The Most Expensive Camping Trip Yet

Brooke had a week off of work, so I decided to take the week off as well. We spent hours and hours scouring CheapCaribbean.com, TripAdvisor.com, travel blogs, etc, looking for great affordable destinations. Unfortunately, the week she had off was the same week that all the New England public schools have their winter break. The airfare prices were the same as they are at the holidays.

Our plans were constantly changing, but late one night I was researching beaches in Florida and thought "What if we went camping on the beach?". I found out that there are three state parks in the Florida Keys that allow camping, but they were all booked for that week. A little more research led me to find Cayo Costa State Park, located on a primitive island near Sanibel Island.

We were going to kayak out to the island, a 7-mile trip, but we had issues finding an outfitter. We ended up keeping things simple and going over on the ferry instead. The island is beautiful. There are no hotels, restaurants, or anything like that. There are cabins, restrooms, outdoor cold water showers, and campsites.

The temperature was in the 70s and 80s the entire time. It was perfect. The nights got a little muggy and the mornings were foggy until about 10.

We flew into Fort Myers, Florida on Sunday. We spent the afternoon sitting next to the water watching birds and the sun go down. A man came up to us and told us thanks for making a great picture and he showed us his phone. He then sent us the picture.

It's cheesy, we know, but we can love it since we didn't take it or pose for it.

The next day we went to Walmart and bought our food for the week. Then we took a taxi cab to Pine Island passing through the beautiful Matlacha island.

The marina in Pine Island where we took the ferry.

The island was not disappointing. Neither was the hot and sunny weather. I loved tent camping though I could have left my sleeping bag at home it felt so nice outside. We had fun cooking simple meals. We kayaked, hiked, read, and relaxed at the beach. Most of the time we couldn't see anyone else on the beach.

Brooke's Chaco's gave her blisters on our hike (she wore them for 18 months straight in Malaysia and thought she was immune).

We saw multiple birds catch fish and eat them.

Our camp in the morning and the night.

We rented kayaks to go to Cabbage Key, which has a restaurant which is famous for its hamburgers. Also, people tape up $1 bills all over the interior of the restaurant. There is over $10,000 on the walls of that place. Kind of crazy.

While kayaking, we accidentally disturbed a manatee, who almost tipped over our kayak. It was very startling. A few minutes after that, we saw two dolphins playing and followed them around for a while.

 
I hate picture below, but it shows the money.

I picked the campsite at the end to give us a little bit of privacy. It wasn't until we arrived that we found out it was the closest camp to the alligator lagoon?

And some more pictures of the beach...