January 3rd to February 5th Getting from the Port Everglades Cruise Dock to the Avis location at the port turned out to be a difficult time. It was raining and very windy and the Avis Bus never showed up. We ended up getting an Uber car to pick us up and transport us to Avis. Avis was short of vehicles and we ended up with a Toyota Forerunner. Had to be the worst car we have had in a long time.
We stayed at a Residence in at the Gulf Coast Town Center in Fort Myers. It is a part of a large shopping center. Lots of restaurants, but all were crowded. Shopping was great for Eleanor.
We enjoyed having easy access to many nature preserves and the Everglades. I had always heard of Ding Darling, but we did not feel it was as good as some of the birding areas we had been at in the Houston area in 2015, or a couple of the preserves in the Bradenton/Sarasota area.
We did enjoy several locations in the Everglades and made three trips to Everglade City, which is stepping back in time.
After checking out a number of other locations in the Naples/Fort Myers area we concluded the location we stayed at was best suited to our interests and plan another visit in January 2019.