#10 The Other Orlando

While walking the trail at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Reserve, we met a woman who told us that there is a hidden gem in Winter Park, near Orlando. She told us that the town has a wonderful collection of Tiffany art works, and is just north of Orlando. We decided to visit the Morse Museum of American Art.

The museum, unfortunately, does not allow any photographs of their extensive collection of Tiffany glass work, lamps, vases, and other pieces. About 80% of the works are Tiffany with the remainder from different artists. Louis Comfort Tiffany is the son of the founder, and when he took over the company in the late 1800’s, it was already highly successful.

Louis built an 84 room mansion, Laurelton Hall, in New York. Many of the museum’s pieces were salvaged from the home by Jeanette and Hugh McKeon after a fire ravaged it. Were it not for their efforts, it is likely that many of the works would have been lost in demolition. Having seen collections of Tiffany glass several times before, including in an Auburn, New York chapel designed by Tiffany, we still did not expect to find such a dazzling collection, especially in the amusement park capital of the country!

If interested, you can learn more about the museum at its website:

http://www.morsemuseum.org/

We should mention that the museum is in a neat shopping area with many upscale shops and restaurants (though we had an average lunch at a somewhat pricey one). We sampled some fudge from the young lady holding the tray, and had to go in and buy some. Mmmmmm……..

We are coming to a close of our stay at Orlando’s Turkey Lake Park, and a nice stay it has been. As usual for RV camping, you run into some interesting conveyances. Like this Trike with a car body:

Or this Freightliner RV that has its front end lifted several inches off of the ground for leveling (not many RV’s can do this):

The Freightliner was towing one of the tallest trailers we have seen. We never did find out what’s inside.

We had to get our RV up on blocks too, because of the sloping ground, and got a little more exercise this week with the extra step (making 6 taller-than-normal steps to get into the RV).

This fellow’s tow vehicle (toad) is a bit smaller:

Turkey Lake offers sculling classes, and we saw some aficianados:

Looking at the boat and the ducks below, do you see any similarities?

We also went to the Henry P, Leu gardens in Orlando this week. Mr. Leu owned a very successful construction supply store in Orlando, and when he and his wife moved to the city in the ‘60’s, they left their  house and gardens to the city with the stipulation that it be made into a public garden and that the house never again be occupied. The town improved the grounds and made it into a first rate garden with many pretty walkways, a visitor center, and even a house museum reflecting the early to mid 1900’s lifestyle. A walk through the garden revealed everything from the impressive huge Live Oaks to a Bonsai garden to many azaleas in bloom.

The day before leaving Orlando, we had a fine dinner with our great niece Emily at one of our favorite Chicago restaurants, Maggiano’s.

Emily wouldn’t let us leave Orlando without giving us an official crown!

Onward now to Fort Meyers........

#9 Of Birds and Mice

On the southern part of Merritt Island is the Kennedy Space Center and the adjacent Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The Merritt Island National Wildlife Preserve is on the northern end of the island.  Our tour of Merritt Island started at the visitor center, where you can learn a bit about the ecology and wildlife in the preserve and take a quarter mile walk along the boardwalk. It takes you through some of the striking natural coastal Florida habitat.

 

A seven mile drive takes you through numerous lakes that are teeming with birds and other wildlife.  The “islands” in the shallow lakes often had "standing room only" for the birds.

We came upon one area in a lake where many ducks were bathing, splashing up water like a bunch of kids in a pool. This pic doesn't really do justice to their exuberance but if you look closely you can see the droplets.

In addition to many birds, we saw several alligators, and a few turtles, including one big fellow whose shell was nearly two feet across.

We had another opportunity to commune with nature at the Brevard County Zoo. This small zoo had some really neat exhibits that enabled you to get close to the animals will little or no visual barriers. Anne got a kick out of feeding some crackers to the giraffe.  For being such ungainly looking animals, they are amazingly delicate when taking food from one's hand.

One bird sure reminded us of where he came from. Doesn’t he look a little like his ancestors?

A number of beautiful parrots including several hyacinth macaws and scarlet macaws were also in the collection.

