Southeast Florida North

Orchid at the American Orchid Society greenhouse, Delray Beach.

Miami, FL

December 20, 2006

We left Key Largo in the damp of the morning and left the Keys for the Fort Lauderdale area. It wasn't raining; the damp night air soaked everything. There is a lot of construction on the road connecting the Keys to the mainland. It appears that the road is being widened from two to four lanes and the low drawbridge over Jewfish Creek is being replaced with an overpass. This should facilitate the evacuations of the Keys which seems to happen about every two weeks during August and September.

On the way north we visited the Miami Metrozoo and Vizcaya, an Italianate mansion built for the president of International Harvester.

The Miami Metrozoo boasts being the only subtropical zoo in the U.S. The major areas represented on the 3+ mile path through the zoo are Asia and Africa. Tropical America is under construction although some South American animals are on display as well as a few from Australia. The emus are in the Africa area, but few would notice that they are out of place since they look so much like ostriches.

Almost all of the animals are displayed in open enclosures. Unfortunately, almost all of the enclosures show animals in an area of cropped (Florida) sawgrass and subtropical trees rather than an enclosure that would be more representative of their native habitat. An exception is the Bengal tiger exhibit which has an Asian-style 'temple ruins.' The flamingos, the first exhibit near the entrance, have deeper colors than I remember seeing flamingos wearing at other zoos.

The zoo lacks North American mammals: No bears, bison, wolves, or deer. It must be a sub-tropical thing.

We got to the zoo shortly after opening; the same time as several school buses. The various school groups broke into smaller groups and wandered around with each group having to shout to be heard over the other groups. The simangs out-shouted them all. Click on the 'play' icon below and judge for yourself.

We avoided the crowds of students by heading to the far end of the zoo while the youngsters were still gawking at the animals closer to the entrance. By the time that we worked our way back to the front, the crowds had dissipated.

Allen feeds the otters.

We were alone at the exhibit of Asian smalled clawed otters. One of the otters stood up and began talking (squeaking, really) to Sarah as she looked down into the exhibit. A few minutes latter a keeper came in and explained that it was feeding time and that Sarah had been standing where the keeper does when she tosses in the fish; the otter was just being impatient. The keeper gave Sarah the dish and we each fed small fish to the otters. I didn't eat any myself.

Sarah at 'Vizcaya.'

As you might imagine, Vizcaya was large, had a lot of fancy rooms; and elaborate, tended gardens. It's good to be rich.

We also tried to see the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. They are currently having a Chihuly exhibit and would not accept our reciprocal membership at this time. We were unwilling to pay the steep admission to see an exhibit that we had already seen in the New York Botanic Garden only two months ago.

Fort Lauderdale, FL

December 22, 2006

Allen tests 'lift' at the Museum of Discovery and Science.

Yesterday the weather was good. We visited the Museum of Discovery and Science and saw their first floor nature exhibit portraying Florida's sea and shore life with tanks and dioramas. The Asian Walking Catfish, an introduced species, is a lot larger than I thought. It's no wonder that it sometimes attacks cats and dogs when it is walking on land from pond to pond.

Most of the second floor is devoted to physics activities and demonstrations, most related to flight. We poked, pulled, and pushed a few things.

In the corner of a hallway (literally) is the very small dinosaur head display and not far away is the Egyptology exhibit which consists of a mummy and a computer with information about ancient Egypt. The mummy wasn't real and neither were all of the dinosaurs heads.

I overheard a docent recommending to a teen interested in the dinosaur exhibit that he should visit the AMNH in NYC. Good advice!

The Museum of Art/Fort Lauderdale was next on our agenda. We were looking forward to their special exhibit, The Cradle of Christianity. After a brief disagreement with personnel at the admissions desk, we went outside and called the museum's office on our cell and someone came down to straighten things out for us so that we got V.I.P. admissions. [It had that printed on our admission tickets.]

The exhibit, artifacts from Israel, showed items from the Middle East that were in common use 2,000 years ago, but explained that no archeological artifacts have been found that are directly related directly to Jesus or his apostles. The identifiably Christian artifacts in the exhibit mainly consisted of items from the Byzantine era of the 4^th to 6^th centuries that were made for pilgrims or used in churches.

A few pieces from one of the Dead Sea Scrolls were on display and there was some mention of the Jewish roots of Christianity stemming from the Essene community living in the Judean desert for more than a century before Jesus, but not much. More was mentioned in the Dead Sea Scrolls traveling exhibit that we saw at the Explorium in Mobile a few years back. That information would have been very appropriate here.

A visit to some historic Fort Lauderdale homes rounded out our visit here.

