Mercer's team was playing in a tournament in Florida. We've been lucky so far that all of the tournaments his team has played in so far were in Georgia - around the metro area so there was maybe as far as a "day trip" for travel but nothing overnight 'til now (which is not the case for other organizations across the country.... I was talking with someone from Texas at one of his games who had made their 5th "overnight" trip / 4 of them required flights!) Todd says we're pretty lucky here in our part of Georgia that a lot of teams come to us / we have a lot of tournaments here. I mentioned on a previous blog that this was not the best year for Mercer's baseball career. It was his 1st venture into travel ball and the team he was on was so mismanaged -- both in the fall with one set of leadership (who was let go) and replaced with different set of leadership. Something happened to 1 coach last month / everything was cancelled for a week / then he was not back and practices were discontinued for the rest of the summer season. The other coach (we just found out) turned in his notice. There was a tournament that was missed last month during that week hiatus that was supposed to be made up... and there was another tournament that was supposed to be at the end of this month, but is now not happening (with no explanation.) SO: 2 tournaments + weekly practices that were paid for by the players that did not materialize. We need to figure out if there's a reimbursement because this "travel ball" + tournaments with "professional coaching" is expensive!!
There are several things that we did not like about the coaching style of the remaining 1 coach - but no sense in writing on the blog about all of that too. Just sufficed to say: he's done with this team!!
Mercer tried out for a DIFFERENT team that he really wanted to be on. He was made an "offer" to join that team - so he took it! It was his 1st tryout of the summer... cancelling the other tryouts that he was signed up for. That made this summer more bearable. Last summer with tryouts & not getting the offers he wanted was really heart-breaking. Todd is excited because this is NOT a big-name national team that just goes off of branding / drawing talent that they don't have to coach. This is a local franchise that touts itself on player development. FINGERS CROSSED it's a much better year ahead!Bye Bye "5 Star Mafia." -- Hello "USA Scout."
We booked an entire week in Florida because of the tournament dates. But - their team did not make the playoff bracket, so we had 2 free days at the end of our week there. But, while we were there, at least it was HOT - like a sauna - and there were lots of rain / lightning delays to make it worth the while sitting at the games. (ha ha - kidding - not kidding !!)
This scene of abandoned field during a storm was not uncommon....
Travelling to the Ft. Myers tournament was our "family vacation" this summer. (We ended up staying across the Caloosahatchee River in Cape Coral -- we rented a house on a canal with a screened in porch (a lanai) and a pool. I read that Cape Coral has the most canals in the world - 400 miles worth. They lead to the river and to the Gulf. I read that it could take up to an hour with a *no wake* (slow) boat ride to get from the end of the canal to open waters. On a map, I tracked the canal we're on.... our canal leads directly towards the Gulf.
Unfortunately, the water does not look that great & we're sure there's gators in there.... but we were able to see baby dolphins swimming + fish jumping for bugs in the early morning hours!!
We had rented it with intention to kayak in the canal, as they were provided at the house we rented, but the baseball schedule + the rain / lightning did not provide time to do so, sadly. (I was a little concerned about the gators, but the owner reassured us that they would not bother us.)
We had to look out the side of the deckto get the nice view down the canal because they had a boat launch across the whole front of their back deck.
It looks like the property directly across had never been developed. (Assuming this aybe the property owner builds a channel wall when they build their house?)
I sat out there and had coffee many mornings.... chair pointed to the side away from the boat launch. The dolphins were more active anyways near the neighbor's wood dock.
Luckily, we did NOT see any gators the whole time we were there Florida -- in these waters -- or any of the waters. whew!
The other main draw of the house: the pool and screened in porch / lanai. This was the main reason we rented this one!!
(Here's the view from the master bedroom - looking out to the lanai through a mesh screen.... which did not provide darkness - rather filtered light early in the morning! But still nice.)
Isabella got in the pool EVERY day. (even as soon as we arrived / while we were unpacking the car!) She would swim, twirl, dive for things in the bottom, etc on her own even if no one else was swimming.
(We could watch her from the outdoor furniture on the lanai - or even from inside in the living room since the whole wall was full of windows.)
Mercer got in the pool most days.
Todd and I a little less than the kids, but we did enjoy to pool many of the days. Sometimes, we'd sit and watch them play in the pool together which was a nice site!
We also went for night swims / brought some glow toys to make it more interesting.
