Fun In The Sun

		Wildlife, Ruins, Whitewater VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

After a month in Key West we were ready to pick up stakes and move on and say goodbye. But it was with mixed emotions that we left since we had such an enjoyable adventure there. We started our egress through the numerous and sequential keys. We stopped at 7 mile bridge in Marathon Key where a scene from “True Lies” movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis was filmed. It is pedestrian/bicycle only and we had previously ridden our bicycles on this bridge. Therefore this bridge holds fond remembrances for us. We were saddened to learn that the bridge is falling into disrepair and may not be open much longer unless private and public funds are raised. We strolled the bridge for a few miles, looked out over the new automobile bridge, watched pelicans flying around, and then returned to our sojourn northward. Our destination was the first key- Key Largo and John Pennekamp State Park. This park was created to preserve the Florida living coral reef which is the third largest in the world. The park is a great jumping off point for scuba, snorkeling, or boat rides to the Florida Reef which has quite a display of coral and colorful fish. We took a ride on a glass bottom boat since the water was quite rough and was still fairly cold.

After Key Largo, we passed the Everglades and realized that we couldn’t just pass by. Even though we have spent much time there, we just can’t seem to get enough of the Everglades National Park, so we returned there. The water level is quite low but we still were treated to an abundance of alligators and tropical birds.

After visits with good friends in southern Florida, we took a cruise out of Fort Lauderdale, with the ports of call and the excursion trips being what we were most looking forward to. First stop was Cozumel Mexico where we traveled to the Maya Ruins in Tulum. Tulum is one of the best-preserved Mayan cities and the only Mayan city built on the coast. It was surrounded by a wall and was built by the Mayans in the late 13th century. Much of the sculptured decorations on the buildings remain. The buildings reflect the knowledge that the Mayans must have had of astronomy, geometry, architecture, and general mathematics. Some buildings are so aligned with the sun’s movement, that solstices are seen as light projected through openings and onto a specific point. The Maya calendar is famous for illustrating phases, eras, and time as cycles. Yeah, maybe they got 12/21/2012 wrong or more likely we misinterpreted their calendar. The Mayans had their own language as illustrated by hieroglyphics found around. The rock obsidian is found here which they used for tools, spear points, etc. since it has a crystalline structure and makes sharp points easily. We learned that some obsidian turns from its characteristic black to gold when put in the sun. This made it special and beautiful and temples were coated with it on the outside. Turning black into gold was a religious path similar to the alchemist turning lead into gold. Unfortunately, the Spanish saw the shimmering gold temples and wanted it, but thought it some evil magic when all they got was black rock!

While we had been to Costa Rica last February and enjoyed it immensely, we did not go to Limon, Costa Rica, the next port of call. Costa Rica is known for their white water rivers and we regretted not having gone previously. We were excited to see an excursion to the Reventezon River for a white-water raft trip and signed up immediately. We have been on a dozen white water rafting trips in Colorado, Utah, Montana, but this was the best! The number of rapids and the intensity of the rapids made for one great ride! We got drenched, we ran aground, we had to paddle our way out of precariously situations, but---we didn’t get dumped! So we consider it a success and a lot of fun.

The last port was Colon Panama, as close to the equator (9 deg 16 min) as we have ever been. We were able to watch several large vessels go through the Gatun Locks of the Panama Canal. We have seen similar locks before (e.g. Soo Locks in Michigan & 3 Gorges dam in China) so we are still not clear exactly why this was as exciting to us as it was. Part of it was that we understood that to succeed in building the canal, started by the French (who gave up), required a Panama revolution declaring independence from Columbia, required clearing a dense forest, required building a city to house the workers, took 20 years to complete, and cost nearly 20,000 lives, mostly from malaria and yellow fever. The US established a territory known as the Canal Zone and opened in 1914 as an engineering marvel and remains so today. To get ships from ocean to ocean and over the continental divide, Gatun Lake was created. It is so large, it flooded 13 towns in its creation. All ships go from sea level to 84 feet at Gatun Lake and then return to sea level at the other ocean. The US maintained control over the canal and the Canal Zone as a US territory. John McCain was born in the Canal Zone. (Can we see the long form birth certificate for him, please?) The US signed the Canal Zone and the operation of the canal over to Panama in 1999. The average fee to through the locks is $80,000 for a ship to cross with an average of 37-40 ships per day. The highest fee ever paid was $419,000 by a Norwegian cruise ship and the cheapest fee was a lone swimmer. To watch the double gates operate and how quickly the lock filled up was amazing to us. We finished with Panama by taking an ECO tour on Gatun Lake where we saw sloths, howler monkeys (who were howling by our close presence!), white face monkeys, toucans, frigate birds, crocodiles, and many other bird species.

