Pictures from the Road

AJ, Tanner, and Dave

Today David swam with dolphins! Dolphins named A.J. and Tanner, to be specific — a father-son team known to be especially bright, and used as part of much cognitive research being done here at the Dolphin Research Center, on Grassy Key. That's Tanner on the left showing how fast he can swim (about 25 mph, it turns out) and AJ on the right showing that he can swim upside-down as well.

Dave's Dolphin Encounter session began with some training, learning simple commands, and lessons about where dolphins do and don't like to be touched, etc.  Then into the water, where a delighted Dave met A.J. and Tanner (I'm not a strong swimmer, so chose to just enjoy watching and shooting pics from the sidelines).

The dolphins shook Dave's hands, and kissed him!  They took him for a spin around the lagoon, such fun! — and the Christmas-morning look of joy on his face made me teary-eyed. 

He gave them a number of commands, including the signal for them to rise out of the water and "walk backwards" on their tails — he said having them respond to his hand gestures was astonishing, and it was so interesting to see them settled in the water before him, watching and waiting for his commands.

As you might expect, Dave was the last one out of the water, hanging in to take a final shot of his two new friends. 

The dolphins are so very, very bright, and surprisingly playful too. We joked on our way out that we've never had a dog as nicely trained! Just a wonderful experience for both of us. 

Bahia Honda

Dave and I have developed mysterious rashes on our lower legs, which we first noticed while tooling around Key West yesterday.  This morning we slathered on hydrocortisone, and not knowing what on earth was the cause, hoped for the best as we prepared for a quiet "day at the beach" at nearby Bahia Honda State Park in the Middle Keys.

It's hard to find shade in Florida, where deciduous trees are rare, so on this very hot day we settled our beach chairs under a roofed picnic shelter, and proceeded to spend the day resting, swimming, gazing at the sea, reading, swimming, and hiking.

The mystery of our rashes was solved while we hiked through a tidal lagoon path.  A sign staked before a bush described it as "poisonwood," said to be related to poison ivy, and causing similar rashing and blisters.  The bush indeed looked familiar to us!   It's clear we've unknowingly gone traipsing through it in the past few days.   

On shore, we discovered hundreds of strange little gelatinous balls, about the size of a large "popper" marble.  We have no idea what these are!  They contain liquid which we assumed was seawater, but perhaps they are some kind of fish egg?  They have a very delicate membrane, and are easily burst, but seem to harden a bit as they dry out. We also found sea sponges, beautiful shells, and pieces of coral that had washed ashore.

The best part of the day was frolicking in the lovely "sea of green."  It's warm - not bathtub warm, but one gets used to the temperature within only a minute or so.  We never ever get to this point in Maine, not even in August!

Before returning to the Zeppelin for the night, we stopped for dinner at a small 1950's-style outdoor diner, where we ate crunchy conch fritters - they're good!  Our Jamaican waiter was charming and funny, and made the stop there very special for us.

A restful day, which we needed after our many activities of the past couple weeks.

The Old Couple and the Sea

Key West.  

The name evokes images of beach bums in loose khaki shirts... faces tanned to the point of being a permanent deep red-brown color...  cool little houses painted in Bahamian colors...  fishermen hauling in 250-pound marlins...  slices of tangy Key Lime pie... And of course, there's Hemingway.  Aside from the addition of a regiment of tourists and young street partiers, this is exactly what we found.

We began our Key West excursion with an excellent breakfast at the La Ti Da Hotel - elegant food served by people in baggy Bermuda shorts, who looked like maybe they'd had just a bit too much to drink the night before.  The place offered Eggs Benedict four ways - who could ask for more?

From there, a visit to the Shrine of Hemingway.  It turns out that he (and wife #2) lived in Key West for ten years, having arrived for the sole reason of taking possession of a new Ford; and liking the town so much, he chose to stay put.  

Many of his novels were written here.  The place is charming beyond the cool decor and the funny tales of Hemingways' quirks told by the tour guides, in that it is still crawling with cats.

Hemingway had up to fifty cats in this home, and when asked why he'd taken in so many, he replied, "Well, one cat leads to another."  There are now forty-six cats on the premises, lying all about the house, and seemingly unfazed by the constant slew of tourists going through.

