March 13 - St. Augustine

March 13

We made it over to the east coast to St. Augustine today. When we had gone through this area last month if was cold and rainy with the clouds clear down to the road. The weather was perfect today. You could spend a couple of days here and still not see everything. We stuck to the Colonial Spanish Quarter, the Castillo de San Marcos or fort, and Henry Flagler’s Hotels. Construction of the fortress was begun in 1672 but most of what we see today goes back to 1756. Its walls are made out of a limestone that is called Coquina and are a couple of feet thick. It has survived sieges, bombardments and hurricanes and has flown 6 different flags beginning with the Spanish. St. Augustine was established in 1565 by the Spanish and the settlement is the oldest permanent settlement in the continental US. Thus they claim the to have the oldest of many things including the oldest house and the oldest school. The Colonial Spanish Quarter is now a very touristy pedestrian friendly area with trams telling tourists about the area, homes as museums, and lots of restaurant and shops. It is very charming and inviting. We enjoyed an ice cream cone as we walked along the streets.

Castillo de San Marcos

Guard at Entrance

Really Interesting Cannons

Chris at the Entrance of the Colonial Spanish Quarter

We had read, good old AAA tour books, that the Lightner Museum had a demonstration of 19^th century mechanical musical instruments at 2:00 and made sure to be there. The museum along with the City Hall is in Henry Flagler’s Alcazar Hotel. This was the second hotel he built and is a magnificent building. It was known for its spa. It boasted Russian baths, an indoor pool and an exercise area. The ballroom was on the second floor and overlooked the pool. The demonstration of the mechanical instruments was fascinating! Our guide played a number of machines, none that I had seen before, dating back to the late 1800’s to the 1920 or 30’s. The later ones were similar to our jute boxes taking a nickel or dime to play a song using paper reels. They were putting small bands out of work thus forming the musicians union. It was amazing to hear them played. You can go on YouTube doing a search on “Lightner Music Machine” to see and hear some of the amazing music. One that played both a player piano and violin was called the Violano Virtuoso. Another older machine was a player piano with drums, symbols and organ pipes all in one.

Violano Virtuoso

Our Guide is pointing to the player piano.The drums are on the left,
the cymbols on the right and the organ pipes are in the middle.

Across the street is the first Flagler hotel, the former Ponce de Leon, and now the home of Flagler College. We caught the tail end of a tour given by a student. The 1887 building is magnificent both inside and out. Tiffany designed the interior and we saw the entry hall along with the dining hall that includes 79 tiffany windows. Now this beautiful dining room is the dining hall for the students! How wonderful that these two amazing buildings are is such beautiful condition, are still being used, and open to the public. We heard more interesting stories about Flagler. It’s fun to put together the information we have heard about him on various tours. We want to find a good biography on him when we get home. It would make for fascinating reading.

Detail on the ceiling and dome in the ntry hall of
Flagler's Ponce de Leon Hotel built in 1888.

Norm and I tried the beer sampler at the Brewery

Our Dinner View

We walked down to the waterfront and had dinner at a local brewery sitting upstairs on a balcony overlooking the bay. On our way out of town we stopped to see the beautiful Memorial Presbyterian Church that Flagler had built in memory of his daughter who died in childbirth at the age of 30. We only touched on the city but I think we did a good job hitting the highlights.

