Andy and the entire crew at Ocean’s Reach wish you a wonderful holiday season!
The colors of the season are everywhere on the mainland.
Throughout Southwest Florida, one can see the splendor of the holidays unfolding with twinkling lights, brightly colored ornaments, festive decorations and vibrant light displays.
On Sanibel Island, there is one color in particular that is bringing us joy this holiday season.
Green.
Glorious green. Little buds of green are sprouting up all over the island. Native plants and trees are doing their best to spring back to life.
New growth. The gift we were most hoping for from Mother Nature. Her reassurance that our beautiful sanctuary island is indeed resilient and is coming back.
Hurricane Ian ravaged the island with a tsunami of saltwater from its 12-foot storm surge. After months of brown and grey covering every bit of vegetation on Sanibel, these little sprouts of green are more uplifting than you can possibly imagine.
New growth is apparent on almost every corner. And with it, a strong island community determined to grow, too, from the destruction.
We still have a very long way to go, and things will look very different on Sanibel this Christmas, but we`ve made tremendous progress and continue to look toward a bright future.
On the island, a handful of restaurants and businesses have re-opened and more are scheduled to join them within the next month. Workmen are all over Sanibel helping homeowners rebuild. Electricity has been restored to more than half of the island, and water, internet and sewer services are returning, as well. Due to its sheer volume — 1.2 million cubic yards at last count! — debris pickup continues to be a challenge (note that a typical garbage truck holds 28 cubic yards of waste), but progress is being made every day.
At Ocean`s Reach, our “new normal” includes daily meetings with owners, board members, engineers, contractors, adjustors, and other new partners who, together, are determined to build back our beautiful beachfront resort better than ever. Like many on the island, we’re now tackling insurance claims and waiting to hear when we will be able to physically start our new rebuilding efforts.
Many of you have asked when we will be opening up reservations for 2024. While we are very anxious to do so, we will not be able to proceed with new reservation activity until plans are more definitive. As we`ve mentioned previously, we will be sure to publish that information on our blog and through an assortment of other communication programs as soon as we possibly can.
Lastly, during this time of year, we like to reflect back on the many special people we’ve had the privilege to host through the years. Friendships with our Ocean’s Reach guests are some of the most treasured gifts we have, and we cannot wait to see you again.
Until that day, we wish you a colorful holiday season full of peace, love, joy and hope!
This posting put the biggest smile on my face! I’ve really missed the daily posting from your paradise. Being from up north, that daily dose of sunshine from your posting, knowing that it will be “X” amount of time before we are heading that way was the high light of my morning. Can’t wait until you guys are open again, looking forward to it!
A joyful holiday season to all of Oceans Reach… staff, owners and any others rebuilding OR. OR has been our “go to” Sanibel property and we intend to continue that tradition as soon as possible. Blessing and healing to all!
Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas! We love you Oceans Reach an are looking forward to returning one day soon. We’re glad to hear things are moving along. We so love Sanibel an our visits with y’all. Until we meet again. Your friends from Tennessee.
Lisa and I are praying for your islands full recovery. We have always enjoyed the warmth of your team and the beauty of Oceans Reach.
We can’t wait… these blogs are a breath of fresh air on this winter morning!
Bill & Lisa Schnuit
The picture on this post and the message included, brings tears to my eyes. We love OR and cannot wait to visit again. May the new year bring much progress in the cleanup and rebuilding of Sanibel Island. Merry Christmas and HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Great to see your smiling face, Andy, and get news of all the work you and the rest of Sanibel are doing to restore your corner of paradise. I loved hearing that there are new buds of green – how wonderful to see; it must be really uplifting!! We send greetings from Baltimore and wishes to all the folks at Oceans Reach for a holiday that is full of hope, peace, and joy.
Sherrye & Justus
It’s always a wonderful morning when I see your blog!
We are so happy Mother Nature is blessing you with green. #SanCapStrong
That’s what brings us to Ocean’s Reach. Happy Holidays!!
We’ve been coming to Oceans Reach most every April for 30 consecutive years with our friends Tom and Linda Reberg and Colleen and Auggie Grapentin. My how heartbreaking ❤️🩹 it is to see you have to struggle so much. You’ve got our business whenever you are ready for us! We wish and pray for safe rebuilding and strong spirits! Your outlook is contagious and will help us through our blast of winter here in Minnesota. Jill and Jim Pundsack
So sad to see what happened to Sanibel and Oceans Reach. It makes us really appreciate what we had there and will have again in the near future. For now we have our wonderful memories and pictures. Oceans Reach has a very dedicated management and maintenance team rare to find elsewhere.
We wish all of you the best possible holiday season and look forward to going back to Oceans Reach as soon as possible.
Thank you for this wonderful post! I have missed your daily post and I always checkout your web cam. Ocean Reach is my happy place. I cannot imagine a place that I could love more. Even Maui, which is a very beautiful place but my heart is on Sanibel. The devastation seen through many posting on different sites have been heartbreaking. We had reservations with you on the week that Ian hit. We waited til the last possible time to cancel. Baby steps and in the end you may have a more wonderful place. Although, I cannot imagine! Godspeed!
Merry Christmas and a Very Happy New Year!!!
It’s great to see you smile 😃
From the snow filled Minnesota
We dream of Sanibel
Wishing you the very best from North Olmsted, OH. We had our last visit in July 2022. We have vacationed at OR many times. It’s always magical. We can wait to return to the island and our beloved Oceans Reach. Merry Christmas!
I started going to Sanibel in 1973, when there still were bonfires down the beach by the shipwreck. (Oops – maybe I should not have admitted to that!). John, please include on the blog any opportunities for those of us who are ready and willing to pitch in. Clean-up? Gardening? Painting? Anything. Ocean’s Reach, Ding Darling, anywhere. We just retired to Georgia, and can drive down whenever needed.
So happy to hear from my favorite place on earth! We will certainly miss being at Sanibel this January, but are looking forward to when you’re ready to receive us. Prayers for Sanibel, and wishing many blessings for our Ocean’s Reach family.
This past September was my very first time at Ocean’s Reach. We had stayed at other places but this year we wanted a one bedroom. We found our new “happy place” in Unit 1B1. I started my week long birthday celebration on 9/24. I will forever remember our stay and look forward to the day we can return. Merry Christmas to the entire Ocean’s Reach Family🎄
May our very special Ocean’s Reach community and staff continue to heal and recover. You will always remain in our heart as you bring our favorite place on earth back to life.
My thoughts are with you all. Love Oceans Reach so much. It will be so wonderful to see you all again. Thank you for all of your dedication and hard work.