Having left Brandon and the Tampa Bay area, we made a brief stop at Longboat Key, and then continued for the past couple of days here in the Fort Myers Beach area.
We have been very pleasantly surprised at Fort Myers, especially their downtown area, which has been under re-development and the 'city-fathers' have done a great job on making it what appears to be a success for both the local residents as well as the tourists to the area.I have visited many of the towns and cities of Florida during my earlier business travels in years past, with Forth Myers being one of them, but of course on business it is mostly fly in, pick up a rental car, check into the hotel and go the the meeting/appointment and then fly out and on the next location. Fort Myers is a city that has made many of the right moves for real improvement to the city and surrounding areas.
We made a drive over to Sanibel and Captiva Islands, and I hate to say it, but Marilyn and I were both somewhat disappointed in what we found and what we saw. We have never been on the islands of Sanibel and Captiva before, but we have read and heard a number of stories about the beautiful white-sand beaches and the rustic, remoteness of these islands. What we found was a heavily congested and developed set of islands, and could not find the "beautiful beaches" unfortunately. Now, it could be the time of year, the holiday season, along with tons of 'lookie-loo's like us. And the beaches were very nice and the area was quite pretty, but I guess not what we were expecting.
Fort Myers Beach, is a very nice area with some real nice beaches also. We found a few good seafood places that met our craving for good seafood.
We visited the "Six Mile Cypress Swamp", a Florida protected nature and wildlife area where they have built a 1.25 mile raised 'boardwalk' that traverses through a portion of the cypress swamp. It is in its natural state and is interesting as well as pretty. Didn't see any gators though, guess they were all off visiting family down in the 'glades.
And we saw the Winter Estates of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford located in Fort Myers along the Caloosahatchee River. Since Edison and Ford had adjoining properties.
There are the main homes and guest homes, plus Edison had a care-takers quarters (a quite nice home really), and his lab in an adjacent 'home' on his property. The docents have the properties along McGregor Blvd. decorated in Christmas lights for the season, which illuminates the area in a very pretty soft glow of multi-colors. It is comprised of a little over twenty acres that is a classic tropical setting, beautifully landscaped in palms, ti-plants, and banyan trees. Edison also has (or is it 'had'? but it is still there nonetheless), a fishing/boating pier out into the Caloosahatchee River. In fact the Caloosahatchee River is about a mile-and-a-half wide at this point, which is about 10 miles up-river from the mouth at the Gulf. Some interesting facts and info in regard to Edison, as well as Ford and a frequent visitor, Firestone.
Edison developed many of his patents and products while living in his Fort Myers winter home.
Our weather had been great, with highs in the mid-70's, and totally sunny. In other words, the kind of weather that many of these northern "snowbirds" fly south for in the winter. Sure beats cold, snow, ice, clouds and fog for sure. We like it anyhow...
We are off tomorrow morning to Naples and then on over to the Miami area, after our crossing is made through the Everglades on the Tamiami Trail (US-41) (...I did note that the I-75 route from Naples to Fort Lauderdale through the 'glades, is now a toll road. Marilyn and I traveled this road back in the 90's when we lived in south Florida and it was never a toll at the time. Things change ...roads and tolls included it would appear...).
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