We returned from Panama to Ft Lauderdale by rounding Cuba so closely that we could see the western coast from our ship, even during the day. Havana was obvious by the night lights and it was fun to reflect that we were only 90 miles to Key West (our January home) at that moment in time. We returned to Port Everglades, got our “land legs” back, retrieved our car, and continued our adventure in Florida.

Florida is so amazingly rich with wildlife, especially during the winter months. It offers salt water ocean creatures as well as the intracostal fresh water varieties. On the intracostal waterway we took a boat ride where we saw manatees and dolphins, pelicans, great blue herons, and anhingas. We were thrilled to share Florida and its riches with our middle set of grandchildren and we’ve posted a few of those pictures on Facebook.

Another day on an airboat ride, we saw alligators, an osprey, armadillo, more blue herons than we’ve ever seen in one place, little blue herons, tri-colored heron, rare white pelicans, several bald eagles, endangered black vultures, and finally we found the roseate spoonbills that we’ve been looking for and not seen this year to date.

On yet another day at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Preserve and the adjacent Cape Canaveral National Seashore, we hit the wildlife bonanza. Between the two protected areas, we were treated to a ringside seat watching 6 roseate spoonbills repeatedly fly, land, feed by scooping up on the bottom of the lagoon, and take off. Nearby were quite large feral black pigs, more alligators, numerous wood storks, coots & ducks by the hundred, wild turkeys, and even an armadillo. We finished up the day in the NWR and were treated to a dozen huge manatees feeding right at the shore of a canal. For those of you who are not nature lovers, you will forgive us for our exuberance here.

While not doing high-energy adventures, we did get some time to chill on Cocoa Beach. We searched for the bottle with the genie in it, but alas didn’t find one. But we did find “I Dream of Jennie” still alive and being promoted here. Cocoa Beach is a great beach for kids and for taking long walks, yet still close enough to the Orlando attractions.

We have been following the terrible winter weather that some of you have endured this year, whether it is snow accumulations or low temperatures or both. We are blessed to have been in sunny Florida and are very grateful for that. We hope that this blog from Florida might “sunny” up your day. Spring is on its way and Punxsutawney Phil did see his shadow, remember?

We now head west to the Florida Gulf Coast for the month of March.

A Subtropical Paradise

		Key West VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We spent the month of January in a rental home in Key West, ½ block from Higg’s beach and White Street pier (great place for sunsets). It was a wonderful place to spend January and escape the cold & darkness of winter, as we enjoyed one extra hour of daylight more than Colorado or New York. With daily temperatures in the 70’s the subtropical weather was perfect for outside activities (day and night). So we took full advantage and did lots of walking, tennis, bike riding (our major mode of transportation) and beach activities. We also thoroughly enjoyed learning the history and enjoying the local laid-back, diverse, and open atmosphere. Naturally, we will try to share here what we learned and experienced.

Key West (KW) claims to be the only city in the lower 48 states never to have had a frost. Prevailing easterly trade winds and sea breezes suppress the usual summertime heating and 100 degrees is never seen. They have a wet season (May-Oct) and a dry season (Nov-Apr.) Rain falls on most days of the wet season. Early morning is the favored time for these showers, which is different from mainland Florida, where showers and thunderstorms usually occur in the afternoon. Houses have lush landscaping (for cooling), full wrap-around porches (for ventilation), and many windows with usable shutters. Metal roofs were once used to collect drinking water are now mandatory to prevent spread of fire from house to house.

When the Spanish came to KW, they saw the island littered with the bones, so they named it bone island, “Cayo Hueso”. Key West is a false-friend Anglicization (i.e. converted to something sounding familiar) of Cayo Hueso. The reason for all the bones will never be known - was it a communal graveyard, a battleground, a prison, or the site of a major catastrophe?

The island is only 4 miles by 1.5 miles. There are more than 800 Florida Keys. But KW is located strategically in-between the ocean and the gulf and has a deep water channel, so it had value to sailors and fishermen. John Simonton bought the island for $2000 from the Spaniard Juan Pablo Salas in 1821. KW is the southernmost city in the continental US. It is closer to Havana, Cuba (90 miles away) than to Miami (157 miles.) Its latitude [24 deg North; near the Tropic of Cancer] is the same as Mazatlan, Taiwan, and way south of Cairo, Egypt. The island was settled by Cubans and Bahamans. There is a large Cuban influence here as many immigrated here during the unsuccessful Cuban war for independence in 1860-70. In 1890, half the residents here were Cuban.