March 11 and 12

March 11

It looked like it would be cloudy with a bit of rain today. We drove through more of the horse ranch country to the small town of Micanopy, the oldest inland town. Today its old buildings are charming and filled with antiques, a couple of cafes and B and B’s. Cross Creek was our next stop with a visit to the 1930’s homestead of Marjorie Kinnen Rawlings, the Pulitzer Prize winning author of “The Yearling.” We stepped right into the past on a docent led tour. None of us had read either “Cross Creek” or “The Yearling” but went straight to Barnes and Noble after the tour. What a fascinating woman and the life she chose to lead. She was raised in New York City but her favorite childhood times were spent on the family farm. She was a writer since she could put pencil to paper, became a journalist and eventually a romance novelist. She wasn’t satisfied with her writing and her publisher encouraged her to write about what she knew. Her husband’s brothers were trying to get in on the development boom in Florida and were encouraging them to move down to this area in Cross Creek to find a quiet place to be able to become serious writers. It worked for Marjorie. She immediately fell in love with the area and felt at home. Their little “cracker” house was in the middle of an orange grove and in need of repair. They were hoping the oranges would pay the bills but with the depression, it didn’t pan out. Her husband ended up leaving to write sea stories on the coast but never found success. Marjorie sold a novella for $500.00 just as she was eating her last box of crackers. She was able to make improvements to her house and continue writing. She had fallen in love with her neighbors and they, along with her surroundings, became the focus of her writing. She earned the Pulitzer Prize with “The Yearling.” She was described as being the “bell of the ball” and loved entertaining. She was in the inner circle of the writers of the day with the likes of Hemmingway, Fitzgerald, Margret Mitchell and loved entertaining them at her home. She had even made a little bar out of her firewood closet next to the fireplace. Our docent said he would have loved to have been a fly on the wall when Frost was sitting in the dining room with her and they were discussing their writings. When she finally added an indoor bathroom, she had a party to celebrate. She filled the tub with ice and drinks, the potty with roses and the sink held the glasses! She must have been a kick! She remarried and continued to call Cross Creek her home. Her husband was in the hotel business and they spent some of their time at the coast along with visits to New York. She encouraged the neighborhood children to go to school, even making them dresses and shirts, but it didn’t take. Her wonderful stories were about her treasured friends and lovely setting but they could never read them. She left her home to the University of Florida upon her death at just 57. She envisioned her home becoming a retreat for young writers. Before it changed hands, her husband removed everything thinking it would soon be worn with people in and out. When the state finally took over the home, he and her maid helped put the house back together to be enjoyed for years to come with visitors like us.

Margorie Kennan Rawlings Home
Author of  "The yearling"

She did most of her writing on this table on the porch.

So many well known writers of the day stayed in this guest room.
Gregory Peck slept here when he was filming "The Yearling."

March 12
More beautiful weather today for our trip to Rainbow Springs. Norm’s friend, Dick Kilburg, had told us not to miss this area. We hadn’t read about it at all and would have missed it altogether. The 72 degree springs are the head waters for Rainbow River. What a gorgeous setting. The azaleas are in full bloom and the trees have all their spring leaves. The water is crystal clear and when against the white sandy bottom, it is absolutely turquoise. We rented a canoe and had a leisurely paddle down the river. Lucky me sat in the middle and took pictures while Norm and Chris did all the paddling, so I quess it was leisurely for me anyway. We lucked out and saw a river otter, the tail of a huge alligator and about 50 turtles sunning and swimming. Their little noses were poking up all over. One side of the river is natural and the other side is lined with homes, docks and rolling lawns. Fish were providing lunch for water birds. It is now a state park but got its start back in the 1920’s as a favorite spot for tourists. It became an amusement park with a river boat, zoo, rodeo, and even overhead gondolas. The swimming hole is still a favorite. It lost its appeal as theme parks started hitting the scene and closed in the 70’s. The state took it over in the mid 90’s. The Visitor Center was closed because of fire damage. A snake had pushed its heat lamp up against the wood side of its cage and it caught on fire! Poor snake, I doubt that he made it.

Christy Paddling a Canoe on Rainbow River

Gorgeous Rainbow Spings and Rainbow River

Turtles Basking in the Sun

Rainbow Springs

From here we drove over toward the coast for a couple of quick visits to the Crystal River Archaeologist State Park and the Yulee Sugar Mill Ruins State Park. We had seen the mounds left by Native Americans in various areas in florida. This area goes back to 200 BC. The mounds were ceremonial, burial and trash sites filled with oyster shells. One of the ceremonial sites was a long stair climb high and overlooked Crystal River to the gulf. The sugar mill was one of many that were on plantations in the area in the 1850’s. Most of the homes were burned during the Civil War and the mills were not used again. There was a good explanation as to how the sugar was processed. This particular plantation had about 150 slaves.

Sugar Mill From 1880's

In and Around Gainesville

March 10

Lucky us! Before leaving St. Petersburg, we went to the Strawberry Festival in Plant City to see The Band Perry. We all like country music and are Band Perry Fans so this was very special! It was great to see them in a county fair type setting. I bet they had booked this event before they won at the CMA’s. They sang their familiar songs plus did some old favorites from other entertainers. She had energy to spare. It was a good sized fair and lots of girls were in their shorts and cowboy boots. They had strawberry crepes, shortcake and chocolate covered strawberries. We did our “fair” share of sampling. We have been enjoying Plant City strawberries for breakfast all week.