But the highlight of our zoo visit had to be feeding the Lorikeets in the free-flight aviary.

In the spirit of Florida attractions, the zoo has a Zip Line that passes over an alligator pond. Check out this gal zipping above the gator in the lower right corner of the photo.  Lunch, anyone?

Nearby, in the same pond, were a bunch of those toothy beasties! If you look closely you can see that the big fellow in the foreground is missing a rear foot. 

The next step in our trek through Florida was to the Orlando area, and we moved to Bill Frederick Park at Turkey Lake. This is a really nice park run by the city of Orlando. In the course of our travels we have found several city and county parks that have been just great (as opposed to state parks or public campgrounds). This one qualifies as one of the best. In addition to excellent camping facilities, it has boating, a golf course, disc golf, a pool, and a great picnic area. When you couple all this with a location that is only a few miles from Universal Studios and about 13 miles from Disney World, you have quite a camping find. So Shhhh……. Don’t tell!

One of our first activities here was visiting with our great- niece, Emily, who is a college intern at Disney World. In addition to working a full shift, she takes a college business course taught by Disney people. Here she is at the Disney headquarters standing about where she is on the org chart. (just kidding Emily - couldn't resist that one!).

Our main priority was to see Epcot and we spent a long, but fun day touring the World in Epcot. Emily was such a great guide that we got to see and do much more than we would have if she had not been with us. We even learned what Fast Passes are and were able to use them on one popular ride, General Motors' Test Track, that takes you on a vehicle test ride. It was pretty fast and jerky, but fun!

We also had that great experience of waiting in one of those humungous (80 minute)  you hear about, when we went on the Soarin’ ride.

Some people didn't seem to mind the line:

And the ride was worth it!

We also went on Planet Earth, saw some street entertainment, had some great Mexican food, and got so tired by the end of the day that we were ready to collapse. So judging by all that, we had a great time.

We left Disney wondering how Emily can do it five days a week! Oh, that’s right …… she’s 18 and we are ……..not.

Until next time………

#8 Treasure!

After being in Sebring for several days, we decided to take a drive and see the old part of town. Guess what? We ran into a street fair and were told that nearby the County Fair was in progress. After wandering through the many stalls, we decided to skip the county fair.

On Sunday we drove up to Kay and Jimmy’s place to visit and to go to the Bok Tower Gardens with them.

Shown in thir backyard, Kay and Jimmy have a great place in a 55+ community in Winter Haven. They are members of the Bok Tower Gardens, which were built in the ‘20’s by the founder of the Ladies Home Journal, Edward Bok. The gardens occupy 60 acres and include the impressive 200 foot tall Bok Tower. 

A walk through the gardens is a relaxing, enjoyable experience filled with a lot of good photo opportunities.

Air Plants:

Imagine our surprise a few days later when we learned that Anne’s parents visited the Bok Gardens on their honeymoon 66 years ago! Maybe it has some magical marriage powers?

While we enjoyed Highlands Hammock a lot, we thought we might cut our two week stay down to one, and so we moved to a spot just north of the Treasure Coast – the stretch of coast along the Atlantic south of Cape Canaveral by Fort Pierce and Port St Lucie. 

Arriving in a commercial campground in Malabar, Fl., the Enchanted Lakes is about 3 miles from the Atlantic. No comparison to the previous State Parks, the campground nevertheless has all the amenities we need. It is largely populated by people who winter in Florida, but has many long term residents and a few transients like us.

One of the first things we did is go for Valentines Day lunch at a local seafood restaurant. The Lobster roll was especially good!

After lunch we had a nice walk at the Turkey Creek park in Palm Bay where you can have your names etched in the walkways, if you like.

Next day we drove down the barrier island road, A1A, for about 25 miles. While there is a lot of beach access, you cannot see much of the ocean because of the many homes and resorts along both sides of the road. A little disappointing.

Arriving at Sebastian Inlet State Park, we wanted to see the McLarty Treasure Museum. It mostly houses artifacts and replicas from a 1715 hurricane that destroyed 11 or 12 Spanish galleons on their way home with much booty from the new world. More than 1000 people perished in the accident, but about 1500 survived; and they set about recovering a good deal of the treasure.