Sarah at 'Bonnet House' in Fort Lauderdale

Palm Beach, FL

December 27, 2006

We ran out of museums of interest in Fort Lauderdale, so we moved north to Palm Beach. Here we have a science museum, a zoo, an art museum and 'Whitehouse, the mansion of Henry Flagler, etc. Flagler, a founding partner of Standard Oil, created Florida as a tourist destination, particularly Miami and St. Augustine. He also built Florida's railroad all the way to Key West. He was wealthy when he started the Florida development and became even wealthier. The most time he spent in his Florida mansion in a year was seven weeks. After he and his wife died, a large, opulent hotel was built adjacent to the mansion and the mansions rooms became public areas of the hotel. The hotel is gone and the mansion is set up as it appeared when Flagler was there (or in one of his three other homes). It's good to be rich.

Whitehouse, the Flagler mansion

The nearby Morikami Museum and Japanese Garden in nearby Delray Beach displays Japanese art and has displays about the history of Florida's Japanese agricultural community which began near Delray Beach in 1903. Various forms of Japanese gardens are found on spurs off of a one mile trail which encircles their lake. We had a lot of cool sunshine today and enjoyed the stroll.

Deer Chaser uses water and bamboo to keep deer out of a Japanese garden.

Bubbling Waters

Waterfall

The Morikami has the most fish food for fifty cents that I have ever seen. The lake is home to the largest koi that we have ever seen. Do you think that there is a connection? They have an extensive bonsai collection, too.

Sarah feeds the koi

The Norton Museum of Art has NO paintings on or about manhole covers or sewer grates; you're thinking of Ed Norton, the sewer worker from the Jackie Gleason Show which was broadcast from Miami Beach for several years. This is Andrew Norton of Acme Steel, a guy with bucks. He and his wife started collecting paintings to decorate their Chicago home. After they moved to Florida, they started a museum. Probably a tax write-off.

The Norton Museum of Art has a Chihuly ceiling (no extra charge) but did want extra for the special Wegman exhibit, “Funney-Strange” (sic). As we had already seen the “Funney-Strange” exhibit twice this year, we passed. If you have the opportunity, check it out; it's not all dogs (although Man Ray & Fay Ray are there).

The Norton has a good exhibit of Chinese artifacts. I was impressed with the high quality of items produced in China during the Bronze Age. A more modern (special) exhibit had works from well known artists and several lesser-known painters. I don't understand why 'well known' Milton Avery's crap is shown in the same room with the works of giants such as Homer and Wyeth. (It's a small room and there is no shortage of modern painters' works.) It must be because he had a rich father-in-law who paid high prices for his 'art.'

See, you don't have to go to art school to be an art critic. You just have to criticize.

Allen at Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge

Allen at Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge

Although small, the South Florida Science Museum has much of the necessary items, they're just not too big and there aren't very many of them. They have a piece of a meteorite thought to be from Mars; it's the size of a pea. (The meteorite was much larger when it fell to Earth forty years ago; small pieces are in many museums.) They have an Egyptian mummy; it's a small child. They have many colorful (small) fish in their aquariums. Why not; it's Florida.

They expect to be larger in 2008; so do I. (And 2007, too. I seem to be expanding daily. I've got to get back on my bicycle.)

Their special exhibit this time is Robotics. There were lots of things to do with robot stuff.

Lake Worth, Florida

December 28, 2006

We finished our time in Palm Beach by visiting two sites south of here. It was too close to closing time to visit the American Orchid Society yesterday when we went to the Morikami Museum; they are both in Morikami Park. The American Orchid Society has a small tropical garden and a greenhouse which displays orchids. Although well done, both were small. We didn't even spend an hour here, but I took many photos. The orchid displays that we recently saw at the Atlanta Botanic Garden were much better.

Mizner Park, an up-scale shopping center, is the site of the Boca Raton Museum of Art's new building (2000). The last time that we visited, the museum was somewhere else. Other than the extensive Meso-America exhibit, all works are later than the late 1800s. The ground floor is used to display special exhibits, the second floor houses the permanent collection.

The current special exhibits are more works of Marilyn Monroe than I have ever seen assembled, the other is a display of large photographs made using a gigapixel camera. Although the resolution was phenomenal, it was not all digital. The digital camera was used to take a photograph of a chemical image on a 9” x 18” plate.

The images are so clear that, using a magnifying glass (provided), one can see the faces of the people in the stands of a baseball stadium in a photograph taken from the outfield.

From here, we move into central Florida and hole-up until 2007.

On the way back to Palm Beach, someone about my age, driving more car than he could handle, turned into my rear bumper as I was waiting to exit a parking lot.

