The Ringling in Sarasota

Today was Incredible! 66 acres of gardens, Renaissance art museum with Rubens and Gainsborough and other artists, a bronze copy of David, the mansion called Ca'd'Zan was the winter residence of John and Mable Ringling and the Circus. My favorite of the day there was the Circus Museum...oh my g..you can't believe the Howard Tibbals Model of the Circus coming to town.  PBS did a special on it last year in April.  His artistry, the detail! I was a kid again... Half a million miniatures. My photos do not do it justice because you can't see how wonderful it was.... A whole two floors devoted to recreating the circus.
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If you google images of the Howard Tibbal Model Circus you will see more photos. 

Canopy Tree Walk at Myakka River

The canopy tree walk was just NEAT! The walkway has a swaying suspension bridge that puts you among the trees and then a tower that soars 76 feet up overlooks spectacular views of live oak and palm (actually a grass) treetops, wetlands, prairie, hammocks, the lake and Myakka River a wild and scenic river. Until recently, we didn't know much about life in the treetops, but now there are over 20 canopy walkways worldwide doing scientific research.

At the top above and in the trees at the right.

Pat in the clouds

The largest/longest is 1/4 mile and 120feet high in Amazonian Peru. Scientists are also using airships and treetop rafts, multilevel towers, cranes and single rope techniques to measure the forests health and monitoring the earth-atmosphere interface.    You can't see the alligators on the river but they are there just floating like black logs on the surface.  I know I should get a better camera, but I am so challenged with them and never really had any luck.  I am reading this fabulous book about Florida about the early pioneers (outlaws mostly) who came and farmed and ranged cattle in this area and the Everglades.  Lost Man's River by Peter Matthiessen.

Wildlife and Wildplants in Florida, Organic Foods, Cheap Gas, Really ..You can't make this stuff up Key West and Myakka River

Ok I have so much to write I am hoping on a totally rainy day to do it!  First of all...all of the Keys have chickens roaming around the streets and Winn Dixie parking lots (What kind are these Ben? and can they be hybrids because we understand they came in with the first settlers in the 1800s or earlier and everyone protects them and also the 6 toed feral cats that Hemingway had... . It like the prairie dogs in the West in the shopping centers.) We have gone to Winn Dixie Groceries for two reasons:  We always shopped Winn Dixie or Publix growing up as kids because those stores were closest to home or because that is where our MOMMAs and Grannies shopped. John Needham, my stepfather, and my mother had stock in Winn Dixie because they worked for the companies that insured Winn Dixie before they went bankrupt.    Publix has a better reputation, but truthfully today they didn't have hardly any more organic, free range, natural stuff than Winn Dixie so we went to WD and also because WD has a deal , you can get off 10 cents for each gallon of gas.  Pat told me we paid between $1.90 and $2.19 here in Florida and he has many reasons why the Mideast Oil producing countries like this cheap gas as well as us???? I keep thinking we need to charge as much Europe and then maybe we will also invest more in renewable energies.   But he is pleased when he gets a deal.
We left the Keys and are now at Myakka River. We saw a feral hog that was almost as big as the buffalo that chased us this summer but with shorter legs last evening.  Thank goodness it was only one and we were in the RV and not the death group of  peccaries we saw in Costa Rica. Pat made me ride the bike miles, miles today so that he can be ready for the NY marathon in May... at least 20 miles today.  Have to go he gave me the 30 minute waring and I am the assistant sous chef tonight and have to finish the bok choy apple slaw.Yum, yum.
Here are some of the last photos in Key West.  We visited two places Audubon House with beautiful orchids and bromeilads and Butterfly Conservatory that had neat birds like the blue honey creeper and the flamingoes below. We went to 0mile marker on US 1 and had lunch at the 68th best restaurant in the country Garbos Grill which is just a food cart. We  grilled heirloom tomato on the thickest hamburger and chipotle gouda cheese. You can tell food is on my mind tonight.

