Janlw's Weblog

Landing in Miami at 8:30pm we waited two hours for the shuttle to our motel.  We won’t be staying there again. We had a more positive experience when the manager of a Peruvian restaurant that had just closed for the night beckoned us in and let us order food. This was also our first encounter with Miami friendliness and diversity. It was clear to us that communication in English with this nice guy was going to be limited.

The next morning, we headed for South Miami Beach and did a self-guided walking tour of the art nouveau hotels and municipal buildings. It was March 6^th so spring break wasn’t quite in full swing, but I was amazed by boat pulling a humongous LCD screen advertising entertainment.  Dennis thought the plane flying banner with: “Ladies drink free all night at Lincoln Bar” was an invitation to date rape.  We are too old or just too tired for spring break partying, but we very much enjoyed people watching every morning as we sat with our Italian bakery treat and coffee on the beach wall. Our party was going to our hotel rooftop bar and watching sunset, but the bar didn’t even open until after sunset.

I think the highlight of Miami for both of us was visiting the early 20^th century Miami Italian style villa Vizcaya built for partying in 1916 by John Deering. http://vizcaya.org

It was quite an amazing house and grounds.  I snapped a lot of pictures of people having special occasion photos taken in the garden.

My favorite is the Quinceañera picture with the serious dad.  As far as amazing sites Vizcaya was the most unique thing I saw in South Florida.

We also walked around Coconut Grove and drove through Coral Gables (several times more that we wanted) trying to find the Biltmore Hotel.

Those darn libraries! When Dennis retired he lost interest in seeking out libraries with creative children’s area remodels. When I could no longer document professional improvement units for library visits, Dennis swore that he was NOT going to spend time visiting libraries.  No matter, we can’t seem to keep from stumbling into them.  Looking for a museum Dennis was intrigued by the South Beach Miami Library which apparently lost some letters to hurricane Irma. The following day he suggested we check-out Coconut Grove Library. I think the excuse was that it was drizzling.

Done with wealthy suburbs, libraries, & mansions we headed for Bill & Teresa’s winter hang-out near Islamorada on Lower Matecumbe Key. We had a wonderful relaxing time walking the development along canals, visiting the beach, kayaking, and feeding the pelicans.  (I’m not sure if that’s actually allowed.) We padded kayaks out to Florida Bay.  Dennis hates shopping so we didn’t do any except Teresa drove us to Islamorada to see the twin to Hemingway’s boat the Pilar. The boat happens to be dry docked in a Columbia Sporting Goods outlet store.  Teresa and I got a new coats. Dennis also allowed us to shop at the Key Lime Outlet as long as we bought a pie otherwise there was no shopping. 

Teresa also kindly drove us to Key West one day. We saw Hemingway’s house and Truman’s Little White House.

We ate conch fritters, which I don’t recommend. Conch tastes okay but there is kind of a slime factor. What was amazing to me was that the main street of Key West with restaurants, t-shirt shops, and a million chances to buy Jimmy Buffett paraphernalia was completely crowded.  We saw only one fudge shop, so a possible business opportunity there. A block over strolling past the Little White House and the old navy quarters it was pleasant and green. No one was there.

Truman’s Little Whitehouse

We did a glass bottomed boat tour of the reef off Key Largo. Once I saw the sharks and the barracuda swimming around the reef I lost interest in snorkeling. I was determined to swim at the shallow beach the next day only we had a thunderstorm overnight and the “coldest day of the 2018” which means the high was something like 66 degrees. Dennis and I took an unexpectedly long walk to the Islamorada Post Office to mail Leigh & Mike a coconut.  Exhausted we shared a sampler at the Florida Keys Brewery in Islamorada. Dennis already knew they had an impressive glass to add to his collection. 

We said farewell to Bill & Teresa and headed for Cape Coral/ Ft Myers via the Tamiami Trail. We stopped at Shark Valley for a chance to bicycle 15 miles into the Everglades with alligators. We were a little nervous about this plan, nevertheless we waited in a line of cars half-an-hour just to get a spot to park. The alligators were numerous. We didn’t need to worry about the gators eating us because there were tourists posing barefoot for photos very close to the gator’s snouts. These foolish people were obviously going to be devoured first.

The number and variety of Everglades birds were what seemed special to us.  There were herons, wood storks, egrets, ducks, and the ever-fascinating anhinga “snake bird.” We couldn’t begin to identify all the different unfamiliar bird species.  We began calling them things like “big white bird that flies with legs folded as opposed to other big white birds whose legs didn’t fold so neatly.  Dennis was observing birds and poking along the while I worried we wouldn’t get our bikes back before 5pm.  (A $20 per bike late fee.) We and everyone else arrived to return bikes just before the 5pm deadline.  There was another 30-minute wait to return the bikes while the park ranger figured all the hourly rental charges including tax without the aid of a computer or calculator. I’d say this is a real tribute to math education in the Florida schools except the ranger was as old as we are.

First thing the next day we headed for the Edison-Ford estates. When Dennis announced that he wanted to go to Ft. Myers to see the estates my attitude was that it was an awful long way to drive for a house tour.  An army of historian tour guides, all senior citizens, did a wonderful job of explaining the significance of Edison and Ford, their inventions, the Edison’s landscaping, and the uniqueness of the estates.

I could have spent a couple of additional hours seeing everything in the museum and lab but by 2pm we were worn out. Late in the afternoon we took a walk around our motel neighborhood which was built along canals much like Bill & Teresa’s place on Lower Matecumbe.

The Ides of March were my last chance to beach.  We were headed back to Miami to catch our flight the next morning. I forced Dennis to drive me to Ft Myers beach.  The arrival of Spring Break was much more in evidence.  We counted the number of Purdue t-shirts we saw walking the beach.  There were a few other Indiana sweatshirts and some other college logos staking out the most likely spots on the beach to facilitate sunburn. Purdue shirts out-numbered all others. I don’t suppose it’s Edison’s science lab that brings all the Boilermakers to Ft. Myers. Temperatures were still in the 60’s so I didn’t take my swim.  We took the scenic route (read stop & go traffic) to Naples Beach. After a riverside lunch in Tin City I was ready to swim but when we arrived at the beach there was a Red Tide warning.

I thought maybe they didn’t really mean it but there was only one person truly swimming in the water, so I thought I better not take the chance.

Naples Beach. Red tide??

That’s my excuse for packing two swimsuits for my trip to Florida and never getting them wet.

More art nouveau hotels, Viscayu, pelicans, an alligator, and the only driver in Miami that doesn’t honk.  https://www.slideshare.net/Janwingen/more-south-florida