Cindy and I flew to Florida from New England on November 3, 2008.  Our flight was delayed two hours so we did not arrive in Miami until 8:00 PM.  Many people on the flight were wearing medals and walking slowly as a result of competing in the NYC Marathon, which was held the day before on Sunday.  By the time we collected our bags and rented a car, I did not feel like driving too far, so we spent the night at a Days Inn just off Route 95 in Ft. Lauderdale.

Tuesday, Election Day, we left early and drove north on Route 95 for a half hour before stopping for breakfast at a Cracker Barrel.  At Palm Beach we cut over to Route A1A, and visited John D. MacArthur Beach State Park.  This beach is a popular nesting ground for sea turtles and although this is not the egg-laying season, we enjoyed walking on the beach and getting our feet wet in the waves.  We continued up A1A looking for a place to spend the night.  There did not seem to be too many hotels on the beachfront road so we went back to 95 and found a new Comfort Suites in Palm Bay where we checked in for the night.  We ate dinner at a lively Texas Roadhouse next to the hotel and then returned to watch the election results on television.

The Comfort Suites was very comfortable and since we did not need to be in Orlando until Thursday, we decided to stay another night.  We did drive out to see Harvey’s citrus groves on the Indian River, but were very disappointed.  Having toured Harry & David’s packing operation in Oregon, perhaps I was expecting too much.  We continued out to Cocoa Beach and walked along the sand for a couple hours before returning to the hotel.

On Thursday we checked out and drove up to the Kennedy Space Center.  Arriving at 1:00 PM, we did not have time to see as much as I would have liked, but we did take the tour of the facility and see one of the IMAX movies about the International Space Station.  At 6:00 PM we left and headed west to Orlando and Downtown Disney.  We needed to kill some time as Carolyn and her family was not arriving until midnight and we could not get into the resort until they got here.  We ate at a Cuban restaurant and then saw the movie W at the theater.  At 11:00 PM we drove over to the Shades of Green Resort at Disney World.  This resort is set-aside for members and guests of the armed forces and we were guests of my niece, Halley.  Carolyn, Fred, Halley and Ayden were suppose to arrive by midnight, but did not, in fact, show up until almost 2:00 AM.  We got into our rooms and agreed to meet and head back to Downtown Disney tomorrow.

Fred had to work on Friday so the other five of us started by having lunch at Planet Hollywood.  We spent several hours walking around Pleasure Island and the West Side before returning to the hotel for a swim in the afternoon.  We left Carolyn with Ayden in the evening and Halley, Cindy and I returned to see La Nouba, and then had dinner at T-Rex.

Saturday we all left early and went to Hollywood Studios.  We spent the day visiting Disney characters, watching the parades and experiencing the rides.  At 5:00 PM we returned to the hotel where we ate dinner at the Italian restaurant.   Sunday we went to the Magic Kingdom. Ayden lasted until about 4:00 PM when Halley and Cindy took him back to the hotel. Carolyn, Fred and I stayed to see the parade and fireworks, which Carolyn thought were the best she had ever seen.  We spend Monday at Animal Kingdom, which turned out to be our favorite park and Tuesday at Epcot.  We stayed to see the fireworks at Epcot so did not get back to the hotel until almost 10:00 PM.

Wednesday Carolyn, Ayden and I went for a final swim at the hotel pool and then packed and checked out just before noon.  We took separate cars to P.F. Chang’s restaurant where we had a farewell lunch.  Carolyn & family left for the airport and Cindy and I drove south to Miami.  We arrived in Miami Beach at 6:00 PM and checked into our apartment at The Decoplage.  After we got settled, we returned our rental car and took a taxi back home.

We are happy with the apartment, which I rented sight unseen.  Our landlord seems nice and we may elect to stay here again when we return in January.  With difficulty, I started my routine of running each morning on the boardwalk.  The first couple days were warm, but then we got hit with a cold spell, which lasted a week.  One of my favorite amenities at The Decoplage is the gym, which is quite adequate with equipment, which is only a few years old.  During the cold mornings I would workout in the gym.  Unfortunately, the other major amenity, the pool area, is undergoing a complete renovation and will not be ready for use until next month.

On Monday, November 24^th, Cindy and I went up to Aventura where I shopped for an engagement ring while she shopped for clothes. After visiting four jewelers and learning more than I ever wanted to know about diamonds, I invited her to Mayors where we made the final choice.  We also bought matching platinum wedding bands, which will be engraved and available next week.  On the way home I bought flowers so I could formally ask her to marry me that night.

