Fort Myers Vacation
While traveling on her own to Ft. Morgan, Jacob's mom mixed up Fort Morgan for Ft. Myers & I think we can all agree that was a mistake made in heaven! Ever since she had gotten back the first time, she wanted to go back again. This last July she was kind enough to bring her kids & I along to see the beautiful location she had always talked about.
Getting There
Let me just say, getting there was a 12 hour trek just to get to Ocala! No worries though, we took plenty of pit stops to stretch & rest up.
Day 1 | Brunch Cruise, Exploring & Relaxing
After getting up early in Ocala, we drove about an hour or so to get to our brunch cruise on time. Once there, we gave our information & explored the resort while we waited to board our little yacht!
When we got on the boat they had some danishes to start off with & an option of coffee or tea to drink before it was time to eat.
Once the food was ready, we went downstairs to eat in a lovely dining area with an outstanding array of food options! We all had to get a little bit of everything & it was all excellent! I would definitely recommend the Sanibel Harbour Princess Yacht brunch or dinner cruise.
After eating, we explored the yacht & took pictures up on the decks & just enjoyed our morning!
The brothers definitely enjoyed trying to one up each other in a "who has the bigger arms" contest...
Once our cruise was over & were back on land, we went to our condo to unpack & unwind for the rest of the day.
Day 2 | Fort Myers Beach
Fort Myers Beach was our destination for day two of our vacation. We chilled on the beach & discovered some pretty cool areas!
Day 3 | Pontoon Boat Exploring
This day had to be one of my favorite days out of the whole trip! We rented out a pontoon boat for a good amount of the day. On the way to a beach, I enjoyed reading my book the whole way there.
We stopped at a little beach & found the most gorgeous seashells I had ever seen!
Around noon, we all started to get hungry so we started researching places to eat. We found an awesome place called Flippers where we could just park our boat, get a table & eat! Jacob & I had their appetizer quesadillas & WOW they were the best quesadillas we had ever had!
After eating, we hopped back on the boat to explore some more & Jacob even let me drive! Well...sort of!
When we were back on land, we showered & got all clean to get ready for our Pirate escape room! Luckily we found the treasure before the pirates got back on board!
This night was Jacob & I's night to cook! We served up a wonderful pot of cajun pasta!
Day 4 | Kayaking
This day we rented Kayaks & paddled our way around the islands around us!
While paddling through a mangrove canal, a mangrove crab tried to hop into our kayak from a tree & I clearly wasn't having it AT ALL.
Once back at the condo we realized we were all very exhausted from paddling all morning.
Day 5 | Barefoot Beach
Another day, another beach. This day we explored Barefoot Beach which was nice & quiet!
Jacob's nephew Finn enjoyed the water & playing in the sand!
After the beach, we decided to get changed & play Putt Putt at Castle Golf. It was a lot of fun & of course Jacob won the game!
Day 6 | Biking & Family Pictures
This was an exhausting but really fun day! We biked multiple miles around Sanibel, FL. This area was SO cute & I hope to visit there again.
After biking for a few hours, we ate at the Lighthouse Cafe for a fulfilling lunch! After biking all day & eating, who wouldn't have a sweet tooth? We made our way to Pinocchio's Italian Ice Cream for a sweet treat! Can we talk about how cute they served our ice cream?!
Finn definitely enjoyed some of Uncle Jake's ice cream!
Back at the condo, it was time to get all fancied up for Family Pictures! (Eee!) I had been asked to be in charge of the family pics & I was so happy to do so! Having to run back & fourth to set the camera's timer to be in the group picture was actually pretty fun! (LOL)
Here's a look at a few of the pictures! I will have some extras in the photography section of my website!
The sunset for this day was absolutely gorgeous! Definitely some cotton candy skies!
Day 7 | Shopping, J. N. "Ding" Darling NWR & The Mucky Duck
Our last day was definitely a fun filled one! To start off the day, we decided to do some shopping at the Miramar Outlet Mall! This outlet mall was absolutely beautiful & all of the stores had some great deals. I took plenty of pictures to capture the classiness of this shopping area!
Finn had a great time in his little car out of a shopping buggy!
After resting up & changing, we made our way to J. N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge to do a bus tour of the area. Beings that Jacob, his sister & her husband are all involved in environmental science, this was an awesome experience for them & for the rest of us! We all learned a lot! Even about those mangey mangrove crabs...
The coolest part was that we were the only ones on the bus tour which made the ride a lot of fun!
To see some manatees, we went to Jensen's Marina & managed to see one in the water! I didn't get any good pictures, but I hope you can take my word for it when I say it was too cute!
The Marina itself had a lot of gorgeous photo ops, so of course I took advantage of the area!
To have dinner, we brought ourselves to The Mucky Duck to watch the sunset! I got an awesome time lapse & picture!
If you want to see this trip live & in action, check out my youtube video!
That concludes my Fort Myers trip! I know it was a very long journey but if you read the whole thing I highly appreciate it! I also want to thank Jacob's mom & family for letting me be involved in this trip. I had loads of fun & I can't wait for many more adventures with this family who is just as silly as me!
I'd love to know what you would want to do most if you visited Fort Myers, so let me know in the comment section down below!
Lots of Love,
Hailey Hoyt