The Green Islands of Sanibel and Captiva

Last winter, we couldn't take the cold weather (not that we're faring much better this year!), so we took off to Sanibel and Captiva, two subtropical barrier islands in the Gulf of Mexico. It was a short trip from Fort Myers, off the western coast of Florida. I hadn't been to Sanibel since I was a child and I'm sorry that I waited so long to return. It's peaceful, pristine and, perhaps best of all for me and the purpose of this post, remarkably green.

On Sanibel and Captiva, the locals take their trash disposal, recycling, and conservation efforts very seriously. It's hard to find any litter at all there. As for conservation, a must-see on Sanibel is the J. N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge.

"Ding" Darling had a rather goofy nickname, but in fact he was the man responsible for founding the National Wildlife Federation. Way back in 1938, before anybody was talking about melting icebergs and greenhouse gases, Darling was advocating for the conservation of our natural resources and protection of our wildlife, and famously illustrated a cartoon entitled "How Rich Will We Be When We Have Converted All Our Forests, All Our Soil, All Our Water Resources and Our Minerals Into Cash?" (He wasn't just your average cartoonist--he won two Pulitzer Prizes for editorial cartooning.) After his death in 1962, his followers formed a foundation to continue his legacy, and in 1976, the wildlife refuge named after him was established on Sanibel.

At the refuge, you can see an impressive variety of migratory birds, mammals, reptiles--perhaps even an alligator or two. (We didn't see any gators on the day of our visit, but they're not uncommon.) You also can see the largest undeveloped mangrove ecosystem in the United States. We learned that mangroves established themselves on Sanibel long ago, and they have successfully thwarted many a subtropical storm from washing away the island. This link details the further ecological importance of mangroves, from providing food and shelter for fish and wildlife, to forming essential nutrients for the marine food chain. As important as they are, their root systems look like wildly tangled messes--or your worst possible "Bad Hair Day."

Here's what most of our days were like on Sanibel: Rise early (but not crazy-early), eat breakfast in the room, head to the hotel pool while we had it all to ourselves, and then as soon as the pool started to get populated, we'd head to one of the many tranquil, uncrowded, unspoiled beaches to sunbathe, swim in the bathtub-warm water, build elaborate sandcastles with moats, and look for shells. Ah yes, the shells...

Sanibel is world-renowned for its shells, and it is truly staggering to see the sheer amount of them that wash ashore with every tide. The shell-collectors of Sanibel are a serious bunch--they're out in droves at the earliest light of dawn, bent over in what is called the "Sanibel Stoop," looking eagerly for their treasures. We visited the Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum (www.shellmuseum.org) early on in our trip, which turned out to be a very smart move indeed--every night, the kids would sort and categorize their daily haul of shells back at the hotel room.

We spent one of our vacation days on Captiva (an easy drive from Sanibel), for more lovely beachgoing. There is a little less to do than on Sanibel, but that is exactly the point of going there. The sunset photo at the start of this post was taken on Captiva.

We thoroughly enjoyed our winter getaway, 100% free of crowds and commercialization. It was the definition of what a vacation should be, and when we returned to the bitter cold up north, we were refreshed, recharged, and ready to face the remainder of the winter, with warm memories of our island escape.

Have you been to Sanibel or Captiva? Have you ever had a "green vacation"? Please share your destinations and experiences in the Comments section.

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