Living Our Dream

Dora Canal

Bushnell, FL

As we said in our last post, we had only short drive from the Yalaha Bakery to Mount Dora for our pontoon boat cruise of the Dora Canal. We took the same cruise two years ago with other friends, and we thought Barbara and Dick would enjoy it, too.

There are several boats that offer crises of the Dora Canal, but we went with the same one by Lake County Waterways that we took last time. We arrived in plenty of time to get a good parking spot and pay for our cruise. The photo below shows some of the other passengers waiting to board.

The Dora Canal is at the opposite end of Lake Dora from where the tour starts, so we headed out across the lake. As we left the dock, we could see Boathouse Row where there are expensive, lakeside homes built right over the water. Years ago, these homes started out as simple boathouses. The boat owners got tired of driving to the lake every Saturday and again on Sunday to go boating and fishing, so they started to take cots and coolers so they could spent the night. The boathouses soon were remodeled into more elaborate homes. Today, these homes are highly sought after and bring high prices even though the housing market is down.

We took our cruise on a Saturday, and there was a bass-fishing tournament going on so we saw a lot of bass boats as we crossed the lake.

We got to see some of the big homes along the waterfront. One such house was built by Harry Duncan in 1926. Dancer/actor Buddy Ebsen got his start giving dance lessons in an upstairs suite and dancing with female guests at Mr. Duncan's parties. Buddy Ebsen is best known for his role as Jed Clampett on The Beverly Hillbillies. The Duncan House is now a bed and breakfast.

Out on the lake, we also saw numerous birds like cormorants, gulls, an osprey and a couple of bald eagles. We couldn't get good photos of the birds when they were flying, but one of the eagles landed in a tree near its nest.

At the western end of Lake Dora we entered the Dora Canal. The canal, which was previously known as the Elfin River, connects Lake Dora and Lake Eustis. In the late 1800s, a steamboat captain hired a crew to dig out the river by hand to make it more passable. The Dora Canal is about a mile long and has been called the most beautiful mile of water in the world.

There are a number of mobile homes lining the canal on the southern end.

After a few hundred yards, there are no more homes, and you can really appreciate the natural beauty of the canal.

Since it was a Saturday, there was a lot of boat traffic on the canal, and we didn't see quite as much wildlife as we did when we cruised the canal back in 2008. Click here to read about our 2008 visit.

Even though we didn't see quite the variety of wildlife, there was still plenty to see. There were a lot of anhingas, like the female below, drying their wings along the banks...

...and in the trees.

Like cormorants, anhingas don't have oil in their feathers like ducks and geese do. The lack of oil allows the birds to dive deep underwater to hunt fish, but they must dry their wings before they can fly far afterward.

We also saw quite a few blue herrons along the canal. These large, wading birds didn't seem to be bothered by the relatively heavy boat traffic.

One area of the canal had several blue herron nests in the trees along the banks. Unfortunately, we couldn't get a good photo because of the sun overhead.

The predominant tree along the canal is the bald cypress. Although they are conifers, bald cypress trees lose their needles in winter. They lose their needles, not because of cold, but to conserve water during the winter dry season.

Bald cypress trees are long-lived. The one in the photo below has been dated to be about 2500 years old. Even though its top is missing, it is still very much alive.

The cruise goes north up the Dora Canal, turns around in Lake Eustis, then returns back down the canal and goes back across Lake Dora. It was only about 2:30 when we disembarked, so we walked a little way up into the town of Mount Dora. Mount Dora is a fairly busy tourist town with numerous inns, bed and breakfasts, shops and restaurants.

You can even take a carriage ride around town.

One building we passed had an interesting facade designed to look like a library. Perhaps it was originally a book store.

There were also other "artsy" features like the mural shown below.

It was an excellent day with good weather, good fun, good food, and good friends. We have more planned, so look for our next post.

Mixon Fruit Farms

Sarasota, FL

Margery's online research into things to see in the Sarasota area turned up Mixon Fruit Farms in nearby Bradenton. By the way, Bradenton is also the home of spring training for the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team. Mixon Fruit Farms is a third-generation, family-operated citrus grove that has tours of their grove and facilities every day except Sunday. Since it was less than half an hour away from where we were staying at Sun-N-Fun Resort, we drove over to take the tour.

