Mo & I had kicked around a few ideas off-and-on this winter regarding where to vacation, and when we came back to it, we decided to visit Ft. Myers area again this year. Why not — we knew our way around now, and we hadn’t seen everything when we were there last year. So we checked the Spring Training schedule, and made our reservations.
We arrived on Wednesday afternoon, got our rental car (a Chevy Aveo) and checked into our hotel, which was nicely located on Colonial Blvd. On a tip from a pizza delivery guy we shared an elevator with, we had a relaxing meal of grinders and Sicilian pizza at Bellacino’s and then called it a night.
Thursday: Because we gave Ft. Myers Beach short shrift last year, we started out this year’s vacation by heading to the south end of the Trollee line and going to Bonita Beach Park in Bonita Springs. We picked shells, laid out and read books, and watched a small (~18″) shark near the shoreline. It was a little breezy, but pleasantly warm.
Bonita Beach Park
We grabbed lunch at Doc’s Beach House and then rode the trollee up to Ft. Myers Beach pier and hung out there for a while before finally heading back for the day.
Friday we decided to finally explore the grounds where Thomas Edison and Henry Ford had their winter estates. The museum was fascinating, as were all the trees and vegetation planted around the grounds there.
Thomas Edison’s winter home in Ft. Myers
Saturday was our day to spend on Sanibel & Captiva islands. We drove out early and spent the morning at Turner Beach, once more relaxing, shelling, reading, and watching the diving pelicans and dolphin fins far out in the gulf. Before leaving Captiva and heading back to Sanibel, we had a cozy little lunch at ‘Tween Waters The Canoe and the Kayak.
facing north from Turner Beach
While still on the islands, we decided to tour the J. N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Reserve. The museum held lots of fascinating information about the flora and fauna there, as well as the history of Darling, the cartoonist from Des Moines, who among other things conceived of the Federal Duck Stamp program. We took the tram tour through the reserve, observing a wide variety of birds, fish, and trees. And an alligator.
an Anhinga dries its wings in the sun
We finished off the day be revisiting the beach near the Sanibel Lighthouse, which we had visited last year.
Sunday began with rain, but we had already decided that it would be our day of rest. We caught much of the live stream of the COS late service, then sat in the hotel lounge and read. We finished off with “linner” at The Prawnbroker Restaurant with the senior crowd.
Monday was game day (details in a future post). Mo had an unfortunate accident with her Nook, but in this case all’s well that ends well, thankfully. Following the game, we composed ourselves back at the hotel and then had a delicious meal at Elephant Bar.
Tuesday didn’t leave us much time to do any planned activity, so we did a little shopping, then ate outside at Five Guys and watched the birds and seagulls in the breeze. Although we flew back to rain in St. Louis, it wasn’t a bad flight, and we’re glad to have had some time away and now to be back home again.
shells!
"é rayhahn, rayhahn" 
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The kids love the Elephant Bar, and wife love the Prawnbroker, so I’m glad you were able to catch them. Is Turner Beach really as sparse as your picture and the link make it out to look?
Well, it was morning. If you look south from where we were at, there were a few others, several fishermen casting from the beach. The parking lot isn’t all that big, so I doubt it gets too crowded there.
The Thomas Edison House looks really cool. So does that Bird and all the shells. It looked very pretty for your trip.
If you go back to the area you should go to Cabbage Key to eat. Rhubarb at Cabbage would have made a good post title. Plus the place is really neat.
Great advertisement for Ft. Meyers, and, it sounds, a great trip. Thanks for sharing the story and the photogs. The Shells shot could be a poster, and the one of the anhinga is just spectacular.
But, whaaa? No baseball shots?
“details in a future post”
I’m still in catch-up mode; don’t fear, there will be a post about the game.