Today we took advantage of John being here to do something that neither Bob nor I have ever done – we drove down to Fort Myers to tour the Edison and Ford Winter Estates. I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect, but it was beautiful. Two homes, Edison’s build in the late 1800s and Ford’s in the early 1900s with gardens (we all know how much I love gardens), Edison’s lab and some particularly beautiful views. Some of the highlights were …

Banyan trees. These trees were everywhere, and HUGE. Having lived in Florida a few years now I have become familiar with these, but the sheer size if these was amazing.

The pond and coconut grove. Just a serene place and very, very pretty.

The moonlit garden. One of the only parts of the property to be designed by a landscape architect, this garden is designed to bloom and come alive at night. Even in the daylight, it was simply beautiful.

The river. I don’t think I can adequately describe how beautiful the river area is on these estates. The breeze from the river, combined with the sea wall, the waves and the trees just made it amazing. At some point on our walk along the river all three of us made some variation of the comment “this doesn’t suck.” Yes, we were being understated – it was amazing.

Probably my favorite sign on the estates. Really after Mango-palloza how could I not love this sign. Especially when you look up and see mangos just hanging there.

And of course, the houses themselves.

I will add more pictures to a gallery page, so if ya have any interest, just go there. The rest of today is going to be pretty low key – hang out, watch a little Olympics and grill up some Bradley’s sausage. There are so many things I just love about Florida.