Fort Myers Beach Lights Up Saturday: Illuminations Walking Parade Nov. 7, and the Free Tram Returns Nov. 19
Estero Boulevard closes to cars Saturday evening so a lantern-lit walking parade can take the street, and two weeks later the beach's free seasonal tram starts rolling again between Bowditch Point Park and the library.
FORT MYERS BEACH - The beach is about to glow. The Illuminations Walking Parade is set for Saturday, Nov. 7 - a free, lantern-lit walking parade that steps off at about 6 p.m. along Estero Boulevard, according to the Fort Myers Beach area guide updated Monday by Beachy Keen SWFL, drawing on Beach Talk Radio News and the Fort Myers Beach Chamber of Commerce.
Drivers should plan around it: Estero Boulevard will be closed from the Matanzas Pass Bridge to Sandy Bottom's from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday while the parade walks the boulevard. The event is free, and walkers carry the lanterns - a deliberately low-key counterpart to the island's bigger boat-parade season still to come.
Also on the beach calendar: the free Fort Myers Beach tram returns for the season on Thursday, Nov. 19, running between Bowditch Point Park and the beach library every 30 to 40 minutes - the easiest way to move along the island without moving a car. The tram's return lands the same week the island hosts the American Sand Sculpting Championship (Nov. 19-23), which this station previewed Sunday; between the parade, the tram and the sculptors, mid-November is shaping up as the beach's first full post-summer weekend.
