(upbeat music) - My name's Emily Jackson.

And this week on "The Great Family Adventure," we're exploring Lee County, Florida.

(upbeat music) - [Nick] Left our winter wonderland and we drove South to explore Fort Myers with the islands, beaches, and neighborhoods, and it is gorgeous.

- [Emily] There's so many cool things we're gonna be checking out from swamp tours, biking, hiking.

- [Nick] Incredible wildlife.

We've got rivers, we've got ocean, we've got all sorts of adventures to get into and hard to beat the sunny, warm weather.

Kids, family, we're loving it.

Funding for Great Family Adventure is provided by Collette offers small group exploration tours, destinations and local experiences.

Explorations by Collette.

Guided travel since 1918.

Alaska by rail.

Passengers can travel the coasts and wilderness of Alaska with baggage, service, meals, and wheelchair access.

Information available at AlaskaRailroad.com Vivid-Pix memory station and software allows users to scan personal history items like photos and documents, record voice narrative, and share what has been conserved.

More online at Vivid-pix.com.

Host- And by these additional sponsors ♪ upbeat music (gentle music) - [Emily] Well, we've arrived in Lee County, Florida, we made it all the way down to Fort Myers.

It was super exciting to get down here because it was cold when we left home and we arrived to beautiful weather.

And as much as we love snow and such, it's not the same as getting outside in Florida in the middle of January.

It's like 80 degrees here right now and it just means adventure time.

(upbeat music) Just that opportunity to get my kids outside even more is always something I'm looking forward to doing.

(upbeat music) - We just made it to a beautiful Florida and time to set up the trailer and enjoy this awesome campsite that we got.

Stoked to be done driving though, has been great.

(upbeat music) - [Emily] When we first pulled in, it was arriving to a whole new world, and there's Spanish moss everywhere.

Palm fronds lining every single road.

- It's just this gorgeous environment.

Right behind us, we've got this awesome little river walk trail and then you've got this river creek behind as well, which is just super scenic.

- There's historical sites so for me, I homeschool the kids every day, just to be able to open the door and bring them into a whole new world with all this experience, right there, it's pretty unique.

It just, it really had a special feel to it.

It didn't feel like we were in the United States.

It felt like we were out in the jungle somewhere.

And it was really neat to just see that.

We didn't have to drive that far and we got to come check out someplace that's just so uniquely different.

One of the really cool things about pulling the RV and the trailer into some of these places, is that once we get there and we unhook, we can just step outside the door and explore just what our current new front yard has to offer.

(upbeat music) Visiting Florida in the winter is something that I've heard a ton of people wanting to do or having done over the years, but it's not something that I've ever thought about going and doing.

It's just, we live in Tennessee, it's pretty warm in the winter.

I never imagined just driving 10 hours South, that the weather was gonna change dramatically.

(upbeat music) - The cool thing about our setup is honestly, we get to go on vacation, but bring our house with us.

So wherever we go, we've got all our stuff whether we wanna go biking, whether we want to go paddle boarding, kayaking.

I mean it's all with us and makes it awesome for whatever adventures that come across our way and makes it feel like home.

(upbeat music) The fact that there's just always new environments wherever we go makes everything somewhat unique and exciting and I think that's probably what the kids enjoy the most.

(upbeat music) - Hi, guys.

How was it?

- So now that we're here in Florida, we figured best way to fully engulf the experience is start off with a seafood dinner.

- What's cooking?

- I have corn and potatoes and lots of seafood.

- Dad said there's crab in there.

- There might be, are you gonna break 'em open with a hammer?

- No.

- That's good.

Here we go.

- You know, I'm a big food fan, the kids and I love to experience all that culture has to offer.

I'm excited to just bring a little bit of the food culture into our day to day routine here.

- Okay, guys.

- Stay back, watch out.

- Check this out.

- What the?

- My goodness.

- What are you doing?

- I don't, this is how you're supposed to do it, Tuck.

- Really?

- Yeah.

- [Parker] One just moved.

(laughing) - It didn't move.

It didn't move, Daddy cooked it.

(upbeat music) Sunset on the beach, first night here.

Not a bad way to call it a day.

