We are at "The Lake Wright" Sleep Inn Norfolk.
First I must say, I have been negligent in mentioning this before, Shirleen has become a brilliant navigator. She has found where we are going and where we are staying each and every night. What a help!!!!!!!
We took off from Jackson NC and headed up to New Bern, I remembered a guy from boot camp, a Rutlidge from there. A little later we took the back road Hiway 264 to Roanoke Island to check out the National Park Lost Colony site. We stopped at the visitor center and they asked where we came from we told them we came on 264 and there eyes just opened widely. They were surprised we took the back roads. We found them magically enchanting. A touch of real America, this is what we are trying to accomplish on this road tour – gypsy travels (we are bohemian) or what ever you want to call the travels we are taking.
We grabbed a quick lunch at the “Weeping Radish Restaurant” in Manteo NC on Roanoke Island. It was a Bavarian restaurant with the blue and white squared flags out front. I had a Weissen (Wheat beer), need not go back for another. Shirleen had a brat with kraut and a scoop of potato salad, good brat. I had a chicken schnitzel with spaetzels and a good purple cabbage. The schnitzel was lightly coated ¼ inch thick chicken fried in butter, the spaetzels were of the noodle type. You flatten the stiff flour, egg and water dough and cut the spaetzels with a knife and boil like ours. They were blended with a light gravy. Schmeck’s Gute!
We then went up to the Roanoke sight that was settled around 1584. We walked the grounds and saw the earthen wall and ditch from where the earth was dug with a couple of log post sticking out of the ground, looked like a ill made fortress. That is where they were supposed to of had placed around the living site. It was interesting, I had seen a piece on Discovery about this. This where the first English (England) baby was born, Virginia Dare. Dad always liked that wine, now I know where the name came from. It was a really sweet wine, supposedly like a little lady? The group had come to this sight, had problems with the local Indians, we killed one of their chiefs and they retaliated by killing one of ours. With little food and salt the English wanted the governor to go back to England and get them help. The English were in a war with the Spanish and needed all ships, even the passenger ones. Three years later the governor returned and found no trace of the family and daughter he left. The houses, outbuildings and other things the 50 or so people had there. A mystery that for over 400 years has never had a conclusion to.
In this location there was “The Elizabethan Gardens”. The walkway into the garden was lined with crept myrtles that were pollarded. The brick gate walling into the garden was flanked by flowers and flower pots. Behind the building was a little garden with knot gardens containing blue poppy’s and tulips. The camellias were in full bloom, as we’re now more north. The azaleas are just starting to bloom, they also had a miniature azalea that we had not seen before.
We walked down the paths and found many little nooks that contained statuary. A nice lookout to the Abermarle Sound. There wedding area was all white flowers among beautiful green leaves with a fountain in the center of the area. More knot garden areas with green hedges around tulips and poppies. They also had a live oak of around 400 years old. Just another must see.
Up we traveled through Nags Head, another of those places where the rich and wealthy live. Neat looking place along the intercostals.
We found this motel after another around the circle to get back to where we should be. They suggested “The Aberdeen Barn” for dinner, doubt again ran through my mind. I told Shirleen about it but we decided to try the restaurant at the motel. Well what a mistake, thank goodness we looked at the menu and went to the suggested restaurant. We were seated and Thanked for coming. We had ordered a bottle of Trumpeter Argentinean cabernet wine, nice selection. They had the old bread sticks with a mild cheddar cheese. Shirleen’s 7 oz tenderloin and my Cowboy Delmonico steak were some of the better we have had anywhere. We found this motel after another around the circle to get back to where we should be. They suggested “The Aberdeen Barn” for dinner, doubt again ran through my mind. I told Shirleen about it but we decided to try the restaurant at the motel. Well what a mistake, thank goodness we looked at the menu and went to the suggested restaurant. We were seated and Thanked for coming. We had ordered a bottle of Trumpeter Argentinean cabernet wine, nice selection. They had the old bread sticks with a mild cheddar cheese. Shirleen’s 7 oz tenderloin and my Cowboy Delmonico steak were some of the better we have had anywhere. The manager of the restaurant has been a friend of Twins player Michael Cuddyer. jerr
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Friday, March 30, 2007
March 30 Friday Day 33 Charleston to Jacksonville NC
We are at a Quality Inn.