KW was very isolated from mainland US until Henry Flagler completed the train “Flagler’s Folly” all the way to KW in 1912. This accessibility increased shipping to where KW became the largest shipping port in the US at that time. The train track was trashed by a hurricane on Labor Day 1935, the tracks abandoned, so the State of FL eventually took it over and used the train trestles to build the current road. There are 42 bridges on these Keys, going 100 miles from Key Largo to Key West. The road was completed in 1938 and is called the Overseas Hwy and was added to US1 which ends in Maine. Mile Marker 0 is downtown KW. The US Navy and Coast Guard have always had a strong presence here. Because of this, in the Civil War, KW was a northern held area within a seceded state.

In 1982, there was a US border guard patrol set up in Florida City (on mainland Florida off the Keys) looking for illegal immigrants. Stopping every car coming from the Keys resulted in a 17 mile gridlock greatly impeding the tourist industry. The mayor of KW thought that if KW was being treated like a foreign country, it may as well secede. So it did and called itself the Conch Republic. Following the script of a 1950’s movie- “The Mouse That Roared,” the Mayor went on to declare war on the US, then KW immediately surrendered and applied for billions in foreign aid. Naturally it was disregarded, but they got lots of press, public sympathy, and the border guard removed. A native KW resident is called a “Conch” and the Conch Republic flag still flies.

The shore is protected by the largest and only living coral reef in the US, the “Florida Reef”. The reef is 4 miles wide, 170 miles long, stretching from Stuart FL to the Dry Tortugas. This is the 3^rd longest living reef in the world. As a result there were many shipwrecks off the coast and there are no large waves. So surfing is not good here and there are only a few beaches, whose sand has been brought in from the Bahamas.

The major original industries here were (1) wrecking (2) sponges and (3) Cuban cigars. Fishing and hunting turtles were also going on. Due to the coral reef, there were 4 wrecks a week. When a wreck occurred, sea captains raced to save lives and to claim the salvage cargo. The wrecking industry made KW the richest city in the US ~1850. Most people had chinaware that didn’t match; silverware with various initials; and front doors used as gates even today. All thanks to salvage sales. The sponge industry was large here, but wiped out by red tide, and now replaced by synthetic sponges. Now natural sponges are protected. Cuban cigars were once hand-rolled in 100 factories during the peak of the industry. The fire of 1886 wiped out all cigar warehouses except one since it was made from brick. Most relocated to Ybor City in Tampa. Pan American Airlines was founded 1926 in KW, mostly to fly people to Cuba. Unsurprisingly, the only real industry now is tourism.

KW, being a marine and wildlife preserve, protects sponges as well as the roosters that are everywhere. They are leftovers from fighting roosters brought here from Cuba and are really out of control, much like on Kauai. Iguanas are also plentiful, not indigenous, and eat flowers which affect the hummingbird population as well as other small birds. Descendants of Hemingway’s polydactyl (six-toed) cat “Snowball” are still here and roaming around.

KW is supposedly the 3^rd most haunted city – after New Orleans and Savannah. We kept a lookout for ghosts and ghost ships, but then, we always do! We walked the floors of the La Concha hotel, but alas, saw none of the 13 resident ghosts. The cemetery here is similar to New Orleans style too, since the highest elevation on the island is 18 feet, it doesn’t take much of a storm to wipe out a cemetery or to pop out a buried coffin (yew). So the cemetery was moved to slightly higher ground and most burials are now in above-ground concrete or granite chambers.

The tourist attractions include the Little White House (President Truman came here 11 times), the Hemmingway House (where Ernest lived, wrote, and drank), and Tennessee Williams’ (“Streetcar Named Desire”) house. Naturally the famous Duval Street is the #1 place where tourists roam. It has 66 bars, including Sloppy Joe’s, Hog’s Breath, and the Bull and Whistle (with its clothing optional roof bar called “The Garden of Eden.”) Some visitors and locals have taken a challenge to do the “Duval Crawl” and visit all of them. There are tons of restaurants & shops, and, of course, the original Margaritaville store and restaurant featuring “Cheeseburgers in Paradise.” Mallory Square is also a gathering spot at sunset and is a perfect place to watch sunsets, street performers, and schooners sailing out. Fantasy Fest is KW’s Mardi Gras type of celebration. It is held at the end of October to celebrate the end of the hurricane season. Fantasy Fest regularly attracts approximately 80,000 people to the island and has become a huge success. All year long there are many festivals and races here as in most all tourist towns. While we were here there was a half marathon, an ironman triathlon, a 150-mile relay race from Miami, and a seafood festival. We had several sets of visitors with whom we were able to share this paradise and a rum drink or two, or three.

