Jul 7, 2009, 11:02 GMT
Fort Myers, Florida - One of the traditions guests observe in the restaurant on Cabbage Key island in south-western Florida is to sign their name on a one dollar note and tape it to the wooden roof beams. There are an estimated 70,000 dollars pinned to the restaurant's walls.
It is midday and the restaurant is packed with people. As the waiters serve cheeseburgers, guests take it easy and lean back in their chairs.
Everyone is relaxing here as they are in a place where life passes by at a snail's pace. Cabbage Key can only be reached by boat and is an island where the tempo is very slow.
Three days earlier I was driving along Interstate Highway 75 at 70 miles an hour towards Fort Myers. This town on Florida's west coast was the holiday destination of the inventor Thomas Edison and carmaker Henry Ford during North America's winter months. Their homes are among the most popular tourist attractions in Lee County.
Both Edison and Ford set examples for hundreds of thousands of Americans who bought holiday homes in and around Fort Myers.
It is also a popular place with Europeans and about 65,000 Germans own property here, according to Nancy Hamilton from the regional tourist association.
European visitor numbers have gone up recently due to the weakness of the dollar compared to the euro. But that is not the only reason for the influx of foreign holidaymakers: property prices have fallen in Lee County because of the global financial crisis. Local media say prices have dropped by as much as half.
However, most Europeans don't fly to Fort Myers to buy a home but to relax in the sun, go shopping and enjoy nature. At 170,000, the largest block of foreign visitors to Lee County last year were German.
It takes 30 minutes to drive from the airport to the sea travelling past fast food outlets and shopping malls. The speed limit is 55 miles an hour - not quite slow enough to leave the routine of daily life behind.
Most tourists go to Fort Myers Beach where the small stores that crowd around the pedestrian zone of Times Square concentrate on selling beachwear.
Beneath the rock music coming from Jimmy B's Rooftop Bar you can just make out the sound of waves lapping beneath the pier. The atmosphere is a mixture of seaside, excitement and relaxation.
Nature enthusiasts will also find interesting things here such as Lovers' Key State Park to the south. It leads to Calusa Blueway, a 190-mile-long network of waterways that stretch through the county. It was named after the Calusa indigenous people who once lived here.
You can take a kayak or canoe through the mangroves, watching large water birds as you travel. In the summertime, however, you must be careful. 'It's important to finish all water sport activities by midday as there is always thunder and lightning in the afternoon,' says Calusa Blueway coordinator Betsy Clayton.
After returning to the road my next destination is Sanibel Island. It costs six dollars to cross the bridge to the island. It is also the entrance fee to an ideal world.
You quickly notice that people have more time on their hands here. Many travel by bike and the maximum speed limit has sunk from 55 to 35 miles and hour to protect wild animals.
Most of Sanibel is part of a nature reserve named after the journalist and conservationist JN 'Ding' Darling. Visitors can rent a car or go on a guided tour of the four-mile-long Wildlife Drive that winds through the park.
North of Sanibel is Captiva Island where speed limits fall again to 30 and 25 miles an hour. Palm trees and hibiscus block the view of the villas that line the road here.
But to compensate you catch glimpses of the shimmering Gulf of Mexico between the trees. Captiva is the holiday home of people with money and has an atmosphere that is even more laid back and relaxed than on Sanibel.
Captiva is also the starting point for the boat trip on the Lady Chatwick to Cabbage Key. Shortly after departing the first dolphins can be seen on the starboard side.
Captain Tom Jones whistles with his fingers and the passengers clap their hands enthusiastically. That's the signal for the dolphins to spring out of the water and over the boat's wake.
It takes two hours to get to Cabbage Key where there is a nature trail popular not only with tourists but with mosquitoes as well. There is also a viewing platform on top of a 20-metre-high water reservoir tower that has been standing here despite hurricanes since the 1930s.
There is plenty of time to enjoy Cabbage Key's restaurant with cheeseburger menus for 7.99 dollars. Instead of leaving a tip most people ask for a marker pen and tape to leave a dollar on the ceiling.
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