Ft. Myers Beach, FL

Finally, the long awaited vacation to Ft. Myers Beach! Oh, we were so excited to go back! We stayed in my aunt and uncle's BEAUTIFUL penthouse condo and this time we took Curtis' parents with us! Curtis and I went to a beach almost every day, ate delicious food, enjoyed beautiful sunsets and relaxed by the pool. Curtis' mom read about four books (to my one) and his dad went for walks every morning, patrolling the pier on the bay and wishing he could go fishing (we'll plan for that next time).

Jill, Me and Joe waiting on the taxi to take us from the airport to the condo.

We headed to the beach as soon as possible! This was Lover's Key beach, one of our favorite spots because of the State Park that borders the beach...a nice change of scenery from the hotels and restaurants along Ft. Myers Beach.

We spotted two ospreys while at Lover's Key.

And this was a Sea Turtle Nest! Don't know if it was occupied or vacant.

Beautiful "post-sunset" shot from the Ft. Myer's Beach Pier.

Excellent little eatery! "Best Breakfast on the island!" We technically ate there twice because we went back for the cinnamon rolls...they were sooooo goooood.

We visited the Ford/Edison Winter Estates. This tree behind Edison and I is a Banyan tree...just one tree! They drop support branches down to the ground and send out more roots, so the tree is enormous!

Edison's Winter Estate, "Seminole Lodge"

Curtis and Ford

Ford's Winter Home, "Mangoes", is right next to Edison's and they did research together trying to find the best source for making rubber.

There are little lizards EVERYWHERE in Fort Myers! They are so cute!

Another Osprey. This one had caught a fish and decided to eat in front of us on the roof of the condo!

We drove down to Naples to eat dinner with Lindy, a friend from MC, at "The Dock". Curtis' dinner choice was entertaining...and yes, he ate both of them. I'll stick with shrimp!

"OOOOOH! Let's name the zones, the zones, the zones
Let's name the zones of the open sea!"
(Mr. Ray from Finding Nemo)
We went to Ft. Myer's Beach twice and we saw rays both times. You could sit in the shallows and watch them swim around you. Kinda cool and kinda creepy at the same time...but they were cow-nosed rays, pretty docile. The cool thing was that you could see schools of little fish swimming under their "wings", just like in "Nemo!"

Weirdest bird down there...an Anhinga.

We drove over to Sanibel Island for seashells and the sunset. This was one of the few evenings that it didn't rain and I took so many pictures of this beautiful sunset!

We'll call this my official "20-week Belly Shot"! Not a bad locale to take it!

After not seeing any manatees in the bay from the condo, I grew desperate enough to pay for the Dolphin and Eco Tour with the Estero Bay Express. Boy was that money well spent! We saw a pod of dolphins so we went fast and they swam in our wake! So much fun to watch!



This is a manatee "footprint"...which was all I got pictures of for the first hour of our tour! I did capture a few noses breaking the surface or a few shadowy outlines under the water, but I had difficulty getting a good, clear picture...

...until this little curious guy showed up! He kept coming up right by our boat right when it was time for us to head back! We couldn't turn on the motors until he left, so I got several pictures and two short videos! After that, I couldn't stop smiling!



September is very slow for this area, so we were the only ones on this tour! We saw the dolphins, the manatees, a sea turtle, a bald eagle, and a bonnethead shark! Like I said, it was worth it.

View of our condo from the bay...ours is the top windows on the right.

A "little begger" back at the dock, a Great Heron. My favorite of the birds down there.

View from the lanai of the Gulf of Mexico. Can you see why I literally shed a tear when we went back to the airport to come home?? I hope we can manage to go back in another year or so.