After a better night sleep, I was still up before 7am. Mind you I do like a little quite time in the house with a chance to read the newspapers from home and catch up with messages.
Today I was able to have the newly purchased porridge outside on the patio. Karen had set her alarm for 8am so soon joined me.
Today’s plan involved heading further south down the coast to the Edison & Ford Estates. It was just a over 1 hours drive away.
The weather was glorious as we set off at 10.15am. Once we hit the I75 highway it was an easy drive. As we pulled into the estate which was on the banks of the Caloosahatchee River in Fort Myers, Karen suddenly said we have been here before. I was convinced she was wrong.
We paid the $20 admission each and wandered around the museum that was much larger inside than it looked. It had several of the first Ford cars that had rolled off the production line. Most of the museum was dedicated to Thomas Edison who was obviously a very clever man who invented so many things other than just the lightbulb, including the phonograph and motion pictures.
This was Edison’s winter estate and it was in a beautiful location. He had his laboratory here.
We headed to the banyan outdoor café and had a drink in the beautiful warm sunshine. Karen was still convinced we had been here before with Sharon & Iain. I messaged them and they confirmed it. In the end I found a photo of Karen here on 12th August 2009 not yards from where we were now sitting. She was also correct in the fact that it was raining that day. I have no recollection of that at all. I suppose Karen had to be right once this year and at least we now have that out of the way.
All Karen could remember though was the banyan tree and not the museum nor the houses we were yet to visit.
I went back to the car to collect the picnic we had brought with us and we ate that outside of the café with their permission. Everywhere around us was tastefully decorated for Halloween and many of the staff were changing into costumes for an event later that day.
We crossed the road to the Edison house where we were allowed to peer in through the windows. It was a period piece from the turn of the century. Karen described as looking like the start of the Carousel of Progress ride.
Thomas Edison was friends with Henry Ford who used to come to visit him here. When the next-door estate went up for sale, he was persuaded to purchase it. Both estates are now owned by the city authority and are combined and maintained by them on a non-profit basis. Both houses are very similar. We sat for a while sharing a cold drink on the Ford estate.
Making our way back across the road one of the security guys asked where we were from. As usual we just said England. He asked where exactly and I got ready to explain again where is Norwich is on the map. I didn’t need to as apparently one of them had had many holidays in Blakeney. We ended up having a long conversation with him about Football and the weather.
We decided to head inland after this to the Six Mile Cypress Preserve which was about 20 minutes away. Parking was a very reasonable $1 per hour. The problem was that the machine would not take my credit card and we only had a single $1 dollar bill on us. We decided to see if we could do it in one hour.
It was a beautiful walk along a boardwalk across a wetland. I would describe it as a much longer, hotter, swampier version of the boardwalk at Ranworth. The signs told us we may be lucky enough to see Gators, Otters, Eagles, Deer, Butterflies and possibly Black Bears. All we saw were some jumping fish and grey squirrels. It was still a lovely walk which we just managed in exactly 1 hour. Karen kept herself amused by doing the kids quiz boards we passed along the way successfully naming all the animals we didn’t see. It was a dollar well spent.
From here we headed back up the I75 and when we driving through Port Charlotte decided to stop for dinner. Our restaurant of choice was Red Lobster, chosen for 2 reasons. Firstly, we knew that it would not be one of Neil’s choices when he joins us and secondly that the chain is in trouble and it may turn out to be the last time we can eat there.
We both chose the Thursday special of Lobster with Garlic Shrimp special. It was delicious. Karen thinks it may have been the first time she had eaten lobster.
Opposite the restaurant was a Target store and Karen wanted a look around. I lost her in there and it was 20 minutes before we were reunited.
Then it was time to head back to the villa. We had a cuppa and a glass of wine. Karen watched a travel programme about the Rockies in Canada which made us both want to return before watching some of the pre-Election coverage.
As usual by just gone 10pm I was ready for bed leaving Karen watching the news.
