Pub Crawl & Beach Hopping

There are so many possibilities for isolated beaches around the barrier islands of the southwest coast of Florida that sometimes it seems we can’t possibly enjoy them all.  So today we decided to head for the far south end of the state park island just for fun.

The day dawned clear … unlike the past few days when we’ve been fogged in and the fog has been coming & going all day.  But by the time we were ready to dinghy south, the fog looked higher in the sky but like it could roll in again.  We decided to go anyway, if we got fogged in, we’d just follow the coastline slowly to stay out of too shallow water and we’d get there and back, it would just take longer.  Luckily, the fog held off and although the beach morning started out looking marginal, the clouds parted, the sun emerged and it turned into the perfect beach day.

There was some unusual vegetation as well.  Here’s a rare example of a shell tree.

Then we were off for a short dinghy ride across teh cut to North Captiva and Barnacle Phil’ss for lunch.  But before we get to Barnacle Phils, we passed an original old Florida fishing hut on stilts outside in the channel.

Then lunch.  Barnacle Phils is an outside fun beach pub where you can play bags, hula hoop, table tennis or rent kayaks.  You can also order a bucket of beers or just a drink, sandwiches, full entrees or appetizers and soak in the sand and sun under the tiki hut on the picnic tables or go inside and enjoy the a/c on a hot day.  Today we sat at a picnic table and enjoyed crab cake sandwiches with our libations.  Perfect.

After lunch we took a walk – North Captiva has no roads or automobiles, only golf carts and a private grass landing strip.  The only “vehicle” we saw was this old road grater.

And, of course, the beach.