After a forgettable meal in Fort Myers Beach, we returned to EO Burgers in the Bell Tower Shops mall in Ft Myers. We had dined there (yes, I use the term “dined” for a burger place) in the first few weeks of our stay, liked it very much, and wanted to return before we headed north. Jett was afraid that we would be disappointed this time, but she needn’t have worried. The burgers were, once again, perfect and the fries and onion rings were to die for. This place, along with Ford’s Garage, are the places to go for a great burger in Fort Myers.

We are puzzled, though, by the lack of customers at EO Burgers. Once again we were the only customers in the place. I don’t know how they stay in business. I was actually relieved to see that they were still open. They have great burgers and deserve better.

I hope they are still there when we return.

Jett and I have been living in Ft Myers Beach for nearly 5 months now, but we don’t live on the beach. We have driven down the Estero Blvd – the only street that runs the length of the beach – but never actually saw the beach, walked the beach or dipped our toes in the Gulf of Mexico. Well, we took care of that on Saturday. It is something we should have done at the start of our stay and perhaps we could have made it a regular thing.

The main reason we avoid the beach is the traffic. There is just one bridge – with a single lane southbound onto the island – and it is busy whenever the sun is shining, which is most of the time. Once you are on Estero Island you need to find a place to park and can expect to pay at least $10 for the day. Maybe more in the peak season. We avoid Cape Cod for the same reasons – don’t like the traffic, don’t like the cost.

But for us there was another way. The LeeTran “Beach Trollee” – a cute trolley-style bus that runs from the Summerlin Square terminal, about a quarter-mile from our RV park, right down to the beach. Cost per ride: 75 cents. So that is what we did – drove to the terminal, took the bus to the beach, took the bus back downtown, did some sightseeing, had dinner, took the bus home.

There is one other major advantage to the bus: it has a dedicated lane on the bridge. While it still gets stuck in some traffic before the bridge, having that lane all to itself probably cuts 10 minutes off the travel time most days.

Our first stop was Bowditch Point Park and Bowditch Beach where I stuck my toes in the water. Chilly but swimmable.

Then down to Times Square, the honky-tonk entertainment area near the pier. We enjoyed the sun, the music (an oldies band was playing in the square) and admired the beach, the atmosphere and the bikinis. Well, maybe Jett didn’t admire the bikinis, but I did.

We then had dinner at the Yucatan Beach Stand Bar & Grill. It had some atmosphere and my blackened Mahi tuna was tasty. But it came on a mushy bed of pasta with a tasteless pesto sauce. Mediocre at best. Same for Jett’s burger. Not a bad place, but you can probably do better.

Final stop: the ice cream shop for some soft-serve. A small cup of soft serve for $4.50. Again, forgettable. If you want ice cream in Ft Myers Beach, go to Love Boat Ice Cream instead. The ice cream there is superb.

On Friday Jett and I were out-and-about, running errands in preparation for the trip north. One of those errands was getting Rusty groomed. Another was getting Jett some new shoes. We finished getting the shoes before Rusty was finished being groomed, so we decided to have a late lunch at the Bahama Breeze near the shoe store.

I don’t think anyone has ever claimed that the Bahama Breeze chain is due for a Michelin star. It seems to sell atmosphere more than food. But the fact is that I have never had anything there that I didn’t absolutely love – both food and drinks. On this day I ordered a jerk chicken sandwich and, because it was after 3pm, decided to try the half-price “Ultimate Piña Colada.” The jerk chicken was fine, as were the “Key West Nachos” that Jett and I shared. But the big winner was the piña colada. It was served in a tall glass with pineapple garnish and had a big red splotch, like the surface of Jupiter. It was a strawberry puree – probably the same stuff they use to make frozen strawberry daiquiris – with the run and coconut flakes on top. Absolutely delicious!

I had two.

And we still made it back to the groomer before Rusty was finished.

Jett and I are nearing the end of our third winter in Florida. And for three years we have had the Edison-Ford winter estates on our “to do” list. Finally, last week, we actually did the tour and got that particular item off of the list.

Thomas Edison wintered in Ft Myers for many years. Later, Henry Ford bought the adjacent estate and the two hung out together in the beautiful Florida weather. But these weren’t just vacation homes – Edison, workaholic that he was, built a laboratory here and used his 10 acres of gardens to grow plants that he could study, especially latex-producing plants that he thought might be capable of producing artificial rubber.

The houses themselves are humble, considering the stature and wealth of these two men. The living rooms and dining rooms were small, the kitchens were basic and the furniture was simple – rattan on the wide porches. Edison, of course, lit his house with DC electric lights. Even his fishing boat was electric.

The house was built before the railroad reached Ft Myers, so Edison built the house with materials that arrived by boat. To accommodate these ships and, later, his fishing boat, he built a very long pier into the Caloosahatchee River – at one point nearly 1,500 feet long.

The grounds, while populated with plants intended for research, are no less beautiful for being practical. You can barely see the house from McGregor Blvd due to the heavy foliage.

The museum at the visitor’s center has many photographs of Edison and his family “relaxing” at the winter estate. In every photograph Edison is wearing a suit and tie and his family is wearing what appears to be their “Sunday finest.” While it is possible that he allowed photos to be taken only when they looked their best, I found myself wincing at being so overdressed in the Florida sun. Edison was granted over 1,000 patents in his lifetime.

But why didn’t he invent shorts?

I missed the day on which tickets to the Red Sox spring training games at JetBlue Park went on sale and those tickets go very quickly. So when I realized that I couldn’t get any JetBlue tickets I turned my attention to the CenturyLink Sports Complex, the spring training home of the Minnesota Twins. While I am most definitely not a big Minnesota Twins fan, they do play the Boston Red Sox quite a few times each spring as they both have spring training facilities in Fort Myers. I was able to get onto the Twins ticket web site the day tickets went on sale and scored two games between the Twins and the Red Sox.

The first one was on March 11 which is early in spring training. That means you see a lot of minor league players trying very hard to make it to the “bigs”. So I didn’t expect to see the Red Sox opening day lineup. But, worse, this was a “split squad” game – the Red Sox played a game at JetBlue and a game at CenturyLink on the same day. So there was probably one “starting lineup” player on the Red Sox squad – catcher Christian Vasquez. The Twins showed up with a full squad, including Joe Mauer, and crushed the Red Sox 13-0. So not a great baseball game for a Red Sox fan.

But I got my first view of CenturyLink Park. It is smaller than JetBlue, but very nice. It has a quaint, turn-of-the-century look about it. And it was a bright, sunny day. So I had a good time watching the Red Sox getting drubbed.