The peak visitor season at the refuge coincides with Florida’s peak tourist season, the winter months of December-April. Sanibel Island is world famous for its beautiful beaches and natural beauty. J. N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge serves as a major attraction for tourists there. Roseate spoonbills, reddish egrets, snowy egrets and a variety of other heron and egret species are found in abundance throughout the mangrove environment. As one of the top birding hot spots in the nation, J. N. “Ding” Darling NWR has received much national and international publicity from professional photographers and magazine writers.
Having lived in nearby Naples and Sarasota, I can certainly attest to this – the traffic becomes very heavy. Nobody from Ohio or Michigan is home – they’re all in Florida!! Those people all think it’s beach weather all winter compared to the three feet of snow they left.
Banyan Tree
It was by far the most spectacular single tree I have ever seen. Even the redwoods in California don’t compare. Sure they’re big and tall, but nothing like this. And the Banyan tree given to Thomas Edison by Harvey Firestone
in 1925 would be even bigger if they didn’t keep trimming it back! With the circumference of the aerial roots measuring over 400 feet it is an amazing sight. It was barely 4 feet tall when Firestone gave it to Edison.
But there’s much more to the Edison-Winter Estates than just the Banyan tree. This wonderful historic site on the National Register not only has a garden with plants from around the globe, but there’s even a shop that offers some of these exotic plants for you to take home. While you’re there you can visit Edison’s home and workshop, stroll through the Friendship Gate, and see Henry Ford’s home furnished just as it was when the Fords lived there from 1916 into the 1930’s. Edison’s laboratory is just as it was left after his death, and the quest for rubber from Goldenrod was abandoned.
The artifact museum contains a collection of his most famous inventions, including the phonograph and the electric lamp. Young “Al,” as he was called by his father, sold his first invention at age 23. The Universal Stock Ticker, which he thought was maybe worth $5,000 and for which he would have accepted $3,000, brought him the shocking sum of $40,000 ( a lot of money in 1870.) This provided him the means to establish his first business.
So how did he end up in Ft. Myers, Florida? In 1885, while searching for bamboo to use as a filament for his electric light bulbs, Edison followed the trail up the Caloosahatchee River and fell in love with the quiet little town of Ft. Myers. Later his good friend Henry Ford, after visits to Edison’s home, bought the adjoining property, and the two wintered in Florida
together. Along with Harvey Firestone and his family and another friend, naturalist John Burroughs, they went on camping expeditions into the Florida Everglades.
Now the estates welcome a quarter million visitors a year from around the world and can be rented for weddings and organizational meetings.
Island Hopping
I promised island hopping in the title, but first let me take you into the Florida wilderness to see some alligators, turtles and exotic birds. Join me
for a couple of hours on a swamp buggy tour through the Babcock Wilderness Adventures. I guarantee you’ll see lots of alligators in the wild. If you’re lucky, your driver/guide may even pick up a baby gator and let you hold it in your own two hands. At least touch it and feel the tough, smooth skin, and you’ll see why these hides are so highly prized for shoes and purses! Baby gators are cute. Adult gators can be fast and dangerous – Don’t feed them!
Babcock Wilderness Guide with Baby Alligator
There’s even more to do on the Babcock Ranch. Take a nine-mile, off-road, fully guided bike tour and maybe you’ll see sandhill cranes, wild turkeys, large alligators, bison and lots of wading birds. You might even spot a Florida panther, but they’re pretty rare. What you will see is the real, old Florida, like it used to be! Afterwards, stop at the Gator Shack for Gator Bites – and, no, it doesn’t taste “just like chicken.”
Before we head out to our first island, maybe we should stop and have lunch. That is, if you didn’t have enough nerve to try the gator bites. I suggest
we go to one of the area’s top, award-winning restaurants – the Veranda. Located on a lovely street in old Ft. Myers in a turn of the century (1900, not 2000) home, the charm and food are perfect reminders of old Florida grace.
Our first island is Sanibel, famous for it’s shelling, but we’ll do that later. Right now we’re heading out to one of the top birdwatching destinations in North America, the J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge. where we’ll hope to see raccoons, otter, more alligators, and lots
and lots of native birds. One of the best things to do here is to take a tour with the park concessionaire Tarpon Bay Explorers, a very knowledgeable and personable group.
After a boat ride through the waterways our guide
took us to the “handling” tanks where we could touch and even hold some of the marine life. Of particular interest to me was the horseshoe crab – a prehistoric creature still found in Florida waters!
If you want to get up close and personal with nature in “Ding” Darling, I suggest renting a canoe and paddling out on your own. There are winding canoe trails through the mangroves and you can glide up very close to various animals and nesting birds in the refuge.
