bar (who had time to dry off to go eat?), and most of our dinners were at the Crow’s Nest which doubled as a lounge and was the location for the crab races. If you’ve never been to crab races, I highly recommend you go.  What a fun time! Our crab named Tiger came in 3rd.
Aside from the wedding festivities and spending time at the pool and beach, we spent a couple of days beachcombing and exploring the area. Low tide is the best time for shelling and we found lots of sand dollars on our beach.IMG_1456 We also took a ride over to the Bubble Room Restaurant which is a quirky little place. There were roomfuls of old toys, Christmas decorations, and moving trains. Even though they serve meals there, we just showed up for dessert from their on site bakery. I had a French Chocolate Torte that was to die for and hubby had the NY Style Cheesecake.I’m pretty sure these snacks were actually dessert for our next 3 meals they were that HUGE!
Our last night in Captiva, we went out with the entire wedding group for a sunset dinner cruise.  Talk about a perfect time!  We went out on the Lady Chadwick who easily accommodated our party of 50ish.img_1460We couldn’t have asked for a better evening, better food, better cocktails, or better company.  We were even joined by a couple of additional guests who were showing off behind our boat.img_1461Our evening was capped off by one of the most incredible, vivid sunsets I have ever seen.  It was the perfect ending to a perfect wedding weekend for our dear friends and an amazing finish to our long weekend in Captiva, FL. If you’re ever looking for a cozy getaway where you don’t even have to leave the resort, this one should be on your list!