We got there about 10:30 AM and signed up for the 11:00 tour, then we looked around the gift shop a while. When we went outside to board the tram for the tour, we found out we were the only ones who had signed up for the morning tour, so we went out into the grove in a 6-passenger golf cart instead of the big tram.

Mixon Fruit Farms started in 1939 when Willie and Rosa Mixon bought 20 acres of land, planted some citrus trees, and opened a roadside stand. Today, the farm has grown to 350 acres; and they ship boxed fruit all over the United States and Canada.

The entrance to the grove has a huge archway covered with bougainvillea.

Once in the grove, we stopped so Cain, our tour guide, could demonstrate the picking bags and bins used by the workers. With bags slung around their necks, workers climb ladders up to 18 feet tall to reach the fruit. They pick on their way down, and by the time the reach the bottom of the ladder, the bag can weigh up to 70 or 80 pounds. The bottom of the bag opens to dump the fruit into the bins.

It was great having our own personal tour. We could stop any time we wanted and get out of the golf cart to get a close-up look.

Modern citrus groves use water misters to protect fruit and trees during occasional periods of freezing weather. The misters spray relatively warm well water on the trees. The misters also create a fog layer around the trees that helps keep cold away.

Mixon also has examples of some of the older methods of protecting the trees from cold scattered throughout the grove. In the early days, they used smudge pots that burned diesel fuel. The pots, which were placed every other tree, not only generated heat, but they also created a layer of dense black smoke that helped insulate the trees.

In the 1960s, they used large wind machines. The moving air created by the machines helped keep frost away. Each machine could protect about 10 acres.

One thing we learned on the tour was how to identify a grapefruit tree even if it doesn't have any fruit on it. The grapefruit leaf is a double leaf with a heart-shaped leaf at the base of the main leaf.

Mixon Fruit Farms donates the use of land for a wildlife rehabilitation and educational facility. The facility is run by Wildlife, Inc., whose main rescue facility is located on nearby Anna Marie Island.

Wildlife, Inc. rescues both native and non-native animals that have been injured. Native animals that are rehabilitated can be released back into the wild.

Wildlife, Inc. keeps a number of animals at Mixon Farms. The two tortoises in the next photo are not native. They are African spurred land tortoises that can grow to be up to 300 pounds and live up to 100 years. People get these tortoises as pets, then when the pets get too big, they are frequently released into the wild. Unfortunately, these burrowing tortoises displace the native gopher tortoises, which are a threatened species.

Another non-native we got to see was a green iguana named Spike who was the subject of an amusing story. A church pastor called Wildlife, Inc. to report an iguana on their property and asked if someone would come 'rescue' him. When Spike was placed in his new home at Mixon Fruit Farm, one of their part-time workers saw him and said, 'Hey, that's my pet iguana!" (They look all the same to us, but a 'parent' can identify their own.) Seems the fellow also worked maintenance at the church and had been keeping Spike there unbeknownst to the pastor! Since Spike is a non-native, the worker agreed to let him stay with Wildlife, Inc. rather that risk his escape. As a former pet, the iguana was handled a good bit, so he was content to let Paul pet him.

The little screech owl in the next photo is a native that was hit by a car and suffered a broken wing. She can't fly well, so she will remain at the rehab center. Incidentally, the tufts of feathers on top of the owl's head are not ears. The owl's ears are on the sides of its head just about even with the eyes. The exact purpose of the "ear tufts" isn't known, but some think they aid in camouflage to help the owl blend in with tree bark. Most forest owls have ear tufts while owls that live in open country do not.

After our tour of the citrus grove and the wildlife rescue area, we took a self-guided tour of the fruit-packing facility. Unfortunately, nothing was going on because it was a Saturday, but we got to see the fruit washing machine, the sizing machine and the sorting tables. Informative plaques and a video showed how everything worked. Perfect fruit goes into gift boxes, blemished and misshapen fruit are used for juice, and bad fruit is discarded. Skin and pulp from the juicing operation become animal feed at a nearby farm. The photo below shows the area where gift boxes are packed.