Isabella and I liked this series of colors - blue / cool / relaxing. (There weren't a lot of red / warm colors in the ball color choices or else we would have switched it up each night a little more.)
I liked how the lights reflected off of the water, of course!
The house also had a game area too.
Foosball, poker and bumper pool were all provided.
This was the cool glass sculpture hanging from the ceiling about the foosball table.
Yes, we taught the kids how to play poker -- since it's a life skill!
And we had to watch a YouTube video on bumper pool to figure out how to play.... but it was a lot of fun!
Dogs were allowed at this place - which was another draw to having rented it. Hip-Hop liked the different couches / living areas. He hung out on 3 different couches: the one on the lanai, there was an area near the front door closer to the game area (under the fish print), and the one in the actual living room - where he spent most of his time.
He barked a lot at night - which kept Todd up. So, he put HH on the bed in Isabella's room and he even slept in there a few nights (bark-free)... which she loved! (It also saved us at least $500 in pet-sitting fees at home / he didn't have to be lonely all week.)
So - we enjoyed our time at the house.
We enjoyed some things outside of the house as well.
One night, we went to Dave & Busters with teammates and families. Todd & I took turns hanging out with the adults / hanging out with Isabella. Mercer went off with his team / we did not see him except for when his food arrived.
Another night - because of rain - instead of going to play putt-putt golf, we went bowling. Todd was the STRIKE-master!
(5 strikes in a row at the end!!) Who is he? Is he secretly bowling in a league without our knowledge?!
There was a day - when there was supposed to be a double-header - Isabella and I started out near the ballpark at the Butterfly Estates.
We figured we were going to miss part of the 1st game and be there for all of the 2nd game... we'd see plenty of ball that day. But -- that was one day when the rain / lightning delays started (we did not know this 'til we were done / headed back over).We picked up lunch to eat under the cover as rain was pouring down around us. Then eventually we went home. Todd and Mercer went back later that evening to finish their 1st game at 8 pm. (Isabella and I did not go... so technically she/ I did not see any baseball that day!)
So the guys had a lot of back-and-forth / waiting. Isabella and I had a nice time in a (hot) butterfly house.
The Butterfly Estates is a non-profit organization that raises their own butterflies. They collect the eggs off of specific host plants they had put out there. Isabella actually was watching one of the butterflies laying eggs / we told a docent who came and collected the tiny little orange dots that lined this vine in the photo.
They had areas in display cases where they fed the caterpillars fresh leaves for their specific variety of food source. They would collect the chrysalises and move them to an area for them to hang / have the butterflies emerge. One of them was partly emerged while we were there. It looked like they had a hundred or more chrysalises in that display area.
Every day, they would release the butterflies that had emerged from their chrysalises the day or evening before. We happened to be there when they did this too! They had a calendar where they wrote how many butterflies of different varieties that they released each day. It looks like there were 20 - 30 butterflies being released the morning we were there!
(The swallowtail butterfly she's holding in a bunch of the photos was one that was released that morning but was not quite able to fly well yet.)
There was another type of butterfly that we could not identify that hung out with Isabella a bit too. (It was greenish in color!)
So glad that she and I had something else to do that day!
One day, we visited a nearby beach - Sanibel Island - which had great reviews as one of the best in the country. Sadly, there was a lot of destruction from Hurricane Ian which had landed there and surrounding areas in September 2022. When we drove up onto the island, there were areas that were barricaded off.
Entire condo developments that were blocked from entering. Even parts of the park system were blocked off.
We started at one side of this light house (the side on the inlet full of shells - and a dead sea turtle which was beached :( - we reported it. What was weird was that there was a family just hanging out over there near it like nothing was wrong.
We couldn't get through to the other side of the light house by walking, so had to drive around.
Once to the other side of the light house, it was a nice beach - pretty clear waters. We stayed and played catch in the water for a couple of hours, then found a late lunch.
This is Ft. Myers in the background behind Mercer.
Hard to see the blue-green waters. It was prettier than this picture does justice.
Proof of getting my feet in the sand --> (Feet sure are weird - especially with the flip-flop tan!)
(I was playing catch in the water too, but obviously didn't take a camera out there.)
We have several photos at the restaurant on Sanibel Island (b/c Isabella wanted to document a couple of things)...
She ate gator tail.
And - she was getting good at cracking open / pulling out crab meat from the crab legs Todd ordered.
(Mercer had chicken fingers.... ha!)
