Dry Tortugas National Park

(70 Miles West of Key West, FL 3/16/2010) The number two highlight of our trip to Key West was taking the 70 mile boat ride to the Dry Tortuga's National Park. The least visited in the National Park system it preserves historic Fort Jefferson and 9 keys which are home to many endangered species like the Loggerhead Turtle. The Dry Tortuga's was a favorite haunt of pirates in the early 1800's. They were a nuisance and wrecked havoc on the shipping industry so the US Navy came in around 1822 and cleared them out. In the 1830's it was recommended that a fort be built on one of the islands, Garden Key, for coastal defense. Building started and stopped and then began again in earnest during the Civil War, but the fort was never completed. Instead it was turned into a prison. The most famous prisoner was Dr Samuel Mudd. Mudd was convicted of aiding John Wilkes Booth when he set the actors broken leg as he fled after assassinating Abraham Lincoln. He was sentenced to life in prison and imprisoned at Fort Jefferson. He was paroled after only 4 years for his part in aiding the forts population during a yellow fever epidemic. (His "cell" is the picture above with the 3 slits for windows).
The boat ride takes about 2 hours and the outgoing ride was exciting for us ending in 6 foots seas. The tour of the fort was interesting, but the sweet part of the deal was being able to snorkel in the shallows of the island. I thought the above ground stuff was awe inspiring, the under water world is equally or even more amazing.

More Pictures from Key West

(Key West FL, 3/15-17/2010) Another fun story
about Key West. In frustration over a Border Control crackdown which set up roadblocks in the northern Keys, the City of Key West seceded from the United States and declared itself The Conch Republic (see picture above of trolley driver holding the official flag of the Conch Republic). It was a tongue-in-cheek protest but it worked. Florida outlawed cock-fighting in the 1930s and ordered all the cocks released. Consequently there are roosters roaming the streets protected by the law!
See the painting of Hemingway and the bed with the two cats on it. Hemingway loved cats and owned over 30 at one time. One was 6 toed. So there are numerous 6 toed cats roaming the place. He named the cats after movie stars or famous people. The cat cemetery had Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, et al.
The Southernmost Point in the US is in Key West. At that point you are only 90 miles from Cuba. Also Mile 0 US Highway 1 ends/begins in Key West.

Island of Bones

(Key West, FL, 3/15-17/2010) Since we made it as far south as Miami we decided to go ahead the rest of the way to the farthest end of Florida and the Continental US, to Key West. Key West is not the most western key in the chain of islands that is the Florida Keys. Rather it gets its name for an Anglicized pronunciation for the Spanish name for the island. Since the keys are largely coral, there is no where to dig. So, Indians did not bury their dead, but rather left them to the elements. When the Ponce de Leon discovered the island in the 1500's the soldiers declared it the Island of Bones.
Key West is an interesting mixture of natural beauty, man-made industry and ingenuity and the debauchery that comes with too much of a good thing. Duval street rivals New Orleans Bourbon Street for the number of bars and strip clubs. Though only a mile long, it is called the "longest street in the world" as it literally runs from the Gulf of Mexico (one sea) to the Straits of Florida (another sea). Mallory Square is a large boardwalk area on the Gulf side where every evening they celebrate the sunset. Street performers entertain the crowds in a big party atmosphere leading up to (and well after) sunset. Joy actually got volunteered to help "The Great Rondini" escape artist perform part of his act! Key West has been home or favorite vacation spot for many famous Americans perhaps the most well known story is of Earnest Hemingway. We took the tour of the home he owned where he lived from 1933-1937.
My favorite Key West story and bit of history is that of the wrecker industry that existed here in the late 1800's to early 1900's. The water's in the Straits of Florida are treacherous to navigate. On average twice a week a ship or sailing vessel would wreck on the shallow shoals. The townspeople had lookouts on rooftops and the cry would go out "wreck ashore" and the wreckers were off with their boats to see who would be the first to get to the wreck. The first one there was captain of the wrecking crewing and received 50% of whatever profit was made from the sale of the salvaged cargo 25% would go to the owner and 25% to the town. As a result, Key West in 1900 was the wealthiest city per capita in the entire United States. The industry died off with the advent of better navigating devices and steel hulled ships.
The highlight of our trip to Key West however wasn't the interesting history or the raucous tourist community this has become. The highlight by far was the visit with the Coast Guard Chaplain (as Joy shares in another blog).

