OLD FLORIDA & ITS HIDDEN GEMS A family getaway on the scenic Captiva Island by Tara Macgillivray
READY FOR RELAXATION A weekend on Captiva Island always feels like stepping into a slower rhythm, but this trip stood out right away because it was a full family vacation. Everyone came along, from adults looking to unwind to kids ready to turn every moment into an adventure. ere’s something about Captiva that makes that kind of mix work perfectly. You don’t need a packed schedule. e island itself gives you more than enough to do. One of the rst things we did ended up being one of the most memorable parts of the entire weekend, especially for the boys. Before the trip, we had spent some time fossil hunting along the Peace River and came away with a ton of real fossilized shark teeth. Instead of just keeping them in a jar or showing them o , we decided to turn it into something a little more fun. Early on our rst morning, before the kids made their way down to the beach, we went out and marked o a small ve foot by ve foot patch of sand. It didn’t look like much, just another part of the shoreline, but we carefully buried the teeth just beneath the surface. e idea was simple. Let them “discover” the fossils on their own and see how it played out.
totally convinced. ey started digging without much direction, just enjoying being in the sand. en one of them paused, reached down, and pulled out a small, dark tooth. Everything changed in that moment. Suddenly it wasn’t just digging anymore. It was a full excavation. ey started working faster, calling each other over every time someone found something new. Each tooth felt like a huge discovery. ey compared shapes and sizes, asked how old they were, and tried to guess what kind of shark they came from. Even though we knew exactly where the teeth were buried, it didn’t take anything away from the experience. Watching their excitement build with each nd made it feel just as real for us. at energy carried into the rest of the day. e beach quickly became the center of everything. It’s wide, clean, and relaxed in a way that makes it easy to spend hours there without even noticing the time passing. People dri in and out, setting up chairs, walking the shoreline, or just standing and looking out at the water. One of the things that kept pulling us back to the edge of the water was the dolphins. We didn’t just see one or two over the course of the weekend. ey were out there constantly. Early mornings seemed to be the best time, when the water was calmer and the beach was quieter, but we also saw them in the evenings as the sun started to drop. ere were moments when they came surprisingly close to shore. You could see their dorsal ns cutting through the water, moving steadily along the coastline. Sometimes continued
When the boys came down, we casually told them
that certain parts of the beach were known for fossils and handed them a couple of small shovels. At rst, they didn’t seem
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