On Thanksgiving we had dinner at Texas de Brazil.  Meals here are very expensive, but they often have a two for one special so the cost becomes more reasonable.  The restaurant is located right at the marina so we often see large ships going out to sea.

We took a guided walking tour of the Art Deco District of Miami Beach with a group of about a dozen people one day.  A board member of the Miami Beach Preservation Guild who was very knowledgeable of the half-dozen buildings we visited, as well as the 300 others which are contained within the district led the tour.  I learned more about the history of Miami Beach during the three-hour tour than I had come to know in the last several years of coming here.

We spent a lot of time planning our wedding, which we have scheduled for December 28 at 2:28 PM, eight being a lucky number for Chinese.  Although we will only have about twenty close family members present, the preparations are considerably more detailed than my original idea of getting married in Las Vegas.  We created a wedding invitation in two languages, which was sent electronically to guests.  Cindy is collecting photographs of the six years we have been together for a slide show to be played at the reception.  This also involves attending classes twice a week at the Apple Store so she can learn how to use the software.  And we are dependent on my family in California to make some of the arrangements that cannot be made by telephone.  But I am sure that everything will work out fine.

On December 14^th I turned 57 and Cindy took me back to Texas de Brazil for another grand meal.  A few days later we left the warmth of Miami Beach and flew to California where a never-ending string of winter storms was threatening rain and snow for the next two weeks.  We had renewed our lease to return to the same Decoplage apartment in mid-January and stay until the end of February, but it seems there will be little sun for the next month.

2009

We flew back to Miami Beach in mid-January.  Returning to the same apartment we had rented the month before, we discovered that the pool remodeling project was still underway and the chances of it being finished before we leave is looking poor.  Fortunately the beach is only a few steps away, so we can still enjoy the water.  It seems colder than I remember Miami being in January, but hopefully that will change.

I decided we should buy a car as we are planning to drive across the Southern USA when we leave at the end of February.  Instead of waiting for the last minute, we started looking as soon as we returned any by the end of the first week had bought a new Ford Fusion.  This is the first car I have owned in seven years.  I had become so used to walking, I had not noticed how heavy the traffic is in this area.  By the time I get the car out of the garage, I can walk to many of the places we generally go on a daily basis.

We drove up to Gulfstream Park one day to watch the horse racing.  Cindy looked up various Chinese markets on the Internet and we stopped by one to purchase various items, which we needed for Chinese New Year.  We celebrated the Chinese New Year at home, making and cooking dumplings.  The New Year in China is the biggest event of the year, celebrated with a full week off from work and huge fireworks parties.  Unlike in America, most of the fireworks are shot off by private citizens or at company-sponsored events.  During the Lantern Festival this year, the China Central Television Company, CCTC, was shooting off fireworks near their brand new corporate complex in Beijing and ignited a fire in one of the towers, which burned the whole building.  The building is across the street from The Ascott Hotel, where Cindy and I lived when we were in Beijing.  Watch the Youtube video.

In mid-February, my sister Lauraine came to visit us for a week.  She had just purchased a new Apple laptop computer and since the Apple Store is just a few blocks away, she and Cindy took advantage of many classes and workshops.  The day she arrived, the gym in our building closed as part of the pool-refurbishing project, so not only will we not have a pool available during her stay, but the gym is off-limits also.   Running on the beach one morning, I twisted my knee, which limited that activity, but we were able to see several spectacular sunrises en route to morning coffee at Starbucks or Loews.

We spent one day at Gulfstream Park betting on the horse races.  Another day we went to the 46^th Annual Coconut Grove Art Festival where thousands of visitors were enjoying the weather and mingling among several hundred booths displaying a wide variety of art.  The rest of the time we wandered on the beach, Ocean Drive or Lincoln Road, enjoying the endless array of restaurants.  During Lauraine’s stay with us, almost three feet of snow fell in the Sierra Nevada where she lives, so she picked a good week to be here.  We took her to the airport on February 17^th for her flight back to San Francisco.  Cindy used her new computer skills to produce a slide show of Lauraine’s trip.

On February 22^nd, we decided to drive up to Palm Beach for the day.  A friend had once suggested I visit The Breakers so we arranged to have brunch in their famous Circle Room.  The weather was magnificent and the brunch was at least as good if not better than our brunch at The Biltmore a couple weeks ago.  The only problem with these $100/head meals is I feel an obligation to eat much more than normal, and suffer afterwards.  After brunch we walked around the Breakers property for a while, then drove over to Whitehall, Henry Flagler’s winter home and now museum.  Flagler was a partner of John Rockefeller in the oil business and later devoted his interests to building railroads along Florida’s east coast.  He is credited with opening up the whole region of Miami and continued his railroad south to Key West until it was destroyed by a hurricane.  Many of the grand hotels along the line were also built by Flagler, including The Breakers.  We spent a couple hours touring the museum, and his personal rail car, then drove back to Miami Beach.

