photo credit: billgillhespy.com
4th Annual Pawsitively Amazing Pet Parade on October 18 at Santini Marina Plaza in Fort Myers Beach. Join the fun as pets and their owners attend the Pet Parade dressed in Howl’oween Costume and are judged. The event includes vendors with crafts, etc.
When: October 18 at 9 am
Where: 7205 Estero Blvd
Fort Myers Beach, FL 33931
Cost: Free
Pirates “Invade” Fort Myers Beach (photo credit: naplesnews.com)
The 7th Annual Fort Myers Beach Pirate Fest will take place along Old San Carlos Boulevard and throughout the beach region during Columbus Day Weekend on October 5th, 6th, and 7th, 2012. For four days, the area beneath the Matanzas Bridge will be transformed into the nostalgic pirate port of Tortuga, and will include hundreds of professional pirates from across the state and beyond, bringing one of the most exciting events of the year to Fort Myers Beach.
Throughout the weekend, kids’ activities will include interactive games with pirates, a treasure hunt, sea skirmishes, stage shows and costume contests. For adults, there will be a pirate ball and costume contest on Friday night, and a weekend-long pub crawl.
This year’s Festival will provide more entertainment than ever before for the whole family, featuring a Pirate Invasion, Parade, Fight Ring and a Ship-to-Shore Battle with black powder cannon and small arms fire! The festival will also feature two stages of live entertainment from some of the best Pirate Crews, Actors, Storytellers, and Musicians from across the state of Florida.
The festival itself supports the Fort Myers Beach Little League, and many of the local performers take advantage of the event to raise money for charitable causes. Although admission is free, a donation of “a buck-an-ear” ($2.00) is suggested.
Event hours are 7 to 11 p.m. on Friday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. For more information, check out Pirate Fest’s website or Facebook page.
Looking for accommodations for the Pirate Fest? Cocoplum Beach House is located right on Fort Myers Beach, minutes from the festival location.
We just discovered a fantastic (and free) iPhone App — Oh, Ranger! ParkFinder from the American Park Network, which provides users with a searchable database of every single state and federal public land in America. You can search the database based on
location and the activity of your choice; whether you want to go boating, fishing, hiking, cycling, or even bird watching in a National Park in Florida (or any other state), the Oh, Ranger! app is a great resource for information.
Once users have chosen where they want to go, Oh, Ranger! helps as a virtual guide. It gives users directions, necessary phone numbers, important weather information, food and lodging facts, as well as links to related sites. It’s significant to note that many of these features are actually embedded into the application itself, meaning users don’t need internet access (which is great, since access is usually poor in the middle of the wilderness) to get the information they want.
The parks database itself is extensive, and includes thousands of national parks, state parks, national forests, wildlife refuges, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) sites, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) recreation areas and a variety of other public lands. When I searched for “Boating” in the Fort Myers Beach area, the results showed 6 great Federal and State parks, plus 10 local parks.
In addition, Ford Motor Company will donate $150,000 to four non-profit organizations. Each non-profit will receive dollar from Ford for every vote/download. If you have a smartphone, simply download the Oh, Ranger! ParkFinder™ Mobile App and vote for your favorite of the four: Boy Scouts of America, National Wildlife Federation, Outdoor Nation or the Student Conservation Association.This app is available for iPhones, iPads, iPod touch, and Android, and for those of you without a smartphone, all of the information available through the app can be accessed at OhRanger.com.
Visit the iTunes app store or go to the Oh, Ranger website to learn more and download the app.
Things to do in Beautiful Fort Myers Beach 