Florida 2004

January 24 - January 26

After dinner with Jeff and the rest of the gang at an excellent restaurant in Bel Air we retired to a local motel for the morning departure. It was snowing lightly when we arrived at the motel. In the morning of January 24, 2004 this light dusting had turned to 2 to three inches. I-95 was clear but slippery in spots when we left. There were a few fender benders on the Baltimore - Washington Parkway but we were lucky to avoid any problems. By the time we hit DC any signs of snow were gone but the temperature was still at the 16 degree mark. By the time we crossed into North Carolina the sun was out and the temperature at the welcome center was 50. We pulled into the Beaufort area around 5:00 PM and the temperature had turned into a nice 62.

In the morning of Sunday, January 25 we were greeted by a cold rainy, windy day with temperatures in the 40's. After church we drove out to Hunting Island State Park lighthouse.  By the ocean the wind really cut thru. The lighthouse was closed for climbing but two volunteers in a heated building were there to answer questions. This was an interesting married pair. They had tried to ride out hurricane Camille in a 90 foot boat but had been rescued by the Coast Guard only to find that not only had they lost their boat but also their home to the storm. These were two lucky people to be alive. According to these volunteers, the Army Corps of Engineers has determined that Hunting Island will only survive to 2009 as the sea is rapidly eroding the island. We could see evidence of this. There is no dune on this island and a scant 100 to 150 yards, the ocean waves were breaking on the low shore. I don't know how this will play out as on the southern end of the island there is a bridge that leads to Fripp Island which is a privately owned island dedicated to rental properties worth in the millions. If Hunting Island goes, so goes the road to Fripp. I believe that us taxpayers will pay to keep the millionaires on Fripp. We drove over to Fripp but were turned away at the gatehouse. We had no business there.

We then headed to Jacksonville to meet our friends the Stutts to effect a tins for dinner exchange. It  went of without hitch. Jacksonville was warm in the low 70's. On Monday, January 26 we headed south towards Fort Pierce where we would be spending the evening. Along the way we stopped at the Ponce River Inlet Lighthouse which is below Daytona. It is one of the most beautiful lighthouses we had seen. Only the Hatteras light is taller than Ponce on the east coast.  It is a red brick edifice which has been restored excellently. There is an excellent display of a First Order Fresnel Lens which is awesome. It had originally been at the Canaveral Lighthouse but the vibrations from the rocket activity at Cape Canaveral had put it in danger. It now resides in a magnificent display at Ponce. Fresnel Lenses are priceless these days. The secrets of the glass formula used in making the prisms were destroyed during WWII thus exact duplication is not possible. I climbed the 203 tortuous steps to the top and enjoyed the view and the sun.

We also experienced driving on the beach. Speed limit is only 10 mph so it is not advised as a selected route.

Hunting Island Lighthouse, SC	Only 150 yards from the Hunting Island Light	Ponce River Inlet Lighthouse - Its a treasure.	Canaveral Light Fresnel Lens	The water was nice to look at but cold.

January 27,2004 - Miami

Today we visited the winter home of James Deering called Vizcaya in Miami. James Deering was an industrialist in the farm implement business in competition with Cyrus Mccormick. Eventually these two companies had merged and formed International Harvester Corp. This was some rich dude. The estate was built 1914-1916 in the Italian Renaissance style. Since money was no object, rooms from villas in Italy and France were purchased and sent to the US for the appointments to this edifice. In 1926 Deering died and in 1927 the house was heavily damaged by a hurricane. Deering having never married and having no children left the house to some nephews who were financially independent in their own terms. They re-hired the architect who built the house originally and had him bring the house back from destruction. The inheritors tried to run the house as a museum for a while but with the depression this did not work. They tried to sell the house to the county but were refused many times. Finally after public pressure the county bought the property for $1 million. The guide giving the tour said that there are two chandeliers in the house that are worth more than a million by themselves.

