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I went to dinner with some friends on Saturday night – they gave me the choice of venue, so I selected the newly-opened Sea Star Cafe on Sanibel Island. It’s located where Ellington’s used to be, at the Sanibel Inn. When we first arrived, it was after 6:00 PM and there weren’t any other cars in the parking lot. We thought perhaps it was an indicator that the restaurant was not being kindly received, but later on, our waitress reminded us that it’s off season and what few tourists do make it to the island in the summer want to be on the beach as long as there’s daylight. Sunset doesn’t really occur until after 8:00 PM – and the sunsets are amazing down here in the summer time, so I don’t blame those tourists one bit for delaying the dinner hour! There’s a sample menu posted here, but it doesn’t show the wine list or mixed drinks. If memory serves, I ordered a Sanibel Iced Tea, pictured at left, but I don’t remember what was in it – clearly, something that makes it look like a sunset! It was cold and fruity and delicious.

ATMOSPHERE
I like the ambiance of the restaurant – exposed beams in a rotunda, lots of clean wood surfaces and just an airy feel to the place. The booths are very roomy too, but ours looked out over the garbage dumpster in the parking lot. Get one toward the back of the restaurant along the road if you want a better view.


APPETIZER
I started my meal with the house salad and citrus vinaigrette on the side. The salad was fresh, the dressing was a little on the peppery side but overall good, and the bowl was a fail. You cannot tell from the photo, but the square salad bowl is sort of a wedge shape, with the bottom of the bowl being MUCH narrower than the opening at the top. Consequently, when you stab into your salad with your fork, lettuce and stuff erupts onto the table. Maybe if they filled the bowl a little less…??? Honestly, if I were the manager of the restaurant, I’d just ditch these bowls and get something a bit less adventurous.


ENTREES aka THE GREAT LOBSTER TAIL FAIL
Gary and I both ordered the grilled lobster tail. You will notice it was sliced in half lengthwise. This probably worked well in getting a lot of contact with the grill, but it was a fail logistically in terms of trying to pry the meat out of the shell. At some point, you have to pick the meat out with your fingers or just miss out on half your lobster tail. And honestly, if I’d wanted to pick at something with my fingers, I would have ordered an entire lobster or a crab or something. The whole point of ordering just the tail is that you can eat it with your fork and keep your hands clean. We didn’t have extra napkins or wet naps on the table, so things got messy fast. I also have to mention that the lobster tasted like steak. Oh I liked it, but it suggests that fish and meat are cooked on the same grill here. If you are allergic to seafood, then you should probably specifically mention that to the staff here so they will cook your steak separately.


Tootie ordered the shrimp basket and was overall pleased, I believe. I haven’t been over to her blog yet to see! I sampled one of her shrimp – it was a huge portion and they were pretty big shrimp, too. I love how the tail comes RIGHT off when you pull – A+ for that! Tootie said her fries were really good, too.


DESSERT and SERVICE
No, there’s nothing floating in my coffee – it’s the reflection from the overhead light fixture. But it does look like I’ve got “clouds in my coffee, clouds in my coffee”, doesn’t it? We did receive a fair amount of attention from the staff – probably there were two reasons for this. One, there weren’t a lot of people there so their attention was not divided much. Two, when patrons whip out cameras and start taking pictures of the food, chances are pretty good a review is on the horizon Well, maybe they didn’t notice the photo-taking, not sure. We did let the manager know about the lobster tail fail and made him pinky-swear that he would never let the chef do that again! For our trouble, we received these humongous double portions of dessert! I had to ask for a box to take half of it home (which I demolished last night after dinner – the cheesecake is totally wicked good!).

OVERALL IMPRESSION
I really did like the atmosphere and the friendliness of the staff at the Sea Star Cafe. I would like to come back at some point in the future and see how they are maturing. Also noted – there’s a bar, and the place is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, which means this is a potential new stop on the Sunday Sanibel Bar Crawl. Well, we’ll see if we can get Gary to go back…

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McT’s Shrimp House and Tavern is a stop on the Sunday Sanibel Bar Crawl, especially when it’s very hot outside. The SSBC started in the mild weather as a pool bar crawl, but as the weather turned that year, it was obvious that we needed to seek asylum in places that were both shady and air conditioned. McT’s has traditionally been a final stop, but now that they are open for lunch, we’ve actually started there a few times.

I enjoy the ambiance at McT’s. It starts with the outside decor – they’ve got a beached dingy with tall sea grasses growing out of holes it its bottom, a dolphin sculpture and a tropically-decorated Adirondack chair at the front door. Inside, it’s kind of like walking into an undersea cavern – cool and shady, the whimsical mood is set by fantasy-tinged paintings on the walls and the twinkling “stars” strung over the bar. There’s a big blue crab over the bar, too. I like the way the artist just painted the crab’s feet right on top of the air conditioning duct.