(upbeat music) - So Florida has a whole bunch of epic wildlife and for us, especially with the kids, that's a big part of this trip is being able to explore and see animals that we don't see very often.

- [Terry] Hi guys, good morning.

- Morning.

- Good morning.

- [Emily] We went on a swamp tour which is something I'm not sure that I would've thought to even do but it was one of the most exciting parts of the trip.

- So guys, my name is Terry, Welcome to Babcock Ranch Eco Tours.

- [Nick] The swamp tour was a very unique experience in the sense that we get to take this old school bus that turned into a swamp buggy and roll around some Florida swamps looking for alligators and all sorts of different wildlife.

- [Emily] We had an amazing guide named Terry who just brought a lot of energy into the room.

- [Terry] Here comes a hog.

Look at this feral hog, this wild pig.

This piney wood rooter, this razorback.

- She did a great job of just being super enthusiastic about the animals.

You could tell she clearly loves them.

- [Terry] Oh man, here comes another sounder of swine and they got baby piglets with them.

Is this our Bolt?

Oh no, it's Daisy.

Oh, watch out for Daisy, guys.

Daisy will try and come in my doorway.

No, get outta my doorway.

Don't you think I'm gonna hit you with my boot deck.

- With this old school bus buggy, we were able to actually go kind of offroading through the swamp which got pretty bouncy and a little bit wild and I was amazed that we were able to take this bus through some pretty deep swamp.

You see him?

Oh, look, look at his mouth!

- Coming to Fort Myers, everyone talked about the wildlife but I didn't really expect to experience the sheer amount of hands on, right in your face, wildlife that we've seen so far.

We got to see these massive alligators, including a really little baby one who I thought would've been like a newborn alligator, but she was 15 months old.

So I learned a lot myself through this swamp tour.

Being able to see all that wildlife for the kids I think is just gonna be something that sticks with them forever.

But there's just so much other stuff that we're gonna get to do here.

And, you know, that was just a part of our entire trip.

(upbeat music) - [Nick] So at Lovers Key, we were able to pull up to this awesome little boat launch and go paddle and look for manatees.

Emily and Tucker were in the two person kayak, Parker and myself were on the set board together.

Ready to go?

Here we go.

Where do you think the manatees live?

- [Emily] We get in the water and boom, manatees right there.

I mean, on top of us, around us.

- [Nick] See, right there.

- I'm not intimidated.

- [Nick] So to be able to see manatees up close and personal is pretty unique and pretty special.

They're kind of an odd looking animal to begin with.

That guy's gonna come up and hit us.

(laughing) Parker actually probably had the best way to sum it up when she said they look like a mix between a cat and a hippo and a spoon.

- [Emily] You know, they're fun, they're playful.

But we just saw, we saw their tails, we saw their bodies, we saw their eyes.

You know, we got to see them rolling around.

- [Nick] It was just a really special environment to be in, to be able to be so up close and personal with them.

Whoa.

Whoa.

The habitat that the manatees were in was this awesome mangrove forest and it was just a really beautiful area.

To be able to be really in this just gorgeous mangrove jungle, it was such a unique experience and so special to be able to share that with the kids.

- Oh no, oh no, oh no.

- [Emily] Which one do you think's ours?

- [Andrew] Hey, guys, how's everybody doing today?

- Good, how are you?

- Good, good, it's always another day in paradise out here.

- The dolphin tour for me was definitely a huge highlight in the sense that we got to go out on this boat, we got to go look for dolphins and the whole fact that it was a sunset tour.

But the best part by far was the fact that we had our own marine biologist with us.

- [Emily] Are there sharks or manatees here?

- Yes, we have both of them out here.

- [Emily] This guy, Andrew, really knew his stuff, but it was really special for me as my kids' teacher to get to have them do hands on experience.

They just had a ton of questions and really engaged with him.

So that was really fun as a parent, just to see.

- So being out on the boat for sunset tour was amazing on its own, but the fact that we're out there looking for dolphins, and then we found a pod made it that much better, everybody immediately got excited.

- [Andrew] Surfacing on our right hand side, it seems right out by that red channel marker.

And on here on our right side as well.

- [Nick] The dolphins are such friendly creatures that they really just try to play with you the whole time and so they were in front of our boat, jumping and swimming.