I will not go into the descriprion of the interior to any degree only to say that it was spectacular. There were no photo's allowed in the interior. The location of the house is on the edge of Biscayne Bay. To protect the grounds and house from wave action, Deering had a concrete stucture built out in the water shaped like a Venetian barge which blocked the shore in front of the house. At one time there was a bridge from the shore to the barge but the hurricane of 1927 took care of that. The bridge was not restored in the re-build.

We took a guided tour of the house. The volunteer guiding us spoke with an accent and advised that she had been born in Persia and had come to the US at a young age. She had been a medical doctor and had retired a few years ago to the life of a tour guide at Vizcaya. She did a great job.

Vizcaya from the front	Vizcaya from the water gazeebo	Concrete Barge protecting the shore	Vizcaya gardens	Vizcaya from the gardens

January 28, 2004

We arrived at Key West at noontime and were fortunate to be able to check into the Hampton in prior to the 3:00 PM check in time. Then it was off to downtown Key West to see the Little White House used first by President Truman and then to a lesser degree by President Eisenhower and Kennedy. The Little White House is on the grounds of a former Naval facility which was in later years partially sold of to developers. During this transfer, the Little White House property was conveyed to the state which then opened it up as a museum. The interior of the house is furnished exactly as it was while Truman was coming here. Unfortunately photo's were not permitted inside. The tour guide was very knowledgeable about Give them Hell Harry and showed a genuine respect for the man. One of the interesting items in the residence is a photo of Harry at the piano with a very leggy 19 year old Lauren Bacall sitting on the piano. This photo drew notable criticism from Bess. Many of the items discussed by the guide we knew from our visit to the Truman Library in Missouri two years ago. What impressed us most was the simplicity yet elegance of the house.

At Mallory Square there is a sculpture garden dedicated to the individuals who had a notable impact on the development of Key West and the Keys. Much is written about the fact that at one time in the 1800's Key West was the wealthiest city in the US. Most of the wealth here came from the ship wreck business. Fortunes were made in this business based upon someone's misfortune. Stories are also told that in some cases the "wreckers" as they were called actually lured ships on to the reefs surrounding the Keys. Roosters and chickens run wild all through the streets of Key West. They are a protected species. It seems that when cock fighting was outlawed on the Keys, many were released by their owners. Now over the years they rule. They almost outnumber the pigeons.

At around 5:00 PM the crowd started to gather at Mallory Pier for the daily rain or shine "Sunset Celebration". The pier gets filled with spectators who come to watch the sunset  which today was scheduled for 6:01 PM. To entertain the crowd during this time are jugglers, escape artists, acrobats, food vendors, jewelry craft vendors and other eclectic acts. The strangest we saw was the "Cat Man". With a very affected laugh and strange mannerisms, he led his cats through the paces of jumping through hoops. He was a very strange entertainer. At 6:01 the sun did set and the crowd then started to disperse. From what I remember about "Sunset" from the late 1980's, this celebration has really grown. What is really impressive is that it occurs every night - rain or shine. The street performers are working for the tips and from what we could see, a good income could be made.

Harry Truman's Little White House	Typical House in Key West	Sculpture Garden in Mallory Square	This guy made big $	The crowd gathering for sunset
I remember this guy from the late 80's	The Cat Man - He's way out	Schooner on sail before sunset	Sunset Scene at Key West	The sky after sunset at Key West

January 29, 2004

We started the morning with a visit to the Hemingway House on Whitehead St. Hemingway lived in this house with his second wife for about 12 years between 1928 and 1940 before taking off to Cuba and his third wife. Hemingway wrote many of his great works here and the house has been restored to the Hemmingway period. The house was built in the 1840's by one of the richest wreckers - Asa Tift. The property is overrun by descendants of Hemingway's six clawed cats. At present there are around 61 cats on the property. Must keep the poultry population down. Pauline, Hemingway's second was a fashion designer and considered overhead fans to be old fashioned. She had all the fans removed and replaced by her chandelier collection. Kind of strange for Key West where it does get hot and humid. The house has tall ceilings and tall windows which allow for good ventilation. Fans would have helped. The guide went thru the entire house and Hemingway's life. In the garden is an interesting water trough for the cats. At one time Hemingway brought home a tall urinal from Sloppy Joes Saloon and laid it on its side for providing water to the cats. Pauline tried to disguise its former use by covering the urinal sides with decorator tile. At the time of my visit here in the late 1980's, Hemingway's studio was not open for viewing as the iron catwalk between the house and the studio had been removed. Now the studio is accessible by a new set of metal steps.

