Post Hurricane Ian, Fort Myers hasn’t lost a bit of its allure.
I had heard of Fort Myers, but I don’t think I really understood what it was all about. Just another waterfront playground for the rich that I’d never see, I assumed. I’d been to Naples and streaked on a few golf courses before, how different could it be? Completely different, y’all.
I was extended an invitation by Visit Fort Myers to come and see firsthand what made them so special, and I have to say, at the end of the trip, I had drunk the Fort Myers Kool-Aid.
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After I washed those dreams out of my hair the next morning, we all hopped on a private boat tour with our guide, Captain Brian on the Water. Brian took us out to the barrier islands, which were beat to hell by the hurricane. These places are only accessible by boat, haunted islands where whole trees had been stripped of foliage and jutted out of the sand like wizard wands or gnarled fingers poking skyward. We cruised by North Captiva Island, where only 36 permanent residents call it home and traverse the island in little golf carts. He knew all the critters that poked their noses out at our boat, from spotted eagle rays and ospreys to manatees, dolphins and permit fish. His enthusiasm was contagious.
he Gulf Stone Crab Claw appetizer at Cabbage Key
I knew lunch was going to be a treat when I saw the glint of mischief in Capt. Brian’s eye. He shuttled us over to Cabbage Key, the home of the historic Dollar Bill Bar and Restaurant, a beautiful collection of buildings that opened to the public in 1944. The place was packed to the railings with happy and hungry visitors. The walls and ceilings were covered with paper currency from around the world, with names and messages scrawled in Sharpies, and stuck in place with a prayer and a piece of gum.
The Dollar Bill Bar and Restaurant ©Brendan O’Connor
It was that afternoon with Capt. Brian that really drove home it was the water and the islands that made Fort Myers so special. The resorts and the restaurants were all top notch and we still had more to see on the mainland, but you could tell that both Capt. Brian and Capt. Dan (if that was his real name) had embraced the Salt Life and weren’t coming back.
This is an excerpt from an article by Brendan O’Connor that originally appeared on orlgnaomagazine.com on September 3, 2024
