Thursday, March 8, 2007

A beautiful morning. We pack our bags and head to South Beach for a couple of days. Really looking forward to it. Staying at the Wave Hotel on 350 Ocean Dr. When leaving the Everglades we set the GPS for shortest distance instead of shortest time. We were routed all through Homestead, back where all the orchards and nurseries are. We wound through all sections of Miami. We saw a lot—some bad, some good. The route took us right past the Fairchild Botanical Gardens, so we stopped and took the tour. Beautiful place—and very big—88 acres I think. They take you around on a tram and then you can walk around also. We had lunch at the snack bar there. Very good. There was a Chihuly exhibit going on while we were there. Several of his blown glass pieces were featured throughout the gardens. At night they are all lit up—I’m sure it’s quite spectacular. When we finished there we hit “resume” on our GPS and it continued us on our route. There are some spectacular estates around the gardens. Finally we made it to the hotel and checked in. At first I was disappointed because the hotel wasn’t located in the heart of the art deco district, but when we walked around later that evening I was so thankful we weren’t. It was right in the middle of spring break. We had dinner at the News Café that evening and watched the parade go by. At night it was pretty chilly and these girls would go by dressed as scantily as possible. And the traffic on Ocean Dr! Bumper to bumper. All the kids cruisin’—most of them on mopeds. Quite a sight. Met our friend, Mark, for drinks at the Clevelander Hotel bar. Met him at the Keys last year. He runs a parasail outfit on the beach here. Back to the hotel and bed.

Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Up this morning and on the computer to take care of some things and update my journal. While trying to save my changes, I got a fatal error message and lost the whole file—five months of entries. What a way to start the day. Was able to recreate some of it from the blog. We left the Keys around 10:30 and arrived in the Everglades at 1:00. Got set up and relaxed for a while and then went over to the Anhinga Trail. A beautiful day. Had burgers and a vegetable for dinner. Played 500 rummy for a while.

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Felt pretty good this morning, considering what I had to drink last night. Was cool this morning but warmed up nicely. We went to Big Pine for the last time to do some last minute grocery shopping. On the way, Mike topped off the tank. After grocery shopping we went to Pizza Works and had a couple of slices of pizza. Good as usual. Back home and put everything away. I took a shower and washed my hair and to bed early.

Monday, March 5, 2007

The cottage

This is the cottage that famous playwright, Tennessee Williams, bought in 1950 after renting it for 10 years. He wrote many of his plays while living here. The modest little cottage also has a gazebo and pool on the property. It's in a cute little neighborhood not far from Duval St. He used to ride his bike into town. The property is now privately owned. How historic!

Very chilly and windy today. I got on the computer and practiced my Spanish for a while this morning. Then played spades for a while. At 1:00 Mike went over and played shoes and I cleaned. (Something wrong with that picture.) Getting ready to pull out of here on Wednesday. Decided to go into Key West one last time. Went to La Te Da for dinner and the show (Randy Roberts). I was glad I had my suede jacket on. It was pretty chilly. Before we went to La Te Da we entered the address for Tenessee Williams’ cottage into our GPS (that my brother gave us) and stopped to see it. The cottage is in beautiful condition. Tennessee Williams bought the modest white painted cottage in 1950 after renting it for several years. Many of his plays were written there. Besides the little cottage there is a gazebo and a pool on the property. It is now privately owned.

The dinner and show at La Te Da as usual was great. Randy did Bette Midler, Cher, and another red-headed persona. We love his show. A great way to end our stay here.

When we got back to the campground, Floyd, Clara and Chuck were at Carolyn and Andy's. So we stopped and I had another glass of wine. Going to feel like crap tomorrow. Three excedrins before going to bed.

Sunday, March 4, 2007

This morning started out clear but then clouded up. Perfect day for kicking back and reading a book or watching old movies. We did both. Later that evening we took the laundry and drove to Big Pine. Read while the washers were going but after we got the clothes in the dryers we walked over to Pizza Works and had dinner. I had a meatball sub and Mike had a sausage sub. They were so good. We’ll miss that place. Went back to fold clothes at about 8:30 and freaked because they had locked the doors, turned out the lights, and put the closed sign up. Fortunately, we got in, folded the clothes and headed back.

Saturday, March 3, 2007

Another beautiful, but warm and humid, day. Perfect for going over to Little Palm Island for brunch. Little Palm Island is about a mile or so out in the Atlantic and is rated one of the 10 best resorts in the world. They take you out there in an old woody Chris Craft replica. The island is quite beautiful. PT109 was filmed there. Brunch was absolutely incredible. A buffet was set out with oysters on the half shell, crab, shrimp, all kinds of fruit and salads, and another area with several different kinds of breads. Then when you’ve had your fill of that you have a choice of 6 different hot, made-to-order entrées. You can order as many as you like. I had pork medallions, French toast, and Hawaiian benedict. They were all delicious. They keep the champagne coming. Then you have several choices for desert. They bring them out on a big platter and you can have as many as you like. Needless to say, we ate too much. We went out there with Carolyn and Andy, our Canadian friends. The highlight of the day though was when a key deer buck walked right up to our table. The dining room is a large, open veranda looking out on the ocean. The key deer just roam around. This guy is quite old. They're very small--the top of his back came up to about mid-thigh on me. I fed him some fruit. Not supposed to, but I did.

Friday, March 2, 2007

Up and out early this morning (for us). Stopped at Porky’s (on Marathon) for breakfast. We were headed to Robbie’s marina on Islamorada to catch the boat out to Indian Key, which was a prosperous wrecking community until it was attacked by the Seminole Indians. Most of the buildings were burned down. It’s now a state park and you can go over there and they take you on a walking tour of the island. It’s also a great place for shallow snorkeling. However, the dock was destroyed by a hurricane and it hasn’t been fixed yet. No boat. However, we could have kayaked out there (they even had a glass bottom kayak), but Mike didn’t want to do that. So we continued on to Windley Key and the fossil museum there. Apparently when they were quarrying for fill for the overseas railroad, they discovered a bunch of fossils in the rock and found it was quite beautiful rock once polished. They call it key stone. In fact, the post office in St.Louis is made from it. We walked some neat trails in the hammock (which is supposed to be the highest in the Keys). Then back home and changed and headed to Key West for a sunset sail aboard the schooner Liberty. Wonderful evening. Saw a beautiful sunset. After that we had a wonderful dinner at the Roof Top Café. Pork tenderloin with a sweet potato bisque. We dined outside on the deck. All kinds of people and stuff going on around Mallory Square on a Friday night. Quite entertaining.