From the Hemingway house we walked down to Fort Zachary Taylor which was occupied by the Union troops before the secession of Florida and never taken by the Confederates. During the Civil War the fort was instrumental in impeding Confederate contraband destined for the war effort. When the Fort was modified in the late 1800's, all the Civil War smooth bore cannons were buried in the new battery construction and used as re-bar. This fort is considered to have the largest collection of Civil War cannons even though most of them are still buried. Uncovering them would lead to rust and destruction. When they figure out a way to stop the corrosion once uncovered they will undoubtedly remove the other cannons. At the Zachary Taylor Fort there is a great beach. While Key West is surrounded by water, a lot of the beaches while looking beautiful are not conducive to barefoot entrance due to the coral bottom. You have to find a sand beach such as at Zachary Taylor.

We took a break in the afternoon as mom had to wait for a prescription to be called in for her cold. She has been miserable for two days. We later drove to the Southernmost monument and were greeted by two panhandlers that obnoxiously tried to get paid for offering to take pictures of the touristas. One approached me and I brushed him off with success. I watched as another one pestered an older man to the point where the man just walked away from the scene. There were signs out - "Panhandling not Permitted" but I guess these two thought that they were providing a service not panhandling.

Key West Lighthouse from balcony of Hemingway House	Side Balcony of Hemingway House	Hemingway House	Beach at Zachary Taylor Park	Can you identify the panhandlers at the Southernmost point.

January 30, 2004

Today we visited Fort Jefferson National Park in the Dry Tortugas. This fort stands 68 miles from Key West  in the Gulf of Mexico. It occupies 12 acres of a 16 acre key known as the Garden Key. The fort was started before the Civil War but never finished. It was used as a military installation before and during the Civil war to control commerce and also as a military prison. The Lincoln assassination conspirators not condemned to death were imprisoned here including Doctor Samuel Mudd who set the broken leg of John Wilkes Booth after the assassination. Up to today I thought that was the only reason for his imprisonment but today I learned that Mudd had been shown during the military trial to have had numerous meetings with Booth and the others prior to the assassination. Kind of cast a new light on the man. In 1867 Fort Jefferson was  hit with an outbreak of Yellow Fever. The post doctor had died from yellow fever and Mudd had taken over the duties in his place. For his actions in this period, Mudd was pardoned by Andrew Johnson in 1869 after having served 4 years.

The fort structure is an imposing structure - it is thought to be the largest masonry structure in the Western Hemisphere. It is estimated that in excess of 16 million bricks went into the structure. The structure was never finished as the sheer weight was causing the foundations to sink and destroy the water collection cisterns. The third level was never added on or it would have been much bigger. After arriving on the Yankee Freedom Cat which cruises at 30 mph, we took a tour of the fort and then had a lunch in the picnic grounds. For many people this was a snorkeling spot but I did not want to venture into the cold water so I spent the day wandering through the fort's nooks and crannies. Believe me there are plenty. One wonders about a moat around an island but the purpose here was to provide protection from the wave action directly against the walls of the fort. There are two commercial ferries which provide tour/snorkeling services to the island as well as a float plane service. The boat left the fort at 3:00 PM after spending 4 and a half hours at the dock. Plenty of time to explore and snorkel if you wish. It was well worth the $109 senior rate each to see this island so far out in the water.

Sunrise at Key West	Fort Jefferson NP from the ferry	Moat surrounding Fort Jefferson	Second Floor Gun Galleries	Hermit Crab in the Picnic Grounds
Yankee Freedom from the fort	Lighthouse on Fort Jefferson	Bush Key from Fort Jefferson	Magazine and Gun galleries at Fort Jefferson	Shrimpboats are a coming

 

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