McClarty had a nice walkway to the ocean with great views!

A few 1715 artifacts were discovered in the ‘20’s and ‘40’s, but a hurricane in the mid ‘50’s changed the coast line considerably and paved the way for more major finds by salvor Kip Wagner. Later, Mel Fischer, who in 1986 discovered the fabulous treasure from the Atocha off of Key West, joined Wagner to search for loot. Fischer also has a museum near McClarty with many original artifacts.

One of the big highlights of the Fischer museum for us was the 5 pound solid gold bar (worth about $150,000 at today’s prices) that you could hold in your hand. Don’t get excited, though, because its behind 4 inches of plexiglass with only a cutout for your hand.

People still look for treasure along the coast, and in 2010, a Fort Pierce woman with her 87 year old mom found a small ornate gold bird statue valued at $885,000; it was only 1000 feet offshore.

Coming to the end of our week on the Treasure Coast, we twice spent an interesting hour on the beach waiting for an Atlas rocket to launch from Cape Kennedy. It never did launch, because of weather, but we met some interesting people, while waiting for the event. Its scheduled to launch next Wednesday.

Pretty soon its on to the Orlando......

#7 Mother Nature

From Lake Manatee, this week we moved down the road to Highlands Hammock State Park. As we approached the park, we saw some cars stopped and people looking at something by the roadside. We pulled over and saw these 12-15 inch long babies basking in the sun.

How many baby alligators can you find in this picture? Sorry! You have to read through to the end of this blog for the correct answer! Of course, mama was nearby too.

We think we were lucky to have one of the better sites in what was a pretty tightly packed park.

In case you are interested, a hammock is a “densely forested tract with semi deciduous and evergreen hardwoods that grow at slightly higher elevations than their surrounding areas” (Lonely Planet Florida guidebook). This 9900 acre park is home to a natural habitat that gives the visitor a great view of some untouched Florida landscape. Built by the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) in the early ‘30’s, the men's bunkhouse survives today as the park museum. The museum had a map with other CCC camps shown and we were amazed to see how many there were.

The men who worked for the CCC earned $1 per day, and a part of their pay was sent home directly to their families to help pay the bills. 

  

There are several excellent trails that take you through different areas of the park.  Our favorite was the Cypress Swamp. It winds you through a wonderfully primitive swamp environment.

The cypress swamp exists in only in the lowest areas of the stream bed and the area it floods during rains. Notice how the trunks spread at the base for extra support.

At elevations of only 3 feet higher, the character of the forest changes to that of the hammock.

  

Walkways are built at various places along the path to keep it above water, and they provide a good elevation to view the swamp. With its inherent quiet, the swamp and views of it were really special.

You can see some strange critters in the swamp too.  

The cypress roots are quite shallow, but spread out laterally where the roots project upwards as “knees”. The tips of the knees represent the high water mark, and when the water is high, they not only stabilize the tree but also provide oxygen to the root system.

Another favorite path was the Ancient Oak trail where many trees dating to several hundred years ago still grow. These trees may be over 100 feet tall and at their tops, the spreading limbs may also be 100 feet across. Massive, but hard to show just how large and magnificent they are in a photo!

The oldest tree in the park has a circumference of 36 feet at its base and is estimated to be over 1000 years old when it died about 50 years ago. 

Its surprising how some of these giant old oaks lean 30 or more degrees without falling over!

Do you know what a Scamp is? Well, it’s a very tiny camping trailer, and the Scampers were having a rally at the park this week. There were probably 50 or 60 of them in the park.

On one of the trails we came upon some trees with bright red lichen growing on the side. What color!

Its always great to see friends when we are traveling, and so we were glad when Kay and Jimmy, who have a home nearby where they live part of the year, were able to visit for a few hours. We enjoyed their visit quite a lot and almost felt like we were home for a while. 

But we have many miles to go before we sleep (in our own beds).

OKOKOK.  Scroll down for the GC (gator count):

7 little gators were in the pic......how many did you count?