Downtown Fort Myers Field Trip

This time I visited downtown Fort Myers to look at the different historical places and learn more about its history and how downtown looked back on the days. I did not go on any tours because they were expensive, but my teacher gave us the names of places that were really important and I decided to do a scavenger hunt. It was a long list, but I ended up finding all of the places. I visited the Southwest Florida Museum of History, which was very interesting and amusing. I learned a little bit of the animals of Florida in the Pleistocene, and one of my favorites was the Columbian Mammoth, which existed 1.5 million years ago and were huge; they were as tall as 13 feet and its teeth were known for crushing great quantities of food and plants. I also learned about the Paleo-Indians’ culture and lifestyle and how it was affected when the Spanish Conquistadors took over their lands. To finalize my personal tour of the museum, I learned about the Seminole War, how Fort Myers started being built, its first houses, its first trains (which I got to get into one and see the inside), police and firefighter department, and finally “Cracker House”. It was a great experience being there because I hadn't been in a museum in a very long time.

 After the museum, I went downtown to get something to eat. I had lunch with a friend a Ford’s Garage, which was one of the historical places of downtown Fort Myers. Its services have been going on since 1920, which I was so amazed about! I thought that was a great historic place and tasty as well. I also attended the Edison and Ford Winter Estates Museum, but (again) I did not go on a tour because it was expensive so I decided to take a walk and found Edison’s Botanic Lab, Mrs. Edison’s famous garden, which I thought it was so beautiful. It was a pretty hot day, but I still enjoyed walking around. After that I went to the Centennial Park, where I took many pictures of the Uncommon Friends mini fountain, the U.S Colored Troops, and the Art of the Olympians. It was a beautiful day to just relax in the park and enjoy the windy weather.

I think my favorite part of the field trip was when I went to the Indigo Hotel. I took pictures of the mural, the mosaic pattern of the floor, and went all the way to the top floor when I saw the best view of downtown! I loved being there and able to see the whole city, basically. I could see people walking around, cars driving, the Fort Myers Bridge, the gulf, I stayed there for a while and enjoyed the view until I decided to go home.

  

Overall, the field trip was a lot of fun. There was a lot of walking under the hot sun, but it was still nice because I got to enjoy the car show downtown was hosting. I got to go inside the Arcade Theater, Art Center, and saw the Ponce De Leon fountain!

I could not keep my experience under 300 because I loved it and I was glad I got to learn about the history of downtown.

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