The first thing one notices upon arriving is the gigantic Banyan tree in the gardens.  This is reported to be the third largest Banyan tree known, so we have now seen two of them.  The second largest is in Lahaina, Maui, which we visited this past October.  The first largest is somewhere in India.  The Banyan here is descended from the Indian tree -- someone (Mr. Ford?) came across this huge Banyan, and brought back a cutting which became this marvelous tree.

Below is a shot of Mr. Edison's winter study.  It had a fascinating, musty smell.

The Edisons and Fords had nearly identical houses build within a short distance of each other.  Edison befriended the younger Ford late in Edison's life.  In fact, Ford never visited this home when Edison was not present across the way.  Below is an original Ford Model T truck -- the first truck model Ford produced.

Edison's first love was chemistry, so he maintained an extensive garden of exotic plants, from which he derived some of the compounds he used in his experiments.  As far as I know, the Bougainvillea was not used for anything besides ornamentation, and the one below is a gigantic specimen.

Edison's lab was huge, and entirely self contained: he had everything he needed in these two labs.  Edison apparently never actually invented anything at his Fort Myers home, but rather he continued working on existing projects while he 'vacationed' here.  Many years ago, OSHA shut down Mr. Edison's laboratory because nobody knew what, exactly, was in there.  They tested every single thing in the lab and determined it to be safe for the public.  It is very cool to see the extensive equipment Mr. Edison had at his disposal. He usually brought down a couple of other lab techs, as well, so they could do some of the tedious work.  He sometimes experimented on something thousands of times before he was through with it.

The shot below is most likely of a reproduction bulb, but we liked it anyway.

After a picnic at the Estates, we headed off to find our campground-de-jour: Holiday Park, in Seminole.  This was a gigantic park, with over 600 sites.  We got a far-corner site near the water, and were content.  The park did have a hot tub, which we make a point of utilizing where possible.  So we had an evening swim and hot tub, and then bed.