There are other things painted on the walls and ceiling, including a couple of mermaids. One of the mermaids is framed on the wall beside the door to the Tavern. I’m a sucker for blue and yellow together, so this is my favorite scene in the whole bar. In this photo, you can see a bit of glare on the lower left of the frame – that’s coming from the glass in the door. As I was taking this photo, one of the wait staff passed by and remarked that she believed the owner’s wife is the artist who creates these paintings, and that she’d just been in recently to freshen them up a bit.

So, how’s the food? you ask. McT’s serves home-made potato chips that would be pretty hard to beat. They are pretty much inhaled as soon as the basket hits the table. Here’s my McT’s lunch of choice – fresh Gulf shrimp, just grilled plain, on a bed of romaine with Caesar dressing on the side. There are all kinds of ways to prepare shrimp, but I like it just grilled because you can really taste how fresh it is that way. To wet the whistle – after all, this is supposed to be a bar crawl – we have a Yellowbird, the official fru-fru drink of the Sunday Sanibel Bar Crawlers and Militant Shellers Association (TM). This is a wonderful libation made from amaretto, rum and pineapple juice, usually garnished with a cherry and an orange slice. The orange slice is typically the first thing ingested.

Overall, I’d say we all enjoy our stops at McT’s, and I’m looking forward to more in the future. Now, if only they had a pool…

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This week, it’s been 2 years since I joined Ruby Tuesday, a photo meme hosted by Mary at Work of the Poet. To commemorate the occasion, here’s my first-ever Ruby Tuesday post – from June 24th, 2008! OH – and I have since seen this film, and I believe the cute little red car’s name is Lightning McQueen

Hey, guess what? I lied to you guys yesterday, but I didn’t mean to. I forgot that it was going to be Tuesday today, and I did not intend to continue Flower & Garden Festival stuff because it is my very first RUBY Tuesday! I found out about it from The Teach – in fact, I think she might be the inventor and sole proprietor of Ruby Tuesday.

So here’s my first contribution. I believe this car was one of the stars of Pixar’s film called – wait for it! – Cars. But I am not 100% sure about that, because I have never seen the film.

There’s lots of other nifty red stuff in the background, too. This photo was taken at Disney-MGM Disney’s Hollywood Studios on the morning of May 26th 2008.

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Nieceling and I designed our own thrill ride at EPCOT. The attraction, which is located in Innoventions, is called "Sum Of All Thrills". Presented by Raytheon, it’s designed to get kids interested in the physics and math behind the building of a thrill ride.

Our thrill ride is a roller coaster with features like corkscrews and half-pipes. We call it “The Electric Star”

You have four minutes to design your ride, and our little buddy Crash the test dummy helps you by trying out your stunts to see if they are viable. Crash is pictured here on a plastic electronic swipe card that stores your thrill ride after you have finished designing it. You then take the card to another section where you are strapped into a capsule on a crane and your program runs, turning you upside down, sideways and all around. Fun stuff!

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I don’t know how to tell you this, so I’m just going to spit it out – the Stepford-stewardess-zombie dolls are GONE!

Intrepid readers may recall that I discovered these oddities during my March weekend in Walt Disney World while browsing the Tren-D boutique in Downtown Disney. If you missed it or don’t remember, you can click here to read about it – go ahead, we’ll wait…. oh good you’re back. Surely you can see that the “Stepford Stewardesses” are a little strange. Each doll is clad in identical dresses with identical accessories and identical stares… I suspected then that there was something a little creepy about them, and apparently I was right!

Look – they’re GONE! It’s like they just marched away. No trace of them whatsoever. Where did they go? What is their mission? Who is controlling them and their vacant little staring eyes? And where did all these over-sized chess pieces come from?

I began to roam the store in search of them. Surely they could not have wandered far! Disney does not allow their theming to just get up and walk off. Unless… unless the Stepford-stewardess-zombie dolls had actually taken control of the store and all the Cast Members in it!

No sooner did I have this terrifying thought, then the teeny tiny hairs on the back of my neck began to stand on end. I felt uncomfortable, like I was being watched… Slowly I turned, step by step, inch by inch, whereupon I came face to face with a site so horrifying, I nearly fled screaming in abject terror. For there, on a shelf in the corner stood…

Stepford Polka Dot dolls

(queue scary music )
Have they read my mind? Do they know I suspect them of this diabolical plot to take over Downtown Disney by means of Stepford-zombie mind control? Are they hiding under my bed this very minute? Must I be COMPLETELY mad to be posting this?