After seeing the packing facility, we stopped in the gift shop at the Grove-Side Cafe where we ordered a Cuban sandwich to share. We got the sandwich to go and carried it outside to the butterfly garden where they have a couple of picnic tables.

There is also a kid's maze there, as well as some plywood cutouts where we took a tourist photo.

Mixon Fruit Farms also has a pavilion where they have concerts. The pavilion, along with the gazebo beside the koi pond, can be rented for special events such as wedding receptions. The pond was quite large, and very pretty with palm trees and bougainvillea all around and an artificial waterfall in the shadows to the right. Notice the blue heron to the left of center.

The heron posed nicely among the water lilies.

There were lots of koi in the pond, and some of them were almost two feet long.

We really enjoyed our visit to Mixon Fruit Farms, especially our personal tour of the grove and the wildlife rescue area. There is a charge of $8 for the tour for adults, and we thought it was well worth it. When we finished up at Mixon it was only early afternoon, so we took the long way home along the offshore barrier islands out in the Gulf. We'll tell you about it next time.

Florida Keys Part II: Sightseeing in Key West

After touring Crane Point on Key Vaca near Marathon, FL, we got up bright and early next morning and headed south on U.S. 1 to Key West in the car. Although there is camping in and near Key West, it is very expensive and most of Key West has very narrow streets that would be difficult to negotiate with a large vehicle like an RV.

As many of our regular readers know by now, we like to take guided tours of new areas. We found two for Key West - the Conch Train (pronounced konk - an edible, marine mollusk) and the Old Town Trolley Tours of Key West. The Conch Train looked like fun, but the Old Town Trolley was the same company that did the tour we took of St. Augustine last year. We liked that tour; and besides, the trolley made more stops. We could hop off at any stop to sightsee and just get on the next trolley that went by, so we decided on the Old Town Trolley.

Another advantage to a guided tour was we could park at the visitor center for free and ride the trolley into town. Most parking in town is in pay lots or metered street parking - another good reason not to take an RV to Key West.

One of the first stops on the trolley tour was the Southernmost Point. This is the southernmost point in the Continental United States accessible to civilians. There is a concrete marker in the shape of a buoy there, and we had to stop for the obligatory southernmost photo.

In this area are the Southernmost Guest House, the Southernmost Hotel, and the Southernmost House. There is actually a house farther to the south than the Southernmost House. It was built later and is called the Southernmost Southernmost House, but it's not as picturesque as the original Southernmost House, which is shown in the photo below.

The Southernmost House is a guest house and museum. It was built in 1896 as a private residence at a cost of $250,000 (equivalent to $6 million today). It underwent a $3 million restoration in 1996.

Just to illustrate how far south Key West is, it is closer to Havana than it is to Miami. It less than 100 miles to Cuba, but it is about 130 miles to Miami "as the crow flies."

Being close to Cuba means Key West has had a lot of Cuban influence. In 1890, Key West had a population of 18,000, half of which were said to be of Cuban origin. The battleship USS Maine sailed from Key West on its way to Havana where it blew up sparking the Spanish-American War. There was a huge influx of Cuban refugees during the Mariel Boatlift when Castro allowed people to leave Cuba for a short time back in the 1980s.

Back during the Mariel Boatlift, there were so many refugees that the Border Patrol set up checkpoints along US Highway 1. These checkpoints inconvenienced the locals and deterred tourism. As a tongue-in-cheek protest, the city of Key West seceded from the Union and declared itself a micro-nation called the Conch Republic. Although not a serious secession, the protest did help tourism (and T-shirt sales) when the roadblocks were finally discontinued.

Another sign of Cuban influence are all the chickens roaming the streets. Back in the early days, the Cubans liked to watch and bet on cock fights, and they brought their chickens with them to Key West. When cock fighting was outlawed by the United States, the Cubans simply turned their chickens loose. Although there have been thoughts of rounding them up, it was decided to let the chickens continue to roam free. Since they roam free and must fend for themselves, they eat a lot of bugs.

 

The next trolley stop where we got off was the main stop down by Mallory Square at the western end of the island. We walked around the square and the docks. There was a yacht tied up that was as large as some we saw at the marina near Palm Beach.

We could also see a large cruise ship that was in port.