You Can't Make This Stuff Up The Hat Incident

Ah Sunset at Bahai Honda ...was full of trauma yesterday.  (Read Pat's blogg on 1-22, was finally able to get him to write something especially after I told him I was going to write up the hat incident if he didn't. See him hatless below.) The weather started getting rough, the tiny ship (kayak) was tossed, if not for the fearless captain (Pat) the deck chair would have been lost (as well as Pat's hat). The crew (Stefani) was laughing so hard she almost peed in her pants.  Everyone who had a bay view came out and wondered what all the cursing was about.  First of all it was pretty much low tide, but Pat lost his hat near the Overseas Highway-US 1 and the currents and water was deeper there. Plus we had seen sharks in the area early in the day.  The corals were covered with sea urchins and are not easy to walk on.  Bahai Honda means deep bay and the park is one of the deepest natural channels in the Keys.  The park has one of the largest remaining stands of threatened silver palm, and yellow satin wood, rare lily thorns. We had fun yesterday watching Rainbow Parrotfish feed on the coral, Sargent Majors, Porkfish scurry away from Baracuda and Grouper. What you see is the background in the sunset photo is what is left of Henry Flagler's East Coast Railway dream-never finished. You can walk on parts of the bridge and look down.  The other photos is the new US 1 Oversea Highway.  The Keys are islands formed of pre-historic coral reefs connected by bridges of the Oversea Highways.

Sunset on the Bay

Pat sitting hatless in front of the new Overseas Highway.

I will send more photos before we leave. 

CAMP GRANADA

                For a week or so, all of our camping was in the hammocks of Florida.  There were coastal hammocks, interior hammocks, young hammocks (with pine trees), old hammocks (without), swampy hammocks (with cypress trees and alligators) and upland hammocks (without cypress trees and alligators).   I think that aboriginal Florida must have been entirely one or another type of hammock, at least the parts that aren’t beach.  My personal favorite is the one with the knotted strings that get hung between two trees, but tying things to trees isn’t allowed in Florida state parks. 

                We entered Florida on the 5^th of January.  It wasn’t real cold, but it wasn’t real warm either.  Except for 2 or 3 days out of the last 16, it has been cloudy and breezy.  So, we were very much looking forward to getting to the Florida Keys.  According to brochures and websites, it is always sunny and beautiful in the Keys.  Our first few days in the Keys were cloudy and cool, making us seriously reconsider whether the extra drive was worth it and whether we would ever return.  We said as much to son Ben on Saturday afternoon.  I was feeling like that old ditty, “Camp Granada” by Allan Sherman.  Sunday morning was more of the same, but it wasn’t a bad day to ride the tandem to Big Pine Key to see the little Key deer.  They were small, but I was expecting the full grown ones to be the size of fauns.  They were about ¾ the size of Long Island deer.  Anyway, when we returned to the campground, I said that would like to try swimming.  However, the clouds and wind did not make it seem very attractive, so I returned, defeated, to the camper.  I was not a happy camper.  However, around 2 o’clock the sun came out.  I was not sanguine that it would last more than 15 minutes.  But it did!  The water was clear and cool.  The sand was gorgeous white coral sand, which is soft and gentle on the feet.  So, as in the Camp Granada song, I told son Ben to kindly disregard my earlier evaluation. 

                Monday morning, we got up early to go on a glass bottom boat that takes you on a tour of the coral reefs off of Key Largo.  The weather held and, more importantly, neither of us got sea sick.  It was a beautiful morning over the reef and we saw a lot of beautiful creatures. No one talked about the fact that the corals were pretty much bleached out.  It wouldn't be good for business.  We ate lunch out at a place highly recommended by Trip Advisor.  It wasn’t very good, but that’s par for the course here in Florida.  The best meal we have had out here was lunch at a Cracker Barrel. 