NEXT WEEK: The Polka Dot dolls reveal all!

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I was taking photographs in and around Disney’s Boardwalk Inn when my camera ran out of juice. Fortunately, I had a set of fresh batteries with me, and scouted a place to sit down and swap them out. I found this chair and side table in the lobby of the Boardwalk.

I knew right away that after the batteries were changed, the first picture I would snap would be of the table. It was decorated with images of my OTHER, non-Disney passion – sea shells! Not so surprising – the whole Boardwalk at Walt Disney World has a seaside resort and amusement theme. Sea shells fit right in.

The reason I moved to the Lee Island Coast in particular was to be close to Sanibel Island, where many such shells can be found. The two smaller ones pictured on the table appear to be keyhole limpets. The larger one is a true tulip. It’s always a treat to find a true tulip – they are so bright and colorful, and they come in an array of patterns.

I found a literal bonanza of true tulips on Sanibel Island the first year I lived here in Southwest Florida. Sometime in June of that year, Tropical Storm Alberto blew through. A tropical storm is not as severe as a hurricane, but it’s just enough to push a bunch of treasure up onto the shores of Sanibel. At the top of this photo, you can see the tops of two pear whelks. Below that, three banded tulips. And in the last row – an assortment of true tulips in various patterns and sizes. The largest one measures 5.25 inches from end to end – about as long as a pen.

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You might think this is odd, but when it comes to leaving a Disney park, I plan my exit route around how many shops I can hit as I make my way toward the gate. (Long-time readers are feigning shock. Tink *~*~* – a shopper? No! Really? ;p ) There are a couple of reasons you should consider doing this, too. One, you are addicted to Disney merchandise, and even if you’re not buying, you’re still looking. Two, if it is a really hot day, the shops are your air conditioned refuge. Some of them are quite long, actually a series of shops strung together; you can get from one to the next without having to exit to the sidewalk. For instance, at the Magic Kingdom you can enter Casey’s at the rear where the bleachers and cartoons are, and walk clear down to the Emporium without ever having to leave the comfort of climate control.

At Disney’s Animal Kingdom, there are major shops spaced out all around Discovery Island, so no matter which land you are coming from, you’re passing merchandise and cool air. The shopportunities are just too good to pass up, so you enter to see what you can see. Much of the merchandise will be similar to what you just saw in the last shop you were in, but once in a while you come across something unique, different…. ok, odd. Take this Pirate Tinkerbell pin as an example. Adorable, right? Well, yes – but only until you get close enough to realize that her eyes are these strange, glowing, neon blue blobs and it makes her look like a pod person ready to shed her humanoid form and take over the planet. I would have bought her, except that she gave me the willies!

Here’s another head-scratcher. We already knew that Ariel didn’t have legs until her dear Auntie Ursula gave her some in exchange for her lovely singing voice. What we didn’t know is that Ursula apparently reneged on the deal, for here we see that instead of legs, Ariel’s got a miniature theater under her skirt, complete with her own “mini-me” shown here in the boat with Prince Eric. The statue is very pretty but when you think about it, she’s actually floating legless above a rowboat and that’s just a tad bizarre. I passed on this one, too.

This t-shirt is a bit of a change of pace for Mickey. Normally, he’s friendly, charming, outgoing and always smiling. On this t-shirt, not so much. Mickey is depicted here running, with his hands flailing in the air, looking over his shoulder in abject terror. Clearly, someone – or someTHING – is chasing him. However, we cannot see that because the t-shirt ends just where a would-be pursuer would begin. We may never know what’s made poor Mickey take off like this, but judging from his face, it can’t be good! Still, this one is more edgy than strange, so there’s the possibility I’d buy it, just to be droll.

So what about you?
Do you cut through the shops in the Disney parks to cool off?
And what’s the strangest Disney merchandise you’ve ever seen?

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Welcome to Dinosaur Week at My Mobile Adventures *~*~* As mentioned elsewhere, the only real reason it is Dinosaur Week is because I have pictures of dinosars to share Today’s offering comes from Downtown Disney. As many are aware, there is a Lego store there, and they’ve been displaying complex, life-sized Lego sculptures for many years. They are swapped out periodically, so sometimes you get a surprise on your next visit.

These dinosaurs stood very close to the shore. One of the current displays is an entire tourist family. I have to say that my all-time faves were the dragon and the guy who was snoring on the bench outside the store (I think he looked like Frasier from the TV show). I was on a boat from the Port Orleans French Quarter resort when I snapped this photo, so that’s why it’s a behind-and-to-the-side view.

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