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.