Hank – We spent a fun day with Jen and Ryan. They took us out on a pickle ball court. Kathy and I have never played but my table tennis experience helped me out a lot. Kathy improved very much as we played. It was the guys volleying against the ladies and it was a lot of fun. Jen moves pretty good for being five months pregnant.

Next up was Sanibel Island and the JN “Ding” Darling Wildlife Preserve. The porteur rack on my bike prevented us from loading three bikes on the rack so I rented a bike on the island along with Jen. We cruised to the wildlife preserve where my national park pass got all four of us in for free. During our bike tour we saw a wide variety of birds but no alligators. On the way back from the preserve we came across a couple of gopher turtles. They were pretty cool.

We finished up with ice cream at The Love Boat and juice at the Sun Harvest Citrus, where you can get anything citrus related, before  heading back to the house.

Kathy – It was a fun day hanging out with Jen and Ryan. Nice of them to spend time with the old folks. Playing pickle ball was so fun! Now, just so you know my sports hand-eye coordination is not good, so I had to run often for the ball. Regardless, after a bit I did improve. I have a looong way to go before I’m actually considered to be a good player, but by the time we finished today there was more racket-ball contact with a little less running for the ball. Or, maybe Jen just said I was doing good to make me feel better. 😉

After pickle ball we hopped in the car and headed over to Sanibel Island for our 17 mile bike ride. We were on paved trails which was nice. They have so many cyclists riding that the island has police offers stopping traffic at the intersections so the cyclists can go. They looked like the officers in Times Square in New York City directing traffic – only the cyclists have the right of way here over the cars. Our ride was super relaxing. We left the pannier bags at Jen and Ryan’s house so no weight on the bikes except our own. We could really fly on those bikes if we wanted but we chose a nice speed just to enjoy the ride.

We rode to and through the wildlife preserve. I was perfectly happy with just seeing a variety of tropical bird and no alligators. They did have one area where you could learn about the different wildlife’s poop. Yep, I said poop. On the top of these wooded flaps they had metal sculptures of different wildlife poop, and you had to guess which type of animal poop it was. Then you lifted the wooden flaps to see if you were correct. Very educational. 🧐

Another note, the wildlife preserve had the most beautiful bathrooms. They had a plaque on the wall where they were rated number one in some poll. Each stall had wildlife paintings on them, along with bathroom wall paintings and wildlife sculptures hanging about too. Just outside of the bathroom on the ceiling were more wildlife paintings and sculptures, only these had a view like you were under water looking up and could see the animals from that perspective. It was pretty cool. We went in the museum to check it out too. This was an excellent museum, very educational.

We rode our bikes back to the bike rental place then we stopped for ice cream. The Love Boat Ice Cream Shop was yummy! Very tasty and delicious. We rate this one up there pretty high with some of the best ice creams we have eaten during our bike travels.

Stopped by Sun Harvest Citrus before heading back to Jen and Ryan’s house. We took or obligatory picture in front of the huge orange just outside the building. This place has lots of unique gifts along with the tourist-type gifts too. We didn’t buy any fruit (Jen & Ryan did) but we did find few small things to send home.

Jen made some excellent White Chicken Chili in the crockpot that was awaiting us when we got home. We all showered and then enjoyed dinner. Ryan bought some orange/strawberry juice at Sun Harvest citrus. He mixed some vodka in it which made for a nice after dinner drink. We had more great conversations while the football game was in the background before calling it a night. Another fabulous day!

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