Our first stop in Florida was Gainesville. We went to the Butterfly Rainforest in the Natural History Museum on the University of Florida campus. It was cold in the butterfly rainforest so at first we thought we would not see many butterflies. Looking closer to the middle of the bushes we did see a good number of butterflies. We were there for a release of new butterflies into the rainforest. One of the attendants had a small cage like box with several butterflies in it. She gave a short presentation then said here they come and lifted the cover on the box. Nothing happened, the butterflies were too cold to fly out. This turned out to be good for us, the attendant took the butterflies out of the box to release them one at a time. Before releasing each one she gave us all a chance to get a good look at each butterfly and told us a little something about each butterfly. From what she said normally, when it is warmer, the butterflies streak out of the box as soon as it is open and quickly get lost from sight in the bushes. Dale had left the camera in the car and when Ernie offered to get it she told him it was not necessary she had lots of pictures of butterflies. This too worked out better since Dale could just relax and watch the butterflies instead of trying to get pictures of them.
We spent a couple of days in Gainesville visiting people in the area. This is where we were when we went to the Southwest United Methodist Church that we mentioned on the itinerary page.
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Stopping to visit with some people along the way, we made our way to Sarasota. While in Sarasota we went out to eat with some friends on a couple of occasions. In between doing that we visited a few tourist attractions.

The Sarasota Jungle Gardens is a small place less than a mile from where we were staying. We walked to it one morning. It was fairly hot that day so walking along their tree shaded paths was very pleasant. They have several birds, reptiles, and small animals. We attended a birds of prey show and a wild life show. They only had a few animals at each show, but we got to pet a brown skunk. The brown skunk was descented so there was no bad smell. Petting it we noticed that its fur is really soft. Brown skunks are a result of genetic engineering, not being natural they are not accepted by other skunks so can not be released into the wild.
An interesting feature is "Gardens of Christ". This is a small garden with dioramas of events in Jesus's life. Unfortunately, the dioramas are in glass front displays so we could not get any pictures that are not distorted by glare and reflection on the glass. We had a very enjoyable day here. (Pictures)
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Myakka Wildlife Tours are in the Myakka River State Park. Because the tours are in the park there is a park entrance fee as well as the cost of the tours. If you decide to do this get directions to the state park as there is no sign at the entrance for the tours, we drove by the state park entrance looking for a tours sign.
There are two tours:
    Tram Safari into the back country of Myakka River State Park.
    Air Boat on either the "Myakka Maiden" or the "Gator Gal", the two largest covered air boats in the world, is a scenic cruise on the Upper Myakka Lake.
We opted to do both tours. We had more than an hour before our first tour started, so we walked to a dock near where the river enters the lake. The dock is near a weir that was built in the 1940's. We saw many alligators and birds and a few water snakes. We really enjoyed watching the animals. When we headed to the Tram Safari tour we stopped at the trading post/gift shop to buy Ernie a hat, he had forgotten to pack one when we left. We also each bought a bottle of water and a bag of trail mix for lunch on the tram.
We did not see much for animals on the Safari Tram tour, but the story of the history of the region and people who settled there was very interesting. We went over Sarasota County High Point at the height of 100 feet above sea level, as the name implies, it is the highest point in Sarasota County.
After we completed the tram tour we went on the air boat tour. We crossed the lake and cruised along the shore on that side. We saw alligators, birds, turtles, and a few land animals.
It was a very fun and relaxing day. We got to see some of God's creation that we do not see every day. (Pictures)
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The Sarasota Classic Car Museum is directly across from the Wringling Museum of Art and Wringling Circus Museum, about ¼ mile from where we were staying. Having been to the Wringling museums on a previous trip to Florida we decided to go to the car museum. We were very glad that we did. The collection of cars was quite different from other car museums we have visited. There were only a few of the usual "classic" cars. There were several cars that we had never heard of, concept cars, and rare cars; such as the Tiburon/Shark of which two models (Tiburon Coupe & Shark Roadster) were made with just 6 of each model produced. The museum has one of each. Many of the cars were for sale, there is a storage area that visitors can go into where cars they have bought, but have not started restoring are stored. There is a room with many antique items in it, as with the cars most of the antiques are for sale. We spent 3-4 enjoyable hours at the museum. (Pictures)

After leaving Sarasota we went to Fort Lauderdale to board a cruise. Upon returning to Fort Lauderdale from the cruise; on our way home we visited some friends and went to the Edison & Ford Winter Estates in Fort Myers. Thomas Edison decided to build a summer home in Fort Myers near the Caloosahatchee River. When Henry Ford worked for Edison they became good friends. After Ford left his employment with Edison to start what would become Ford Motor Company they remained friends. With the help of town officials in Fort Meyers, Edison convinced Ford to buy the property next to his.
The Edison & Ford Winter Estates consists of 20 acres of historical buildings, historic gardens, the Edison Botanic Research Lab and the Edison Ford Museum. The newly restored buildings include the Edison Main House, Guest House, and Caretaker's House and the Ford House. The landscaping of the property is still the 1929 historic landscaping including the award winning Moonlight Garden. The Edison Ford Museum has hundreds of inventions, artifacts and special exhibits.
Their homes are very nice, but not palatial. One thing Ernie found interesting is that pictures show no matter what they were doing, including camping & hunting, the men wore suits and the ladies wore dresses. (Pictures)

Last updated:   may 16 2017