Sombrero Beach and Crane Museum

Sombrero Public Beach

A Hidden Gem on the Keys

While the Sombrero public beach is not a wide beach it is long enough for a leisurely stroll in the sand. It is a turtle nesting beach from April through October. It also has a lot of sea grass that washes up on the beach.

White Sand Beach 

Welcome to Crane Point

The Crane Point Museum and Nature Center is not about cranes. It is a 63-acre tropical hardwood hammock.  Hammock is an Indian word for cool and shady. It is a rare and unique plant community only found in two places in the United States lower Miami-Dade County and the Florida Keys.  

Adderly House

George Adderly was a black Bahamian immigrant who moved here and a built a home in 1903. It is made of "tabby"  (burnt seashells).  This home is on the National Register of Historic Places.

There are almost two miles of nature trails and a trolley ride is included in your admission. Highlights include the Francis and Mary Crane House that was built in 1954 in the Frank Lloyd Wright style.  It has been condemned because the salt in water used to mix the concrete is disintegrating all the re bar in the home. 

Built by Miami Architect Wahl Snyder

A replica Florida cracker house, a residence of poor Florida white folks, gives insight into life years ago. The Point provided a beautiful view of Florida Bay. A wild bird center rescues injured pelicans, gulls, osprey and other native birds to rehabilitate and release them if possible.

Pelicans live 30 years

Then Lunch on the Pier at Keys Fisheries

Off to the Florida Keys

Broward County Park

We enjoyed our short stay at Markham County Park and could only appreciate what the park offered to its county residents once we took a bicycle ride around the entire park. There are shelters for large gatherings and picnics by the lake, a target shooting range for skeet and trap, camping, a nature trail, a bicycle path, dog park, boat launch, a remote control flying field, disc golf, and more.

Site at Markham Campground & Range

Our motor home was parked under a canopy of trees.  During a thunderstorm several potato-like nuts fell off a tree when the wind was blowing.  What is it?

Potato-Like Nuts Growing in Trees

Today we fuelled up our coach and headed for Marathon in the Florida Keys, halfway between Key Largo and Key West.  The traffic came to a stand still as soon as we merged onto US Hwy 1. It seemed as if everyone in Florida decided to drive to Key West today.  The 110 mile trip should have taken an hour and a half  but took three hours--bumper to bumper stop and go traffic for almost 80 miles.

Bridge at Beginning of Florida Keys

The water on the Gulf of Mexico went from light blue to a light mint green. Enjoyed lunch mid-afternoon at Sparky's on the water. We returned to the Grassy Keys campground to watch the Packer game.  High temperature north of the Keys was 88 degrees. As the sun went down the wind picked up and at 78 degrees I had to return home as it became "chilly".

Gulf of Mexico

Holiday Fantasy of Lights

Welcome to Fantasy of Lights

The Holiday Fantasy of Lights has been operated by the Broward County Parks Department in the Tradewinds Park in Coconut Creek, FL since 1993.

Trimming the Tree

Ship

The 65 animated metal sculptures are  professionally designed and choreographed by Brandano Displays. Over two million visitors have taken the two and a half mile drive since 1993.

Christmas Choo Choo

Merry Christmas

Water Taxi

Following the Fantasy of Lights we dined on the dock at the 15th Street Fisheries.  Tourists and locals take advantage of the $16 on-off water taxi that runs the canal and Del Rio River between downtown and restaurants on the water front.

Yachts at Pier

A Good Time was had by All

Everglades National Park - A Day in the Swamp

Snowy Egret

The Everglades park was created in 1947 as the first national park to protect a threatened ecological system.  It is a World Heritage Site.  Only 20% of the original Glades exists after years of drainage and alterations.

Alligator vs. Crocodile

There are thousands of alligators in South Florida. They are protected in certain areas due to their close resemblance to the endangered American alligator.Alligators play an integral role in the Everglades ecosystem.

El largto!

No park elevation tops over eight feet above sea level. This shallow "River of Grass" is 50 miles wide and flows slowly toward the gulf. The Everglades are described as having only two seasons, the wet and the dry.

Boardwalks for Safety

The Everglades is the largest subtropical preserve in North America. This region's only source of water is the rain that falls on it.  Extensive canal and levee systems now shunt off much of this water before it reaches Everglades National Park.

The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan will take 30 years to accomplish.  The plan is to return water to more natural patterns of quantity, timing and distribution of water throughout the South Florida ecosystem.  It is important to address water quality as the waters return to the natural system.

I was surprised to see how clean and pure the water is in the Glades, not swampy green like I envisioned.

After listening to the Ranger presentation, I have a new appreciation for alligators, which are black and not green as I learned.

Biologically unique and ecologically irreplaceable!

