Ft. Myers, Florida

Going to both JRAD ATL shoes?   I'm still on the fence

Good to know.  If I hit a show - I'll make sure it's the second night.  

I would recommend going over to Sanibel Island, its been over 2 years since Hurricane Ian and they are back on their feet and things have opened up again. They can definitely use the business! Take a walk on the beach, the shells are amazing... they also have a Shell Museum that was very cool: https://www.shellmuseum.org/ and the J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge is something to see: https://www.fws.gov/refuge/jn-ding-darling/visit-us/locations/jn-ding-da.... Lastly if you have time, there are multiple cruises available https://captivacruises.com/cruises/   we did the 1/2 day cruise to Cayo Costa, it takes 30 minutes to get there, they drop you off on a remote beach and you have several hours to explore before they take you back to Sanibel/Captiva... that was alot of fun. Sanibel is a hidden gem!  

I believe skyjunk(fabes) lives in the area, I'm sure he will chime in.

If ya go to Sanibel, say hi to Doc Ford.

^^^

Did the bubble room survive? 

Welcome to Wrinkle City

The cold weather brings in the Manatee at the Manatee Park. There is a power plant there on the river and it heats up the water in that area, they love that. There is also a kayak launch there and rentals if you want to get real close to them. The Edison/Ford homes were a bit boring for me. 

Voodoo has some decent food from what I remember. It's downtown and its mostly restaurants and bars in the area. I would recommend walking around and checking out the little alley ways and other places to eat, & drink and there are 3-4 rooftop bars with nice views of the river and bridges. Lots of places with outdoor areas to sit eat, drink, listen to music. Downtown is on the water and about 3 blocks by 3 blocks. Snowbirds are here so it should be lively down there at night, or as lively as the geriatric crowd can get. 
 

Redbones is a bit of a Skippers (Tampa) kind of a place, but its a dive version with bad food, plastic cups of beer, no liquor, no name bands, real strange decor, weird stuff all around you, hanging from the ceilings, and you run into all kinds of funky people, or there will be no one there at all. Actually it's not much like Skippers other than funky people. Check out the gallery in the link, my wife hates it I love it, and it's close to the house. 

https://www.redbonesfl.com/gallery.html

'by the airport are two places you might like.
Backyard Social is a pole building with a bar in the middle and it has really great food trucks surrounding the pole building. They have bands playing outside and there is another bar where the band plays.

Ft. Myers Brewery is in an industrial park and has food trucks outside of the brewery and a area with a band. There is some seating but most people bring their own lawn chairs and chill outside with the band. I really like the beer here, but the food is hit or miss on whichever food trucks are there.

https://backyardsocial.com/

https://www.fmbrew.com/

the beaches can be a bitch to get to and back from. I prefer Lovers Key State park for a beach trip, because I like fewer people, fishing and smoking joints. But at this time of year it will be full too, if you go, go early and leave via Bonita Springs 

as Dedhed above said Sanibel is really nice. 
 

https://www.buckinghambar.com/upcoming-events  Blues bar 

let me know if you have time for a beer or a smoke 

Buddha Live is also a music bar but you need Facebook to see the band schedules

its a musical wasteland down here

there is a ferry that will take you to key west and back, beats driving there and they have a bar 

On Sanibel across the street of the Dairy Queen is a RV park with a Lemur rescue inside. We camped there when my son was 5 and he hung out there so much they made him a honorary Stripped lemur.

When we were ther there were 130 of em.

We also dug a big hole on the beach and covered it with palm frons (lot of trees on the beach) and wrote a sign Tourist Trap. with no action. We change the sign to FREE and 3 people fell in our hole. All 3 were Canadians too.

If that's not up your alley there is always hookers and blow.

>>>honorary Stripped lemur

I'm going to guess you meant striped but then you mentioned strippers so....you never know 

hey Ken, Thursday works for me, just let me know a time.

Ken you may want to make your trip downtown on Friday. The are having the monthly Art Walk downtown. They close some of the streets and have vendors set up and you can wander around and drink as you walk around downtown looking at arts and crafts. They do a music walk on the 3rd. Fridays and have bands set up on the closed streets and clubs. These usually draw a bunch of folks downtown. 
 

Monthly Art Walk

Friday, February 7, 2025

The River District Alliance lights up downtown Fort Myers ARTistically the first Friday of every month. The streets will be lined with local and regional artists selling and displaying their one of a kind works of art, with many styles represented. The next Art Walk will be July 5th from 6-10pm. Come down and support local art!

As always, Art Walk is FREE to attend.

Find us on First Street, in downtown Fort Myers. To help plan your parking, visit https://denisonparking.com/fort-myers/

I usually work to 4-4:30 so maybe 5pm ok or there abouts works for me 

Thanks for showing me a part of the bar I had never been to, I never went past the bathrooms before to even know that inside bar existed, let alone the Elvis stage, and whatever the hell else was up there. The tale of two bars, the inside hood bar, and the outside oasis bar. Fun time, and great seeing you again.