The Band Perry

We were in for some nice surprises today. We thought we would take a scenic road and head up to Gainesville to check out the city and go to an estate sale. The scenic road was through beautiful horse country with miles of black wood fences and large expanses of green rolling hills and oak trees. Norm pulled one of his quick u-turn when we saw a garage sale sign. The owner was selling some of her parents “stuff” plus some of her own. It was obviously an ongoing sale. She was quite a character and didn‘t mind talking. She was single and probably about my age and still had 28 horses, did horse training and horse breading. We learned a little about the horse business in the area. In the past she had close 100 but the recession has taken a toll of the horse business. It turns out that this area is second to Lexington, KY in the horse business and I think there is a little bit of competition going on. Maybe the black fences are there as a contrast to the white fences in KY. Norm found a couple of things to sell on Ebay. The estate sale was a bust but it took us into some different neighborhoods. The University of Florida, home of the Gators, is one of the largest in the country and has a huge campus and stadium. The second surprise was a wonderful 3 mile walk at Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park. The area encompasses a large sinkhole which is now a savannah type prairie with a spring running through it. Newer sink holes are being formed. We saw wild horses with lineage back to the horses introduced by the Spanish and sooo many alligators from babies to the big guys along with sandhill cranes prancing around. They would prance around, throw clumps of dirt and plants up in the air, stomp on them and then pick at them for bugs. Great walk. Our next surprise was finding a horse show on our way home. We drove back along another scenic highway through more horse country and saw some huge striped tents and a horse ring with jumps. Norm pulled another immediate u-turn and asked some questions. We had come upon a large scale national horse competition. They were just about ready to do a “hunter” competition with jumps simulating those in a hunt. We found seats in the bleachers, got a glass of wine and watched to goings on. A woman sitting behind us was full of information. She and her young daughter were down for a couple of months to enter the competitions. This show is part of a huge circuit of year long shows. The riders were earning prize money plus qualifying for the annual Hunter Prix in Saugertieas, NY, with prize money of $500,000. What a different niche of society and one I know nothing about. I do know it takes lots of money to be in this horse world! Tom, you probably know all about the Hunter Prix and have ridden in it! There were over 2,000 horses here for this two month period!

Sinkhole in Paynes Prairie State Park
Alligator Country

A Couple of Big Guys
We saw dozens of Gators at Paines Prairie

Horse Competition
Look carefully and you can see the horse jumping.

One of the Horse Jumping Rings

Caught Another Jump

We had planned on dinner at Sonny’s Bar B Q. Every city has one and the billboards said that “Sonny was a good guy with really good Bar B Q!” Of course we had to try it. The acclaim was right on with fabulous ribs and wings. I thought I would have a beer, thinking maybe some local brew, but when she asked if I wanted a Bud or Bud Lite I decided that water was just fine. Somehow our days turn out to be filled with interesting finds!

More Lovely Beaches

March 7, 8 and 9

We drove out to St Pete’s Beach lined with lovely resorts, beach volleyball and shade umbrellas before driving out to the end of a narrow horseshoe peninsula and Fort De Soto County Park. When we walked out onto the pier, we saw dolphin lazily swimming along side the pier. We enjoyed a picnic lunch, a walk on the beach and an ice cream cone. Edy’s ice cream is a new favorite! There is a sign warning swimmers to shuffle their feet when standing in the water to scare off the sting rays! These white sand beaches are beautiful!!!