We strolled around some of the shops that were in the area of Mallory Square. Then we walked up Whitehead Street to Harry Truman's Little White House.

Franklin D. Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945, during his fourth term (this was before term limits). Truman, who had been vice president for only 83 days, became president. After overseeing the end of WWII, Truman was exhausted, and his doctors wanted him to rest. Someone suggested the use of the base commandant's residence at the Key West Naval Station since the house was vacant at the time. There was no long-distance telephone service in the Keys, so Truman would not be interrupted unnecessarily. In fact, telephone lines were run from the house to a Navy ship docked nearby so they could communicate with Washington when they needed to by means of the ship's radio.

The house was originally built in 1890 as a two-family duplex for the base commandant and the paymaster. In 1911, the house was converted to a single-family dwelling because the new commandant had a very large family and needed more space. During Truman's term in office, which ran from 1945 to 1952, he liked it so much that he spent a total of 175 days in the Little White House in Key West.

Although the Little White House is no longer owned by the U.S. Government (it is owned by the Little White House Foundation), it is sometimes still used by former presidents. In fact, President Carter visited in June of this year. Therefore, photography of the inside is not permitted for security reasons. The house looks the same way it did when Truman stayed there. Approximately 90% of the original furnishings (down to the stapler on Truman's desk) are still there. We were surprised, although we shouldn't have been, to find the furniture looked just like Margery's parents' furniture down to the breakfront. The photo below shows the outside of the house.

 

The ocean used to come up almost to where the palm trees are in front of the house. In 1909, the harbor was dredged to accommodate larger ships and the material from the dredging was used to fill in the area in front of the house so it is now at least 500 feet from the water. Barracks (now condominiums) were built between the house and the ocean. The Navy has done a lot of dredging around Key West over the years. As much as 30% of the existing land area of Key West is fill from dredging.

Although we didn't get off the trolley, the tour also goes past the house where writer Earnest Hemmingway lived from 1931 to 1939.

Hemmingway spent a lot of time at Sloppy Joe's Bar, which is still in business. It used to have a different name, and it used to be a few doors down the street; but in 1937, the landlord raised the rent from $3 a week to $4. Joe Russell, the owner of the bar, refused to pay the increase and rented a place a few doors away on the corner of Greene and Duval Streets. The old bar never officially closed for the move. The customers just picked up their drinks and bar stools and carried them up the street to the new location. The photo below shows Sloppy Joe's Bar.

Right across from the Hemmingway House is the Key West Lighthouse. Hemmingway said it was a good thing it was so close to his house because it often helped him find his way home from Sloppy Joe's at night. The photo below shows Key West Light.

 

The first lighthouse, which was 65 feet tall, was completed in 1825. It was close to the beach and was destroyed by a hurricane in 1846. A new, 66-foot lighthouse was built on higher ground and was completed in1849. After surrounding trees began to obscure the light, the height of the tower was increased by 20 feet in 1894.

We learned about Truman and Hemmingway, and found out Key West has long been a magnet for celebrities. Other famous residents of Key West include Jimmy Buffet (singer), Mel Fisher (treasure hunter), Calvin Klein (fashion designer), Boog Powell (baseball player), Tennessee Williams (playwright), John James Audobon (naturalist), and Kelly McGillis (actress - Top Gun and Witness).

There was too much to see and do in Key West for a one-day visit. After taking the trolley tour and doing some sightseeing, we called it a day and headed back to the motor home. We would return the next day to see the sunset. We will tell you about our second day in Key West in our next post.

South Florida's Gold Coast Part IV: Miami Beach

After Thanksgiving, we took a drive north to Miami Beach. We were planning to visit Vizcaya, which is an estate built along Biscayne Bay in the early 1900s by industrialist James Deering. We decided to follow a campground office hand-out that took us by way of the scenic route. It took us past some of the beautiful, old homes closer to the coast rather than via the Florida Turnpike.

The scenic route also took us through Coconut Grove. It was once a tropical village of Bahamian seamen; but today it is a "hip" Miami neighborhood with boutiques, seasonal festivals, fine dining, and abundant night life. The photo below shows sidewalk cafes and a number of boutiques with brightly-colored awnings.