The state tree of South Carolina is the palmetto, same as Florida but, there is called a cabbage palm?
We left our motel and went down one block to Rick Hendrick’s Chevrolet. He had a dozen C-6 Vette’s on the lot, we went in and a sales guy ran up. He asked if we were looking for anything, I ask how would we put a trailer hitch on a new Corvette? He grinned and said we’ll figure it out. I said we were NASCAR fans and had been to Daytona a couple days ago and when we pulled in to our motel we saw this dealership. He said hang on I’ll get you a Hendrick plate and license frame, how could I refuse. At that time Shirleen had no idea that Hendrick’s was the owner of the 24 car, Jeff Gordon, now she really liked it. We did a little touring of Charleston, we went down many streets but, gave up on trying to find some of what we had done the day before. Nice town could spend more time but, that would be next time.
We traveled along the coastal roads to see how things are other than on the hustling freeways. For lunch we ate at Damon’s Grill in Myrtle Beach for starters we had two cabernet’s and a ½ loaf of onion rings, Shirleen ordered southern Pulled Pork BBQ and I a Beef Brisket sandwich with horseradish, both with coleslaw and fries.
Away we headed north on 17 and went to Wilmington NC but, the only rooms we found in four motels was smoking rooms. We went to the local county horticultural societies planting area. This was a location that showed how to plant and where to plant the garden flowers and greenery. Down the line from there was the Airlie Gardens. A most beautiful setting. We walked around the tulips that were in full bloom, all kinds but planted in single color masses. We then saw the signature piece a garden designed by a lady whom tended the garden for many years. Minnie Evans put together a concrete and bottle chapel. The walls were punctured by glass bottles, Crown Royal, many beer and wine bottles along with some gallon jugs. One can’t say enough about the beauty of this piece of work. we strolled down to the dock to look out upon the waterway and looked back toward shore and saw the osprey nesting pair. From there we looked at the live oak tree that is thought to be 400 years old.
Away we headed north on 17 and went to Wilmington NC but, the only rooms we found in four motels was smoking rooms. Only 50 miles away was Jacksonville, we found a place at the Quality Inn, lacking on quality. We went to the Outback for dinner. Shirleen had a bowl of onion soup and I two Guinness beers and a hamburger, fried onions, mushrooms and Swiss cheese, I left the bun and fries off my menu. jerr
The state tree of South Carolina is the palmetto, same as Florida but, there is called a cabbage palm?
We left our motel and went down one block to Rick Hendrick’s Chevrolet. He had a dozen C-6 Vette’s on the lot, we went in and a sales guy ran up. He asked if we were looking for anything, I ask how would we put a trailer hitch on a new Corvette? He grinned and said we’ll figure it out. I said we were NASCAR fans and had been to Daytona a couple days ago and when we pulled in to our motel we saw this dealership. He said hang on I’ll get you a Hendrick plate and license frame, how could I refuse. At that time Shirleen had no idea that Hendrick’s was the owner of the 24 car, Jeff Gordon, now she really liked it. We did a little touring of Charleston, we went down many streets but, gave up on trying to find some of what we had done the day before. Nice town could spend more time but, that would be next time.
We traveled along the coastal roads to see how things are other than on the hustling freeways. For lunch we ate at Damon’s Grill in Myrtle Beach for starters we had two cabernet’s and a ½ loaf of onion rings, Shirleen ordered southern Pulled Pork BBQ and I a Beef Brisket sandwich with horseradish, both with coleslaw and fries.