Key West

We checked out of our apartment in Miami Beach on Saturday, February 28^th.  Cindy wanted to visit Key West before we started our trip to New Orleans, so we drove south along the Oversea Highway four hours to the southern most point in the continental USA.  Arriving just after 2:00 PM, we drove around the town until we located The Key Lime Inn where we had made reservations to stay for two nights.  The inn is on Truman Street, which is also US Route 1, about a half mile from the southern terminus.  After checking in, we walked down Duval Street to the water where we toured the souvenir shops.  On the way home, we ate dinner at Kelly’s, which is located in the building that housed the original Pan Am office where tickets for the first international flight to Cuba were sold.

Sunday, after breakfast at the pool, we took an Old Town Trolley Tour of the town.  We got off to visit the Mel Fisher Treasure Museum, Mallory Square, The Hogs Breath Inn, Ernest Hemmingway’s residence and other famous places.  Before returning to the inn, we stopped at the Green Parrott Bar where we listened to some music for a while.  We decided to extend our stay an extra night so we could go out on a boat and do some snorkeling on Tuesday.  For dinner Sunday night we walked back down Duval Street and ate at Crabby Dicks.

Each morning we awaken to the cock-a-doodle-dooing of roosters.  Key West was the cock-fighting capital of the south until Florida passed laws against the sport.  Rather than feed them, the cock-owners set their birds free and their descendents have been wandering the island ever since that day.  Monday before breakfast we walked down to the point at the end of Whitehall Street, which marks the southernmost point in the continental USA.  On the way back, we stopped at St. Mary’s Catholic Church By the Sea to see the stone grotto where residents flock when hurricanes threaten to pray for safety.

We walked back down Duval Street after breakfast and visited the Old Customs House.  There were several interesting exhibits at the Customs House including a history of Ernest Hemmingway’s life on the island and two rooms full of Mario Sanchez paintings on wood depicting life here in Key West.  A third room was devoted to artifacts from The Maine, which left Key West in 1898 and exploded in Havana Harbor, prompting America to suspect and declare war on Spain.

We continued walking around the harbor, amidst the fishing and sailing boats.  There were huge pelicans sitting everywhere and many would let you get within a couple feet for a photograph.  Just past the harbor, we toured the Key West Depot of Henry Flagler’s Oversea Railroad, which is now a museum.  There are several interesting exhibits about the building of the line and how it was to open up shipping to the new Panama Canal.

We ate lunch at Sloppy Joes, one of Hemmingway’s favorite haunts, and listened to live jazz for an hour before walking back to the hotel.  There were hundreds of Harley Davidson motorcycles parked along Duval Street.  The town is a favorite amongst bikers and many of the bars attract their business.  The town is also a favorite place for gays to congregate.  We were told that one day a year, Duval Street is closed to vehicular traffic for the “drag races”…men in high-heels and scant clothing that race down the street.

We had planned to see the sunset Monday evening so we left the inn just after 5:00 PM and headed to Mallory Square.  As we passed La Concha Hotel, however, we remembered a guide had told us that their rooftop bar was open to the general public, so we took the elevator up to the sixth floor for one of the best views in all of Key West.  There were scores of people there, waiting for the sun to set.  Looking out over the harbor, I saw a large cruise ship leaving the port.  The name of the ship was the Veendam, which I think I once boarded in Bermuda, a long time ago.  After sunset, we walked over to Bagatelle, a Caribbean restaurant, for dinner.

Tuesday was our final day in Key West.  After breakfast we packed and checked-out of our room.  I had made arrangements to leave our car in the hotel’s parking lot until 6:00 PM, thereby avoiding an additional $30 parking charge elsewhere.  Parking is very tight on the island and many people use bicycles to get around.  We walked down Duval Street, stopping at a restaurant with an outdoor patio to have a Pink Shrimp Poboy for lunch.  We continued down to the waterfront where we had arranges to take a Fury catamaran seven miles out to the coral reef and snorkel.  The boat was huge, but there were only fifteen customers.  We motored out to the reef, which although seven miles from the shore, is partially exposed during low tide.  Unfortunately, the wind had whipped up the surf, which made the visibility poor.  Cindy stayed on the boat, but I swam for about half our allotted time.  I saw a few fish, and some coral, but nothing compared to previous diving excursions.  We left Key West around 4:30 PM and drove north to Florida City where we checked into a Comfort Inn for the night.

