Thursday July 14, 2011 Florida

This was my last day in Florida. Since the flight was in the evening and I only had about 150 miles to drive to the airport, I planned to visit a few places along the way. In the town near where I was staying there was a museum/aquarium called the South Florida Museum. They had exhibits explaining the history of the area from the beginning of earth until now. There were exhibits on ancient life in the area, where florida was in all of the continental drifting and also the various pre-european cultures that were in the area.

There was also an aquarium pool that was used to host several manatees. The oldest was a permanent resident (in his 60s) and there were two younger ones that were recovering from injuries and would be released in the wild again. While I was there one of the attendents had a feeding and explained about the goals of the aquarium and their recovery program.

Around lunch I had to head toward Orlando. Along the way, after about an hour, I exited the freeway to find a small college with the largest number of Frank Loyd Wright buildings in one area. There were lots of signs and a pamphlet to guide you to all of the buildings. There were also lots of covered walkways to admire. Unfortunately they were a bit short and made me a bit nervous. There was a pool with a nice fountain arrangement, called the Water Dome, that I was able to wait to see in action (it was on break when I arrived). All of this was in a quiet bucolic setting.

Finally, it was time to leave. I got back on the freeway and made it to Orlando with plenty of time. Things were rather hectic when I got there. After checking the bags I had dinner (or was it lunch) and then went through security. The flight home was uneventful (other than arriving early). The only major downside of the trip was I lost a bag on the flight home, which had my laptop among other things - hence the delayed posts. Fortunately, my photos and videos were all fine, but I lost my original notes. Kinda sucks.

Wednesday July 13, 2011 Florida

This was purely a travel day. I had to get from Key West to near Tampa by the end of the day. This was around 450 miles as I recall. With the Crown Vic that meant at least one fill-up along the way. I had no problems and the hotel was pretty easy to find. The area that I was in was basically gas stations, hotels and places to eat, I didn't have any problem with food.

Tuesday July 12, 2011

Well this day I had a plan, but I mainly improvised. I started out seeing Hemingway's house. He only really had the house when he was married to his first wife, but wrote many of his famous stories there. The house was kept up but very little of the furniture was the same as when he was there. There were a lot of cats, descended from one of the cats he owned. The house had a lot of pictures based on the story "The Old Man and the Sea". It turns out the fisherman was based on someone that Hemingway knew. The gardens were pretty nice too, including a very nice pool and an odd water fountain.

Next, I found the Audubon house. The house has only a rather indirect relation to the artist. He only lived in the Florida area for a short time. When he was in Key West he stayed at the house next to the one now called the Audubon House. He did ask the owner to cut some leaves and draw them as background for some of his pieces. In all somewhere between 19 and 23 birds from the keys were illustrated by Audubon. The house has many of these prints in the house. Other rooms of the house show the arrangement for the owner (a wealthy sea captain). Again the gardens were nice as well, especially given the limited size of the property.

Next I went to Mel's Shipwreck Museum (or something like that). This was established by someone who discovered one of the largest wrecks in the Keys. It took about a decade to find and another decade to get clear title. The museum partly told the story of the ship that was found and also how it was discovered. There were other displays about ships of the era (1600s) and even some things about pirates (there really was a pirate code, although not much observed).

One odd thing I noticed was there was investment office at the back of the gift shop for future expeditions. Most of the gift shop was also taken up by space to sell coins from various shipwrecks - not your usual museum gift shop.

After lunch I decided to go to the Aquarium. Here again were a series of pools with different fish in them. No dolphins this time, but lots of rays, turtles and nurse sharks. There were smaller tanks along the side with various smaller fish of the area. One of the large pools had a mixture of fish, including a huge grouper, and sharks. Gulls kept dropping in trying to grab the food that was being tossed to the fish.

I tried to find the square where it was recommended to view the sunset (for later) but I wasn't able to find it. I did find an odd commemorative square for the wreckers who had given Key West its start.

I headed back to the hotel to change and rest. I also took a walk with Mike's Pants to take a few photos. It was turning out that the material was a bit too flexible to really work well for long periods of time. The tape starts to come off almost immediately. Heat doesn't help. Although I had some good pictures, I need to rework the model a bit.

After some rest I went out for dinner. I went to a place recommended by my guide book. It was also very good. I headed for the square again and found it. I took some sunset pictures although I was a bit late. It was dark by the time I got to the hotel.

Monday July 11, Florida Keys

Today I was driving down to Key West. I hoped to stop at some attractions along the way. Before I left my hotel in Miami, I took a few pictures of Mike's Pants. I'm not sure if I'll use them.

Miami turned into the Keys rather gradually. I think I spent a half hour still on the mainland before I crossed over to Key Largo. Even Key Largo was still pretty densly populated. Eventually the towns got smaller and the road got narrower. I found the first place, Theater of the Sea, without any trouble. They had a very defined schedule of shows, with the dolphin show being the highlight. I saw part of the Seal show then went on the open bottom boat which had dolphins jumping up on the sides and in the middle of the boat. The walking tour ended up at several pools of various animals from the area. I remember turtles, some rays and nurse sharks. There were also various birds (they had a show) and alligator and crocodile. There was actually a demonstration feeding in the pools. I had lunch (skipping the bird show) and then waited for the afternoon dolphin show.

Next I stopped at the Dolphin Research Center which was another half hour away. Although this had similar shows, they had several programs to allow people to come in and actually interact with the dolphins. The shows were much less formal than at the previous place which was kind of nice. I took video of one of the shows.

I was too late to go to the science museum along highway 1. I did see it, but would have had about 15 minutes before it closed. In retrospect maybe I should have missed one of the dolphin places to see something a little different.

Toward the end of the trek the bridges got very impressive. I wasn't able to stop to take pictures.

I found the hotel in Key West and unpacked. It was early so I walked down Duval Street to see what the place was like. This was effectively Old Town for Key West. Most of the historic houses were in the area and many fancy eating places. I did notice a few chain eateries (like Wendy's) but mostly it was custom to Key West. I walked up almost to the end (I also tried to see how to get to for the fort on the island, but it was too far to walk) then walked back. I chose a place that seemed interesting for dinner. They didn't seem to mind that I was rather sweaty from being outside for the last hour. I had the best fish I can remember tasting. I was very impressed. After the dinner I went back to the hotel for the night.