Day Five: Carts, Kayaks and Flying Machines!

An unusual stillness awoke me during the night…no roaring waves…no high winds.  I opened my eyes…the window was still open.  The waves’ relentless pounding that was an ocean response to the storm that brought us here had completed its course.  Now before dawn whispered the rhythmic cadence of a lullaby:  in and out…gentle and sweet…here and gone again.  My eyes were dazzled by a shining moon whose reflection created liquid diamonds dancing in celebration of the night far into the ocean. 

 It was Father’s exquisite thoughts…that is what they must look like: experiential art for anyone awake at that hour…for me.  I wandered out of bed and up to the top floor balcony to attempt to take it in…more like to enter in…join in….be.  In just a few minutes the spectacle would fade to make way for the start of day.  Breathe.  My secret treasure.

Early morning napping was followed by midmorning coffee on the balcony again where I enjoyed viewing a spontaneous dance party on the beach.  Only two dancers (Ely and Ery) as Josh worked on his computer a few feet away, occasionally affirming the kick- it choices in music and dance moves.  Ely is a great beach DJ and Erynne rocks the movie star persona.

It was to be the clearest day in weeks, said Dave the pilot whom we met through his playful toy collie on the beach last night after our final wedding shoot.  True to his word, he came to get us today but two hours after the designated time (I think they call that island time)…my Dave and I were walking down the lane to hop in a kayak and explore, and here he came on a bike…that is how things happen here.  Father arranges all the meetings. 








Quick texts to the kids in their various locations on the island, a speed walk cross country barefoot along the beach to the airstrip-a few instructions and in moments the island was beneath us.  

The screaming humming little engine was distantly familiar and very comfortable…my own Daddy’s best friend Jim Torpe was the last person who took me in a plane that size about 50 years ago.  Today’s flight was simply euphoric.  Dave got to ride in front to hear the pilot’s narration through the headphones…and I was behind…free to lean into the steep turns taking photos and video of the toy islands and topographic maps as they appeared beneath.  I had to stifle my squeals and applause.  I was 7 again up in the air.

El and Sarah had come on foot from the Kayak rental place (also the bar, restaurant, and general store)…Gembos and Smiths had come via kayak at full speed ahead when they received the text that the flight was on.  When we landed, having seen all the islands, we trundled out quickly so Pilot Dave could get started with the rest of our crew who were now awaiting our landing by the airstrip…three by three.  First El, Sarah, and Brad.  After the tour El emerged from the plane:  “That was the best thing I‘ve ever done!”  

Ery, Ely, and Josh were last …he let Ely fly for a few minutes!  

Lots of chatting with ‘Uncle Dave’ on the ground afterwards…Dave and Dave manhandled the plane into parking position (by hoisting it and walking it in with their arms and shoulders he-man style), shook hands, had a photo op, and we were off again.  

Dave and I manned Gembo’s kayak (they had left them on the beach), and set off with Smiths to return the kayaks by their deadline of 4 p.m.  In the middle of the bay, we encountered a flock of sea birds resting and grooming on a sand bar and stopped for about three surreal minutes.  

They were undisturbed by our presence.

We stopped by the bar to order dinner for later…Dave and Brad stayed to chat with travelers and workers (the bartender was from Bloomington, Indiana!) while Ery, Ely, Josh and I hit the hot tub.  Home in the cart for the sunset watch on the beach with El and Sarah…and uncle (pilot) Dave and his wife, Jeanie and dogs.  Fast friends already.  

Quick swim for me in our heated pool…grouper taco carry out and Smith-cooked steak …family movie was The Internship…. Bed and blogging…

Tomorrow is the last day on this island.

Day Four: Family freeezin’ in ice cold surf-Or-How much do we love Mom?!

Tuesday Dec. 17

Today my husband and kids got up in the chilly, windy, (almost frost bitey) dark before sunrise, piled into a golf cart dressed for an island wedding…big fluffy wedding dress and all…and ran into the waves on video because they love me.  We had done the Trash the Dress shoot (for our 30 year vow renewal) last summer down in Captiva/Sanibel but when I viewed the video, I realized I needed to redo the end.  No one foresaw the natural family shot that took place at that time without Eliott (who has the son come to the Trash the Dress?…who knew?)  So we had to come back…and here we are a year later.  The only difference is the unseasonable chill here…even for December.  Woo…that’s love.

Ery and Brad, Photographer and second Photographer, had it to a science for sunrise and sunset.  Each shot an approximation of exact perfection.  So great.  Soooo cold! 