The Everglades

Wednesday morning we drove over to Everglades National Park.  We passed mile after mile of tomato fields, which were in the process of being picked by hundreds of laborers.  We entered the park at the Ernest Coe Welcome Center and quickly learned that there was a ranger program beginning at 10:30 AM about 20 minutes away on the Anhinga Trail at the Royal Palm site.  We arrived at Royal Palm and joined about 20 other visitors on a one-mile hike on an elevated walkway.  The ranger was extremely knowledgeable with a good sense of humor.  We saw hundreds of birds but the most excitement centered on the alligators, of which we probably saw about 60 during the 90-minute walk.  One alligator crossed the path splitting our group in half.  Several professional photographers had huge cameras set up on tripods to capture the wildlife.

We continued down the road to Flamingo, the southern end of the national park road.  It took me awhile to remember I had been here before, in 1998.  Many of the structures were destroyed in Hurricane Katrina, and have not been rebuilt.  We joined a short tour, which described some of the damage caused by the hurricanes over the years, but left early, as it was not nearly as interesting as the earlier tour we had experienced.  We stopped at Mahogany Hammock on the way out and walked through a hardwood forest.

At 4:00 PM we left the national park and drove up to Plantation where we checked into a Comfort Suites for the night.  Cindy needed to go to Sawgrass Mills one more time to exchanges some slacks and we ate while we were out.  Thursday we checked out and drove back to Miami where we picked up The Tamiami Trail or US 41 West, which runs atop the dam, that was built to harness the Everglades several decades ago.

At The Shark Valley Visitor Center we parked, rented bicycles, and rode eight miles out to the observation tower.  There were scores of alligators sunning themselves along the road.  At the observation tower, we heard a crashing in the water and one of the other visitors claimed to have seen an alligator jump up out of the water and grab a bird.  After a short visit we rode eight miles back to the visitor center.  Across the road from Shark Valley is the Miccosukee Cultural Center where we ate fried alligator for lunch and took an airboat ride out into the swamp, which was a lot of fun. (7596)

Late in the afternoon, we continued along The Tamiami Trail through Big Cypress National Preserve to Naples.  We cut over to the coast and drove through Ft. Myers Beach before finally settling at a Hampton Suites in Ft. Myers.

Southwestern Florida

Friday we had a nice visit with two “Bacon sisters” whom I have just met through my genealogy activities.   Marian Bacon Whitcomb and Barbara Bacon Inscho are 3X great grand daughters of Moses Bacon, who is my 4X great grandfather. Barbara and her husband George, whom we also met, live in Ohio and are vacationing at their son’s condominium in Ft. Myers.  Barbara’s sister Marian lives in Bristol, Connecticut and is also on vacation in Ft. Myers.  They believe they have some interesting family documents, which date back possibly as far as our common ancestor Moses, which they will copy and send for inclusion in my family history project.

Saturday we checked out of the Hampton Suites and drove to Bradenton.  Terry and Marcy McGovern moved here about four years ago and I have not seen them in almost a decade.  We had lunch at their beautiful home and reminisced for several hours before continuing on to Tampa, where we found a Roadway Inn for two nights.

Sunday we drove back to St. Petersburg.  We walked around the port area for a couple hours, visiting a reconstruction of “The Bounty” built to the original plans for the filming of the movie “Mutiny on the Bounty”, and also The Vinoy Resort, one of St. Petersburg’s landmarks.  At noon, we drove over to the Salvatore Dali Museum, and spent a couple hours learning about surrealism.

After leaving the Roadway Inn on Monday, we drove through several neighborhoods in Tampa, before heading up to Lakeland where we ate lunch and conducted some banking business.  We continued on to Orlando in the afternoon and checked into a Quality Inn on International Drive near the convention center.

Central & Northern Florida

Tuesday we left Orlando and continued East on Route 4 to Winter Park where we made a short trip of driving through the Rollins College.  The campus is famous for it’s Spanish architecture.  We also drove through some beautiful old neighborhoods where streets are paved with brick.  We had arranged to have lunch with my Great Uncle Paul Good in Lake Mary where he lives with his daughter and son-in-law, Margaret and Bruce Summers.  They live on a golf course in a beautiful home decorated with mementos from their travels around the globe.