This photo was above the booth where we were sitting. And - it shows the exact spot where we were sitting - next to the brick stairway. We ended up talking to the owner of the restaurant. He kept coming by / picking on Isabella. He told us that this photo was taken a week after the storm when he was allowed to come back (and take a ferry over to the island b/c the road was washed out).
They had a lot of clean up / sanding down floors & tables / re-sealing both. Their damage was minimal - the structure was intact (the cool glass sculpture seen above Isabella's head in this photo was intact too.) He said it took months before they were able to open back up, but there was evidence of restaurants and businesses closed all around still almost 10 months later.
It is eye-opening about how powerful water & mother nature is!!
The last non-game day it poured all day (wonder how the final day of tournament play went? Rain delays + lightening delays for sure!) We left the kids at the house and went to the Edison Ford Estates.
It was actually really interesting. We did not know that Ford (about a decade younger than Edison) worked for him/ Edison encouraged him in his endeavors for the automobile. This particular property in Ft. Myers seemed to be dedicated to Edison's research in the rubber industry. They had lots of different kinds of rubber-producing trees, but his experiments in his lab showed that the banyan tree had the highest rubber content.
We've seen these trees before - in Florida - at the Ringling Museum property when we went. There, the kids climbed and played in them. Here, they were roped off and it explicitly says "no climbing." They're weird - they have these "legs" that go down under the branches to help support them.
Found this article about the connection between the banyan trees at Ringling & Edison Estates: Thomas Edison, who had been introduced to Banyans by Harvey Firestone, gave the impressive Banyan trees to John Ringling. Harvey Firestone used banyan trees, a Ficus, while experimenting to find a feasible source of latex.
The banyan tree in the photo above with the Edison statue was ONE "mother" tree covering approximately an acre of canopy! They also had a lot of fig trees around the property as well... which has some rubber content - just not as much.
There were 2 houses along the river (across the street from the museum / laboratory)... one was built by Edison. The other belonged to someone else and that person was a savvy home-seller contacting Ford directly. Sort of like we know you're friends - don't you want to buy my house next door to Edison? ~~ (This photo is of Ford, Edison and Firestone (of Firestone tires)
Edison had this house built (with all stuff from up north).
There were pieces of plexiglass keeping you out, but it was open at the top. So surprised there's no mold. But - I guess there wasn't air-conditioning in the original structure, so.... probably no different than "normal." I did snap a photo of one of the things inside: The light fixtures. What was special -- the way you turned them on & off with a hanging light switch!
There was a lot of his inventions in the museum (things related to electricity and generators)... there was info about his family - the 2nd wife (looks like his first died young) appointed herself as a "house manager." They had a section on taking road trips to the wilderness / roughing it. There was a section on music and the moving picture (although he was almost deaf), and then there was things about Ford as well. They had a number of restored cars + they had an interesting section about some of his inventions too.
There are "balloon" wheels at the front and solid rubber (with a LOT of wear) at the back.
A musical car!
As a BONUS, there was a section at the back of the museum on baseball! Early catcher's gear.
Early bats and 1st base glove.
There were no notes about these posters showing "patent drawings" but since the Edison Ford museum was full of patents (Edison had over 1,000 starting in 1868 - patent # 90,646 all the way 1931 when his last successful application went through - patent #1,908,830).
I guess they hung these up along a walk-way to likely take up space, but... since it was at the Edison museum, they probably figured people liked seeing these in the baseball section -- even though they weren't his patents.
They were right! We liked seeing the early drawings for the baseball, the glove, the catcher's gear (a whole metal grill), etc.
This grill - to protect behind the plate - crazy!
There was even a section about Terry Park - the place where the majority of Mercer's tournament games were held.
It was cool to see the history of this park and the major league spring training teams that used to practice there in the early days.
It really was an interesting museum. We're glad we went.
We began the long trek home (cute pic of Mercer snuggling with the dog & Isabella while they were napping).
We stopped by briefly to visit dad & Charlie. They were not able to make the journey down to Cape Coral, so we paid a quick visit while we were in the area -- even if briefly.
We made it home close to midnight... Todd and I had to go to work the next morning. Mercer worked later that same afternoon! It was tiring, but... we did it.
We can cross that part of the country off of our list!
We started at one side of this light house (the side on the inlet full of shells - and a dead sea turtle which was beached :( - we reported it. What was weird was that there was a family just hanging out over there near it like nothing was wrong.
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