Away we headed north on 17 and went to Wilmington NC but, the only rooms we found in four motels was smoking rooms. We went to the local county horticultural societies planting area. This was a location that showed how to plant and where to plant the garden flowers and greenery. Down the line from there was the Airlie Gardens. A most beautiful setting. We walked around the tulips that were in full bloom, all kinds but planted in single color masses. We then saw the signature piece a garden designed by a lady whom tended the garden for many years. Minnie Evans put together a concrete and bottle chapel. The walls were punctured by glass bottles, Crown Royal, many beer and wine bottles along with some gallon jugs. One can’t say enough about the beauty of this piece of work. we strolled down to the dock to look out upon the waterway and looked back toward shore and saw the osprey nesting pair. From there we looked at the live oak tree that is thought to be 400 years old.
Away we headed north on 17 and went to Wilmington NC but, the only rooms we found in four motels was smoking rooms. Only 50 miles away was Jacksonville, we found a place at the Quality Inn, lacking on quality. We went to the Outback for dinner. Shirleen had a bowl of onion soup and I two Guinness beers and a hamburger, fried onions, mushrooms and Swiss cheese, I left the bun and fries off my menu. jerr
Thursday, March 29, 2007
March 29 Thursday Day 32 Charleston Sleep Inn
We decided to take a tour of Charleston today. To be picked up at 9:20 well he was early and I was ¾ through the blog writ-up and had to quit right then. I write it in Word and transfer to the blog later.
We had a very comprehensive tour of the small historic and closely aligned areas. Again the flowering azalea’s are at there peak. The metal work is all over, gates, fences, window guards and ornamentation. Much hand forged metal items are being done by a man who is 96 years old. He now only lays out the material and others do the forging. We learned much about the civil war and the generals who participated. We were looking at some of the old houses and the guide pointed out that the side porch was called a piazza and the front porch the porch. this came from the British housing. Also the closeness of the house and in some case there were two houses one behind the street house. There was a house with a house number of 40 and on a gate next to it was a 40 1/2. That house wa behind.
We were looking at a very fashionable house by the bay, roughly 6.5 million, that had a cannon on the middle of the third floor. No, not put there, it was fired from three streets down. They had only placed gunpowder into the barrel and lite the fuse with no cannon ball in the barrel. The cannon flew the three blocks down into the third floor. Off that same bay we spotted two dolphins sauntering off the sea wall.
There is an intersection called "the four corners of law" hosting buildings from each level of government: the courthouse (state law), City Hall (municipal law), the Federal Building and U.S. Post Office (federal law), and Saint Michael's Episcopal Church (canon law). We saw the first fire protection for housing. On the center of the front there was an emblem. When smoke was seen in the air the fire trucks from the different fire protection would race to the fire. If the first truck saw it was not one of there houses they would just turn around and go back to there firehouse. The beginning of insurance. As we went through the city he asked the question; what is the difference between a graveyard and a cemetery? A graveyard is next to a church and a cemetery is away from the church. He also mentioned that they call themselves the “Holy City” and that’s because it has over 100 churches.
We then grabbed a quick wine and split a fish sandwich at TBonz Restaurant. Do not waste your time on their food. Thin slice of fish and small on top of that.
Off to our Magnolia Plantation and Gardens tour. On the way out there our guide who is southern gave the following slave description. The average cost of a slave was 1,250$ each. He then said that they would buy the slaves for there ability to work, either strength, knowledge of rice growing or some other skill. With the cost of a slave being so high, he asked the question, why would the owner treat the slave like we see in Hollywood movies? It sound to me that they are still trying to rationalize the use of slavery. He made it sound so real many never twitched a muscle, it took me a while to think through his summary.