                The last couple of days have been like those perfect summer days on Long Island, and we filled them with kayaking, biking, walking, wading and swimming.  We lucked into a little cove today where we found a place where you could stand on an old concrete bulkhead and see a myriad of fishes close up.  It was better than the boat trip out to the reef.  A pelican amused us fishing and eating his fill within a few feet of us. 

                Late today, Stefani and I decide to take our chairs a little way down the road and watch the water.  It was somewhat windy today, and I took the chairs to a place not so protected.  First, my hat blew off and went into the drink.  I didn’t want to lose my hat, so I decided to run and get the kayak.  By the time I got out, the wind, the currents and the fact that the hat sunk made the chances of its recovery the hat practically nil.  But I gave it a good try.  About that time, I heard Stef yell out that one of our chairs had also blown into the drink.  I raced to the scene, just as it sank beneath the surface.  Kayak paddles do not make a good boat hooks, so wrangling the chair into the boat involved skill that I apparently do not possess.  I finally got it out after about the fourteenth try.  Not sure the cursing helped, but I uttered copious amounts of it as I flailed and failed repeatedly.  Looking back, I am not sure whether to think that the chair wouldn’t have gone in if I had just let the hat go, or whether it was lucky that I had already launched the kayak to look for the hat, which allowed me to salvage the chair.  I, of course, prefer the latter interpretation of events. 

              This evening, we are pretty sure that we will give this a go again next year, if we can score a reservation.  It took awhile to relax a little and just enjoy it, but we are now getting it.  Even more so that we are seeing predictions for a snow storm back home on Saturday.  I kind of like snow, but not as much as this.   

Today While the Blossoms Still Cling to the Vine Manatees, Stingrays and Sand Castles

Pat isn't taking up the slack.  What can I say??? We have seen many friends and family on the way, all kinds of wildlife including alligators (oh hum. I use to swim with them, playing King on the Mountain rafts, growing up in a swamp in Orlando.  You could not get me to be so stupid now a-days.) The manatees nice (that is one in the photo) and Everglade birds super and of course Mosquitoes.  We saw a huge stingray today as well.  Pat and I took lessons on how to make the BEST sand castles as in award winning..However like anything else you need practice..(SEE Below). When the teacher asked us what we thought they looked like well one thing came up in our minds but because children were present we didn't say what we were thinking. 
We are camping mostly in hammocks even here in the KEYS.  Hammocks are Palmettos, Live Oaks, Spanish  Moss, Snakes, Panthers(very few left in Florida),Black Bears (50 are killed each year on highways-one campground had electric fence around the dumpster), Racoons, Deer and Mosquitoes.  The Mosquitoes and Humidity remind me why I so much didn't mind leaving Florida 36 years ago when Pat announced we were moving to Long Island.
Weather: It hasn't been as cold as Long Island but guess what it hasn't been as SUNNY as you would think.  Today was only the 3rd day in all of our travels it wasn't rainy or overcast all day.  Global Warming Folks!!!!  See all the photos below.  I need another Margarita...Love and peace Stefani

We saw Pileated Wood Peckers in the Cypress Swamp below, bald eagles, alligators, lots of aquatic plants like Sagittaria (that is another story about the old days), ...Pat is standing at Bahia Honda close by where we saw the Stingray.  the rule is get out of the water if you see a shark and shuffle your feet to avoid the stingrays. 

Cow Nuphar Lily

Cypress Swamp

Can you spot my man who did not care that because of the possibility of encountering panthers we should stay together to look LARGER. 

On the Road Again

Happy New Year ! Peace and Blessings!     We are wayfarin again from cold Long Island to the Keys in Florida.  We have stopped along the way to see friends and family.  Will not be writing as much this time because I promised to paint, write that children's book, exercise more and we only have about 6 weeks this time. We did ride 17 miles so far and walked a mile of beach near Talbot Island on the NE coast. It was 73 degrees but suppose getting colder.  Hope the Keys will be at least in the 70s.  Maybe Pat will pick up the slack???  

 

Pat on the beach below.