- They were totally engaging with us, you know, being playful and looking up at us and just doing all these things that I didn't really anticipate, you know, experiencing at all.

I've never really seen dolphins like that before.

- [Nick] See them?

Look at them all right there.

It was kind of like we were almost interacting with the dolphins and it just made the whole experience and the whole boat ride really special to have this dolphin pod kind of just swim with us for quite a ways.

(upbeat music) - [Emily] When you go on a sunset cruise, you don't really know what you're gonna get.

You know, 'cause every day it could be an epic one, it could be so so, but we totally lucked out.

- [Nick] The sunset on the boat was truly magnificent.

And so to be able to just be on the boat, have the dolphins around us, have such an amazing evening with the whole family and then have that perfect sunset.

It really was the cherry on top for the whole experience.

(gentle music) - We wanted to have a day that was a little more chill, but at the same time, the kids wanted to have a blast, so every day on vacation, we gotta make the most of it.

So we picked Lakes Park, which ended up having everything you would need to have a great time with the kids.

I mean, we're talking splash pads, train rides, you name it.

This one little park had a lot to offer.

Parker, what's happening?

- We're going on a train.

- [Emily] Train ride was actually really special.

You know, you think it's a little goofy, but then you get there and they're all about trains.

They have a whole museum section and it went, you know, just fast enough to make it exciting for the kids.

But it also had a lot of little figurines and things along the way that made it exciting.

So we were all playing, you know, I Spy, basically the entire way.

It was just really cool and really fun.

(upbeat music) After that, we actually went and rented this four person family style bike, you know, with a canopy on top, you know, full tourist mode.

And Nick and I got to just take the kids around the park and explore it with the ease of being on a bike.

- Parker, look.

- Let's check our favorite alligator.

(upbeat music) We went to a bouncy castle, just zoo, basically.

It was just all these different bouncy castles on top of each other and the kids just went right in and just burnt out a ton of energy.

And once they got hot we got to go to a splash pad to cool down so how cool is that?

Get hot at the bouncy house, cool off with a splash pad.

- Then we followed up with some fun for mom and dad as well as we went to a local brewery, had some kombucha.

- [Emily] Following that, we ended up going to the Putt-Putt Golf, which was super fun and all sorts of cool courses.

- [Nick] Are we gonna do teams for this mini putt or what?

- No.

- No we're going solo?

What do you think?

- Solo.

- [Nick] Hey, did you see any alligators?

- Yeah, I saw them.

- [Nick] Let's go feed some alligators!

Where are they?

Oh, he's got it.

He's got it.

This was an awesome little pirate based mini golf, mini putt course.

- [Emily] You know, definitely one of the more fancy Putt-Putt Golf places I've ever been, all sorts of cool courses and we're a competitive family.

So it was super fun.

- [Nick] There we go.

Look at it, look at it go, look at it go!

Oh.

(exclaiming) Yeah, hole in one for Parker!

No way.

Oh, that's a good one, Tuck.

Leave it.

Oh, done and that's it.

It was just a really fun adventure and awesome to see the kids kind of getting out in their own little environments.

What an epic day for the whole family.

- We wanted to continue exploring inland and sure enough, which I did not expect on the docket was mountain biking, who would've thought mountain biking in Florida?

This group called the Mud Cutters had made these awesome trails all throughout the Caloosahatchee Reserve Area.

It's this big park and just has miles and miles of trails including a 12 mile loop.

So we definitely did not anticipate getting to find something like that in inland Florida.

(upbeat music) - The Mud Cutters are a local group of mountain bikers that actually got together and built a lot of the different trails at the park.

And it's a cool just community that they encourage people to get out and ride together.

- [Emily] Tucker's really gotten into biking lately.

He really enjoys just the independence of it all.

So any opportunity we have to get out and go biking is something that we try to do.

Even though we love all going out as a family, every once in a while, one of us has to go do their own thing for a little bit.

So I'm so excited for Nick that he got that time to just go out with the Mud Cutters and really explore the trails.

(upbeat music) - Yeah, so for me, when I'm mountain biking, I'm more used to kind of being out in either the mountains or kind of a desert scene.

