August 11, 2016

Fruit & Spice Park

Short drive of a couple of hours up the northern half of the Keys and on to the mainland at Homestead, FL.  Got situated and connected and then looked for something to do for the afternoon.  Came across a reference to the Fruit & Spice Park.  Part of the Miami/Dade County park system the park is a unique 35 acre display of tropical and subtropical plants from around the world.  Visitors are invited to taste their way through ripe displays.  The office/store/visitor center has samples of 10-12 different exotic fruits cut up for sampling. There are hundreds of different fruits.  Visitors are welcome to wander the park looking at all the different trees and plants and to sample any fruit that is on the ground.  Couple of rules:  fruit can not be picked from frees and you must know what you are eating.  That is important because some fruits are hazardous.  The wandering approach would be difficult and frustrating as the hundreds of trees and plants are planted in an apparent random park like fashion with little organization.  Each plant is identified but there are so many that posted  information about each would be impossible.  There is an organization to the park layout but a novice would not recognize it.  There is an alternative to wandering on foot.  They have a tram tour.  Great tour.  Covers the whole park with full time narration by driver.  Describing nearly every tree passed.  Complete description of fruits and other useful parts.  How fruits are used. Tastes. Much more.  And yes, there is an organization to layout of park.  Different areas have plants common to different parts of the world.  Driver was very knowledgeable and enthusiastic.  She stopped several times and gathered fruit (she picked it from the trees – she worked there, she’s allowed) and gave us all a taste sample. Tour was supposed to be 45 minutes – took nearly 1 1/4 hours and might have gone longer but had to get back for next tour.  Learned a great deal that would not have happened if we just wandered.  At end of tour she gave us some Moringa Tree seeds.  Just about every part of this tree can be eaten and it is loaded with nutrients.  Buying the processed plant through health food stores, etc. can be pricey.  Looking forward to trying to grow a tree when we get home.

August 10, 2016

Key West

Drove to Marathon, FL yesterday.  Half way down Florida Keys and location of RV park with decent price (for the Keys).  Today we drove another 50+ miles to Key West.  Old (historic) Key West is a grid of very narrow streets, little to no parking ($$-$$$ where available), lots of bicycles,  even more tourists, many cars and even large trucks,  trolleys, and tourist attractions and shops of all kinds.  There are a number of museums and historical spots but most have gone commercial and if you do want to visit them there is no parking near them.  We opted to take another Home Town Trolley tour so we didn’t have to deal with traffic and got to at least see (if not visit) many interesting spots and get an informative narration of what we were seeing.  Not a place we would chose to spend a vacation but many do.  The whole length of the Florida Keys is a mixture of water related tourist activities. Fishing, diving, snorkeling, jet skis, kayaks, tour boats and helicopters, restaurants, museums, etc., etc. Occasional communities with ‘normal’ retail.  The lone road that traverses the Keys is pretty filled both ways with traffic.  Must be quite interesting if there is a mandatory hurricane evacuation.

 

 

As with much of south Florida, Key West has a huge historical and cultural tie to Cuba.  Chickens are a large part of Cuban culture where they run free.  That bit of culture was transported to Key West.  For some reason the chickens became protected.  Killing them is a $500 fine.  They are everywhere.  We saw roosters, hens, and chicks of all sizes all over the city.

 

Key West cemetery.  Graves are above ground.  Not because of high water table (which does exist) but because ground is essentially a coral reef and digging is nearly impossible.

 

Closer to Cuba than the US mainland.

 

Hemmingway’s favorite bar.

Hemmingway’s house is beyond wall.  Big tourist attraction (and $$$).

Beginning of US Route 1.

Southern most drivable point in the United States.  We have now been to all four extremes.

Not as prolific as chickens but these guys are here if you know where to look.

August 7, 2016

Kennedy Space Center

Spent the day at Kennedy Space Center.  Ten full hours.  Seems a little pricy when you enter but really worth every penny.  Had maybe 45 minutes total down time with lines for bus, lunch, and waiting for a show or movie to start.  The rest of the time was non-stop entertaining education in many forms.  There is a LOT here that is historical, educational, and inspirational.  We had a full day and learned a lot but it could take another day or two to properly take in all of it.

Small portion of rocket garden

Titan II.  I baby sat one of these for four years.  Had something different on top.