Big Cypress

(Big Cypress Florida, 3/14/2010) There are 3 National Parks within short driving distance of where we stayed in Miami. After being amazed by the Everglades we wanted a change of pace so we went to Biscayne Bay National Park in Homestead Fl. The Park is mostly water...a Bay, full of all kinds of fish and wildlife. We were hoping to do the glass bottom boat ride, but the day was too windy and they were not going out. Since the only way to see the Park is by boat, we opted to drive inland to the other park, Big Cypress National Preserve.
Big Cypress does not have large trees, as the name may imply, it is simply a very very large area that has cypress and other types of trees that has been set aside as a national preserve. This one is a swamp. When we arrived at the visitors center there was some commotion near the boardwalk on the other side of the entrance to the building. We found out that an alligator had gotten on the people side of the boardwalk and they were trying to get him back in! We asked the Ranger how to appreciate the preserve in a couple hours and she said it depended on whether or not you wanted to get wet. We opted for the dry option which ended up being a driving tour around a 14 mile loop. Again we were blown away by the variety of the plants and wildlife. We stopped at a roadside viewing area and a sign caught my attention, it said "No Fishing Between Signs". There was a sign in one spot and another about 20 yards away. As if they were there to add emphasis (or enforcement?) to the warning there were gators at the base of both signs!
We also found what has to be the smallest US Post Office in the country at Ochopee, FL.

God 10 Disney 1

(South Florida, 3/11-12/2010) After overdosing on Disney World we were blown away by the natural beauty of the Florida Everglades. I appreciate the vision and creative genius of Walt Disney and on one level, what he was able to imagine and accomplish in building a world from his imagination is remarkable. But if there is a competition for creative genius and accomplishing the bringing together of a vast array of complex and inter-dependent parts...God wins every time.
We knew next to nothing about the Everglades and most of it was wrong. It is not a swamp as we thought, rather it is a very large (8 miles wide at one point) freshwater river that effectively collects the runoff from huge Lake Okeechobee in Central Florida and funnels it to the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico in the far south of Florida. An amazing interlinking system of grasses, mangrove and cypress trees, and slight elevation (a gradual drop of 14 feet in over 100 miles) the Everglades flows in a subtle but steady current. The grasses and trees act as a filter for all the water to make it incredibly pure. The estuary formed in the south where the salt and freshwater combine, is the breeding ground for over 80% of the salt and fresh water fish found in Florida, the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea. The whole eco-system is home to a vast array of birds and other animals (I was hoping to see a Florida Panther; Joy was not) as well as plants and trees. We saw a bird called an Anhinga swimming in the water to catch fish for dinner. Since they have no oils in the feathers like ducks and geese to repel water, when they come out of the water they fly to a nearby tree branch and spread their wings to air dry! And alligators are everywhere. After looking hard to see a gator in or near the canals we drove by getting to the park, in just an hour or two we saw more than 30 or 40. The Ranger's estimate there are 30,000 gators in the Park. The Everglades is also the only place in North America you can find the American Crocodile. The Croc likes brackish or salt water whereas the Gator likes freshwater. We took a boat ride into the Everglades back country and finally saw a Manatee in the river, an animal we had heard so much about.
Look at the pictures and decide for yourself. Who is the better creator: God or Disney?

Florida

(Somewhere in Florida; 3/20/2010) As we left Florida behind this morning Ed made the comment that we had driven from one end of Florida to the other. My reply to that was "and I didn't come across any place that I thought I'd like to live." So we can mark Florida off of our "possible places to retire" list! Even though Florida is not for me it did provide me with a couple of "people encounters" that I am thankful for. After searching for my friend, Cathy Varenkamp Rankin, I finally connected with her on Facebook and was surprised to learn that she and her family now live in Miami! We were able to visit with her, meet her husband, Randy, and 3 of their 5 kids, Andrew, Shannon and Luke, have a meal, go to church, and visit some more. It was so good getting caught up and seeing and hearing all that God has done and continues to do in their lives. Her husband, Randy, is the Director of The Baptist Children's Home, a challenging job. It was a wonderful reunion and now that we have reconnected, her family will be in our prayers.

The other connection we made was with a young Chaplain, Doug Grace, who is in the Coast Guard in Key West. His spiritual care and personal concern for the 800 men and women at that base is one that would cause many people to lose heart. The easy access to all the temptations the area has to offer can suck these young kids in and lead to adultery, divorce, financial problems, poor parenting and all the pain that goes with that. His heart for his "coasties"--the men and women who serve there, and his desire to honor and glorify God before them was so encouraging. I may never see this young man again in this life but I know that one day I will see the fruit of his life on the new earth and I will be praying for him and his family from now on.

So while Florida is not the home of my choice, it did offer some refreshment for the soul and so I'm glad I came...I'm also glad I left!!!

Disney Hollywood Studios

Hollywood Studios is a separate theme park this park is supposed to take you behind the scenes of how Disney animation and films are made, stunts performed, filming done, scenery made, etc. Plus a couple of shows with real people doing scenes from Beauty and the Beast and Little Mermaid. Some of it was really hoakie and some if it was well done. My favorites were a stunt show based around a "filming" of the Cairo scene from Indiana Jones Raiders of the Lost Ark and a really well done stunt car show. I got portions of both on video...I will try to figure out how to post them. One of Joy's favorites was a ride that took you through a dozen or more movie sets with scenes and figures from some of the most popular films of all time like Casablanca, Wizard of Oz, Tarzan, Singing In the Rain, among others. And of course we went to the Twilight Zone and experienced the Tower of Terror in the old Hollywood Hotel. Quite a thrill!