We arrived at 11:00 AM and spent several hours looking at photos of family members and enjoying a delicious luncheon, which Margaret prepared.  I showed them some of the work I am doing with www.Ancestry.com and Margaret seems very interested in contributing to this effort with her own family tree.  Uncle Paul, who will be 99 next month, seems in very good health, and also was amused as I showed him the ancestry information.  Bruce installed skype on his computer so perhaps we will be able to communicate more frequently in the future.  We continued our drive Tuesday afternoon until we arrived in St. Augustine where we checked into a Comfort Suites in the old section of town for three nights.

I had passed through St. Augustine a couple years ago, but did not have a chance to really see much.  But hidden amongst the souvenir shops and tourist traps, there proved to be several days of exploring the 442 years of history cramped into a relatively small area.  From the Indians who lived there almost a millennium ago, to the Spanish, the English, the Spanish again, the Americans, the Confederates to the present, all have left their footprints in St. Augustine.

We bought 3-day Trolley Tour tickets, which enabled us to get around town without using our car.  The Castillo de San Marcos, which has changed hands often, as various countries have owned or claimed the land is build of coquina a local building material made of compacted seashells that is quarried on nearby islands.  The material was impervious to cannon shot, as it seemed to absorb enemy fire.  Many roads and other buildings in the area are made of similar material.

Henry Flagler had enormous impact on St. Augustine when he built The Ponce De Leon Hotel in 1888 and then connected St. Augustine to Jacksonville and the north with his railroad.  The hotel is one of three luxury hotels he built in a 3-block area and is an absolute gem.  Built to showcase all the newest technology, Thomas Edison personally wired the hotel for electricity.  Louis Comfort Tiffany designed many of the chandeliers and lamps.  The building has the world’s largest collection of Tiffany windows.  Unbelievably, the complex was completed in eighteen months.  In the 1960’s the hotel was converted to a university and now houses Flagler College.

Before leaving on Friday, we visited the Memorial Presbyterian Church that Flagler built to memorialize his daughter and where he is also entombed.  There was a ceremonial cannon firing at the castle, which we were able to watch at 10:30 AM before returning to the hotel.  We drove out to the St. Augustine lighthouse and walked the 291 steps to the top where we got a great view of the whole town.  We left St. Augustine and spent the afternoon driving to Tallahassee where we stopped for the night.  In the evening we drove out to see the capital building and stopped for dinner at a good Mexican restaurant.

The weather was changing and it looks like we will get rain over the next few days.  We had thought about doing some hiking in the Apalachicola National Forest, but elected to drive through it instead.  At one point on Route 375 a bird with a wingspan larger than the windshield swooped down and came within a few feet of our car.  I did not recognize it.  At the Gulf, we turned west on Route 98 and continued driving along the shore.  It seems that almost every other property we pass has a For Sale sign.  We stopped in Panama City and visited a B&B that Cindy had found on the Internet, and then had oysters at Papa Joe’s, a local favorite for fresh seafood.

It was still early so we continued driving.  As we passed through Tyndall Air Force Base, six fighter jets took off in rapid succession, screaming over the highway, causing us both to duck.  When we tried to make a hotel reservation at a Comfort Inn, we were told we would have to pay $150/night due to the fact that this was Spring Break and hotel rooms were at a premium.  Since it was raining now anyway, we decided to drive on to Pensacola and stay at the Crown Plaza downtown, which is more of a business hotel.  The hotel is located in a refurbished railroad station, with a modern addition.  We got upgraded to a corner room, probably due to lack of customers, which is very nice.  The location of the hotel in downtown Pensacola is unusual in that although they have a beautifully restored building, a new highway overpass runs directly in front of the hotel, cutting off any view.  There is also an active railroad crossing behind the hotel, which might bother someone who is not a railroad buff.

After spending a half hour in the gym, and then eating breakfast at the hotel, we set out to drive through the historic district of Pensacola on Sunday morning.  There was not much going on in the area so we continued over to the Pensacola Naval Air Station where we went to the National Naval Air Museum.  What we thought would be a one-hour visit turned into an all-day affair.  We arrived at 11:00 AM and immediately joined a tour, given by one of several hundred volunteers.  Many of the volunteers work in the museum, but there are scores of them who refurbish antique aircraft, which are donated to the museum.  Many of these retired engineers are 75-90 years old.

After the tour, we watched a couple IMAX movies on flight, and then took a second tour of the flight line that featured driving by 40-50 historic aircraft parked outside.  Pensacola is the home of the Blue Angles who are currently performing elsewhere, but are scheduled back here next week.  This was one of the best museums I have ever visited.  It continued to rain on Monday so we spent our last day in Florida catching up on our journals and mail.

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