After a long day of sightseeing it’s time to go back to the hotel and get renewed. My suggestion, if you’re lucky enough to be staying at a place like the Pink Shell Beach Resort & Spa, is to take a quick dip in the Gulf of Mexico, then grab a shower, dress very casually. and stroll down the beach a mile or so to the Snug Harbor Waterfront Restaurant. You’ll enjoy fresh seafood or a steak and have a terrific view of Matanzas Pass. Sit outside and watch the fishing boats coming back into the harbor. Afterwards, walk back along the beach and watch the sunset . Maybe you’ll get lucky and see the famous “Green Flash.”
More Island Hopping
If you’ve never been to Cabbage Key, you’re in for a treat. The only way to get there is by boat, so if you didn’t bring your own hop on board with
Captiva Cruises. Playwright and novelist Mary Roberts Rinehart built her island hideaway here in 1938. You can hike the nature trails and climb the lookout tower for a great view. Be sure and bring your camera. If you’re lucky you may spot a beautiful white Ibis among the mangroves along the nature trail.
Tree Climbing Ibis on Cabbage Key
And be sure to visit the restaurant in front of the dock where you get off the boat. You’ll be amazed at the dollar bills tacked, taped and glued to
the ceilings and walls. You can add one, too. And don’t worry: when your dollar falls off, it’s donated to charity! As I recall, the food’s good, too!
There are other islands reached by Captiva Cruises as well. Be on the lookout for dolphins. They love to race alongside the boat and will put on quite a show if you make enough noise for them!
Back on Sanibel Island, you won’t want to miss the Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum. The exhibits are very well done, and the variety of shells is little
short of spectacular. And as long as you’re on Sanibel, you might as well do what millions of other people do here – look for shells.
The museum exhibit should whet your appetite for shell collecting. Now you have to go out and see what you can find. If your day happens to be
“spoiled” by a storm, the good news is that the next morning will probably be a great day for shelling. If it’s just another ordinary, perfect day in
paradise, I highly recommend that you get to the beach early if you’re serious about finding shells. And be prepared to wade a bit into the water
in case you see a larger shell that hasn’t yet washed completely ashore.
Just remember not to take live shells. How can you tell? Live shells still have someone living inside, and the door (operculum) is usually closed! The operculum is a flat, hard covering over the opening of the shell and the creature beneath is probably still alive. If there is no operculum, it’s likely a “dead” shell and okay to collect. There may be a hermit crab inside, but he’s just a visitor. If he leaves, it’s alright to take the shell.
Sanibel Stoop
Be sure to stand up straight once in awhile, lest you end of with the famous Lee Island Coast malady – the Sanibel Stoop! If you’re getting hungry from the shelling, maybe you’d like to visit Doc Ford’s Sanibel Rum Bar & Grille. The restaurant is themed after the books of
local best selling author Randy White. He was a fishing guide on Sanibel Island for thirteen years, and his first novel, Sanibel Flats, was chosen as one of the Hundred Favorite Mysteries of the 20th Century. You might even run into a celebrity: We had the pleasure of meeting TV’s Willard Scott during our lunch there.
It’s time to go back to the Pink Shell and enjoy some of the amenities of the Resort. I signed up for the Waverunner Dolphin Tour. What a great way to spend a couple of hours! Our guide keeps up a pace that lets us really move on those skidoos. This is not your ordinary “sit on the back of the horse while he walks down the trail” kind of ride. This is a real opportunity to enjoy the ride. You can actually accelerate and move at your
own pace – faster or slower. The guide is understanding and patient with everyonel. He’s able to spot manatees in open water from 50 yards away – remarkable, since they don’t splash. I was going to follow up with a bit of parasailing from the back of a boat in the Gulf, but I simply ran out of time. I mean choosing between a Swedish massage in the Resort Spa or
parasailing – what’s a guy to do? This time the massage. Maybe next time I’ll squeeze in the parasailing – It sure looks like fun.
Sunset at Pink Shell Resort
If it seems like there’s a lot to do at the beaches of Fort Myers and Sanibel, you are absolutely correct. I didn’t even mention the shopping at
outlet malls, the Indian mounds, the Children’s Science Center, the waterparks, the great fishing, the beautiful golf courses, and all the other
things. Too much for the few days that I had.. I’m going back! I want to go canoeing or kayaking, maybe do some sailing, definitely want to visit the
Audubon Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary a bit farther south, and spend at least a couple of days doing nothing but lying around on the beach, maybe take a walk or two, and spend more time in the Spa. A pedicure and a facial should
make a new man out of me!
Real Travel Adventures 