Christmas in Florida - 2 (and it's already February!)

I left off just before arriving in Winter Park for a brief visit with our cousins. For the children, it was the first time they met! They are fourth cousins! My grandmother and Rog's grandmother were sisters. Our fathers were 1st cousins. We were 2nd cousins. Our children are 3rd cousins. Their children are 4th cousins. Better than cousinhood, though, is their age difference. Seven years ago, a girl on their side and a boy on ours. Five years ago, a boy on their side and a girl on ours. The kids hit it off immediately. No language problems; they simply played. S was a bit apprehensive about not being able to speak English enough to play and I assured him it wouldn't matter and it didn't.
I got to spend a little time with G, Rog's wife whom I love as if she were my sister.

That evening, we had a big family dinner (G's other children and grandchildren were visiting that week, too.). The next morning we walked around the Rollins campus. Then, before the others joined us in downtown Winter Park, we got to see a parade. It was a small parade, just two college bands, West Virginia and Syracuse, in town for a competition. We had a very nice lunch and then, when the others joined us, the children played a bit in the park. G and I sat on a bench and let the others go off for a walk together. It was nice to just relax. Later, a little pool time and off to G's house for dinner. On Saturday, we spent the morning at the Winter Park farmer's market before heading westward towards Clearwater.
Clearwater is home -- to the Phillies, of course, but this was too early for Spring training. It is also home to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium and Rescue Center. It's claim to fame is the dolphin, Winter, who has been fitted with a prosthetic tail. However, the center is much more than just this dolphin. It rescues dolphins, turtles, otters and other marine life from the accidents caused by passing boats, mostly, but also from being orphaned or sick. It's a research and education center and well worth the visit.

When we left Clearwater to go down to Fort Meyers and Sanibel, we stopped at the Manatee Viewing Center at the Tampa Electric plant at Apollo Beach. Those humps you see in the photo are a herd of manatee. You can never see a whole manatee out of the water. They don't jump as dolphins do, so sometimes you see a head, sometimes a tail, but most often just the backs. The manatee are vegetarian, so the fish are not bothered by them and there are plenty of fish around. Where there are fish, there are birds, lots of birds, mostly pelicans. Again, this is well worth visiting.

The kids spent a day on the beach at Sanibel and I spent a day on my own, just relaxing. Oh, we visited the Naples Gardens with a lovely display of Frabel's glass works -- not to be confused with Chiuly, after which we headed eastward towards Homestead. We followed the Tamiami Trail, where we saw a couple of very big alligators -- or crocodiles -- we didn't get close enough to examine their snouts. S spotted a flamingo and I spotted an eagle. There were plenty of herons, egrets, and other birds. If the Everglades park had been open, maybe we would have tried to go, but because of the government shutdown, we did not. In fact, we got to Homestead a bit late and wanted to get up early the next day for the drive to Key West.
It's a long drive down to Key West and we stopped along the way, but arrived at the Southwinds in time for lunch. It was too early to check in, but we were allowed to park the car, so we went across the street and picked up some lunch to eat on one of the tables near the swimming pool. This motel used to be the Southwind (singular) and this is where we used to stay when I was little. There's the original motel and the one that used to be next to it has been incorporated into it, so it takes up half the block. The other half of the block is the Best Western Hibiscus, which used to be just the Hibiscus. It is unrecognizable. Across the street is the Blue Marlin, exactly as it was. Because the Southwinds bought the next door property, they transformed the old office into a bar that stays open until 2 a.m. They put our family in the room next to the bar. Well, not me, I was streetside in one of the original Southwind rooms. But putting a family of four, two of them little kids, next to a bar was not a good idea. Between the bar noise and the cocks crowing at around 4, they got next to no sleep.
 We walked around Key West. There's a free shuttle bus to take you from one end of the island to the other, so we took a bus over -- got off at Dey St. and stopped for a moment at 614. I even knocked hoping Suzie DePoo's daughter might be there, but there was no one in. We watched the catch of the day being prepared and the pelicans waiting not too patiently for the scraps to be thrown to them. There were plenty of tarpons milling around, too. And a manatee! In the port, eating seaweed. And some small sharks. We walked back to the motel along Duval and that's when we finally checked in to the motel. There are three pools to choose from -- the little ones were happy. We hopped back on a shuttle to return to the port for dinner.

On the drive up to Miami Beach, we stopped on Key Largo for a glass bottom boat ride, which all enjoyed. We had dinner at the Havana 1957 on Lincoln Road -- excellent and we had enough left-overs for dinner the next evening in our suite! The only downside was the noise, even though we were outside and not near the loudspeakers. We could not hold any kind of conversation. L and G went for a walk and I stayed in with the kids. The next day, after a long visit to the Frost Science Museum they went to the beach, while I went for a walk in the neighborhood.

We ended our trip with a drive through around the Wynwood walls, the murals that are so well known around the world. A long picnic in a park with a playground and plenty of shade trees. Last minute shopping. Back to Fort Lauderdale for the flight home -- delayed 4 hours.