Our cousins in Florida have been encouraging us to come and visit them. They have a beautiful house in Sanibel Island, and for whatever reason, we've never visited them there. So we finally managed to escape the cold and various busy schedules of DC and get down to Sanibel.

Wow, what on earth is wrong with us?? Sanibel Island is beautiful, and we had tremendous fun with Cousins Mike and Carmen. Bike riding, yoga, and boat rides during the day, lovely dinners and wine at night, topped off with dancing! What more could you ask for?

What were the highlights? Our first full evening, we drove over to Captiva Island to watch the sunset. Ahh, wine, cheese, and fruit on the beach, watching the sunset - what could be better? We had a Carnevale di Venezia Merlot, which is not an expensive wine, but perfect for plastic wine glasses on the beach.

The boat ride to Useppa Island - accompanied by dolphins! The ride was perfect in the beautiful Gulf sunshine, Useppa Island is lovely - very private. We had lunch at the inn (you can only stay there if you know someone who belongs to the Useppa Island Club!). What a gorgeous way to forget about work and the cold weather up north!

Useppa Island Inn - a great place for lunch!

Another night, we had dinner at Traders, which was very nice. A Terres de Pierres Chablis 2011 was a perfect compliment to everyone's dinner - various types of fresh-caught seafood from the Gulf or Caribbean. Traders does a great job; we can see why Mike and Carmen like to go there.

And finally, dancing both Friday and Saturday night at Traditions on the Beach. Traditions has a great restaurant, plus they have super entertainment. Joe McCormick plays the keyboard and sings, and Marvilla Marzan was definitely a highlight. What a tremendous voice! Great songs from the 40s through to current songs, all quite danceable - even "I Can't Get No Satisfaction!"

Taking a break from the dancing, enjoying the music at Traditions.

All in all, a great time, and a super visit with the cousins. Mike and Carmen are so much fun, extremely generous, and so gracious. Lots of memories of famiglia shared between Mike and Ernie. We will definitely not go another 40+ years before getting back to Sanibel!