The chrome rim on my spare tire cover was slightly askew and there was some black paint on my chrome bumper. I reset the spare tire cover and replaced the lock, which had rusted and had to be beaten off with a hatchet. I didn't look for damage to his over-sized SUV's bumper or grille, but my steel is tougher than his plastic. If he has an ego problem, maybe he should drive a Porsche.

Best regards for a happy and prosperous new year,

Allen & Sarah

Southeast Florida South

Miami, FL

December 16, 2006

Giant Tortoise & us.

The first thing that we did when we got to Miami yesterday was to visit the science museum. We've been here before and this time we were disappointed. Most of the museum has been made into a special exhibit “Aliens” for which there is an extra charge for us. As we've seen similar exhibits elsewhere, we opted out of “Aliens” and just saw the rest of the museum, which was not much. Maybe that's why there were few visitors. I don't think that there were more than a dozen people in the museum when we were there. We were the only ones in the planetarium for the sky show; there was another family with us for the “Wildlife Encounter.” That was an unusual experience: We got to have out picture taken with a giant tortoise.

There is usually a second temporary exhibit, we learned, but the previous one closed last week and the new one was not opening until today. We'll have to go back. At least we're not paying the $17 per visit fee.

The following day we went to the Miami Cultural Complex and visited the Miami Art Museum, the South Florida Historical Museum, and the library. All were good visits for us.

The Miami Art Museum is small with contemporary exhibits, but not the way-out modern stuff, at least not at this time. One of the exhibits, South Florida Wildlife Rescue unit, was a recreated cube van for animal rescue. The van contained tools and paraphernalia of a field research station including about a dozen books. It was interesting to see that this was 'art' and even more interesting to see that one of the books in the exhibit, Marine Biology, was written by someone we know.

We learned a lot about Miami Beach from the South Florida Historical Museum's current exhibit: The History of Miami Beach. Originally the island of Miami was planned to be used to grow avocados, but that didn't work out. In the early 1900s, the idea of a resort area was floated and the rest, as they say, is history.

The library has wireless computer access, so I was able reach out and touch someone, actually a bunch of someones, such as you.

Although this is South Florida's 'dry season,' it has been raining since we got here and we are now in our third day of 'wet.' Although the humidity is 75%, the 'Stickiness Index' on the T.V. news is 3.5 which means “somewhat comfy,” that's not the term that I would use for what we are feeling. I guess that it's what one get used to. I don't know the range of the scale, but I think that it goes up to “shoot me now.”

We're planning to go canoeing. We currently have reservations to do so in the Everglades. Canoeing for us is much like driving: Constant arguing but with the added ability to beat each other over the head with paddles. [Sarah says that it is not arguing; it's discussions. We discuss things so well, that over the years we've been asked to leave several places.] The possibility of drowning adds to the excitement.

Allen bikes Key Largo

Key Largo, FL

December 17, 2006

We are now in John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park on Key Largo. It stopped raining and was warm (80) and sunny today, but breezy. It is predicted to be that way for the rest of the week. We biked around the park, visited the small aquarium, and got diving information.

To get here from Miami, we had to take the bridge over Jewfish Creek. The jewfish no longer exists. Although endangered in Florida due to over-fishing and may not be caught by any means, it is not extinct. This largest of groupers has been renamed 'goliath.' It must be a public relations thing. Dolphin (the fish, not the mammal), for example, are now known a mahi-mahi so people won't be deterred from ordering it in restaurants by thinking that they will be eating Flipper.

The lavatory in the campground has the following sign:

I don't know about you, but I can't remember the last time that I drank from a urinal or toilet. Sarah tells me that there is a similar sign in the ladies' lavatory, so I guess that drinking from commodes is not just a men's thing. Of course, it may just be my memory that's faulty.

December 18, 2006

Scuba diving is no longer an option for us here. There is a 15 mph east wind that is causing choppy waters and turbidity. There is no use diving if we can't see the fish. We went snorkeling instead. The water is still murky, but I didn't spend $200 and throw up a few times to not see much. The wind is predicted to last throughout the week and we're being thrown out of the state park campground on Wednesday. They say that they have reservations, but we don't know about what.

When we went to the dive place, we learned that they only had two people booked for that day and no one booked for the following day; their boat carries 36. I guess that a lot of people knew about the water conditions, too. When there are sharks in the water, I don't have to be able to out-swim the shark, I only have to be able to out-swim Sarah. Having a lot more people in the water increases my chances.

I know that you wanted to see a photo of me diving, but this is the best that I can do under the circumstances:

Allen dives in Hawai'i, 2004

Chanukah on Key Largo

This evening we biked about a mile to the local shopping center where Chabad was having a Chanukah event. They were giving out menorahs and candles, doughnuts, latkas, and chocolate money. I was pressed into service frying the potato latkas while Sarah minded the rebitzen's baby. We had a good time.

Key Largo mangrove forest. Too windy for the bugs; good for us.

Beware of hitchhikers.


Happy holiday,

A&S

We moved north to Fort Lauderdale for a few days and are now in the Palm Beach area. We'll let you know what we did in those areas in a future post.

Have a happy and safe New year!

A&S

Getting to Florida

Hi!

We headed south from Atlanta to Florida via Macon and Valdosta, Georgia. Both cities have interesting homes.

During the Civil War, General Sherman set up forces outside of Macon and fired cannon into the city hitting one house which is still standing and is known as the 'Cannonball House.' The original cannonball is on display. It seems an incredible coincidence that the only home to be hit by a cannonball was the 'Cannonball House.' What are the odds?





Since Macon was not burned as were other major Georgia cities, it has the largest collection of antebellum homes in the state.

Valdosta, not as large as Macon and well out-of-the-way of Sherman's March to the Sea, has interesting homes of various eras. We drove up and down the streets of the historic district looking at the variety of housing.

Entering Florida, we headed for Chiefland on the west coast. It was in Chiefland several years ago that I was hit by a car while biking. Taking no chances this time, we biked the Rails-to-Trails bikeway, a paved trail built on the bed of and abandoned railroad line: eight feet wide and really long. We only got about two miles before the rains came.

Sarah had some coupons that she brought from home, so we've been doing some fine dining. We aren't being served by just some waitress; we're getting our food directly from The King.


Sarah and Allen with Gilly the Shark as 'Santa Jaws.'

Continuing south, we sojourned with our friends Steve and Sharon in Sarasota. They showed us a good time for the four days that we were there: A play, a visit to a crafts show and farmer's market, the annual Sarasota holiday parade and a visit to the Mote Aquarium where Steve's alter-ego, Gilly the shark, was playing 'Santa Jaws' for visiting children were some of the highlights.


Allen @ Myakka River S.P.

Almost before one could say, “Continuing south,” we were in Myakka River State Park for several days of biking and bird-watching. In addition to the egrets and herons, which seem to be hanging out on every street corner here in Florida, we saw a bald eagle, many turkey vultures, and some hawks. There were alligators, too, as well as many feral hogs. The hogs are descendants of those brought by the original Spanish settlers of Florida. Their rooting causes great damage to the park's vegetation and they drive out native species. More that 1,000 hogs are removed from Myakka River S.P. annually. 'Removed' is a euphemism for 'killed.'


Sarah collects sea shells @ the seashore, Naples, FL.


Tropical birds, Naples

We have seen and heard the term 'Paradise' frequently used by people who live here to describe their state. As most people like where they live, it seems rather rude to denigrate other people's hometowns. Having spent my life living in the Center of the Universe, I can't think of another place that I'd like to be. People who live elsewhere: Making the best of a bad situation.

Miami, FL
December 15, 2006

We lucked out on our way from Florida's west coast to Florida's east coast. We took the Tamiami Trail across southern Florida through the Everglades. We had some time to kill and decided to stay in a campground in the Big Cypress National Preserve which is contiguous with the Everglades. It was our good fortune to be in in the campground the last week before they started charging, so we got a week of camping for free.


Sarah bikes the Tamiami Trail.

We did some biking along the Tamiami Trail. The two-lane highway is 60 mph. We don't bike that fast and didn't want to be food for the turkey vultures, so we biked against traffic and kept on the verge when vehicles approached. Biking on the mowed sawgrass was tough slogging, but the view was great. We've driven across Florida on the Tamiami Trail before, but from a car one sees only some birds and a few alligators. When biking, one is closer to the water that is on the north side of the road. [The Everglades is a wide river that flows slowly from Lake Okeechobee south to the ocean. The Tamiami Trail blocks the flow and water builds up on the north side of the road. Sluices regulate the flow to the south side of the trail.] In the narrow band of water, about 20 feet wide and many miles long, is an accumulation of wildlife.


Alligators bask along the Tamiami Trail.


In our six mile ride we saw literally tons of alligators and hundreds of large birds. I can identify the major birds. The little tweety ones are a mystery to me. I have a bird-book, but many of them look alike in the book, too.

Shark Valley, part of the Everglades along the Tamiami Trail:



The down-side of free camping is that it often comes with no facilities. One of the campgrounds only has chemical toilets. This one is always free. The other had flush toilets, but no showers.

A week without showers....No wonder the buzzards are circling.



One of the first things that we did when we got to the campground in Miami is to get some water over our bodies

Regards for a good winter,

A&S

P.S.

Sarah wants me to let you know that she has perfected the art of bathing from a cup of water and that the buzzards are only being attracted by me.

I wasn't able to get this posted in time for the Thanksgiving letter:



--R