We contemplate wintering in Florida
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We started the day with a swim in the pool. It has a waterfall which was fun to swim under. And a couple of Boston Red Sox fans sitting around the edges. They must do spring training in Ft Meyers. There was definitely baseball fever in the air. A bit of relaxing, then off to the Edison and Ford Estate.
First, though a stop for lunch. We went to the Sunflower Cafe. It looked nice from the outside and there were lots of cars. So we figured it was good. Inside, it was God’s waiting room. We were easily the youngest people there. It was like the cafeteria at the old folk’s home. Although everyone looked pretty good. Just retired.
We went through a long stretch of ‘suburbia’. Miles and miles. But the Edison and Ford estate is really nice. It was Thomas Edison’s winter home and his buddy Henry Ford liked it so much he bought the place next door. We didn’t get too into the ‘Edison and Ford’ part of it. That is, we didn’t pay much attention to the historical markers. We mostly checked out the house and the location. A very pretty spot along the Caloosahatchee River (great name). Nice house. It must have been a great place to hang out in the winters. Especially if you lived in New Jersey, like Edison did. Edison had lots of offices around plus a big lab that looked like a high school science room with lots of tables with sinks and such.
When Edison got there it was still pretty much wilderness. They had just established Ft Meyers as a town. You got there by boat and he had to build a pier in order to get supplies and equipment in to build the house and live there. But it didn’t look like he ‘roughed’ it too much.
A stop at Dunkin’ Donuts afterwards (for drinks, it was hot). Then we drove back through neighborhoods instead of the main streets. We saw some really nice houses on the river. And some not too bad houses on the other side. We speculated about having a winter home here too, like Edison. But then we figured it would be underwater in a few years when the ice caps melt. Just our luck.
It wasn’t hard to get back on the island (thankfully). We came from the other direction and maybe that helped.
Marion napped and I watched NCAA basketball. Princeton lost a heartbreaker to Kentucky when Kentucky scored with 2 seconds left. Bummer. UCSB (our alma mater) got crushed by Florida.
We walked across the way to the waterfront for dinner. We had seen a pizza place that smelled pretty good the night before. And it turned out we were right. Great NY style pizza. Very yummy. We ate a whole pie. It’s St. Patrick’s Day and the people watching was great. All kinds of wild getups. Even the oldsters in the crowd got into it. We got some good pictures of some. Then we walked the beach for sunset. Some more good pictures (some of the best of the trip). The sun set very dramatically behind the pier. Then back to the room for more basketball. Nice of the NCAA to hold their tournament during vacation. Normally I don’t get to watch much.
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