Anhinga Bird

The Anhinga bird doesn't have waterproof feathers so it must dry its feathers with wings spread and feathers fanned open. It is also known as the snake bird as only its colored neck appears above water when swimming and it looks like a snake ready to strike.  

Flamingo Gardens

Heritage Landmark

The Flamingo Gardens were originally established
in 1927 by pioneer Floyd Wray as Flamingo Groves. He planted over 200 acres of citrus. The home was originally built in 1933 as a weekend country home for Floyd and Jane Wray. It has been restored and gives you a glimpse of life in the 1930s.

It was one of the first of its kind in the country giving residence to permanently injured or non-releasable Florida native wildlife with the goal of returning offspring to the wild.
It has been preserved as a 60-acre botanical garden, museum and wildlife sanctuary exhibiting the five natural habitats indigenous to this area; coastal prairie, mangroveswamp, cypress forest, subtropical hardwood hammock and sawgrass prairie.

The Everglades wildlife sanctuary is home to the largest collection of Florida Native wildlife in the state.  It contains over 3,000 tropical and sub-tropical species of plants and trees. It opened in 1990.

Historical Wray Home Museum

After taking a narrated tram tour of the back 50 acres, we visited the residence of Lloyd and Jane Wray. A walking tour featured an Everglades free flight aviary, a bird of prey center, panther and bobcat habitats, a flamingo pond, a parrot aviary, an otter habitat, an alligator lagoon, and a rookery and turtle walk.

Egret

Florida Panther

A Panther with Sunglasses!!!

Priscilla & Elvis III

While peacocks and iguanas roam free,  our real Wildlife Encounter was with Bob who told us about oppossums, bard owls and Florida King Snakes.

OZ the Opossum

WHISPER the Bard Owl

VENZA the Florida King Snake

Decorated for Christmas

Gumbo limbo tree (note red color)

Fort Lauderdale Beach

Palm Tree with Coconuts

Lost Again!

We spent part of the day at the Fort Lauderdale beach walking the beach, picking up shells and holding onto our hats.  The two flags at the beach patrol indicated high surf/rip tides along with dangerous marine life. I had forgotten what a workout your calves get walking in the sand.

A nice lunch along the beachfront with tasty sangrias was followed by a stop at Bob Roth's Fruit Grove.  We enjoyed a wonderful key lime pie tart and purchased white navel oranges and orange blossom honey for later.

To work off all those calories we biked around the Markham County Park and Range.  While Markham was not built for our 40' motor homes, it did accommodate us.   

82 degrees, sunny, high humidity and windy today.  South Florida is expecting unseasonably warm weather through the holidays.

Windy Day on the Beach

Portuguese Man O' War

Orange Country

Savannah GA

Historic Savannah Tour

Arrived in Hardeeville, SC yesterday evening and hooked up with Rita and Kent of South Dakota at the Camp Lake Jasper campground.  We went out for soul food and fried chicken at Gwen and Fanny's.

Today we drove into Savannah and took the Savannah Hop-on Hop-off Trolley Tour. You can hop on and off at any of the 15 stops as often as you like with pickups every 20 minutes. Our tour guide told of the legend and lore that has shaped Savannah into a unique place known as one of the romantic and most haunted cities in America.

Restored Cotton Warehouse

We hopped off on the river front and had lunch at the Boar's Head restaurant, a 1790s restored cotton warehouse. Each of ;those rocks in the cobblestone street came from England.  Sailors would fill the ballasts of their empty ships with rocks so they wouldn't bounce all the way across the ocean.  I had a delicious cup of soup called "She Crab", a creamy crab bisque with a touch of sherry.  As we left East River Street we saw the statue of the "Waving Girl" that depicts Florence Martus who waved to every ship on the Savannah River until her death hoping her lover who promised to return would arrive.  

Carriage Ride $115

Our tour took us to see almost all of the 22 remaining squares in the city, the Historic District and the Colonial District.. We heard about several old families and the birthplace of Juliette Gordon Low founder of the Girl Scouts.  

City Market Street

Savannah is the oldest city in the state of Georgia, established in 1733. It was a strategic port city in the American Revolution and during the Civil War.

Tennessee Aquarium

Immersed in a World of Wonder

The Tennessee Aquarium has an amazing collection of freshwater animals that swim, fly and crawl in natural habitats in the world's largest freshwater aquarium.  We were grateful when a teacher offered us teacher chaperone admission stickers as she had two extra.

We followed the River Journey a journey of a raindrop as it flows from the top of a mountain to form streams, swamps lakes and rivers. We were face to face with small alligators, ducks, turtles and oodles of fish. I loved the special seahorse exhibit.   

Two of the Six Peaks

The Ocean Journey continued our adventure from the river to the sea, a stroll through a tropical forest and a butterfly room. Here you get up close with penguins, stingrays, jellyfish, sea turtles, and steely-eyed sharks.

In the Shark Tank