The Plantation has nearly 500 acres of garden acres, flowering peach, camellias, and the full blossomed azaleas. We walked through the garden, picturesque foot bridges and the plantation house itself. The house is theorized to be the third one, two previous houses had burned down. This structure was covered with a phosphate mud, different than I would have guessed. We walked through the gardens down narrow winding paths with many colorful trees. The plantation had been in the hands of the first family for nine generations. We had a tram ride through the other parts of the plantation. We saw the old rice growing paddies. Rice was the most important and largest cash crop in Charleston, next being indigo plants – used as a blue dye for English soldiers uniforms and later blue jeans. With cotton being the next most cash crop. The rice crop was devastated in 1911 by a large hurricane. The hurricane caused salt water to get into the rice paddies and rice does not grow in brackish water. Brackish water is neither fresh nor salt water it is a blend.
A lady of slave background with a last name of a plantation owner as slaves had no surname and took the owners name. she was making sweet grass basketry, the middle is made of pine needles from the large needle pines, then sweet grass cord and a brown swamp grass cord and the individual cords were bound with pieces of palm leaves.
There was an old 1825 slave cabin. It was approximately 16 feet long and 10 feet in width. In the middle was a dividing wall, as two families lived there. In the rafters was a boarded area of 6 by 4 foot. This was the sleeping quarters, not sure how that worked? Nailed on the wall was a dried rat skin it was each slave’s duty to catch six rats a day so that they would not eat the rice. It turned out that rats were part of the slaves diet. Two fireplaces were in the center, one on each side of the wall. It was a superstition that if the fire went out that bad things would happen, therefore someone always guarded the fire. The house was painted green and this was supposed to keep the evil spirits out of the house. This house was close to the plantation house and would have housed very important slaves. Further out in the rice paddy area there were smaller houses with two doors on them implying two families in them? It was said that the slaves who cared for the rice slept in lean-tos. I again wonder if these slaves cost as much as the average?
We had tour of the house, fun to look at but, all but one room had period furniture and no one had lived in the house with that furniture.
Back to the hotel, and get ready for dinner. We had heard a number of times how good the food at “Magnolias” was. I called for reservations and found the place in ten minutes without getting lost. Shirleen had a Amavi Cabernet Sauvignon from Washington State and I BigFire pinot noir. To start the meal we started with an appetizer, first one in a long time. We ordered homemade potato chips with crumbled blue cheese and scallions both of us loved this dish. The cheese was much like stilton cheese. The cheese was local from Clemson, therefore Clemson blue cheese. Shirleen ordered Dressed Rainbow Trout with crab and artichoke stuffing, scalloped potatoes and sautéed asparagus and I the Shellfish over Grits sautéed shrimp, sea scallops and lobster over creamy white grits with a lobster butter sauce and fried spinach. Both were good, Shirleen’s was the best, the stuffing was tasty and the fish done to a nice moist doneness, the scalloped potatoes the best, super thinly sliced and a flavorful and tasty sauce, baked to a crispy outside and moist inside. Not that I would not order mine again, the dish is their signature dish, I found the lobster – I think a rock lobster was tough, small shrimp but good sea scallops.
Now it is light out and we stopped at the Poogen’s porch for their business card which turned out to be on the street we exited from Magnolia’s parking lot. From there it was easy a left then a right and out to the motel. Well not quite, after missing the hiway 17 sign last night this evening we took the turn to soon and ended up somewhere. After a short time being lost I stopped at a gas station. I was in line and the guy behind me said how’s your night going? I said not to well, he said what’s wrong? I said I was lost and trying to find hiway 17, he said, follow me were going that way, I said sounds good to me. Thank god that I didn’t care that he was black and he drove a Dodge ram truck. We followed him back to the area we first turned around at and onward we went and back to 17, I blinked me lights bright twice and off he went. Trust given is trust returned.
