Southwest Florida

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday; May 17, 18 and 19, 2013--From the Everglades to Sarasota

Friday we drove southward.  Our first stop was Marco Island which I expected to maybe be a bit interesting due to being at the "end of civilization" when going down the western coast of Florida.  What a surprise to find it is just like the islands in the St. Petersburg area--completely developed with private homes and high-rise condominiums!  There is no place to park without paying a high parking fee, and there is nothing really worth trying to see except maybe the beaches.  We just drove around a while and left.

If Marco Island is the end of the islands, then Everglades City is the end of the towns in the western area of Florida going southward (not including the Keys).  It is a small town that does have a bit of a quaint atmosphere.  We stopped at the headquarters of the Everglades National Park to see exhibits.  We didn't go any further into the park, since it would have taken hours to do so and we would not have seen anything we hadn't already seen.

Near Everglades City, we did stop to walk down the boardwalk at the Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park.  There we, walked along a small waterway that had alligators in it.  Then we proceeded down a long boardwalk into the swamps.  We saw an owl, a couple of types of herons, turtles, etc.  We think we were near a black bear.  Some Australians reported seeing one, and we kept hearing loud popping/breaking sounds related to movement through the swamp woods, but we never saw the animal itself.

On our return back toward Ft. Myers, we explored Naples.  I knew it was a boomtown, but I knew little else about it.  It is the upscale city on the western coast of Florida and is huge.  Filled with mansions and with upper-class shops, it has the feel of a place like Beverly Hills or a high-class resort town.  What it does have that was nice are places to park.  What a relief.  We walked the streets seeing the people at the expensive sidewalk cafes and the nice homes, especially some of the older ones.  We accessed part of the white sand beach and then explored the pier jutting into the water.  At the pier, we watched the people in the water interacting with dolphins and pelicans.  There was a manatee nearby, too, but it stayed under water and was apparently not noticed by those near it.  The town had a nice look and feel to it, although it is definitely for those with higher incomes.  Being only 30 miles south of Ft. Myers, Naples is really just the upper-class neighborhood for the metropolitan area.  In fact, there is no gap between the two cities; they have grown together along US 41 which runs near the coast.
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Saturday was spent in the Ft. Myers area.  We drove first to Sanibel Island/Captiva Island.  They have a different feel to them from most of the islands we have visited so far--less developed and more "natural."  They lack the highrises we have seen elsewhere.  Development seems to have been more haphazard than the large, planned communities we have seen on other islands.  Sanibel has what appears to be a poorer look to it, and Captiva seems to be where the rich people live.

While on the island, we went to the J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Park.  It takes up a large tract of the island with a walking trail, boating trails, and a driving trail.  We hiked the walking trail and then drove the driving one.  We saw raccoons in the trees eating fig berries.  For the most part, it was probably too hot for animals to be out, however.

In the afternoon, we drove into town and toured the Edison and Ford Winter Estates.  Thomas Edison and Henry Ford owned winter houses beside each other in Ft. Myers in the early 20th Century.  The houses are very nice, but not the mansions that would be "first" houses for either family.  Edison also had a laboratory there used mainly for researching plants that could produce latex for making rubber products.  It's amazing how many things that Edison did in his life related to electricity, sound, manufacturing, etc., which were all outlined in exhibits at the museum.

During the evening, we went to a football game between the Ft. Myers Stingrays and the Sarasota Millionaires.  It was like a small-town game, but the teams consisted of guys unwilling to give up their high school or college glory days.  It was a championship game, so the fans were excited.
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On Sunday, we made our way up the coast from Ft. Myers to Sarasota.  We started by driving through Cape Coral, a city across the river from Ft. Myers that is best left unexplored.  We didn't find anything worth seeing there.  We drove through Punta Gorda, a small, older city that is quite pretty on the Peace River.  They were having a small festival at the park there.  Next, we drove through Port Charlotte, another city that did not seem worth exploring.

Our main stop for the day was Venice which proved to be a surprise.  I had read about it being a boom town and had expected it to be somewhat like Naples.  Whereas Naples is a rich town, however, Venice seems to be mostly a middle class town.  It is a pretty town, although it lacks the lush greenery that other Florida coastal towns tend to have; instead, it has mostly palm trees which do little to make the landscape lush or to provide shade.  The downtown of Venice consists mostly of buildings that look like they are from the 1950s.  They house lots of small specialty shops and restaurants.  There are dolphin and turtle statues along the streets that have been painted by various artists the way that other cities have cows or other painted plastic sculptures.  The best feature of Venice is that it provides free parking near its beaches so that it is easy for people to go to the beach.  We stopped in two locations--at the pier near the airport and at the beach just west of downtown.  The sand is not as nice (a bit grainy and gray) as at other beaches we have visited, but they were open, free, and easily accessed.  The Venice "crowd" seemed to be quite a bit lower class than those in Naples and some of the other islands we have visited.

For 3 days we have had trouble with car tires.  One has been losing air to the point that we have had to air it up daily.  Another tire developed a bubble.  We went to the rental agency lot here in Sarasota, but it was a franchisee, and they could not help us with our problem.  They suggested that we drive into Tampa and exchange the car at the lot there.  That's how we spent the rest of Sunday.  It was 100 miles round-trip, but now we can relax and continue to enjoy the last week of our visit.