 

Entrance to Space Shuttle Atlantis displays, movies, and experiences.  Very cool.  Lots of simulators of various shuttle aspects including a launch simulator that astronauts swear is very realistic.

Space shuttle Atlantis.

 

Saturn V rocket.  Impossible to get in one picture.  Largest rocket ever built – to date.  NASA has plans.

Apollo 14 command module.

Sue touching moon rock.

 

August 5, 2016

Fort Matanzas

Semi-layover day to visit spots around St. Augustine. 

Drove down barrier island east of St. Augustine.  First stop to see lighthouse.

Then south about fifteen miles to visit Fort Matanzas NM.

Very small fort built to protect ‘back door’ water approach to St. Augustine.  Fort sits on small island across Matanzas River from the larger barrier island.  Reached by shuttle ferry courtesy of NPS.  No charge.

Very small fort. Manned by staff of five.  Four soldiers and an officer.

Approaching  fort

Closer view

View from top (observation) level of fort

Gun level

 

Ranger demonstrating to Sue how easily she can lift a cannon with aid of a lever.

Fort from ground level.

‘Matanzas’ is the Spanish word for slaughter.  If you are interested you can Google how the fort and river got that name.  Pretty gruesome.

The grounds near the visitor center have a board walk nature trail.

Across the highway from the National Monument is a public beach access.

 

Ahhh!

If she were wearing long pants you would not know.  Very natural gait in all activities.  A little while later she was in water up to her chest.

August 4, 2016

Historic St. Augustine

Took an Old Town Trolley tour of St. Augustine today.  Similar to the one we took in Savanah in that it has a running narration by the driver about the city and sights seen and has multiple stops at which you can get off, wander on your own, and then catch a later trolley and continue on.

St. Augustine is the oldest settlement/town/city in the New World / United States.  Has existed under five different flags.  Lots of old buildings of several different architectural styles and all in good repair.  There are many tourist attractions but unlike every other tourist destination we have seen the attractions here have a low key appearance or are even concealed.  There is no gaudiness at all.  Driving through the historic city is very esthetic and pleasant.

Former apothecary now is a wax museum.

 

This monument marks the start of the Spanish Trail.  Other end – San Diego, Ca.  It is made of a very interesting stone called coquina. Many of the buildings and the very formidable Castillo de San Marcos are made of this.  It is very forgiving to external stresses.

 

 

Historic entrance gate to the old city.

 

Oldest school house in North America

View down one of the streets in historic St. Augustine.

Oldest house in St. Augustine

 

One wing of the huge and impressive Memorial Presbyterian Church built by business tycoon Henry Flagler as a memorial to his daughter who died from complications after giving birth to his granddaughter who also died.  This total building time was less than a year.

 

This building was built by Flagler as a very large and very upscale hotel.  Over 400 rooms.  Had electricity before White House.  Electrical system designed by Thomas Edison.  Fun fact:  Flagler had to hire people to turn lights on and off for guests as they (the guests) were afraid to touch the switches.  This picture is very inadequate.  This building is HUGE.  Literally covers a whole city block.  The dining room can seat hundreds and has stained glass windows by Tiffany and valued in the millions.  The former hotel is now Flagler College.  Pretty pricy but an impressive place to go to school.

 

Castillo de San Marcos.  Very impressive.

 

The very first ‘Ripley’s Believe It or Not’ museum.

July 31, 2016

Andersonville, Jimmy Carter, and Peaches

About a half hour drive to Andersonville NHS.  This site has several parts.  The visitors center has a museum and memorial to POW’s of all wars, not just the Civil War.  Excellent museum.  Every display and presentation grabs you and makes you think.

POW memorial

Adjacent to the visitor center is the site of the Andersonville POW camp where Union soldiers were held during the Civil War.  The entire site is laid out by posts and corner monuments and portions of the wall are reconstructed.  Today it is just a very large grassy field.  There are Civil War era pictures posted in various spots, taken from where you are standing, that show the horror that it once was.

 

Reconstructed  corner of prison site.  Two posts on right demark ‘Dead Zone’. Left hand post shows line of tall prison fence. Post on right edge of picture shows position of small sparse inner fence. Prisoners who crossed inner fence would be shot by guards positioned in watch towers.

Looks pretty bucolic now.  Small dot right side center is archeologic marker of one of several sites where prisoners dug crude wells in attempt to find water.

