Fort Myers, February 14-21

This statue of good friends Henry Ford, Thomas Edison and Harvey Firestone on a
camping trip sits in the middle of a fountain in nearby Centennial Park.  Edison was an enthusiastic camper
 and enjoyed showing the wilds of early 20th century Florida to his friends.
It was interesting to see that a large support staff of cooks, drivers,
and camp personnel accompanied these "roughing it" outings. 

A Trip to Tom Edison's House - Finally

If you've been to the Edison-Ford Winter Homes here in Fort Myers, you know what an interesting place it is.  Wayne and I visited last Wednesday and spent 3-and-a-half hours wandering through the museum, Edison's lab, extensive gardens, and the winter homes of both Thomas Edison and Henry Ford located next door to each other at a wonderful scenic spot on the Caloosahatchee River.  If you're a plant person, you must make a trip here.  Also, if you're a history buff you don't want to miss this home of America's 19th and 20th century version of Steve Jobs.  I enjoyed the trip so much that when our friend Marcy expressed an interest in going last weekend, I was happy to go again for another 3-and-a-half hours.   www.edisonandfordwinterestates

Here are a few photos:

This is a single banyan tree, around 300 feet in diameter with
probably around  a hundred major trunks reaching to the ground.
  It's the largest of numerous banyan trees on the grounds.

The Edison family winter home, Seminole Lodge.  The wide porch wraps
all the way around the house, with a lovely view of the river on this side.  The
Edisons regularly entertained famous people at their winter home and a
mirror image guest house is located through the breezeway on the right. 

A Mysore (2 syllables) Fig tree.  It's actually
in the rubber tree family and was planted as part of
Edison and Ford's research into rubber.

Thomas Edison's wife, Mina, created this garden
as a birthday gift to her husband in 1929.  It forms
the back of a little office she also had built for him.

One of hundreds of varieties of plants on the property.

The Edison Light Parade

This is a big local tourist and resident event in the winter, a two-and-a-half hour evening parade full, of course, of electric lights to celebrate the town's famous winter resident.  We mentioned earlier that we'd been advised to tape off a section of the sidewalk to stake out a spot to watch the parade so we did, not sure why that spot should be vacant as there were taped off spaces all around it but it looked like a good place to be.  We were looking forward to Roger and Marcy and Jann and Gary joining us for the day of the parade.  Well, on Saturday afternoon we discovered why the spot had been empty - it was at the location where three Port-a-Potties had been set up!

I guess the locals knew about this spot.  Roger is holding his nose but it really wasn't that bad.

The parade was a good one, full of high school bands, every local dignitary you could name, representatives from every nearby city, county and state police agency and every local fire station, and, of course, one elaborate brightly lit float after another.

Low Country Boil

With company on Saturday night, we fixed a favorite boat meal, low country boil.  Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
5 lbs. small red potatoes
7 ears of corn
1 1/2 lbs. Kielbasa
1 1/2 lbs frozen medium shrimp, uncooked
4 onions
1 Boil-in-bag seafood seasoning
1/4 cup vinegar

Fill a large pot half full of water and bring water to a boil.  Add vinegar and the bag of seafood seasoning.  Boil 10 minutes.  Add potatoes.  Cook for 12-14 minutes.  Add the corn-on-the-cob.  Cook for 7 minutes.  Add the Kielbasa and the onions.  Cook for 8 minutes.  Keep the water in the pot but transfer the food to a LARGE bowl and cover to keep hot.  Add the shrimp to the water and cook until the shrimp turns pink and floats to the top of the water.  Serve to a crowd.  This amount will serve eight to ten people.  A turkey fryer with a straining basket is a great way to cook this but we just use a large pot on the boat.

Boat Work

Well, it's not all parades and tourist trips when you live on a boat.  Wayne wanted you to know that he changed the oil for the port engine today, a messy job that he has survived once again.  He also makes regular, willing trips to the post office and grocery store on his bike, not to mention helping me wash and dry the laundry.  You mustn't assume that we're just loafing around and taking photos all the time here.

Colleen's favorite errand boy

Trying to spill as little oil as possible