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.