 

The next photo shows Coco Walk, which is an open-air mall in with dining, entertainment, art galleries, and specialty shops. There's even a big, pink flamingo out front.

Coconut Grove also has a number of buildings with unique architecture. The photo below shows a store with an intricate, copper sculpture over the entrance. It's difficult to see in the photo, but there are shapes that look like butterfly wings surrounded by a background of small flowers and leaves.

Shortly after driving through Coconut Grove, we arrived at Vizcaya. Vizcaya was built as a winter home by James Deering, who was vice president of International Harvester. Construction was started in 1914 and completed in 1916. Vizcaya is an Italian Renaissance-style estate that used to consist of 180 acres (only 10 acres remain today) and included the main house, extensive gardens, and a village of support buildings that serviced the estate.

Vizcaya was such an elaborate undertaking that more than 1,000 workers were employed during its construction. That was 10% of the male population of the city of Miami at the time.

James Deering died in 1925. In 1926, a hurricane severely damaged the house and gardens. Dade County purchased the house in 1952, opened it as a museum, and began an ongoing program of restoration. The house and many of the formal gardens have been restored; and there are plans to restore more of the gardens, the support buildings in the village, and a few of the rooms in the main house that are now being used as offices.

The photo below shows Margery beside the fountains at the entrance driveway.

The front of the house, which faces Biscayne Bay, is shown in the next photo.

 

There is a boat dock in front of the house on the bay. A little way out in the water is an intricately-carved stone breakwater that is shaped like a Venetian barge.

 

There is also a tea house along the bay that has views of the stone barge, the house, and out into the bay. The photo below shows Margery and Paul in the tea house.

 

Inside, the house is quite elaborate and ornate. Unfortunately, photography is not permitted inside the house, so we'll just give a brief description. The house is built around a large, central courtyard. This courtyard was originally open, and there were several large doorways (without doors) in the exterior walls to allow the ocean breezes to circulate freely. A glass roof and glass doors were added in 1985 to protect the interior from the weather. The roof and doors also allowed the addition of air conditioning which was beneficial in protecting furniture and artwork from humidity.

The first floor has a reception hall, library, music room, living room, and dining room. The bedrooms were on the second floor.

The house contains fine antiques, furniture, sculpture, and artwork collected from all over the world. Vizcaya has 22 sets of china so guests would never get bored by having to eat from the same china pattern twice. One set of china is not the original set that James Deering ordered from England, but is a replacement set. The original set was being shipped from England aboard the RMS Titanic and now rests on the bottom of the Atlantic. White Star Lines, owner of the Titanic, provided the replacement set of china.

Even though the formal gardens at Vizcaya have been reduced in size from what they originally were, they are still quite extensive. The photo below shows just a portion of the gardens.

 

Throughout the gardens, there are smaller areas that are designed to be a little more intimate. The photo below shows one of these areas.

 

One entrance to the garden area in the photo above was through an arched, coral-lined grotto.

The hibiscus in the photo below is an example of the tropical plants in the gardens at Vizcaya.

The gardens have numerous fountains and water features like the one shown below.

 

In the next photo, Paul is standing by another water feature called the Water Stairway.

 

From Vizcaya, it is only about a 15 minute drive to Miami Beach, so we decided to continue our drive to see the historic, Art Deco hotels in South Beach.

South Beach is the southernmost part of Miami Beach and is the first part of Miami Beach to be developed. Development of the land that was previously a coconut plantation began in the 1910s. In 1920, a land boom began in Miami Beach and development increased. Much of area was destroyed by a hurricane in 1926 (the same hurricane that damaged nearby Vizcaya). Then in the 1930s, an architectural revolution hit South Beach with the introduction of Art Deco and Streamline Moderne architecture.

In the '70s and early '80s, the area fell into decline, and South Beach became a run-down, high-crime area. Then in the late '80s, a renaissance began when there was an influx of fashion professionals into the area. Even though some of the old Art Deco buildings had already been lost, many have now been restored to their former glory. Sidewalk cafes line one side of Ocean Drive, and the ocean is right over the dunes on the opposite side of the street.

 

A few of the hotels have antique cars parked out front to add to the ambiance.

 

The old Buick in the next photo coordinates with the colors of the hotel.

 

We enjoyed seeing the vitality that exists in South Beach, but the quiet of our motor home was a welcomed respite. We are almost at the end of our stay in South Miami, but there was one more thing we wanted to see while we were here before we headed to the Keys. Check back in a few days to find out about our visit to the Everglades.

South Florida's Gold Coast Part I: Palm Beach

We visited Florida's Space Coast, which is the area around Kennedy Space Center. Now it was time to check out the Gold Coast of Florida, which is the area of the Atlantic coast farther south that runs from Palm Beach down to Miami. The Gold Coast includes other cities like West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Pompano Beach, Fort Lauderdale, and Hollywood. We usually avoid heavily-populated, urban areas such as this, but we were curious about the area and its glamor. We also needed somewhere to stop on our way to the Keys and this was a convenient distance from New Smyrna Beach.

We drove a little less than four hours south of New Smyrna Beach and pulled into John Prince Park Campground where we had reserved a site. We don't like to make reservations if we don't have to; but the Snowbirds are starting to arrive in Florida, and from what we could find out, John Prince is quite popular so we didn't want to take any chances. It turned out they weren't anywhere near filled yet, but we figure it's better to be safe than sorry.

John Prince Park Campground is beautifully landscaped. The photo below shows our pull-through site in the full-hookup section.

It has tent sites with no hookups, tent and RV sites with water and electric, and RV sites with full hookups and 50 amp electric. Long-term camping is permitted in most of the sites (lakefront sites have a 14-day limit), so they do get their share of Snowbirds. Honey wagon service is available for those in sites without sewer. Roads are paved, but they are a little tight in several spots. The pads are paved in the full hookup and 14-day sections and are crushed shell in the other areas. The size of most of the sites is quite generous; however, a few sites on the inside of bends of some of the roads are close to the site behind.

John Prince Park is located a little to the south and a little inland of Palm Beach, FL, in Lake Worth. Palm Beach County operates the park and campground. The park is located on the northern part of Lake Osbourne which is a 338-acre lake popular for freshwater fishing and boating.

One thing we didn't know about John Prince Park is that it is right next to Palm Beach County Airpark. The airpark is primarily for private planes (propeller-driven only, no jets), but we also saw (and heard) helicopters taking off and landing. Our campsite was located right next to a runway, and the planes were pretty noisy when they hit full throttle to take off. Fortunately, there weren't that many takeoffs, although Sunday seemed to be a pretty popular time for flights, as did the evening before we left (which was two days before Thanksgiving).

Speaking of noise, there are quite a few distant trains. The reason there are so many trains is the tracks are part of the South Florida Tri-Rail transit system that runs commuter trains from from Miami to Palm Beach. The tracks run parallel to I-95 on the far side of Lake Osbourne. Usually, we could barely hear the trains; but if the wind was right, they would sometimes sound quite close. Although it wasn't that bothersome, we could also hear traffic on I-95, especially when everything else quieted down at night. I-95 is 10 lanes wide in this area, and it carries a lot of traffic.

While staying in Lake Worth, we took a ride around the area. We parked and walked down to the beach, and we were struck by how much bluer the water is than farther north in Myrtle Beach or even in New Smyrna Beach. In spite of the cool breeze that day, there were a few people on the beach including one or two swimmers, a few surfers with boogie boards (also called a body board - a small, light-weight surfboard used to support the upper part of your body while body surfing), and a kite surfer. The kite is the little crescent at the left of the photo below.

 

We parked near a pier with the intention of walking at least part way out to get a good view of the beach. Unfortunately, except for a restaurant that was open at the beach-end of the pier, the rest of the pier was closed. It looked like they were doing some renovation on some of the concrete pillars for the railings.

Our research of things to do in the area turned up a DivaDuck Amphibious Tour of West Palm Beach. We always enjoy trolley and mini-bus tours of a place we have never been before. Two years ago, we took a Duck tour of Branson, MO, that we also enjoyed. We thought the DivaDuck might be a good combination land and water tour. The water part of the tour travels along Lake Worth Lagoon (also part of the Intracoastal Waterway), which would be a good way to see come of the expensive, water-front properties.

The Duck tours of Branson used renovated WWII amphibious vehicles. The name "Duck" comes from DUKW, which is a letter code used by GM, the designer of the original vehicles. Unlike the WWII Ducks, the DivaDuck is a newly-built, state-of-the-art amphibious vehicle called the Hydra-Terra built by C.A.M.I., LLC in New York. The vehicle is 39 feet long and 8 feet wide - just a little longer than our motor home. It can seat 46 passengers and 2 crew members and has a 300 hp Caterpillar diesel engine. The captain has a Class C (commercial) driver's license to operate the vehicle on land and is licensed by the Coast Guard as a Master Captain to operate the vehicle in the water.

 

We arrived early and had about half an hour to hang around the plaza in downtown West Palm Beach where the tour starts. The plaza is called City Place. City Place is a mall-like area with expensive shops, boutiques, and quite a few restaurants. In the photo below, Margery is heading into the plaza.

 

At the other end of the plaza, Margery is sitting by the fountain in front of the Harriet Himmel Theater for Cultural & Performing Arts. As you can see from the poinsettias in the first photo and the Christmas tree in the second, City Place was all decked out for the holidays.

After enjoying the plaza at City Place for a while, it was finally time to board the DivaDuck. While the tour spends most of the time in the water, the DivaDuck travels on land for several blocks to the boat ramp at Curry Park where it drives into the water of Lake Worth Lagoon. The photo below shows us heading down the ramp. Notice the label on the paddle hanging over the cab where the captain is sitting.

 

Henry Flagler, the oil/railroad/hotel magnate, was responsible for much of the development along the east coast of Florida. Last year when we visited St. Augustine, we learned how he honeymooned there with his second wife, and then built the Ponce de Leon Hotel a few years later. Flagler also bought up a number of short line railroads and formed the Florida East Coast Railway to carry guests to his hotels. West Palm Beach was originally intended to be the terminus of the railroad, but a freeze prompted Flagler to extend the railroad to Miami. The railroad eventually ran all the way to Key West.

Palm Beach was established as a resort by Henry Flagler. In the late 1800s, Flagler began buying up land on the barrier island of Palm Beach and built the Royal Poinciana Hotel followed by the Palm Beach Inn as winter retreats for wealthy northerners. Flagler founded West Palm Beach on the mainland side of Lake Worth (the lake lies between the barrier island and the mainland) as a community for those who worked on the island. Today, Palm Beach remains a place for expensive hotels, fine restaurants, high-end shops, and homes for the affluent. Although West Palm Beach has its share of fine homes and high-end shops, it is more of a bustling, working city.

Lake Worth was once a fresh-water lake. There were no rivers or streams flowing into the lake - it was fed only by ground seepage from the Everglades to the west. Today, the lake is a salt-water lagoon and is permanently connected to the Atlantic by an inlet. When the inlet was created in 1918, the dredging created Peanut Island at the mouth of the inlet. Although the island was originally named Inlet Island, it was renamed Peanut Island for a planned peanut oil operation which failed in 1946.

Today, Peanut Island has a park with campsites, a reef, a pier, and the Palm Beach Maritime Museum. There are no bridges to the island. The campsites are accessed by boat or water taxi. The museum is accessed by a ferry from the museum preview building located in Curry Park on the mainland. There is also a bomb shelter on the island built in secret for President John F. Kennedy, who occasionally spent time during the winter in Palm Beach.

The tour progressed north on the Lake Worth Lagoon past numerous luxury homes. The house in the photo below was owned by Celine Dion, but she gave her mother this house as a Mother's Day gift. Celine is building another one a little farther to the north.

 

The photo below shows a house that now belongs to an attorney but used to belong to the well-known pianist, Liberace. He had a pool in the shape of a grand piano.

 

Other famous past or present residents of Palm Beach include Ann Coulter (conservative columnist), Donald Trump (business magnate), Ivana Trump (Donald's ex-wife), Madeleine Astor (Titanic survivor and wife of John Jacob Astor), the Kennedy Family, E. F. Hutton (Wall Street broker), Rush Limbaugh (conservative talk-show host), Rod Stewart (singer), Vera Wang (designer), Henry Paulson (U.S. Treasury Secretary), Jimmy Buffet (singer) - just to name a few of the names we recognized.

