Sanibel Island 2013 Day 6

Why is it that the days leading up to our trip always drag by so slowly, and then once we are there, they fly by with a flash?  Day 6 had us up and out the door early and sitting at Over Easy Café for breakfast.  That seems to have been our tradition the past few years and one that we're not likely to break.  I like the cute little restaurant and their good food.  Why change a good thing?

After breakfast we went back to Shalimar and checked out, stopped at Pak n Ship to send home our box of shells and slowly drove down Periwinkle, saying a silent good-bye to all our favorite places.  Once we hit the bridge, we nosed over into the sad lane and kept one eye on the road and the other eye on our final glimpse of the lighthouse. 

We always stop on one of the causeway beaches for a final picture and to grab a small shell to place in our pockets for the flight home. 

This year we had a late afternoon flight and we were torn over staying at the beach for the day or driving to Ft. Myers and visiting the Edison & Ford Winter Estates.  This year since the shelling was so bad, the Edison Estate won.  Once we got there I wanted to kick myself for waiting so long.  This place was amazing - so much to see, so large, so interesting.  I immediately knew we weren't going to have time to see it all.

First things first.....  A virtual geocache was located near the entrance, near this famous Banyan tree.  GCBAF6  The tree is immense and SO cool.  How badly do you think I wanted to climb this tree?  Unfortunately there were signs all over the place specifically telling you not to climb the tree. Spoilsports....  :-)

Once I got my geocaching fix under control, we entered the museum.  They have several different packages available for touring the property.  Since we were short on time, we opted for the audio tour of the grounds and the museum.  They gave us small audio boxes to hang around our necks and off we went to explore on our own.  Here's the entrance to the estates, which are located across the street....

The first thing we came across was a huge mango tree.  Look at all those gorgeous mangoes!  As we were standing there taking a picture, a beautiful ripe mango fell off the tree and landed practically at my feet. 

I wanted that damn mango so bad, but they have signs posted that you cannot take the mangoes.  Plus an employee was standing right there, thwarting any wild ideas that may have crossed my mind to bend over and just shove that gorgeous mango into my purse... 

Everywhere we looked was an explosion of fruit trees, dozens of different species of trees and flowers....

I just realized how many gorgeous photos I have and I haven't even gotten to the buildings yet.  So I think I'll stop here and break this into 2 separate posts.  But I wanted to leave you with this last group of pictures because it's so unusual to capture this in person.  I am warning you however, it is X rated....  Proceed at your own risk and don't say you.... weren't.... warned.....

Did you proceed??  Yeah, I kind of thought you would.  LOL!  Ok, we were walking along the harbor area and I was poking around to see if there were any shells laying about.  There weren't.

Check out the look on my face....

I spied this lizard sitting on a rock doing this....

I'd never seen anything like that so I sat and watched him, trying to snap a picture of him when the orange thing was out.  It happens so quickly and every couple of seconds.  Then he leaped down between the rocks, grabbed another lizard and they did this....

The whole thing took about two minutes (hmm.....) and then the female ran off and the male sat there looking all proud of himself and I swear he was smiling....

Now I guarantee that is something you do not see everyday!