Florida- Chapter 5: Fort Myers

The last chapter of my Florida series is Fort Myers.  We arrived there on Monday and stayed there until we left Friday morning.  Michael's parents live in Fort Myers for the winter.  It just so happens we were coming to stay with them just a day after they had gotten there themselves. We got to their house about an hour before sunset.  We decided to drive to the beach to see if we could make the sunset.  We got there just in time!  Unfortunately, something was wrong with my camera so I wasn't able to capture it.  We do have it on video though.   We ended up using Michael's mom's camera for the rest of the trip.  We ended up staying on the beach at Top 'O Mast for a drink and relaxing on the patio for an hour or so.  

The weather was finally warm!  The whole Florida trip up until we arrived in Fort Myers was chilly.  The temperature never went above 68 degrees and locals said the weather was more like January than November.  Add in some the winds and it feels even colder.  In Fort Myers, the temperature was around 80 and above.  It was great and even hot.

The one thing we love to do in Fort Myers is go the beach.  We've both been to plenty of beaches in Florida and Fort Myers is always our favorite.  The sand is the whitest, finest and softest.  Plus there's lot of fun bars/restaurants shops right on the beach.  We went to the beach the next day and laid out.  The water was still too cold to swim in but played around a little bit in the water.  Here are some of pictures from Fort Myers.  They are in no particular order from day to day as we kind of did the same thing each day. 

Times Square on Ft. Myers Beach

On the rooftop at Lani Kai

This parrot could talk and when it saw a dog, it started barking

Even if my head did fit, it still wouldn't be believable

My Jack Sparrow

We went to Manatee World after the beach one day.  It was late in the day so we didn't get to see much of the manatees.  When it's sunny, you can see into the water and see them but it was cloudy and dark so our views were limited.  This is a place you can see them but they are actually in the wild here. 

That's about all we saw of them.  They come up and get a breath of air and go back down

They swim through this area 12 miles each way, 2 times a day to get their food

This was part of the park that you could walk through.  There were alligators in there.

I love the Spanish Moss (it's actually a plant) on the trees in Florida.  It's not good for the trees though as it inhibits their ability to grow.  

Here's Captiva Beach.  We saw dolphins here that day.  There are huge waves and the water is turquoise.

Michael and I went out one night to downtown Ft. Myers for a drink.  We stopped at this cigar bar and I had a pineapple upside down cake martini.  The bartender delivered another one after this and Michael asked me how my "Fartini" was.  When the bartender delivered it, he tooted and it was totally in his breeze when we came and set it down for me.  We were so grossed out. So much so that I actually took it back and ordered a chocolate martini instead.  Excuse this picture of me.  My eyelids got burned on the beach earlier that day! 

Here are some puppies that live next Michael's parents house.  I think there was a total of 7 of them.

Here are some lemons from Michael's parents yard.  They have lemons, grapefruit, oranges and some other orange-type fruit growing in their yard.

Thanksgiving was the last full day we spent in Fort Myers.  We all went to the Golden Corral for dinner and then took a walk around the neighborhood afterwards.  From left to right: Michael's mom, Karen, Dad Ray, Michael, Aunt Carol, Joe, Uncle Joe and cousin Jason.  

Our flight left Fort Myers around noon on Friday.  Back to reality!