Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre, Fort Myers

Brigadoon as tasty as the buffet 

Carved pork loin, pot roast, Caesar salad, carrot cake, strawberry rhubarb pie a la mode – and all I could eat. It WAS almost like being in love, as the signature song for Brigadoon goes.

Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre has perfected the buffet line with lots of salad, fruit, and veggie offerings to offset the usual pastas, potatoes, and rice. And the two-station dessert spread!

The strawberry rhubarb pie was a slight disappointment – light on the rhubarb, heavy on the cornstarch – but all else I sampled tasted fresh and home-cooked.

As for the show – don’t miss it! I hadn’t seen Brigadoon done since my high school’s production, and I forgot how magical the story itself is.

Add to that a highly talented cast and the time flies by — just like 100 years does in the tale.

Special kudos to Jeannie Shubitz, who hit all the high notes in the Highlands as Fiona; and Victor Legarreta, as Jeff, and Morgan Springer, as Meg, for adding comic relief.

Children’s Museum of Naples Sneak Preview

C’MON opens in 2 weeks

What did you like most to do when you were 6 years old? Undoubtedly C’MON and its focus groups of 6-year-olds and grown-up former 6-year-olds have already anticipated your answer.

The Golisano Children’s Museum of Naples, 10 years in the making, opens Tuesday, Feb. 28, to mounting anticipation. Here’s a sneak peek.

Some of what the 6-year-olds suggested has to do with what they experience here in Florida; some of it, what they miss.

That’s most obvious in the Mother Nature’s House seasons exhibit. In the

Fall in Woodstock, VT

spring in Martha’s Vineyard room, they can make a bird’s nest. In the summer in Naples section, they can do a news broadcast about a tropical storm on-camera, reading from a teleprompter.

But when they get to fall and winter, the fun really starts: a tree that spits out leaves they can rake up and a chilly igloo where they can write their names in the condensation on the window.

Naples environments

The Naples Trolley is the centerpiece as you enter the 30,000 square-foot hall of the colorful ship-shaped building. Inside the trolley, kids get their picture taken for a driver’s license and punch buttons to go to some of the museum’s 12 different galleries.

Behind it, a mammoth, very real-looking banyan tree has its 350 branches filled with stuff animals. Inside, kids can step into a virtual pond and watch the fish flit away and water plants grow.

Restaurants near Edison Estates Fort Myers

Inventive and American cuisine complement Edison and Ford

Visiting friends and family provide the perfect excuse to visit the new renovations and historic wonder of the Edison & Ford Winter Estates near downtown Fort Myers. And a walk around the riverfront property provides an excuse (if you need one) to try out a nearby new-for-you restaurant for lunch or dinner.

Steak gorgonzola with onion rings and mac 'n' cheese at The Edison

What could be more fitting than a sit-down at the Edison Restaurant, a few miles away at the Fort Myers Country Club?  Amid walls plastered with vintage photos of the namesake and his good neighbor Henry, American comfort fare warms the soul.

A special $6.95 menu makes lunch ultra-affordable, or choose from the all-day menu, where Yankee pot roast and chicken pot pie deserve the reputation they’ve earned. The pot roast nachos add a tasty new spin to the former.

Something more refined? I recommend the ahi tuna appetizer, herb-coated and seared rare, and Edison’s Gorgonzola Sirloin. (We asked for the sauce on the filet mignon instead with happy results).

Known equally for its nightlife, The Edison has burrowed its way into Fort Myers dining tradition.