We recently visited Naples Fl. A lovely place full of "mature" tourists, many mid westerners, some great art and good galleries and some delicious seafood.
We rented a house for a couple of weeks so we could just relax and enjoy the area. We took lots of day trips and spent lots of time just exploring. Our two big nature adventures were to the Audubon Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary and the Everglades National Park.
At Corkscrew we walked a wooden raised trail and saw some great birds and got acquainted with the new and unique vegetation of the area. Banyan trees, air plants growing in the trees, ferns and other cool stuff. You could easily spot the wildlife by watching for the jam of people with big cameras and huge long lenses. While we were watching a lovely blue heron two of them got in to a loud argument about which lens to use and scared the bird away. Very funny.
I did some research about the best way to see Everglades by calling the National Park and asking questions about air boats and tours. Their answer is don't take an air boat, they scare the wild life and trample the vegetation. They are loud and except for the "thrill" of going fast through a swamp don't really let you see the Everglades. We opted instead for a boat tour that went out into the barrier islands. We got to see new islands in the making with Mangrove trees digging their roots into piles of shells and trapped sand. They grow slowly until the link with other islands getting bigger and bigger over time.
Then we drove to a pull out and walked a bit to get our gator photo. As we were driving along we actually saw several groups of gators and some cood birds but there was no way to pull off the narrow road and couldn't stop because of traffic.
The ranger station at Everglades is pretty sad. It was obviously damaged int he hurricanes of the last few years and is a simple 2 story building on stilts and wrapped in Tyvek.
The displays look mostly hand made with photos and posters in a room about 20 feet square. Some interesting information but obviously they are challenged for dollars to do better.
Most of the civilization and population in the very southern part of Florida has happened since the 1960's. Prior to that there were few roads, few people and tons of wildlife. We visited this cool old general store that was also the postoffice. In the old days (1950's) the owner would go get the mail by canoe and use a shell horn to announce the arrival of the days mail. They have turned the place into a museum, very cool, but they don't allow photos inside.
There are lots of good galleries in Naples. There is a wonderful Naples Art Museum that is combined with a philharmonic palace that will knock your socks off. They present all kinds of entertainment, all top notch. We also went to the Naples National Art Fair.
The Naples Art Fair is one of the best we have ever seen but WOW, 285 artists and thousand and thousands of people. You could hardly move and I can't imagine how the artists got much sold with so many people around.
Now to the food. You just can beat that part of the country for fresh seafood. Our favorite restaurant turned out to be right down the street from our rental house. Randy's Fishmarket Resturant. They have a long wait and don't take reservations but it is well worth the wait. We bought some, "OH MY GOD Shrimp" to grill and home too. YUM.
We plan to visit Naples again because there is always more to see and do.
