Haute Table: Week Re-Cap: Hannah Visits Edition

Sunday at Gasparilla Island State Park

What a week! I apologize for not posting the last three days but the best friend has been in Fort Myers so I haven't had the time to write for y'all. But lordy did we have fun...and we took a lot of photos so grab a cup of coffee and tuck in for this post!

As soon as Hannah landed we headed out - we had a lot to fit in four days - to Wisteria Tea Room. It was Hannah's first time (but y'all know I love it). She had the mac & cheese, which she said was so good, I had the roast beef panini - I know, we're shook. We opted for the chocolate pound cake for dessert and let me just say, it's not just a pound cake it has a molten chocolate filling that adds even more deliciousness to its already wonderful taste. With our bellies incredibly full we drove over to the Butterfly Estates. It had been years since I visited but we stopped in and had the place to ourselves. The butterflies were flying around, some posed for us and we thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

I had seen a cute shop on Instagram, Remedies Parlor, and I couldn't believe the images I had seen. It actually looked cool - and for Fort Myers cool isn't exactly a word to describe it. Like, it's beautiful, quirky, fun, colorful, etc. But cool? Not usually. We stepped inside Remedies and it was like I was back in Austin. The shop sells crystals, scents, jewelry, furniture and more. They also serve beer, wine, champagne and craft sodas. You can take it outside to their garden where they have the most beautiful table that seems perfect for dinner parties! After visiting we walked around downtown Fort Myers for a while and then headed back home for a little down time. Dinner was at Bert's on Matlacha, it's one of Hannah's favorites and it's absolutely delicious. It's quintessential dive bar + fish house. I love it.

Hannah had never been to Love Boat Ice Cream, a big favorite of mine from childhood, so we stopped in there for some late night ice cream. IT WAS PACKED. They have two locations a few blocks away and they were both packed. You can see from the image, Hannah took a photo with my framed restaurant review. Cannot believe they still have that!

Sunday morning dawned with a trip to the Bagel Factory (aka my favorite place in Fort Myers). We inhaled our bagels as we read the Wall Street Journal and discussed all the topics. Then we ran home, got changed, packed a cooler and drove to the best place in Lee County (in my opinion), Gasparilla Island. We started with lunch at Miller's Dockside on the east side of Boca Grande and then proceeded to the southern tip of the island - Gasparilla Island State Park - for a beach afternoon. The water was warm, the sun was bright and the sand stuck to every part of our body. But we loved it. The day was absolutely beautiful and since it has been raining a lot lately everything was so green! We set up our rainbow umbrella and enjoyed lying on the sand reading our books - so relaxing. Speaking of which, I'm currently reading The Improbability of Love, which I've had on my bookshelf since 2016 but am finally getting around to. It took a while to get started but now I can't stop. After our beach day we stopped for some photos at Hudson's Grocery and then drove to Punta Gorda for ice cream...it was National Ice Cream Day after all. We chose Working Cow and y'all, it was delicious! Very much the classic ice cream spot of your childhood. And unexpectedly Instagramable.

The next morning was an early morning breakfast at Lighthouse Cafe (a favorite of ours) and headed to Captiva for a Captiva Cruises trip to Cabbage Key. Now the surprising thing about this is despite the fact my dad and I have lived in Fort Myers our whole lives we had never been out to this special spot. So we finally did it and we loved it! The island has the perfect Florida charm with gopher tortoises...so it's basically the best place on Earth? We had a cheeseburger...in paradise...at the restaurant along with margaritas and slices of frozen key lime pie. Then we climbed the stairs to the top of the water tower for a view of the surrounding islands. It was a great lil' experience. After we got off the boat back on Captiva we stopped for a little pool afternoon at 'Tween Waters, affectionately nicknamed 'Tweenies. There we enjoyed frozen daiquiris, piña coladas and craft beer while enjoying their fairly new Serenity pool. After we dried off we headed to Island Cow for dinner and then stopped by Pinocchio's for ice cream (I get the Dirty Sand Dollar).

Tuesday morning we headed to First Watch for a quick breakfast then drove down to Everglades National Park for a tram ride through Shark Valley. It was beautiful, we saw two alligators and many Great Blue Heron. Once we got back and showered we wanted to go for gelato but ended up trying out a new sno-ball place on the way to Fort Myers Beach. AND Y'ALL. Pelican's has the best sno-balls we have ever had. Hannah grew up eating them, I did not but we both loved them. The people were incredibly nice and it just makes me want to shout from the rooftops how awesome this place was. Let me recommend ice cream with cream on top and then a little dollop of vanilla soft serve. Ugh, I'm dreaming about it now. After enjoying those we did the incredibly touristy thing of playing putt-putt golf. We both loved it - we did Smuggler's Cove toward the beach.

Wednesday morning we, once again, visited Lighthouse Cafe and then drove down to Lighthouse Beach for a beach morning. The water was a beautiful green and you could see all the way to the bottom. We spent most of our time in the water and a little time eating cotton candy and reading our books. Speaking of books, we then stopped in at Gene's - the best bookstore in Lee County. I bought four books (a blog post is coming about that soon!) and Hannah purchased three. We also walked into Bailey's General Store for cookies. Their black & white cookies are some of the best I've ever had. For lunch we drove back to Fort Myers for Blu Sushi, a place I ate at so much in high school but hadn't been in years. As ever, the Lava Drops were delicious. And you can't have lunch without having dessert...so we drove out to Sun Harvest...aka Hannah's absolute favorite thing about Fort Myers. We enjoyed our orange & vanilla swirl cones on the porch while making noises of approval without actually speaking.

Then it was time for Hannah to get on her plane and fly back to Texas. We had the absolute best time and I hope y'all enjoy the extreme amount of photos, keep scrolling for even more! A vlog is coming soon (are we surprised?). Have y'all done any of this? - xoxo darling, Hayden P.S. My Fort Myers Guide can be found here!

Keep Scrolling!

Downtown Fort Myers

Remedies Parlor Garden

Love this girl!

Celebrating National Ice Cream Day a day early.

Miller's Dockside View & Meal

It isn't a trip to Boca Grande without a stop at Fugate's.

Reading "The Improbability of Love"