Yesterday we saw that Beaufort was one of the wealthiest towns before the civil war. They had converted from growing indigo to becoming cotton growers. There cotton had long threads and easily separated cotton from the hull. This cotton was worth 60 times regular cotton and approached the fine quality of English cotton. jerr
We had a very comprehensive tour of the small historic and closely aligned areas. Again the flowering azalea’s are at there peak. The metal work is all over, gates, fences, window guards and ornamentation. Much hand forged metal items are being done by a man who is 96 years old. He now only lays out the material and others do the forging. We learned much about the civil war and the generals who participated. We were looking at some of the old houses and the guide pointed out that the side porch was called a piazza and the front porch the porch. this came from the British housing. Also the closeness of the house and in some case there were two houses one behind the street house. There was a house with a house number of 40 and on a gate next to it was a 40 1/2. That house wa behind.
We were looking at a very fashionable house by the bay, roughly 6.5 million, that had a cannon on the middle of the third floor. No, not put there, it was fired from three streets down. They had only placed gunpowder into the barrel and lite the fuse with no cannon ball in the barrel. The cannon flew the three blocks down into the third floor. Off that same bay we spotted two dolphins sauntering off the sea wall.
There is an intersection called "the four corners of law" hosting buildings from each level of government: the courthouse (state law), City Hall (municipal law), the Federal Building and U.S. Post Office (federal law), and Saint Michael's Episcopal Church (canon law). We saw the first fire protection for housing. On the center of the front there was an emblem. When smoke was seen in the air the fire trucks from the different fire protection would race to the fire. If the first truck saw it was not one of there houses they would just turn around and go back to there firehouse. The beginning of insurance. As we went through the city he asked the question; what is the difference between a graveyard and a cemetery? A graveyard is next to a church and a cemetery is away from the church. He also mentioned that they call themselves the “Holy City” and that’s because it has over 100 churches.
We then grabbed a quick wine and split a fish sandwich at TBonz Restaurant. Do not waste your time on their food. Thin slice of fish and small on top of that.
Off to our Magnolia Plantation and Gardens tour. On the way out there our guide who is southern gave the following slave description. The average cost of a slave was 1,250$ each. He then said that they would buy the slaves for there ability to work, either strength, knowledge of rice growing or some other skill. With the cost of a slave being so high, he asked the question, why would the owner treat the slave like we see in Hollywood movies? It sound to me that they are still trying to rationalize the use of slavery. He made it sound so real many never twitched a muscle, it took me a while to think through his summary.
The Plantation has nearly 500 acres of garden acres, flowering peach, camellias, and the full blossomed azaleas. We walked through the garden, picturesque foot bridges and the plantation house itself. The house is theorized to be the third one, two previous houses had burned down. This structure was covered with a phosphate mud, different than I would have guessed. We walked through the gardens down narrow winding paths with many colorful trees. The plantation had been in the hands of the first family for nine generations. We had a tram ride through the other parts of the plantation. We saw the old rice growing paddies. Rice was the most important and largest cash crop in Charleston, next being indigo plants – used as a blue dye for English soldiers uniforms and later blue jeans. With cotton being the next most cash crop. The rice crop was devastated in 1911 by a large hurricane. The hurricane caused salt water to get into the rice paddies and rice does not grow in brackish water. Brackish water is neither fresh nor salt water it is a blend.
A lady of slave background with a last name of a plantation owner as slaves had no surname and took the owners name. she was making sweet grass basketry, the middle is made of pine needles from the large needle pines, then sweet grass cord and a brown swamp grass cord and the individual cords were bound with pieces of palm leaves.
There was an old 1825 slave cabin. It was approximately 16 feet long and 10 feet in width. In the middle was a dividing wall, as two families lived there. In the rafters was a boarded area of 6 by 4 foot. This was the sleeping quarters, not sure how that worked? Nailed on the wall was a dried rat skin it was each slave’s duty to catch six rats a day so that they would not eat the rice. It turned out that rats were part of the slaves diet. Two fireplaces were in the center, one on each side of the wall. It was a superstition that if the fire went out that bad things would happen, therefore someone always guarded the fire. The house was painted green and this was supposed to keep the evil spirits out of the house. This house was close to the plantation house and would have housed very important slaves. Further out in the rice paddy area there were smaller houses with two doors on them implying two families in them? It was said that the slaves who cared for the rice slept in lean-tos. I again wonder if these slaves cost as much as the average?
