Good morning campers! We are taking some quality time here in Florida as near to the Atlantic Coast as we can get. One month from now our adventure will bring us to the Maryland coast, so we are trying to spend as much time here in sunny (today at least it's sunny!) Florida, where the temperature gets below 60 and people complain about how cold it is.
We had a terrific time in Miami Beach with Kevin's parents. We had dinner with them at one of my favorite restaurants, Christine Lee's, for Kevin's dad's birthday, and a good time was had by all, as the pictures will show. Growth down there is rampant - they tear down high-rise hotels on the beach and build high-rise condos. Many of them are sold out before construction is even finished, and it is not unusal for them to be re-sold before opening as well. Joe tells us that a lot of the buyers are from South America, and some I guess are just speculators. It is incredible - he says the crane is Florida's national bird and he doesn't mean the whooping crane... Wilma hit the Miami Beach area harder than the other hurricanes of 2005. High impact glass is at a premium and many of the windows in the ocean front buildings are still covered with plyboard. There are plenty of blue roofs where ever you go and of course many of those glass business signs are still broken out. Tree damage is clearly visible everywhere. In the newspapers there are daily reports of problems faced by the state and it's citizens in the wake of the storms - insurance issues, building disruptions, Florida Light and Power difficulties. And it's not just from this past year of storms that the state is recovering, it's the past two or three years.
We left Surfside for the Florida Everglades, where Wilma really decimated the Park on the southern end. The entire developed area on the Florida Bay - Flamingo Campground and Visitor Center - is closed for the indeterminate duration. We took a drive down there, and it is a mess. Just seeing all the downed trees is enough to make you realize how powerful this storm must have been. Camping at the Everglades was wonderful though. We stayed in the tent area of Long Pine Campground, which is the generator-free section!! and it was very dark and quiet. Beautiful Stars. We saw lots of wading birds, including several wood storks. But no aligators! not that we minded! We could have spent another day or two in the Everglades, but guess what? we have reservations at some State Parks further up the eastern side of Florida, so we must press on. One of the reasons I hate having to make reservations!
On our way toward our first stop on Thursday we head into Davie to see Kevin's sister Sharon. We forgot the camera! so we didn't get pictures! much to our chagrin as we got back on the highway. But we had a really nice - if short - visit with her and with Kevin's niece Chrystal, who we haven't seen in about 20 years. She has grown into a terrific young woman with a great sense of humor. She is also pregnant with Sharon and Vern's first grandchild, which was really wonderful news. (of course that's the way it's supposed to read isn't it? not her first baby but Sharon's first grandchild, right?) Everyone is very excited about the Baby and we hope we get to see "him" before "he" is 20 years old!
We spent the weekend in and around Palm Beach. What a crazy town!! Honestly, that place was probably the best people watching I've had this entire trip. The Face Lifts! The Shoes! The Odd-Couples! And the Jaguars! there has got to be more Jaguars per square foot than in any other city in this country...I've never seen so many outside of a dealership. Our campground during this tour was John Dickinson...which turned out to be the one that had a Controlled-Burn-Gone-Bad the previous weekend. We'd heard the ranger at Highland Hammock last week, talking about someplace where a controlled burn had gone out of said control and jumped Rt. 1 to the Campground, but we didn't realize it was John Dickinson, where we were scheduled for Friday and Saturday night. The place was still full though and all of us dog owners stayed among the charred Palm Trees and burnt out brush. It wasn't ideal, but location wise it was - we spent our time in Palm Beach and came back to the site for bed.
Anyway, Palm Beach Florida - you gotta love it. Super mansions along the ocean, dogs coming into the stores with their owners, jewelery stores selling 32 carat diamonds on every block, The Breakers Hotel. Now there's a Hotel. We wandered around it for an hour or so, culminating with a drink at the Bar while we contemplated the ocean all lit up outside the picture windows and tried to figure out how we could actually afford to stay there sometime for an anniversary or what-not. It seems as though every "high" society event - be it wedding, non-profit's annual gala, or some mogul or others celebration - is held at the Breakers. It must have been mentioned 10 times in the Society Columns in the Palm Beach Post on Sunday. And it's a beautiful place. We spent some time at the Flagler Museum on Saturday, which was the home of the originator of the original Breakers (this is the third hotel on this spot, the first two having burned down), Henry Flagler. What a man. and what a house he built there in Palm Beach for his third wife's wedding gift. He was a part of Standard Oil with Rockefeller back in the day and also spent a lot of time and money developing Florida, thanks mostly I guess to bringing in the Railroad. Of the three historical mansions we have been to on this trip, this one was the best really. Partly because it was a self-guided tour, using these things that looked like remote-controls for your TV to listen to the spiel on, and partly because the house seemed the most approachable. We learned a lot about the Gilded Age and about the Palm Beach 'season' when Henry and his wife reigned as the crown jewels of the area.
Afterwards we wandered along famous Worth Avenue of Palm Beach, pretending we could buy one of those diamonds - and it wouldn't have to be the 32 carat ones, 2 or 3 carats would do just fine - or that we would even want to be wearing some of those very pointy-toed shoes all the gals were sporting. How do they do that? wear shoes like that and walk at the same time?
Back to earth at John Dickinson.
The last few days we've spent driving up the A1A toward St. Augustine - passing through Jupiter, where Tiger Woods just dropped 38 million for an estate - and all the other small beach towns that make up the shore drive. Quiet a variation, from one to the next, in the development strategies. Some with small (read:normal) homes with small yards and low-key businesses, the next one might be high rise condos on the beach with screaming tourist centers and no public beach access. Brevard County seems to have the best for the latter - there seemed to be a County Park right on the beach every couple miles along the A1A. Nice. That's where I'd live. If I couldn't afford an island estate that is...
So, now we are at Anastasia State Park, right in St. Augustine. It's a very nice park, walking distance to the ocean beach, where Ruby is not allowed. The Atlantic is beautiful. It looks and sounds and acts like my idea of an ocean - which, since it is the Ocean I grew up with, makes sense. Lots of shore birds here - including more Wood Storks - and this morning a huge bald eagle stopped in a dead tree just outside of the Coquina Loop, which, because they are quite rare in the area, created a major stir among the Rangers. We are here for four days (yay!) and then we are going backwards, south again, to go to the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral National Seashore this weekend. We made reservations at a State Park that is really further away than we wanted to be, but the County Park in Titusville is full and the two RV Parks we tried to make reservations with declined to let us stay with them!! The first one said we were not long enough (!!) and the second just came right out and said Conversion Vans not allowed. What is that famous saying of Groucho Marx's - I don't want to be a member of any club that will allow me to be a member? Yikes...But we prefer the State and County Parks anyway; we just would like to have been closer to the sights.
Up until yesterday it has been pretty cloudy and gray where ever we went. Not cold but certainly not hot either. Showers every night as well. But yesterday, while it hasn't gotten any warmer really, the clouds went away and the sky has been blue blue blue. Our site at Anastasia is in the "jungle" so it doesn't really warm up until we get out from under the greenery, but then it is a very pleasant 60 or so degrees. This edition of WeGo comes to you courtesy of the Wireless at the St. Augustine Public Library. I am having some back issues so I am typing standing up with the computer plugged in and resting on a window ledge between two public areas... I'm sure I don't look normal to the other visitors here. Meanwhile, the van battery died (again) so Kevin has taken it to be recharged and then we are going to find out once and for all why it does that when we are plugged in for more than 24 hours. I think I got the better end of this deal!
Pictures, lots and lots of pictures as long as I have time to do them, are next. Hopefully it will go faster than last time...
Until next time, WeStayInFlorida. At least for the next few days.