We waited in  shivers for the shoot to begin...sunrise and wind and all.  And El ran into the water to rejoice with the rest of us…just like I envisioned.  My closure...my family shot...just like Father wanted me to have.  Like the end of a long journey.   I am so happy now.  So happy.

We were all in such a state of frigidity after the water video that we scuttled the rest of the plan and called Sarah and Josh at the house to tell them we would do the other shots that included them and Brad in the evening after we had a chance to warm up.  We spent the day in varying manners of rest including manatee viewing down at the pier.  

I think every second of manatee surface time was captured in someone’s camera shot and viewed many times on Facebook.  The blowing sound they make as they breathe is somehow so exciting.  Every one of us fell in love again with them.  We could have spent the whole day just doing that.

But the rest of our island was calling.  Dave and I walked back while the kids took the cart, now gnarly with battery problems and funky rubber noises that enabled everyone to make fun of the persons riding in the back.  Best cart snapshot of the day was Brad riding facing backwards on the front of the cart with the rest of us literally piled in and on every inch of space…maximum was about half a dozen of us at a time.  It reminded me of the trailer for Beverly Hillbillies, only island style.

This afternoon Dave offered to help me go deeper into the ocean and so we did.  I wasn’t afraid this time at all (no shipwrecks or rip tide this time!).  Splash splash…swim swim…cold and out.  Yay.  He helps me not be afraid.  One of the reasons that Father sent us to each other.  And now our second wedding album is complete!  Again YAY!

After a warm swim in our own pool with Dave, I called in another grocery order with Sandie, and we had Mango’s prepare some fish for carry out for dinner.  They had already shut down their oven, however, (island speak for decided to close early) but had some pizza fixins' they could sell us for take and bake.  (Neither of the island fishermen were fishing during our stay, so this approach would work fine).  The grouper here is always amazing.  But pizza for tonight.  It’s all fine on the island. 

For our date with the sunset this evening, we put on our other wedding clothes and went to our own beach in front of the house.  A little Gembo genius, and my album was done.  

El and Dave were drawn down the beach afterwards by a darling little toy collie.  The rest of us followed.  She was attached to pilot Dave Madden who lives here with his wife and two pups.  He wanted to take us up to see the island in his plane tomorrow.  He would come get us around noon tomorrow or the next day.  I wonder if that’s island speak for good to meet you have a nice stay.  Bye.  We will see.

 So for tonight we ate pizza, played Table Topics (yay Ery) sang karaoke (yay Ely)…note:  Eliott was in rare karaoke form… island life works for him!  He is more relaxed than I have seen him in quite a while.  And thankful we were to see Brad's rocker side in a new light-totally unplugged!  Dave and Ely got out the puzzle to end the night quietly.  Now Kishel will be able to complete my love story.  Thanks, Father.  You make everything beautiful.

Day Three: Waking up on an island in the ocean…or…Oh say can you sea?!

Dec.16, 2013

We awakened to the roar of the waves all snuggled in our beds of our new seaside home.  The unplanned rhythm of our island stay began to interplay.  Coffee had appeared in the pot (Brad?  Ery? Josh?) and by the time I had mine (with sugar and lots of heavy cream-always)  I wandered onto the upper balcony (a pleasantly surprising morning sunny deck) to take in the view.  This morning’s view had Brad and Erynne playing in the sea with huge and chilly waves.  

Eventually Josh joined and continued in there with Brad for a couple of hours it seemed.  

Dave and I decided to take an exploratory walk, which lasted about an hour and a half and included the far corner of the island where the new mansion under construction towered already in its supercilious grandeur…set to belong to some executive …big talk among the islanders, we discovered.  

We were chatting back at home (third floor balcony …sunny and warmly protected from the chilly winds of the beach) when suddenly…a gorgeous belting female version of the Star Spangled Banner overpowered our conversation, echoing through the house and into the space around it…Ery in island yellow (playful) mode--  Everything stopped.   The last notes rang…then back to conversation as before, but lighter at heart!  No uberseriousness in this place.  No siree.  It’s Island Life for Green Flash and it’s inhabitants…so, we sing out loud if we want!  Island business as usual.

On the other hand, Dave needed space to sort…island sorting was no doubt part of Father’s plan for this vacation.  Intensive and massive sorting of huge life changes in progress, as well as playful silliness, unplugged and unfettered.  The waves, wind, and sunsets seem to absorb all of the tension here.  I’ve been sort of wandering from one place to another all day figuring out my own fit here in this new rhythm. 

