The Atlantic side of Florida

We last checked in while camping out at the Miccosuke Indian Casino on the edge of Miami.  We had planned to spend 4 - 5 days exploring the city, but after two days we both agreed to pack up and move on.  Between the crazy drivers, the rude residents, the bars on the windows, the high prices, and the trash in the streets we were not thrilled with Miami.

We spent some time down in Little Havana since all the tourist guides marked the area as a "must see".  Instead we agreed with the person who posted on line that it was more of a "should of seen it 30 years ago".  Most of the area is pretty run down and there's just not much to see there anymore.

We left Little Havana and headed across town to the Monastery of St. Bernard de Clairvaux.  The monastery was built in Spain during 1133-1144 AD and occupied by the Cistercian monks for almost 700 years.  Due to a social revolution in the area in the mid-1830's the monks were turned out and the buildings converted into a granary and stables.  In 1925 William Randolph Hearst purchased the buildings for around $250,000.  The structures were dismantled, packed in hay in wooden crates and shipped to New York City.  About that time, hoof and mouth disease had broken out in Spain and the US Dept. of Agriculture quarantined the shipment, opened the crates, burned the hay, and mixed up the numbered stones.  Hearst developed financial problems and the newly re-crated stones were moved to a warehouse where they stayed for 26 years.  In 1952, they were purchased and moved to Miami as a tourist attraction, where the monastery was put back together at a cost of $1.5 million.  In 1964 a benefactor purchased the building and presented it to the Episcopalian parish of St. Bernard de Clairvaux.

The monastery is surrounded by all sorts of businesses, rushing traffic, and noise, yet it stands as a quiet oasis in the midst of urban chaos.  We spent a little over an hour wandering the building and grounds and could easily have spent a day simply sitting, meditating, and contemplating our navels.  The peace and quiet was very soothing.

Monastery of St. Bernard de Clairvaux

Fountain in the gardens

Walkway within the courtyard

Inner courtyard

On our second day in Miami Heinz was going to surprise me for breakfast.  He had discovered a restaurant on line that had been voted "Best Breakfast in Miami" for several years straight.  He surprised me alright;  the restaurant was about 20 miles from the casino, after an hour on the road we had managed to travel 10 miles.  Traffic was insane!  We have spent many an hour creeping along the 405 in Los Angeles during rush hour, but both of us agreed that this was worse.  Since we had to be at South Beach at 10 AM for an architectural tour we ended up blowing off the restaurant and headed to the beach.  

We had a great tour courtesy of the Miami Design Preservation League.  The League started in 1976 in an effort to save the Art Deco and Art Moderne buildings in South Beach.  Interestingly enough, I (and apparently many others) have always associated South Beach and the surrounding area with color, but our guide explained that all that bright color on the buildings didn't occur until the 1960s.  The buildings were originally either all cream or white. 

Beach Patrol Headquarters, 1934

Hotel, 1935

Etched glass in the Essex Hotel lobby, 1938

Miami reflections 

After leaving Miami we headed north to Patrick AFB's FamCamp, Manatee Cove RV Park.  This is a great little park tucked away between the Atlantic Ocean and the Banana River.  The base is relatively small and supports NASA and Kennedy Space Center operations.

We met up with an old roommate of mine from our college days and her husband at Downtown Disney in the DisneyWorld complex.  And boy, do I mean complex!  DisneyWorld is now up to six theme and water parks.  Downtown Disney is just an area of shops, restaurants and bars built around the Disney theme.  We decided to meet there because it was easy to find, relatively convenient for all of us, and had a good variety of food choices.  I haven't seen Joan for at least 31 years although we've kept in contact all those years.  The four of us had a great time and laughed a lot as we caught up and talked about everything from baseball to politics.

Boy, it's so nice of Joan to dye her hair white so I'll have an idea of what I'll look like when we're not 30 anymore...what do you mean we're already not 30 anymore!?

Heinz was thrilled when he got to meet Tom Hanks at Legoland...we've all agreed to keep the secret and not let him know that this isn't really Tom.


Nessie visits Legoland.

The two of us popped up the next day and headed back to Orlando to spend the day at Epcot.  We thought that we'd spend the day and head home about 5 or so.  Imagine our surprise when we realized that the day had flown and it was already close to 7, so we wandered a bit more and stayed for the fireworks show.

Mickey and Minnie posing endlessly.

Really, you couldn't find a cheerier shirt to wear to Disney World?

Couldn't find Goofy, so he settled for the Epcot ball.

Really cool ride designed to show how math can be used to engineer a ride.  You design your own roller coaster ride, climb into the robot and go for your ride while watching a computer screen.  Your body moves through the ride at the end of the robot arm.  If you want to see our ride go to http://www.mathmovesu.com/#/sum-of-all-thrills, click on Replay Your Ride and enter UJVAVE3.

Sunset at Epcot

We stayed at Epcot for the evening fireworks.  We had never seen the fireworks at Disney World, and boy were we surprised.  The show beat any fourth of July fireworks we have seen - and it is put on EVERY night, at a cost of about $100,000 per night for each of the six Disney theme parks... whew!