One can buy beer on the streets of Key West, and drink it as one does the "Duval Crawl" up one side of touristy Duval Street and down the other - endless rows of shops and bars.  Duval Street was quiet when we arrived in Key West, but by the end of day, was jam-packed with shoppers and beer-sloggers.

In the Bahama Village area, there are sweet little Key-West-style homes nestled closely together, and roosters strutting on sidewalks, stopping only to crow their hearts out.   It's in this area that we encountered a strange-looking Kapok tree - fascinating!

At the southernmost end of Florida (and of the continental United States, for that matter), the water is a deeper green, so lovely.  Cuba is only ninety miles away from here - so hard to fathom we could be that close to a country we've been at odds with for a long time now, but it makes it easier to understand how some Cubans have felt the journey, even on a rickety raft, is doable.

We ended our day in Key West with a superb dinner on the deck of Louis' Backyard Restaurant, with a view overlooking the water.  David began with a conch (pronounced "conk" here) chowder, and then ate tilefish, a local fish we'd never heard of - it had a mild flavor, like cod.  

I had a delicious shrimp dish with a side of grits cooked with pancetta, 'shrooms, and lots of lime.

And we had Key Lime pie for dessert.   Of course!

Note: Click any photograph in this blog, and it will show you an enlarged version of itself in a new window.

Travel Day. On to Key West!

With Kodachrome dreams we traveled to the Keys...

...and crossing the 7-Mile Bridge, set up camp in Paradise: clear blue skies, warm green water, swaying palm trees and all!

Coconuts, Coral

Another day begun lazily, as we find ourselves needing to slow down after all our activities, fun as they've been, over the past few days.   We decided about mid-day to visit the town of Coral Gables.  The Spanish "haciendas," or mansions there, were mostly built during the 1920's, and are beautiful, with landscaping to equal the elegance of the homes themselves.

We made a stop at the town's central De Soto Plaza, kind of a little roundabout with a fountain we tossed wishing pennies into, very pretty.  

We walked only a bit on Miracle Mile, the city's commercial boutique-y area; as we're not "vacation shoppers," we decided instead to seek out a good lunch.  And a good one we found! 

Havana Harry's, where the food is Cuban, a cuisine we don't know a lot about, but are so far very happy with.  Despite the place being full of customers, we seemed to be the only ones speaking English.  Even our waiter, sweet as he was, could barely converse with us, which of course we find charming.  It's hard to understand when folks complain about non-English speakers in the U.S. - one can simply pull out the "universal language" of smiles, pointing, and body language!

Our meals were delicious and elegant, incredibly cheap, and massive.  We were able to bring home about half of our dinners, for what will be a yummy stir-fry of chicken, black beans, and rice, some night when we've had a big driving day, and are too tired to cook anything from scratch.  What's been surprising about Cuban food is that it's far less spicy than we'd imagined - in fact, it's very sweet!  Having visited New Mexico, we assumed that Spanish food was all about the heat, and that's not been true at all in the Cuban meals we've ordered here.

After eating, we drove to the city of Coconut Grove, originally a bohemian outpost that's retained some of that feel, with lots of funky little homes.  We stopped there to see the attractive Plymouth Congregational Church, with its mission-style architecture.  The grounds, gardens, and cloister were so lovely.  As we strolled, we became aware that there were hundreds of little lizards scuttling around - a bit disconcerting!  They are very cute, but one doesn't want them landing on one's head!

We ended our day with a visit to the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens.  This estate was one of the four homes owned by industrialist James Deering (of International Harvester fame) in the 1920's era. What a surprise to learn that Deering was originally from South Paris, Maine!  

He went on to become one of the wealthiest men in the U.S. at that time. The place is palatial, with more rooms than even a family of twelve could use, and miles of pools and gardens.

The mansion's large portico overlooks Biscayne Bay, a gorgeous view. As usual, my favorite areas were the kitchen and the simple little housekeeper's room.  Forever a peasant at heart.

 

Splash!

We were lazy this morning after a big day in Miami yesterday.  After a slow breakfast and time spent catching up with family and friends via computer, we decided to launch ourselves in the direction of Key Biscayne.

There we visited the Miami Sea-Quarium, where we saw fantastic shows featuring dolphins, sea lions, and killer whales!  Along with sundry cool exhibits on other fish and sea-related critters.  Oh, and parrots, of all things - why parrots at a Sea-Quarium?

One of the parrots taught me to mimic him.  As I was walking by, he watched from his perch in a tree and said, "Pretty bird!"   And I stopped and said "Pretty bird!"  He went "Ha-ha-ha-ha!" and I went "Ha-ha-ha-ha!"  He said "Hello," and I replied, "Hello."  Gee, those parrots are soooo smart!

The killer whale show was amazing.  One sees these kinds of displays on TV, but there is nothing like being in the presence of a gazillion-pound mammal while it leaps twenty feet into the air, flips, and thwacks down with a forty-foot splash.  Breathtaking!   And drenching!

After taking in everything there was to see in the Sea-Quarium, we drove to the south end of Key Biscayne to walk the sands of the pretty Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Rec Area. The lighthouse there couldn't be toured, unfortunately, so we simply enjoyed the view. 

Time spent doing nothing but sitting on the sand looking out at the sea feels strange to us, two people who are always either physically active, making plans, or are tuned in and tapping away on computers.  One's head doesn't quite know what to do with all of that unfettered time.

Which makes it clear to us, of course, how much we've needed this vacation.

Miami Nice.

We left the quiet of our campground this morning for Miami, drawn by images we've seen of its palm-lined streets and pretty skyline. 

We began at the Miami-Dade Cultural Center in the heart of the city, where David scooted into the Miami Art Museum, and I got my history fix at the Historical Museum of Southern Florida.  Too much to see, but we both enjoyed what we could in the hour time-frame we'd agreed upon, and we typically spent another hour sitting and sharing what we'd enjoyed, while David sipped a Cuban espresso (very sweet!).

We rode the cool little tram-buses (for free) to Bayside Marketplace at the Port of Miami.  Here we encountered the emerald-green water and white sands people from Florida have been telling us about - so beautiful!  

We stopped at one of the bayside restaurants for a Cuban lunch, where I had Pan Con Bistek (a steak sandwich), and Dave enjoyed a calamari dish with a side of fried yucca (tasted like a cross between turnip and potato).

In the afternoon, we drove to Miami Beach - we had no idea this is a "separate" city - where thousands of "spring-breakers" strutted their stuff on the streets, and reminded us (sigh) of our own youthful days.  A good many of the "young ladies" on the beach were sunbathing, sitting and chatting, and -alas- even playing velcro-tennis while topless.

A fun excursion for my man, and a mildly depressing one for me.  

The reminder of one's middle age sometimes thumps one hard on the head.  Ah, well, it helps to remember our own heydays...  No longer the need for mating rituals, for which a beach scene provides the perfect backdrop. 

After gathering a few shells and the tattered remnants of my womanly pride, we sashayed (always wanted to use that word) up and down Ocean Drive, enjoyed the beautifully restored old Art Deco buildings.  Miami Beach in the 1920's and 30's was known as "the playground of the rich," and that's reflected in the cool old Moderne hotels overlooking the beach area.

At sunset, we ended our day soberly, with a visit to the heart-wrenching Holocaust Memorial, built to commemorate the six million Jews who lost their lives due to Nazi atrocities.  Very sad memorial, very beautiful in the waning light.

We'll have another day of exploring Miami's environs, but now rest for sleepy, sun-addled, middle-aged heads.

Travel Day.

On to a new campsite. Catch up on email. Next stop: Miami!

I Heart Disney.

 

Shut Ma' Mouth.

Okay, we LOVED Disney.  Loved.  What the hell has been wrong with us?

Everything thing about today was fun.  Fun!  Exclamation point!  

At Disney's Animal Kingdom, we loved going on the African Safari Adventure,  hiking the Jungle Walk, seeing a hilarious bird show, and sitting in on an incredible live performance of "Festival of the Lion King" that was as professional as a Cirque de Soleil show.

We saw hippos, giraffes, elephants, tigers, clownish monkeys, and so, so many other critters great and small.  The parade around the Tree of Life was soooo good, and almost as much fun to watch the faces on the little ones there - such magic!

A HIGHLIGHT of the day was meeting up for a short visit with friends we love from "home," Phil and Annie and their boy Ray. (It was Ray who took this picture for us.)

We are staying at Disney's campground, and it's a hoot here, with bus stops and restaurants and evening shows.  After hiking up for a southern-style-all-you-can-eat buffet supper, we hopped on a bus to get back to our campsite.

It was a great day.  We really had fun.  FUN.  Exclamation point!