On the beach, among other places

Saturday morning we visited Ft. Myers Beach, which is located on an island separate from the mainland. Doug drove us over a high causeway to get here. The settlement is full of beach houses, hotels and small tourist trap businesses painted in the signature colors of South Florida--yellow, orange, hot pink, turquoise. The beach was mostly deserted, because there has been a bloom of red algae. The Gulf of Mexico here looks as big as the ocean to landlubbers like us, though.


Before we arrived at the beach, though, Doug gave us a walking tour of Florida Gulf Coast University. Sure enough, it has a lot of lakes, and this sign emphasizes the unique status of the alligator in the ecosystem.


Doug's office is in the library; the newest faculty have offices there because the school is beyond capacity at this point. FGCU has 8,500 students enrolled and about 3,000 live on campus. The office has a door that locks, but the walls don't go quite to the ceiling. Nevertheless, professor Harrison looks quite at home in his new space.