More Pictures from Florida

Here are some final pictures from Florida.  On our last day, we visited the Edison and Ford Winter Estates.  This is a pretty cool place.  I wasn't aware of this, but Thomas Edison and Henry Ford lived next to each other in Fort Myers in the winters.  Their houses and work areas (including Edison's lab) remain intact and are now open for tours.  You get to see many of Edison's inventions, along with some amazing rubber trees that were brought over from India and were used to produce a source of rubber.

Angie and I spent about three hours there, and we easily could have stayed longer.  It was a fascinating look at the genius and inegenuity of those two men.  Of course, we couldn't resist the urge to get pictures with the two men for which it's named:

In these pictures, Angie is telling Thomas how much she values her inventions and how she can't believe that it's in the 50s and cloudy in Florida, and I'm telling Henry that I can't believe I'm still driving his Escort.  (Yeah, they told us that the statues are drawn above scale.)  Notice the size of the tree in the background of Angie's picture.  It appears to be a group of trees, but it's actually a single tree.

One other place we visited on our trip was the Calusa Nature Center and Planetarium.  We went on a walk through the nature area, and saw some unique animals.  The cool weather caused many of the animals to be put inside, but it was still a nice tour.

Once again, we'd like to thank Bill and Linda for hosting us.  We had a fun time, and will definitely be back someday.

The Shell Factory

On the second day of our Florida vacation (New Year's Day), we paid a visit to The Shell Factory.  It's a kooky little place in North Fort Myers.  They sell shells, of course, but there is also a fun park and nature park.  We just walked around the shell displays and the fun little exhibits (a good portion of this is free to walk around in), and took some fun pictures.

One of the most important rules in the Hynds family is this: If you are near the skeleton of a large shark's mouth, you must take a silly picture with it.  Angie obliged.

Then, we all joined in on the fun.  Honestly, how many chances do you get in life to pose for a picture inside a shark's mouth?

Then, we roped Bill and Linda in.  Okay, enough with the shark.  Let's move on to more important things...

...like a triceratops.  Once again, you can't pass up an opportunity like this.  If you see a triceratops, take a picture with it.  No exceptions.

We will soon post all of the other pictures on our Facebook pages.  It was a fun way to spend an afternoon.  On a side note, it rained profusely when we got there, and we all got soaked!  Unfortunately, this was the beginning of the cool spell that hit Florida and stayed for more than a week.

One more note about New Year's in Florida - it was the first time in my life that I was in the Eastern Time Zone when the ball dropped at Times Square.  I got to ring in the New Year at that moment, instead of having to wait another hour.  It's the little things, really, that get me excited.