We had tour of the house, fun to look at but, all but one room had period furniture and no one had lived in the house with that furniture.
Back to the hotel, and get ready for dinner. We had heard a number of times how good the food at “Magnolias” was. I called for reservations and found the place in ten minutes without getting lost. Shirleen had a Amavi Cabernet Sauvignon from Washington State and I BigFire pinot noir. To start the meal we started with an appetizer, first one in a long time. We ordered homemade potato chips with crumbled blue cheese and scallions both of us loved this dish. The cheese was much like stilton cheese. The cheese was local from Clemson, therefore Clemson blue cheese. Shirleen ordered Dressed Rainbow Trout with crab and artichoke stuffing, scalloped potatoes and sautéed asparagus and I the Shellfish over Grits sautéed shrimp, sea scallops and lobster over creamy white grits with a lobster butter sauce and fried spinach. Both were good, Shirleen’s was the best, the stuffing was tasty and the fish done to a nice moist doneness, the scalloped potatoes the best, super thinly sliced and a flavorful and tasty sauce, baked to a crispy outside and moist inside. Not that I would not order mine again, the dish is their signature dish, I found the lobster – I think a rock lobster was tough, small shrimp but good sea scallops.
Now it is light out and we stopped at the Poogen’s porch for their business card which turned out to be on the street we exited from Magnolia’s parking lot. From there it was easy a left then a right and out to the motel. Well not quite, after missing the hiway 17 sign last night this evening we took the turn to soon and ended up somewhere. After a short time being lost I stopped at a gas station. I was in line and the guy behind me said how’s your night going? I said not to well, he said what’s wrong? I said I was lost and trying to find hiway 17, he said, follow me were going that way, I said sounds good to me. Thank god that I didn’t care that he was black and he drove a Dodge ram truck. We followed him back to the area we first turned around at and onward we went and back to 17, I blinked me lights bright twice and off he went. Trust given is trust returned.
Yesterday we saw that Beaufort was one of the wealthiest towns before the civil war. They had converted from growing indigo to becoming cotton growers. There cotton had long threads and easily separated cotton from the hull. This cotton was worth 60 times regular cotton and approached the fine quality of English cotton. jerr
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
March 28 Wednesday Day 31 Charleston Sleep Inn
Well like I said, if we find something to do in Beaufort we would stay. We did find a nice tour of the old houses and second oldest church in the country.
More to come - jerr
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Well like I said, if we find something to do in Beaufort we would stay. We did find a nice tour of the old houses and second oldest church in the country. The azalea’s were in full bloom here and we found out that the mis-reported lilac is a wisteria of SC not Chinese or Japanese wisteria. The many homes of the civil war time that are still standing is said to be because of the north not burning these homes but used as hospitals, especially the large homes. Others large homes were used by the officers; they always get the good stuff. I think that’s because if you put the officers in confined spaces like the enlisted live in they could not exist. It is different the way they interchange between Union and federal soldiers. I will have to research this later. Some of the homes had had a family with 14 children and a hundred slaves. An interesting tid bit was the whistling path. This is the path between the kitchen which was 15 feet from the house. The servants were to whistle as they brought the food to the family so they knew that they were not eating the food. My thought was they could have eaten it before they brought it?? It was said that they would also carry hot corn meal biscuits in there pockets and toss them to the dogs along the way. That’s where the hush puppy came from. I must say the streets in these parts of town are small; two cars can pass, as long as one is parked. There are no sidewalks usually just a small dirt path. The trees are right alongside the road; one had a sign on it, 12 feet to here. Heavy undergrowth of trees, vines and azalea’s, but quaint.