So to be able to roll through different palm trees on a bike, hitting some cool rollers out in the sun and then dip into some different kind of, like, swampy areas that really just feels quite jungle-y.

It was a very unique experience and it made for just an epic day.

(upbeat music) We definitely wanted to get off the beaten path and explore a lot of the different inland adventures here in Lee County, Florida, but, obviously, coming here, we couldn't not be here without going to the beach and the ocean.

- We got to go and explore Gasparilla Island and it was really special.

It was a beautiful island with huge bunion trees.

It was really nice to just be able to take the bikes and go, you know, no agenda, just get on the bikes and see what the island has to offer.

- [Nick] There was an old railway that they turned into all these different bike paths and it made a perfect environment to really explore the island via our e-bikes.

- Hey guys, what do you wanna go see?

What do you wanna do?

- [Parker] Dolphins and alligators?

- You wanna see dolphins and alligators?

What about seashells?

- We might be all to hang out for the sunset, guys, I hear it's a pretty sweet sunset here.

The Johann Fust Community Library.

Let's check it out, guys.

- We ended up at this library that also had a large seashell collection.

Not only did we see the world's smallest book but we got to see some super cool seashells.

All of which had come from right around here.

- [Emily] Oh, I see it, I think.

- [Nick] Actually?

- [Emily] Yep.

- [Tucker] That's a book.

- No, well that's the thing to look at the smallest book in the world.

It's the tiny little -- - [Nick] Oh my goodness, that's a pretty small book.

Wow.

Oh, these are really cool shells too.

- [Tucker] Where?

- These ones, the orange ones.

Aren't they cool?

Oh, and look way up top.

Whoa.

That almost looks like a skeleton.

And look at these ones, that's so crazy too.

What do you guys think of those shells?

Let's go find our own.

We're gonna head to the beach.

- After we went ahead and explored the library at Gasparilla Island, we went and decided to go check out some of the beaches.

- This way, this way, this way!

Isn't this cool?

Run, run, run, run, run!

- [Emily] There were so many different beaches to check out here, it was hard to choose, but they all had awesome sea shells, tidal pools.

We had miles of just untouched, beautiful beaches.

- [Nick] We were able to go out, play in the water, do some wrestling, jumping through the waves and I think everybody had a blast.

- Once we had our time crashing into the waves and swimming and sea shell collecting, it was time for some ice cream.

We gotta end, you know, a good beach day with some ice cream.

So we went to this little ice cream shack, you know, by bike, which is fantastic.

You gotta burn off the ice cream before you eat it.

- [Nick] Oh my goodness.

That looks yummy.

(upbeat music) (laughing) - Finishing off the day, we went to the Gasparilla Island Lighthouse and we actually got to climb up to the top of the lighthouse, which was super cool.

- [Woman] All right, you guys ready to climb?

- Yeah.

- All right, let's go.

- Take in the hundred and how many stairs was it?

- [Woman] 134.

- 134 stairs.

- So this is the view of the island and actually if you turn around you can see the very Southern part of the island as well.

(upbeat music) - [Nick] We're wrapping up an amazing adventure down here in Lee County, Florida with the family.

We got to go swim in the ocean.

We got to see manatees, dolphins, alligators, all sorts of fun in the sun and hard to beat an ending like this where we get to watch this gorgeous sunset.

Pretty epic.

Sunsets on the lighthouse.

After all was said and done we had just the best time here in Lee County, Florida.

And we were able to sit back and watch the final sunset on the beach.

Tucker, what was your favorite part of the trip?

- Everything!

- It was the perfect ending to our trip.

A family moment, all together, watching the last bit of sun go down, you know, taking every second we can.

Just, you know, I won't forget it.

(upbeat music) Funding for Great Family Adventure is provided by Collette offers small group exploration tours, destinations and local experiences.

Explorations by Collette.

Guided travel since 1918.

Alaska by rail.

Passengers can travel the coasts and wilderness of Alaska with baggage, service, meals, and wheelchair access.

Information available at AlaskaRailroad.com Vivid-Pix memory station and software allows users to scan personal history items like photos and documents, record voice narrative, and share what has been conserved.

More online at Vivid-pix.com.

Host- And by these additional sponsors ♪ upbeat music