Thomas Edison, Ace Inventor

Edison' s lab

It rained and rained and rained today...we didn't get going anywhere till about 1:30 this afternoon. We decided today was a great day to go visit the Edison and Ford summer home/lab/garden complex in Fort Myers. These are his summer homes, gardens and lab as they were approximately in 1929. Thomas Edison was a prolific and amazing inventor, over 1100 patents in his lifetime, and for awhile, he was getting one patent a year for 65 years straight!....I was excited to go visit the museum and lab today to find out more about him. I always talked about him when I taught as he supposedly had learning disabilities and probably was attention deficit as a child. His mother pulled him out of school because he couldn't focus and pay attention and so she homeschooled him. We thought the museum was a little disappointing as far as how it was organized. It was very chopped up inside by rooms, making it difficult to get the flow of things as far as his inventions and the history of his life. The first room you enter from the gift shop was set up for some artist/author presentations, and where to go from there was confusing. The one tour guide that was getting ready to take a small group out was hyperkinetic, fast talking, and we just didn't think we'd enjoy that rapid style of delivery. Besides, he reminded me too much of my former ADD students! We need time to digest information 'cuz we're getting OLD! So we watched a couple of videos, checked out all of Edison's inventions and enjoyed seeing his lab, which was being renovated. It still was neat to physically walk thru the lab to see where he and his cronies did all their research and experimentation.  You could almost step back in time and FEEL the presence of greatness and innovation at work in the lab.

There are a couple of ways to explore the complex...to see the homes and the botanical gardens was $20.00 a person...we just did the museum and lab for 11.00 a person. As a side note, there was a banyan tree in the front of the complex that was given to Edison by Harvey Firestone (Firestone Tires) in the late 1800's. The tree was originally was about 4 feet tall and 2" in diameter. It now is an ACRE in  diameter and has 360 roots! Edison's wife was very interested in gardens and flowers. The grounds has an incredible number of different types of plants, flowers and trees...the botanical gardens part would be amazing to explore as well.....

statue of Thomas Edison in front of THE banyan tree

When we got back from Fort Myers, we decided to eat downtown at Bert's Seafood and Chowder House. They had a special going on for two complete 3 course dinners, a bottle of wine and dessert for $32.00 for the two of you.  Beef tenderloin tips in a fabulous wine sauce, mashed potatoes, asparagus, Chardonnay or Pinot Grigio and your choice of strawberry shortcake or chocolate cake....it was delicious! What??!!! No seafood and we were at a chowdah place?  Well, beef tips just sounded better to me, I'm not a seafood person and they were wonderful! I do like my chowder tho'....maybe next time.  Tomorrow is Sunday, laundry day..doubt if we will go anywhere but you never know where Eldo and Sparky will end up! As things turned out, I ended up at a park big band concert..photos tomorrow...See you later!