Pier at Fort De Soto

St Pete's Beach
Check out the Tee Groins

We headed north today along the Gulf stopping in Largo to visit the Heritage Village. There were a number of historical buildings including the oldest log cabin in the area, a well stocked general store, sugar mill and sponge storage house (they dove for sponges in the area). A docent took us through a pre turn of the century home and we were introduced to some things household items we had never seen before. These tours are always interesting. It was well designed with airflow, heart pine interior (resistant to all bugs), and had electric lights as well as gas since electricity couldn’t be counted on yet. There was also a botanical garden. It was all free! We walked out on the pier at Clearwater Beach with lots of people in the water and sitting on the sand with colorful beach umbrellas. This is one of my favorite communities. Most of these beach towns have nice downtowns, mostly small, plain 1950’s homes and gorgeous beaches with really nice cement fishing piers. They all have harbors and lots of boats; this one was lined with charter boats for rent. The fancy newer homes and hotels line the water and are on the barrier islands. Strip malls line the highways. We had enough time to stop a Honeymoon Island State Park, said to have the prettiest beaches. We didn’t have our suits but we walked in the warm water looking for shells. No sting ray signs here! In 1939, a New York developer was trying to drum up interest in the area and together with Life Magazine held a contest for newly weds. The winners would stay in thatched bungalows in sunny Florida for two weeks giving the island its name. It really was beautiful with white sand and blue green water. The state park had really nice facilities for day use and camping; showers, umbrellas and chairs for rent, hamburgers, wooden swings looking out to the water, and a nature center. We planned our day to end up in Weeki Watche to have dinner with a friend Norms, Dick Kilburg. They had worked together in the computer business. He and his wife live in the middle of 80 acres shared with her sister and husband. We all had a great time and Norm really enjoyed reconnecting. We sat out in their caged yard by the pool. Yes, they build large screen cages covering their backyards to keep the bugs out! They sent us off with a bottle of red wine imported from the Kilburg winery, a German winery said to be the oldest in Europe still in operation and still in his family! It dates back to the 1450’s. We will save it for a yummy steak dinner.

Clearwater Beach

Watch Out for Sting Rays!
Tee Groins are giant yellow pillow looking things used for erosion.

House of Seven Gables at Heritage Park

On the 9^th, we drove north to Silver Springs to the Wilderness RV Resort east of Ocala for our last week in Florida. We will be here for a week to see the north central part of Florida. We plan to drive west to Rainbow Springs and one more look at the Gulf, drive north to the area in and around Gainesville, and over to the Atlantic coast to St. Augustine and Daytona Beach. We are going to meet up with Sandy and Glen, Norm’s sister and husband, for a quick visit in Port Canaveral. We made it here and got set up just in time for a real down pour. The interior is really pretty and really green. They have had a lot of rain. The trees are all coming out with their bright green leaves. The huge oaks look so stately with their green leaves and contrasting Spanish moss.

Waiting Out the Down Pour

Ringling Museum and Clearwater Aquarium with Winter

March 5 and 6

Today was the Ringling Circus Museum, Ca d’Zan, and the John and Mable Ringling Art Museum, a full day! John made his money in the early 1920’s on real estate, oil, railroad and the circus. He was another brilliant man with lots of imagination, hard work ethic and brilliant mind. He made his money without much schooling. Their home, the Ca d’Zan, a Venetian Gothic palace, was completed in 1926 and was their winter home. They had other homes, traveled in a very elaborate train car with the circus, and went to Europe looking for both art and circus acts each year. What a life! We took an excellent docent led tour of the beautiful mansion. He had a six foot long bathtub carved out of marble so he could have a nice soak. Beautiful wood, art, furnishings, lots of marble and lovely chandeliers were everywhere you looked. The docent tours always give you a little insight into the people along with the home. The Tibbles Learning Center is the home of Howard Tibbles’ hand crafted miniature circus, the largest in the world. It was amazing and covered all aspects of circus life. The Circus Museum had information on some the well known circus performers and restored circus wagons. The Italian Renaissance art museum is now a state art museum and was built on the estate in 1927. It is magnificent with a gorgeous courtyard and filled with masterpieces from the 17^th century baroque period plus later European and American pieces. We caught a quick tour of the baroque art including a large room holding 4 gigantic Peter Paul Rubens cartoons or paintings made as patterns for tapestries. The room was actually designed to hold the art. Details from some of the art where taken when the room was designed. He had wallpaper made to match a wall in a painting and had detailed columns built to go along side a painting to match a column in the art piece. We only saw a small section of his collection. It was a wonderful day!

One of the countless Scenes Done in Miniature

The Back Corner of the Ringling Mansion

What a Performance I Gave!

A Restored Circus Wagon

One of the four Rubens
 Note the column in the painting and the column on the wall.