While thoroughly enjoying ourselves in this Paradise, after 4 weeks, we started looking forward to moving on to our next adventure and saying good bye to KW. Was it a bit of “Island Fever” or our “itchy feet” that provided the motivation? Who knows? But we do know that we have embraced our wanderlust lifestyle and always look forward to our next adventure with anticipation.
Until then, let’s hear from you, and Happy Trails.

December in Florida

		From Georgia to Key West VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

From the Georgia border of Cumberland Island and Saint Marys, we finally reached our southernmost winter destination. It only took us 6 months, but, as you know by now, we never take the shortest, most direct route. Spending the remainder of December in Florida turned out to be ideal, since sunny Florida was one of the few states not to have snow and cold this month.

This pleasant, balmy weather was perfect for outdoor activities as bicycling (around towns and on beaches); kayaking in rivers and lakes; long walks on beaches, islands, and on live-oak covered paths; taking in sunrises on the Atlantic side and sunsets on the Gulf side; bird watching (eagles, wood storks, herons, cormorants, egrets); manatee seeking; searching for other wildlife (alligators, turtles, snakes); eating local fish; and checking out Christmas decorations.

Florida does an exceptional job of decorating for Christmas. It did take some getting used to Santa wearing shorts, on a surfboard pulled by dolphins. We went to the Candlelight Processional at Epcot and Disney never fails to come through. This is by far the best Christmas Carol show we have ever attended. Trace Atkins was the narrator who told the story of the Christ child, and in his deep resonant voice, he sounded like God himself. There were Christmas decorations at all of the 11 countries showcased there. Further south, we spent Christmas with Ron’s sister & her husband, so we were blessed to share the warmth of the holiday with family.

The time between Christmas and New Year’s in Florida is alive with energy and activity. The winter visitors started arriving, families were vacationing during the holidays, and many foreign visitors were enjoying the national parks, warm weather, and beaches, just as we were.

After a short stay near the Everglades and Key Biscayne National Parks, we are now heading for Key West to begin the New Year. Here is wishing all of you the happiest, healthiest 2013.

Continuing South

		Carolinas and Georgia VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

After leaving Virginia, we continued southward to the Carolinas. We have always enjoyed the Carolinas since they have unique and wonderful adventures on both sides of the states. On the west are the Appalachians Mountains and in the east the Atlantic coast. The west is filled with mountain towns and views while the east has lighthouses, coastal towns, fishing harbors and shrimp boats, off-shore islands. The “low country” is in the east, the home of author Pat Conroy (Prince of Tides, Great Santini), in Beaufort, and Charleston which is loaded with civil war and pirate history. It’s also home for a couple of signers of the Constitution (Edward Rutledge and Charles Pinckney), John Calhoun, and DuBose Heyward who wrote “Porgy and Bess.”

We found ourselves in the corner of Georgia and South Carolina when we were done with the Carolinas, so we followed the Savannah River to Savannah, which is one of our favorite places. We recall one of our favorite books/movies Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, and Ron’s Senior Prom theme of “Moon River” all located right there. BUT to get there we passed the Tallulah Gorge and the Chattooga River where “Deliverance” was filmed. The scenery is gorgeous there and the worst part is that we couldn’t get the Dueling Banjos theme out of our heads. We continued down the coast visiting our favorite places: the Okefenokee Swamp [did not see Pogo or Albert (Walt Kelly’s comic strip characters)]; Brunswick and the Golden Isles of Saint Simon (live oaks from here were used to build “Old Ironsides”) and Jekyll Island; Saint Marys (oldest city in “English America”); and Cumberland Island National Seashore. That puts us on the border of FLORIDA, our winter destination. Reflecting back, we left Colorado in May, finished Canada in September, and have been heading south for 14 weeks! As usual we don’t set new records for shortest traveling time to a destination, but boy do we have fun!

Best wishes to all our friends and family for a wonderful holiday season, with hopes of peace and good health in the new year.