We were going along the coastal area and the tide was out. The guide said that the mud we could see was plough (pronounced - flew). The mud being high in nutrients compared to the sand of the area was hauled up to the gardens by the slave. A thought struck me, our forefathers had to break the virgin soil when they got here in the early 1850’s. we did our own work.
It was again a town that has had many movie shots taken there. There was a Forrest Gump shot of him looking over the Mississippi river when in fact it was the intercostals of Beaufort. Barbara Streisand rented a house for a month and that money put the family’s four children through college must have been a bundle.
Catch a bite to eat and off to Charleston. We had heard bout a little Italian place with good eating’s “Panini’s”. after a glass of cabernet we eat a thin crust brick oven style pizza in an elongated form. There shirts said anyone can make a round pizza try ours. It was a garlic base with tomatoes and pepperoni and I had a side of sausage. Apparently they thought it we had waited to long for our food and they asked if we wanted some soup or salad? I took a cold tomato soup, not bad but I like warmed better.
We decided to stay on the south side of Charleston, turns out to be minutes away from historic downtown. Also next to the Rick Hendrick’s Chevrolet. Owner Hendrick Motorsports Fields Race Teams in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup and Busch Series with Drivers Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon, Casey Mears, Jimmie Johnson.
We did the wash, that blew an hour and a half. Thank goodness they had commercial sizes. We had heard about a place to eat in historic downtown. Poogan’s Porch Restaurant. I called for reservations and could get in at 8. We left right away as we don’t know downtown it was 7:05. At 7:55 I called them and asked for directions. It turned out the street we were on was Queens St after I crossed the next intersection, although there was no street sign and it looked like an alley. I followed his directions and saw the parking garage he directed me to go to. I saw this parking spot, on my left. That is a different direction to parallel park from. Well with a car waiting behind me I pulled off a 10, once in backward and half frontward there I was. We got out on this semi dark street I looked across the street at this old house that had extra lights on and there it was Poogan’s Porch. It turned out the name came from the dog that is buried in the front yard with his buddy cat. The owner had died and the dog would not leave and also died there. As we waited Shirleen had time to read about Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward eating here. I asked the waiter if we could be seated on the porch as this was the only night we were in town, Well she would never know the difference. she sat us on the second floor porch what a romantic moment we had. We had a cabernet and merlot/Cabernet blend from Bordeaux. The biscuits were fresh baked and the spread was honey butter. Shirleen ordered Plantation Fried Chicken a piece of breast stuffed with white cheddar cheese, pesto & country ham with buttermilk whipped potatoes and string beans. I had Shrimp & Grits, tri-colored peppers, Vidalia onions, Cajun sausage, tasso & blue crab gravy. One wonders about grits, well they were a ground corn meal slowly cooked over the day, and were firm, not the wet I am used to. I would eat there anytime! - jerr
More to come - jerr
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Well like I said, if we find something to do in Beaufort we would stay. We did find a nice tour of the old houses and second oldest church in the country. The azalea’s were in full bloom here and we found out that the mis-reported lilac is a wisteria of SC not Chinese or Japanese wisteria. The many homes of the civil war time that are still standing is said to be because of the north not burning these homes but used as hospitals, especially the large homes. Others large homes were used by the officers; they always get the good stuff. I think that’s because if you put the officers in confined spaces like the enlisted live in they could not exist. It is different the way they interchange between Union and federal soldiers. I will have to research this later. Some of the homes had had a family with 14 children and a hundred slaves. An interesting tid bit was the whistling path. This is the path between the kitchen which was 15 feet from the house. The servants were to whistle as they brought the food to the family so they knew that they were not eating the food. My thought was they could have eaten it before they brought it?? It was said that they would also carry hot corn meal biscuits in there pockets and toss them to the dogs along the way. That’s where the hush puppy came from. I must say the streets in these parts of town are small; two cars can pass, as long as one is parked. There are no sidewalks usually just a small dirt path. The trees are right alongside the road; one had a sign on it, 12 feet to here. Heavy undergrowth of trees, vines and azalea’s, but quaint.
