Our family recently returned from our week 28 vacation at Casa Ybel. Other than having three days of rain, we were pleased with all that is going on at CasaYbel. (Any rainy day suggestions for kids for the future? The reviews on the Hands on Museum in Ft. Myers were poor.) We did bike and lunch out on one rainy day.

Our IJK units (most of them - not all) have new windows and doorwalls. New ceramic tile on the exterior (parking lot side) floor of the building. The grounds and landscaping are looking good - even the rocks so many people complain about which blocks the path of H building. The linens and soaps have been upgraded. Danny Morgan was on property to perform Saturday (not Sunday due to rain.)

The food at Coconuts and the Thistle Lodge is very good and not priced too badly. The food was more pricey at Gramma Dots, KeyLime Bistro, and the Bubble Room. Lunch was even more expensive at the Mucky Duck. I vote to eat at Casa more often next year - it's convenient, good, and a good value. My recommendation for the best value in price, service, and quality would be the Green Flash on Captiva for dinner, Coconuts for lunch, and we skipped going out to breakfast entirely. The new gourmet deli on Periwinkle down near Baileys is worth looking into also.

Our owner's meeting was a pleasure to attend since there was 90% positive feedback to the 10% negative.

At the airport I picked up the Frommer's 2008 Florida book and CasaYbel is rated as the #1 resort to stay on the island. Although it's not in 100% of the best shape (tiles on pool need replacing, etc.) I would agree we have a very nice family resort.

For those of you with upcoming time at Casa - enjoy!

Thank you for a very helpful report.
My family enjoyed 4 of July week, this year actually from July 4 to July 11 and enjoyed it very much, meeting old friends and so on.
Your eating and dining report would have been very helpful to us, as we had some rainy days to cope with also with grand children on board.
I am going to ad a page for just those items to this web site, for owners to give some references for
places to visit, as I find those comments very helpful.

Our visit to Timbers, which I have always gone to, mostly when they were on Rabbit Road, now on Tarpon Bay Rd, was so different. My wife had pork, which she just could not eat, and I had grouper so over fried and dry that I drowned it in tarter sauce to eat.
What has happened there? New ownership?

Owners and guests:
Please suggest a name for this new wine, dine, and play web page, and the webmaster will ad it to our web site.
Perhaps also get an "owners only" page started for more privacy, with a code for owners only.
Thanks
Carl Appelberg

Carl, I think you've come up with a great name already for this new page to our owners' website:

The Islands' Wine, Dine, and Play

This would really be a great website and source of information for the owners - although I'm sure we'll all have our opinions and tastes will be different.

I failed to mention how disappointed I was with McT's. The only good thing about our dining experience there was the $24.95 all you can eat crab legs and the bread was homemade and warm too (also good), but the rest of the menu was very poor.

To end on a good note, our number one favorite restaurant is Traders! The bread, by the way, is from France.

We eat out nearly every evening on Sanibel and feel that the Islands are blessed with many excellent restaurants. Our favorites are Timbers, Thistle Lodge for the Gulf view, Gramma Dots for their coconut shrimp, Jacaranda and Lazy Flamingo for the outside dining and for a really special (and a bit more expensive dinner) Mad Hatter, the only Sanibel restaurant with gulf-sunset views. We like Mucky Duck for lunch. Used to love Timmy's nook, but alas Timmy died and it is gone, replaced by Green Flash.

After Easter, the Sanibel-Captive Kiwanis Club sells "Diner's Delight" books, which get you a free entree with the purchase of another entree of equal or grater value at participating restaurants. The 2008 book had 16 coupons. I purchase mine at the Big Red Q printshop across the street from the Dairy Queen. The owner of the print shop died recently and we may have to look elsewhere for them next year.

If you like entertainment with your meals, the Island Reporter newpaper publishes a weekly list of the restaurants and their entertainers.