Leaving Epcot behind we headed off to St. Augustine FL, the oldest continually occupied European settlement in the U.S.  We started our day at the Castillo de San Marcos.  Construction of the Castillo started in 1672, has served six different flags, survived hurricanes, and withstood bombardments and sieges.  It was built by the Spanish to protect their empire in America.  In 1702 the English attacked and the entire community of St. Augustine took refuge within the walls of the fort, 1,500 townspeople and soldiers along with their animals for 51 days!

The walls are made of coquina, a porous form of limestone native to Florida.  Under the Spanish the fortress had whitewashed walls with red towers.  During the siege of 1702 soldiers repaired and re-painted damaged areas of the walls each night, leading the British to send reports back to England that the Castillo was made of "a self-healing substance" - early psychological warfare in action.

Vestiges of red paint can still be seen on the corner tower.

We got to see reenactors performing the Spanish cannon firing drill.

Spanish 6-pounder cannon, capable of firing a cannonball 1-1.5 miles.

The casting work on the cannons was phenomenal - these are handles used to move the cannons.

We spent the rest of the day wandering around the town of old St. Augustine.  This is one beautiful small town.  The city is a popular tourist destination, for its Spanish Colonial buildings as well as early 19th century architecture.  The historic center is located close to the waterfront and has historic homes from various periods, most reconstructions of buildings lost to fires, but some original to the city's beginnings.

Oldest schoolhouse in the U.S, over 200 years old.

In the late 1800's, the city was a winter resort for the wealthy northern elite and there are several elaborate hotels and private homes from that era in the city.  One is the Memorial Presbyterian Church built by Henry Flagler, a partner in Standard Oil and owner of the Florida East Coast Railway.  Flagler wanted to build a church as a memorial to his daughter and granddaughter both of whom died in childbirth.  He contracted a firm to build a Venetian inspired church, but wanted it completed within one year.  The work was completed on time and he gave each worker a $150 bonus.  That doesn't sound like much until you learn that the workers had been paid $1.00 a day for their labor, so their bonus was about 6 months pay.

Memorial Presbyterian Church

We only spent two nights in the St. Augustine area and moved on to Savannah, Georgia.  If you'd like to view more of our fun in Florida, check out the photos on Photobucket.

Heinz and I had heard that Savannah was a pretty, quiet, laid-back place and we have to agree.  We stayed at Skidaway Island State Park about 10 miles southeast of town.  The park is lovely, peaceful, and cheap, only $28 a night for electric, water, and cable TV hookups.  There are Spanish moss-draped live oaks everywhere and there are trails through the salt marsh with lots of wildlife around.

Entrance into Skidaway Island State Park

Home Sweet Home

We spent a couple of days exploring Savannah and enjoyed every minute.  As usual, we opted for a tour - this time, a walking architectural one, Architectural Savannah.  Our guide, Jonathan, has a Master of Architecture from the Savannah College of Art and Design, the largest art school in the U.S.  The school has 9,000+ students, 2 campuses in Georgia, and additional campuses in Hong Kong and Lacoste, France.

Our tour lasted around 90 minutes and wandered around the oldest part of the city.  The buildings we saw ranged from the Colonial style of the 1700's through the years to Art Deco and the high tech of 2011.  We learned a lot about Savannah and about architectural styles popular in the U.S. through the ages.  

Davenport House, circa 1820

Thomas-Owens House, circa 1819

As we wandered around the city center, we stumbled across the homes of Flannery O'Connor (author) and Juliette Gordon Low (founder of the Girl Scouts).  We saw many beautiful old homes and lovely small parks.  The city was planned in the 1700's by James Oglethorpe, a British general and laid out into wards consisting of a park surrounded on two sides by homes and public buildings on the other two and two rows of houses behind each of those.  There are now 23 parks in the city center.  

Chippewa Park

Flannery O'Connor's childhood home

Savannah Cotton Exchange on the riverfront, circa 1887

We also took in the Georgia State Railroad Museum.  The Central Rail Road and Canal Company was chartered in 1833 with the intent of building a railroad canal to Macon, 190 miles inland from Savannah.  In 1836 the company changed its name to Central Railroad and Banking Company.  By 1843 the company had constructed 190 miles of track.  Construction of the Savannah Repair Shops began in 1851.  The museum is currently located in those repair shops, including the roundhouse.  The roundhouse is a large structure where locomotives were stored overnight, refueled, and repairs completed.  In 1855 the original roundhouse was a complete circle, but in 1926, half of the building was demolished and the remainder expanded to accommodate larger engines.  

Roundhouse (circa 1926) with smoke from steam locomotive that is warming up.

Turntable, used to rotate the locomotives, allowing access to all of the stalls in the roundhouse.

Turntable looking into the roundhouse.

Locomotive stored in the roundhouse.

We have since left Savannah and are currently enjoying the fine city of Charleston, SC.  More adventures from the deep south to follow.

Here's our friends of the day: