DAY NIGHT IS PRIME TIME!! Served with baked Idaho potato KIDS EAT FREE!! & corn on the cob Snow Crab Grouper EVERY DAY! Shrimp Open Mon - Sat @11 am Sunday 9:00am $ 9S Serve fith French Fries & corn on the cob 2330 Palm Ridge Rd. Sanibel Island With the Purchase of One 15 and up Adult Entree You Receive One Kids Meal for Children 10 & under 37 items on the "Consider the Kids" menu. Not good with any other promotion or discount. All specials subject to availability. This promotion good through January 20,2006 and subject to change at any time. Sunday 9:00-12:00 noon Master Card, Visa, Discover Credit Cards Accepted* No Holidays. Must present ad. , , . 2 • Week of January 6-12, 2006 ISLANDER Hirdie Girdie welcomes three new artists By JENNY BURNHAM jburnham @ breezenewspapers.com Hirdie Girdie, the cooperative artist's gallery located on Library Way on Sanibel, has added three talented aitists to its membership: glass artist Cynthia Mclntyre, watercolorist Lee Ackert, and acrylics painter Patti Sole. The gallery will host a reception for their new artists on Monday, Jan. 9, from 5 to 8 p.m. Mclntyre, a native Bostonian, works with fusing and lamp- working to create glass plates, bowls, vases, and jewelry. She was attracted to the medium by the "vibrancy, sparkle, and mystery" of glass, and finds her inspiration in the colors and images of the gulf coast, contemporary art, and even magazine ads. She has exhibited at the Cape Coral Art Studio, BIG ARTS, and the Sea Grape Gallery of Punta Gorda. Mclntyre currently serves as president of the Southwest Florida Craft Guild. Watercolor painter Ackert has taught budding painters in the public schools of Massachusetts as well as students at the Fort Myers Beach Art Association. She has received numerous awards for her work and has exhibited in several one-person Photos by Jenny Burnhar, shows around the country. Her impressionistic landscapes and tropical scenes, includ- Left & Right: Two works in acrylics by Patti Sole. ing the bustling life of sidewalk cafes, have won her many awards in juried shows, including the Florida Watercolor Society, Naples Art Encounter (where she took Best of Show in 1996), the Art League ofMarco Island, and the Sanibel Art League. Sole, who started painting only four years ago, creates a uni- verse of depth in her large-scale works. "I really like detail," she said, "so I can do more detail if I paint large. Plus, I like the impact of a large picture." Her complex, arresting compositions include still lifes, vignettes, and intricate floral paintings. Sole is from Kansas City, Missouri. The Hirdie Girdie is located at 2490 Library Way, and is open Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., always with one of the coop's artists on duty. Call 239-395-0027 for more information. Ja&aranda 239.472.1771 1223 Periwinkle Way . Sanibel Island Left: A water- "If It Swimj In Florida Waters, color by We Serve It!" l_ee Cynthia Mclntyre brings her artistry to working Ackert in l Dine Iiuick - Two Rooms to Suit You, or Outtfide Alfresco Dining on Our Patio. Serving Dinner Daily SiGbrseeinGSunser Cnuises 5-10pm Sun - Thurs Renral & TOUR Boar TKips Fri-Sattll 11pm ciifov i-'KolickuiL, dolphins, scenic ntnimc TOURS lightly Eatertaiufstefit in the j AC Bar! and Sanilici's piowus sunsci.s Sanibefo Social Scene 1 i • l Best Happy Hour 4 - 7 p.m. NIGHTLY! •"*!•"£ - ".V". • t'1 .*•.«-••'•.•.* j- ]•; r | J r Call & Well Liquor Draft & Bottle Beer Select House Wine S« i I r, (in lounge only) Bcsi A;ppettzer Sesame Encrusted Ahi Tuna, Best Bootfc Presentation Crispy Fried Calamari, And for llir )"" Year in a Row Chilled Oysters, Steamed Shrimp, Beer Battered Mozzarella, Snow Crab Legs, Chicken Wings! 472-83^8 IDNtH I ' V ISLANDER Week of January 6-12, 2Q06 J 3 San-Cap Polar Bear Club welcomes 2006 Plunge into "icy" Gulf waters only for the hardiest souls By EMILiE ALFiNO year, and finally reaching "adult" status salfino @ breezenewspapers.com your (bird year. Strict records are kept by Papa Bear Carney. The world is full of eccentricities: There are two additional categories: Jamaica has its bob-sled team and Sanibel- "mouse," for those who don't have the Captiva has its Polar Bear Club. courage to go in the water at all; and a spe- On an overcast, humid New Year's Day cially created category for Rosie the Polar at what the club likes to call "the crack of Dog. This was the third year Rosie, a noon," 104 brave and fun-loving souls from Brittany spaniel, took the New Year swim. 16 states and five foreign countries ran into One young man walking back onto the the 68-degree Gulf of Mexico. , beach, soaked from head to toe and laughing The rules require them to achieve "full- with delight, surely is on Ms way to "adult" body immersion" before they can leave the Polar Bear status. He was overheard saying, water to enjoy the 78-degree air at Tarpon as clear as the day was overcast, "That felt Bay Beach where amazed admirers — called great. I want to do it again next year." "mice." because they lack the courage to go He'll get his chance. Because Carney in the water ~ awaited them. summed up part of what makes him love the This was the sixth year for the San-Cap Polar Bears so much. Polar Bears, and founder "Papa Bear" John were in the low 30s. this year. "It's the best kind of club ever," he said. Carney said is was the warmest water "But that was in my youth." he said. "I won't jump in."' Santa Jim Hanlon "You meet once a year. You feel refreshed they've ever had. On Coney Island this year, the New York said. "Don't want to get my hat wet. I did it when the meeting's over. You get to hug 120 "One year it was in the high 50s, but 1 Polar Bears didn't have to deal with water the first year. It doesn't change." people. The meeting's always at the same didn't have the courage to tell the people." too much colder than their Florida counter- The whistle blew at 11:55 a.m. for the time and place. And it's free." Carney said the group does it for fun parts: it was in the low 60 degrees. But in final sign-in. He could have added that it's loads of fun ("After all, it's been 12 hours since the last Boulder, Colo., those Polar Bears plunged A glance at the Gulf showed it was quiet and a great way to kick off the hew year. party," he said). Carney's been a Polar Bear into 38-degree water. In Libby, Montana, just prior to the Polar Bear's celebratory since before he moved to Florida Dec. 27, with air temperatures below zero, the Polar onslaught. Two pelicans bobbed on the 1995. He's jumped into Lake Erie, New Bears jumped into water in the upper 30s. water. Then, suddenly, seven speedboats York, where he had to break through the ice In Algonquin, Maine, they had to break roared by as though in salute of the robust to do it. He also was a Minnesota Polar through the ice to take their New Year's Day souls who were going to start off 2006 Bear, where this year; water temperatures swim. And they probably had to do the same bravely and optimistically for the rest of us. in Jacksonport, Wis., where 500 Polar Bears They all gathered around Papa Bear braved 37-degree air temperatures on their Carney, who led them in the singing of their way to the water ... or, to be accurate, ice. anthem to the tune of God Bless America — Do the Sanibel-Captiva Polar Bears think and they sang it loudly and with pride: they're as brave as the Polar Bears in Montana, Minnesota or Maine? GOD BLESS THE POLAR BEARS "Of course," Nancy Lynd said. Intro: "Anybody who's going to stand up to this While the storm clouds gather ridicule from their friends? Tt has nothing to far across the sea, do with the temperature of the water." let us swear allegiance to our club that's free. The crowd gathered early on Tarpon Bay Let us all be hopeful for a day with sun Beach estimated at more than 200 people — as we raise our glasses and we have some fun. the second-largest crowd in the group's his- tory - but it was impossible to tell the Polar Gold bless the Polar Bears Bears from the onlookers. A booming voice On New Year's Day kept calling out for Polar Bears to register. Stand beside us, and join us Some in the crowd were dressed up for the To the shore, with a roar s we piay occasion: one woman in a T-shirt that made From the uplands, to the marshes A bit of bubbly to celebrate. it look like she was wearing a bikini; a man To the Gulf shore, filled with ice in swim trunks that made is look that he was Gold bless the Polar Bears Papa Bear with the Mayor. bare-bottomed; another in a Santa hat who, bv the way, wasn't about to so in the water It sure feels nice rd Gold bless the Polar Bears Join Bike Club's 3 Annual Path Clean-Up We're bears.