I admit this posting is for our parents to follow along with our trip so if you are not our parents and are still with me, you are a brave soul.
As we left the Everglades area, we stopped by to mail a postcard at the Ochopee Post Office, the smallest post office in the United States and a former irrigation shed. It's still an active post office open two hours per day, six days a week as well as a bus station.
Here's the plaque explaining the interesting history of this teeny little building.
We stopped for lunch at Joe's Crab Shack. I had "Joe's Classic steampot" with all kinds of wonderful things in it.
Within the space of a few moments, I had reduced a beautiful meal into a pile of rubble. Honestly, we have better seafood here, but since I rarely order it, this was a nice treat.
Nuthin' cooler than a mutant apple with crab legs protruding from it's sides.
As we wound our way toward Ft. Myers and Cape Coral, we stopped at the Edison-Ford Winter Estates to tour the museum and Edison's labs where vulcanized rubber was invented with the help of his good friend Charles Goodyear. Although we had an amazing opportunity to see the beautiful estates and vintage labs, I was most taken with the bathroom windows. Go figure.
The other thing I liked was the 50,000 watt light bulb that was made for the museum's 50th anniversary of GE. 50,000 watts would be able to run 833 - 60 watt light bulbs...approximately the same amount of light bulbs that Carissa left on during her time at home.
Nothing could top the excitement of light bulb-shaped bathroom windows but a big ol' mess of gator nuggets at the Crazy Flamingo.
Since we had such good luck at the Lemon Tree Inn, we tapped into more vintage motels. While we were in Cape Coral, we stayed at the Hideaway Motel on one of the beautiful Florida waterways.
Sunset on Sanibel Island. Sanibel beaches are one of the top ten beaches in the world. It's beautiful with white sand beaches made of shells.
No searching for shells here, the beach was made of them! People were literally hauling buckets-full of little shells off the beach.
The blue skies and white shell beaches were an amazing contrast.
Next we went to the J. N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Preserve. Although it has all kinds of wildlife, people come from all over the world to watch the myriad of colorful birds. Here a lone white pelican lords over an island of smaller white birds.
I think this is a seagull...maybe a young one. There were lots of them on the beaches on the lookout for snacks.
After a hard day of wildlife watching, .25 beers at Rib City is a fine ending to the day.
We were on the last couple days of our trip and started making our way north toward Tampa. We stopped at a park and watched the Sun Coast Bridge along with this little lone guy.
Further down the same railing, all the cool seagulls face away from the bridge giving the little guy above the cold shoulder.
A few clicks of the "Places" app and a scan of "TripAdvisor" for ratings, and we arrive at the Mardi Gras Motel at Treasure Island near Ft. Myers.
John's Pass Village on Treasure Island is a happening place. Not full of stately mansions and money like Sanibel Island, but a fun lively atmosphere...
...and a lively night life along the waterfront...
...with a pouch of quality local wine.
Since the Mardi Gras Motel was a last-minute pick, there was no room at the inn for Friday night so we had to move down the street to the Tahitian Beach Motel. $60 put us right on the gulf beach...way cheaper and more fun than the impersonal tower hotels at twice the price.
As walked down the beach toward John's Pass Village, I picked up shells, globs of gulf oil and pictures of local characters like this one who was just waiting for someone to turn away from the bait bucket for a moment.
These snowy white egrets were everywhere. Since we got so close to them, it's easy to see how pretty they are. When you look at them head-on, their necks are super thin. I suppose that's to make them more difficult to see for the fish looking back at them.
Here we are on the boardwalk with our Segways. They were so much fun to ride after getting used to them and relaxing a bit. When we first started, the bottoms of my feet were cramping trying to hold my balance. The Segways were so responsive every twitch made the Segway turn and not always in the direction I had intended.
Southwest Airlines has painted some of their planes for states and special occasions. This is called "Special Liveries". I like the "Shamu One". This particular airplane is called the "Illinois One". This isn't the plane that brought us home, but it sure was pretty with such an elaborate paint scheme. We were in St. Louis and, as you can see from the snow in the background, this was quite a shock from all the sun we had been enjoying for the past week.
After walking the beach, we lounged in the sun and the white sands. I'm good for about 10 minutes of being still, then I had to get back to the water's edge to search for the perfect shells once again.
After the beach, we headed back to the room to change for John's Pass Village. Bob sure made a sandy mess when he went into our room. I had stomped my feet clean before I went in.
We've always been fascinated by Segway scooters so rented a couple. After a brief learning period, we were off and cruising around Treasure Island. When the draw bridge had to open for the casino boat, we were on the bridge when it opened. The bridge seemed so tall as it opened up right next to us. This is also where I forgot to step carefully off my Segway to dismount. I pulled up to the railing to park, and reflexively swung my leg up like I was getting off a bicycle. Why, I don't know. The Segway tried to compensate and started spinning in a circle. Fortunately the tour guide caught me instead of letting me pitch myself over the railings onto the casino boat.
A Coast Guard helicopter patrols the beach keeping even the stupidest of beach-goers alive despite themselves.
The next morning we went to Tarpon Springs. When sponges were discovered in the gulf, Greek divers were imported to harvest them. This created a huge Greek community that is still surprisingly strong. We ate at a Greek restaurant on the docks while watching the boats.
I took this picture of Bob at Tarpon Spring's photo stop. It's hard to tell who's more excited to be there; Bob or the fiberglass shark.
We went on a boat ride that showed how sponges were harvested. Frank the diver wore a classic dive suit that was used for sponging in the 40's & 50's. You'd have to be crazy to walk the gulf floor in leaded boots harvesting sponges with a tiny hose leading to your air supply.
This is Frank our sponge diver. Frank is a third generation Greek sponge diver and he was a character. This was not an "off" picture of Frank. It's just the way Frank is. He just wanders around the boat wearing this rubber suit and lead shoes between dives. Refer to crazy comment above.
Our last night of a week of beautiful sunsets before we hop a plane for home.
And we are home!
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