Ery’s giggles and squeals drew me to the pool where she and Brad were now giving it its first use with some ‘bat the ball’ (Brad had thought ahead and called in the island pool guys to help him get it heated up for our stay…yay Brad).  So far, it seems that one can’t have quiet conversations outside, as the waves are roaring 24/7…maybe a response to the storms we came through…but so majestic that no one cares.

I decided it was time for me to go into the sea for a minute just to try it…but I got in to the ankles and panicked.  Ok…Father please heal me from the underwater shipwreck rip tide experience a few years ago.  Perhaps another part of the agenda for this island tour.  Maybe tomorrow.  All is well.  The pool is warm and lovely…I’ll go there instead for today.

I can see Elyssa’s little happy girl coming slowly out.  It is not unusual to see her and Josh doing quietly parallel playing with computers or just sitting embraced and watching the sea on the beach or the balcony.  











Eliott has found a giant tortoise that lives in our yard.  He and Sarah are collecting veggies to line up from his hole to the back door lure him out for all to see.

We grilled burgers and ate an island king’s dinner around our table.  Movie tonight was Night at the Museum.  I love this life.  I just love it.  Looking forward to “the dawn’s early light”!  LOL.

Day Two: "Rule number one: There are no rules!”

Dec. 15, 2013

We slept several different varieties of ‘in’…and Sarah and I brought up the rear managing to slip into the tail end of the free breakfast bar.  The nice lady cooked two new sausages and brought them to Sarah and me after the breakfast had closed.  I had time to disappear into the pool…El was still asleep, and it was naptime for others.  Dutifully stewarding my fitness, I opened the pool gate and entered a dimension that might be called ‘Transition to tropical island vacation for Hoosiers’.  Recently renovated, the little pathway to the pool wound through tropical vegetation complete with live purple flowers.  A Jamaican version of Frosty the Snowman was playing in the bushes….and every little thing was gonna be alright, mahn.   As I entered the warm velvet blue water, I relaxed involuntarily and realized how tense the past two weeks had been.  Lyssie and Gembos followed.  Oh, what fun--jingle jingle!  A foretaste of things to come.

We piled in the vehicles (El and Josh at the wheels), and two hours later arrived at the address according to GPS.  It was a sort of vehicle warehouse next to a junkyard.  Island life had begun.  A couple of guys came out to meet us…out came some Tupperware bins, and the next thing we know Dave and I and Smiths are running to get on the boat with the others (I had wandered off with Dave in an attempt to stay couple connected!)  Photos of each other in our couples’ snug seats in the Captiva water taxi, and the hum of the engine shifted to high gear.  We headed for the island, holding tight to our hunnies as a chilly wind pressed hard against our faces.  A pair of dolphins popped out of the water to delight the girls, and continued in spectacular
leaps at intervals throughout our 30 minute crossing.  The island was visible in the distance…drawing closer as we motored alongside the dolphins.

Greeted by Upper Captiva Island staff and a golf cart, we carted/walked across the island (not very far) to the beautiful Green Flash, our three story glass luxury home by the sea.  All the homes there are vertical for view and safety.  

A long flight of exterior stairs, turn a key, and open to tile floors and soaring ceilings…hard wood staircases, and glass…a view of the ocean - only 50 feet away! - from every room.  Combined with the roar of the ocean, it was nearly overwhelming.  Dave filmed the kids’ reactions as they came up to the family room on the third floor.  

We left the balcony doors open from that moment on. The kitchen had been stocked with groceries by Sandie, the genius of island provisions.  Our luggage was delivered a few minutes later by CJ, who was probably Jamaican, and flaunted joyfully his island attitude:  “There is one rule on this island”… he said as he stood on the stairs and looked down at the rest of us just two steps below him.  “There are no rules! You do whatever you want!” he said with a mischievous grin.  He was to appear somewhere in our experience each day on the island, as a guardian angel keeping in touch with his charges.

We watched our first Upper Captiva sunset from our balcony (winter sunsets are more subtle than summer ones…still magnificent),    

then to the Mango’s bar/grill where we placed our order in a tiny convenience store, waited at the bar watching the moon rise and bantering with the eccentric bar tender who evidently was bored and made us samples of something he called a water moccasin.  The cook unlocked the upper club house (things are slow the week before Christmas), and we feasted. 

It was the best grouper in memory…fresh and unexpected, given the surroundings.  As if written in a script for a holiday movie, our first day was complete.  Welcome to island life.

Back at the house, we united in a prayer of dedication for the property and ourselves. Spontaneous family movie time:  ‘Home Alone’…so peaceful and all present.   Erynne says this is the first time our whole family has been together under one roof for more than a few hours.  I can tell this is going to be wonderful.