Still adjusting to life back at full speed after a glorious week living SLOW on N Captiva Island (off Mt Meyers FL).   And we just made it back before the volcanic ash shut down the UK airspace - a week in Miami waiting for a flight would have cancelled out all the relaxation!

I put together a photo album together for the grandparents (click here to see it) with LOTS more photos.

North Captiva is hard to get to - at least from London -  a 30 min boat ride after a 3 hr drive after a 9 hr flight to Miami.  But once there, the only transport is golf buggies and bikes. Its quiet and pretty uneventful - the greatest challenge of each day was figuring out how to cook for 7 people for with only few utensils and warped pots.


A week of beach walks, playing scrabble with the kids and Billy's parents, running on sandy trails, spotting huge birds, turtles and dolphins.  Kids went fishing, but I couldn't justify the outrageous expense - certainly the most expensive dinner we had!

We were without the internet most of the week, but finally pirated wifi from someone - but I still managed to call in to Runners Round Table from the observation platform on the roof, watching the sun set over the osprey nest with two fledglings right next to the house - fantastic.

The last day Ali and I ran along the beach  - and a pod of dolphins swam just offshore making the fish jump into the air. They followed along the beach with us for almost a mile, then we ran back to the house to toss them the rest of the raw fish the kids had caught and they took it! It was exhilarating to be a part of their world!