Courtyard at the Ringling Art Museum

Statue "Unconditional Surrender" in St. Petersburg

Clearwater was on tap for today. We had all seen the movie “Dolphin Tale” before we left on our trip and realized we would be near Clearwater Marine Aquarium where the injured dolphin, Winter, was taken in 2005. It is a non-profit rescue and research facility with not many visitors until the movie came out. They went from 500 visitors on a good day to 5,000 since the movie was released 6 months ago. They are doing a good job of corralling the visitors in a small area and giving information and viewings with shows going on all day. It is a work in progress. The movie was filmed right here. We were lucky to see Winter swimming with and without his prosthetic tail. They had otters and sea turtles also. They release the animals that can go back into their habitat but those that who can’t stay at the aquarium or other aquariums are found for them. They had just released three dolphin the other day. A trolley took us across the inland waterway to a large building that was used during the filming for indoor sets and now tells the behind the scenes story of the making of the movie. It is a very inspirational family type movie. Winter has had quite an impact on many handicapped people of all ages since his survival and acceptance of his “new” tail. The movie brings that out. With the aquarium open seven days a week, I hope that individuals can still have quite personal moments with this remarkable dolphin. We took the Sea Life Safari boat out on the water with a marine biologist on board. They put out a net for three minutes to collect sea life, brought it in and recorded what they found. Of course we got to see what came up in the net first hand. We got off for a few minutes on a sand island full of shells. Another amazing day in paradise

Winter Without His Tail

The Prosthetic Tail

Winter With His Tail

Bringing Up the Net With Sea Critters

Getting Back on the Boat After Collecting Shells

St. Petersburg

March 4

What a crazy change in the weather. Rain last night and really windy all day today. The temperature went from the high 80’s to the 60’s. The rest of the week looks nice. It wasn’t beach weather so we drove into St. Petersburg to check out the city. It sits right on Tampa Bay and is beautiful. We walked out on the pier making every attempt not to be swept away by the wind and came across a fabulous restaurant for lunch. We were going to try for picnics on the beach and some home cooked meals this week but what can you do when the weather doesn’t cooperate. Lunch out sounded like a good idea. At the end of the pier we hit our mark with the Columbia restaurant overlooking Tampa Bay. It has been in existence since 1905 in the Tampa area in Ybor City. A Cuban immigrant, Casimiro Hernandez, opened a corner café serving lunch to people working in cigar factories close by. Now the restaurant is still in the family and takes up a whole city block. They can serve 1,700 people a day at that location! They have seven other locations now and we were lucky enough to run into one of them today. They have won one award after another. Somehow we find these great places. I guess our stomachs are leading the way but our waistlines are paying the price. Our server was great and encouraged us to try some tapas and their signature salad that is finished off at the table. We chose empanadas, mussels and lightly breaded scallops for our tapas along with Cuban bread. They have been using the same bakery for 90 years! We couldn’t leave without having dessert, white chocolate bread pudding made with the Cuban bread topped with a rum sauce and dark chocolate. Oh my! Needless to say it was a one meal day. Norm is under the weather with a cold so we took it easy the rest of the day.

We loved everything about the historical Columbia Restrauant;
the food, service and water view!

Our Tapas Tray - YUM

Last Day at Disneyworld

March 2 and 3

We got a slow start before checking out a couple of the deluxe resorts today and delux they are. The Floridian in Disney World reminded us of the Del Coronado in San Diego, beautiful. It sits on one of the large lakes. The rooms ranged from $500 to $3,000 per night!. We enjoyed a nice lunch on an outside patio near the lake. Next we checked out the Contemporary Hotel Resort, another on the deluxe list. Norm’s sister Sandy had told us the bar on the 14^th floor was a great place to see the Magic Kingdom fireworks display and we wanted to check it out. We made a plan for the evening and went back to do some laundry, easier here with a washer and dryer in our unit. We dressed up a bit and went over to the Floridian to hear an orchestra that plays every evening. It was delightful to sit in the beautiful setting and listen to the music while we did a bit of people watching. Some must have been the cranberry pickers for the Ocean Spray convention that was taking place there. We took the monorail over to the Contemporary Hotel and luckily got a seat at the bar overlooking the Magic Kingdom. As the sun went down the lights came on we enjoyed our drinks and an appetizer dinner. The fireworks were beautiful but we were glad that we had seen them the night before close and personal. It was a great send off for our last night in such a magical place. Now that we had everything figured out in this magical world we have been living in the past week, it was time to good bye.

We are sitting at the beautiful Contemporary Hotel Bar
waiting for the fireworks to begin.

Today we are back home in the Manor and all settled in with clean clothes, even clean sheets and food in the cupboard ready to go. We took the short drive St. Petersburg to a KOA campground that is at Madeira Beach on the gulf. $82.00 a night is a bit steep for a KOA camp ground spot and it‘s not even on the water!!! No, they don’t have room service or fresh warm towels after your shower. It does feel good to be home again. We love both worlds, the ritzy and the Manor.