Florida, Day 2

Saturday, February 1

We had thunderstorms during the night, and it was still raining off and on Saturday morning. We went into downtown Fort Myers to ArtFest anyway. It worked out very well from my perspective. We got a parking spot in the ramp near the elevator, there was immediate seating in the temporary restroom, and it was easy to walk through the artists’ tents. In previous year during nice weather, Jane and Jan had hardly been able to get through the crowds. It was too bad for the artists, though. Business was slow.

Jan and Jane walking through ArtFest in a light rain

The temporary restrooms were noteworthy. A trailer had entry and exit doors for men or women. The women’s side had 5 stalls and two sinks with running water! This was a big step up from the chemical toilets in a trailer that McHenry County puts out at the Fair. The ArtFest facilities were hooked right up to a fire hydrant. I did not think to look for the path of effluent.

ArtFest is a juried show. Jane said that some local artists were miffed that they were not included. The artists came from as far away as California. They probably travel a circuit from town to town in the same state rather than running home between every show.

The ArtFest ran along a marina with lots of big boats.

Boats next to the ArtFest street

A vacant lot along the street had been turned into a display of garbage art. The diving figure above the sign is made entirely of repurposed items. Another piece was a huge rectangular bale of flattened plastic items marked “return to sender.”

Garbage art

There was a big tent for “Art under 20” featuring high school artists. Some of the art was very good. I was impressed by a dress made of pull tabs from soda cans. Some pieces were just plain disturbing. “Some of these kids need to be watched,” I said to Jan in a low voice.

“Yes,” she replied. “Did you see the one of a parent yelling at a child and the child yelling back?”

I had not, but I had seen stark scenes of skulls and violent acts.

Interestingly, the beer tent was open when we got there at 10:30, but the ice cream vendor was not.

After ArtFest, we drove to a restaurant named “Bullig” for their famous waffles. A sign by the door explained that bullig means family, “no one gets left out.” Jane and Jan had been there before, and found that the small inside eating area was noisy. A large group was just leaving the outdoor porch seating, and the waitress assured us that she could have the tables wiped and set in 5 minutes. Jan stayed behind to stake our claim while Jane and I did a quick tour of a little garden shop next door.

Once seated, I learned that they did not have decaf coffee in any form, but the waitress would be happy to bring me a variety of nasty-sounding herbal teas. I declined. Jan had a latte, and we all had water cheerfully served in mason jars. We would have a 30-minute wait for waffles. There were all sorts of clever names for the waffles in all their various presentations with toppings as diverse as eggs and sausage to fluffernutter. We all ordered waffles with two strips of bacon.

While we waited, we watched the cars and the periodic rain showers. The porch was on a busy street. It was no quieter than inside, really. We wondered why there was a big fenced-in parking lot on the other side of the road next to an antique store. There was nary a car in it, leading us to hypothesis that it was used by people who worked in the area during the week.

If I’d known the bacon came on top of the waffle dusted with powdered sugar, I would have asked for it on the side. Still, it was good, crisp bacon, and the maple syrup was the real deal. I would have taken a picture, but by the time I waited half an hour to eat (it was noon, and we hadn’t had much breakfast), I dove in while it was hot, remembering about the picture when my waffle was half eaten. It was a pretty darned good waffle, for being in a restaurant.

We drove around to the Old Courthouse to see the largest banyan tree in Fort Myers. It was impressive.

The largest banyon tree by the Courthouse

We returned to the condo and lazed around for what remained of the afternoon. We had happy hour on the deck after which I made pasta with scallops and mushrooms. The sun finally came out at the very last moment, giving us a pleasant end to the day.

The sun at the last moment of the day