On the tour, we also learned Palm Beach was named for the coconut palms found growing there. Coconut palms are not native to Florida. In 1878, a Spanish ship carrying coconuts from Havana to Barcelona wrecked and dumped its cargo. The coconuts washed ashore and sprouted on the barrier island now known as Palm Beach.

Another interesting fact we dug up was that, although they may survive for a while, it is likely that coconut palms will eventually be killed by cold weather if planted very much farther north of Palm Beach.

On the way back to the boat ramp, we passed a number of houses on the mainland side of the lagoon. These are still quite impressive and expensive, but not quite as luxurious as the ones on the other side of the lagoon on Palm Island. We also passed a large marina. Some of these boats are HUGE and there were LOTS of them! The photo below shows just a few.

 

Some of the celebrities who currently or used to dock their yachts at the marina include Jimmy Buffet, Magic Johnson, and Tiger Woods.

When we returned to the boat ramp, the captain just drove right up onto the land, and we continued on down the road back to where we started at City Place.

Another interesting attraction that turned up in our research of things to do was the Loggerhead Marinelife Center. The Loggerhead Marinelife Center is an ocean conservation organization and a sea turtle hospital and is located north of Palm Beach in Juno Beach. They are adjacent to one of the most heavily nested beaches in the world. Admission is free, but there is a suggested donation of $5 per adult. The photo below shows the entrance to the center.

 

Sea turtles are generally found in temperate and tropical waters. They are highly migratory, but the females return to the beach where they were born to lay eggs. The loggerhead turtle, along with the green, leatherback, hawksbill, and the Kemp's ridley, commonly nest in the U.S. The loggerhead is most common, but all the above species are either threatened or endangered. The leatherback is the largest at about 6 feet long weighing from 500 to 1500 pounds. The Kemp's ridley is the smallest with a shell length of 2 feet or a little more and a weight of 85 to 100 pounds. The Kemp's ridley is also the rarest and most endangered.

Inside the center, there is an exhibit room with facts about sea turtles (especially loggerheads) and beach ecology. There also is interesting information about shellfish, sand, and coral. There is a display of a cross-section of a simulated loggerhead turtle nest. The turtles mate during migration. The female finds her way back to the beach where she was hatched, climbs out of the water, and digs an egg chamber to deposit her eggs. She then covers the eggs with sand and returns to the water. The female loggerhead will repeat the nesting process up to 9 times in a nesting season. The photo below shows the simulated nest with the hatchlings climbing out.

 

As soon as the hatchlings crawl out of the sand, they head straight for the water. They will spend the first several years of their lives hiding within floating plants, such as Sargassum (which is a brown, free-floating seaweed sometimes also called Sargasso seaweed). The young turtles will eventually leave the protection of the seaweed and head for near-shore habitats such as lagoons and estuaries.

The exhibit also includes a replica of the fossilized skeleton of an extinct sea turtle that was found in our "home" state of South Dakota. At a length of over 13 feet, the Archelon is the largest species of sea turtle that has ever been documented. The photo below shows the Archelon replica.

 

Out back of the exhibit building is the turtle hospital. There are exam and operating rooms where visitors can watch through observation windows if there are turtles being treated. There are also tanks where visitors can view recovering turtles. The photo below shows a turtle named Boo.

Boo was brought to the turtle hospital by fishermen who found him offshore and realized Boo had fish hooks in his mouth. Now that the hooks have been removed, Boo is still slightly underweight and anemic. The web site for the Loggerhead Marinelife Center has a listing of all the current hospital residents and what their ailments are. About 70% of their patients recover and are returned to the ocean.

We are enjoying our time on Florida's Gold Coast. We particularly like the lush, tropical landscaping that comes with being farther south in Florida. There is an even greater variety of palm trees and other tropical plants than there is in parts of Florida to the north. The photo below shows bougainvillea. Although light frost will not kill the plant, it will cause all the leaves to fall off. The leaves will eventually regrow, but here in South Florida, there is little danger of frost.

There is more sightseeing to come along the Gold Coast before we move on to the Keys. Stop back soon to check out our next post.