 

A few hundred yards from the POW prison site is the cemetery. Nearly 13,000  Civil War soldiers died at Andersonville prison during the 14 months it was in operation.  Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, played a large part in locating and properly identifying the graves of those buried there so that proper markers could be placed.

 

 

Another half hour drive to Plains, GA – home of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter. Both were born and grew up in Plains, married there, and always returned there after military service and then again after private and political life.  They live there now.  The compound where they live is private but the rest of the town is available for public visitation including the high school both attended that is now a visitor center and museum, and Jimmy Carters boyhood home.  Many very good informative presentations on both the Carters throughout the town.

Back door of Jimmy Carter boyhood home

 

Current resident

 

Front of boyhood home.  House is open to walk through.

Following Plains, an hour drive north to the Lane Packing Company.  First peaches we have seen in the Peach State after driving through a lot of it.  They have a catwalk above the peach packing operation so visitors can watch the process.  Middle of peach season but it is Sunday so no packing happening.  Good descriptive signs on the catwalk give good idea of flow of peaches through the line.  Would have been fun to watch.  Peach soft serve was very tasty though.

July 28, 2016

Hilton Head, Savannah, Thurmond Lake

First – yesterday was Ken’s birthday.  We wished him a happy one in other ways but did not blog it.  So - 

Happy Birthday Ken !!

No blog for a few days.  Not very good internet for uploading and weather has not been very conducive to sitting and composing.  This area is approaching 30 straight days of highs above 95 degrees.  Last week has been 98-99 every day.  Add in humidity and heat index has been above 110 degrees every day.  Interesting side effect of 80 degree dew point – go outside at 7:30 in the morning (temp already 79-80) and car is covered in heavy condensation.  Not light moisture.  The whole car is WET.

Stayed at a campground about ten miles from Hilton Head the last couple of nights.  Drove to Hilton Head to check out the hype and aura.  I was under impressed and frankly rather put off and uncomfortable.  There is a parkway that runs the length of the island. The parkway is lined with dense trees.  So dense you cannot see what might be 30 yards from the main road.  There are shopping areas, gas stations, restaurants, theaters, etc. Typical of what you might see in any town in the country.  Except – you cannot see any of it.  Not a clue even. If you did not know exactly where an objective location was and how to get to it you would never find it.  Not so typical of other towns is that pretty much every side road off the parkway is gated.  Seems like the whole island is exclusive gated communities or exclusive private golf courses – also gated.  The place reeks of affluence on top of affluence.  There are a couple of public beach access points but no parking anywhere near them if at all.  The access is a 2 1/2 foot path between walls of massive private ‘homes’.  Lots of bike paths filled with upscale families on expensive bikes.  Many young women riding bikes in bikinis – just the bikinis, no cover up clothing.  They did have hats and dark glasses though.  Felt good to go back across the bridge to the mainland.

Yesterday we drove to Savannah – only about 20 miles from camp site.  Very nice day.  We took a tour trolley that had many stops at which you could get off, explore, and catch another trolley.  Driver of each trolley conducts a running narration of what you are passing.  Historic Savannah is laid out with 24 ‘squares’ – city block parks, as well as every street being lined with trees.

Many very old homes and buildings, most with history as to inhabitants, function, and/or architectural style.  Lots of history.  Many famous people, past and present.

Birthplace of Julia Gordon Low.  A few blocks away is the house she lived in as an adult.  Behind that house is a carriage house which is where she started this:

 

 

Interior of Cathedral of St. John The Baptist.

 

One could spend days just exploring  historic Savannah.  There are a couple of touristy spots but they are small and even then are filled with history.  For instance – in the waterfront area, the first floor walls of all the buildings, the sea walls and terracing walls between the river front street and the rest of the city, and the streets themselves (cobblestone) are all built with stones used as ballast by ships coming from Europe to pick up cargo (much of it cotton) to take back across the Atlantic.

Savannah is small enough to be comfortable but able to be contemporary if one wants.  There are miles of uncrowded beaches and open spaces less than a half hour away.  We spoke with several locals who were comfortable and proud of their city. Rightly so.

The Savannah Waving Girl.  Google it.

We are now a few miles north of Augusta in a COE campground on the shore of Lake Thurmond (or Thurmond Lake) which is behind Thurmond Dam across the Savannah River.  COE campgrounds are great.  Generally on a COE body of water.  Away from cities and traffic.  Big, level sites, often with water and electric. And, with NPS senior pass, half price.