We were going along the coastal area and the tide was out. The guide said that the mud we could see was plough (pronounced - flew). The mud being high in nutrients compared to the sand of the area was hauled up to the gardens by the slave. A thought struck me, our forefathers had to break the virgin soil when they got here in the early 1850’s. we did our own work.
It was again a town that has had many movie shots taken there. There was a Forrest Gump shot of him looking over the Mississippi river when in fact it was the intercostals of Beaufort. Barbara Streisand rented a house for a month and that money put the family’s four children through college must have been a bundle.
Catch a bite to eat and off to Charleston. We had heard bout a little Italian place with good eating’s “Panini’s”. after a glass of cabernet we eat a thin crust brick oven style pizza in an elongated form. There shirts said anyone can make a round pizza try ours. It was a garlic base with tomatoes and pepperoni and I had a side of sausage. Apparently they thought it we had waited to long for our food and they asked if we wanted some soup or salad? I took a cold tomato soup, not bad but I like warmed better.
We decided to stay on the south side of Charleston, turns out to be minutes away from historic downtown. Also next to the Rick Hendrick’s Chevrolet. Owner Hendrick Motorsports Fields Race Teams in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup and Busch Series with Drivers Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon, Casey Mears, Jimmie Johnson.
We did the wash, that blew an hour and a half. Thank goodness they had commercial sizes. We had heard about a place to eat in historic downtown. Poogan’s Porch Restaurant. I called for reservations and could get in at 8. We left right away as we don’t know downtown it was 7:05. At 7:55 I called them and asked for directions. It turned out the street we were on was Queens St after I crossed the next intersection, although there was no street sign and it looked like an alley. I followed his directions and saw the parking garage he directed me to go to. I saw this parking spot, on my left. That is a different direction to parallel park from. Well with a car waiting behind me I pulled off a 10, once in backward and half frontward there I was. We got out on this semi dark street I looked across the street at this old house that had extra lights on and there it was Poogan’s Porch. It turned out the name came from the dog that is buried in the front yard with his buddy cat. The owner had died and the dog would not leave and also died there. As we waited Shirleen had time to read about Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward eating here. I asked the waiter if we could be seated on the porch as this was the only night we were in town, Well she would never know the difference. she sat us on the second floor porch what a romantic moment we had. We had a cabernet and merlot/Cabernet blend from Bordeaux. The biscuits were fresh baked and the spread was honey butter. Shirleen ordered Plantation Fried Chicken a piece of breast stuffed with white cheddar cheese, pesto & country ham with buttermilk whipped potatoes and string beans. I had Shrimp & Grits, tri-colored peppers, Vidalia onions, Cajun sausage, tasso & blue crab gravy. One wonders about grits, well they were a ground corn meal slowly cooked over the day, and were firm, not the wet I am used to. I would eat there anytime! - jerr
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
March 27 Tuesday Day 30 Beaufort SC Sleep Inn
When I was talking about the cars a couple days ago I forgot to mention a ’31 DeSoto convertible. A rare find.
We went back into Hilton Head. Many azalea’s in full bloom throughout the Island. Many pine trees, a surprise to me, but still some palm trees and shrubs. Moss on many live Oak trees we saw. In order to go to the lighthouse side of the island, we had to pay 5$. A cheapie like me that hurts. There are many homes and villas tucked away along the road. We wandered through the stores and saw many nice items. I knew we were just a shirt away from leaving the stores. Before we climbed the tower we ate a small lunch at The Sea Pines Resort Quarterdeck Topside Restaurant, outside of course. We started with a Sycamore cabernet each a fine tasting wine. Shirleen with a BBQ Pulled Pork sandwich with chips and I a bowl of Sherry Crab Bisque.
We then went to the tower and climber all 114 steps, 65 feet high. I looked down the center and though this is a place I need not be. Although like I told Shirleen, I had to make free ascent escapes from a 100 foot tower, two different times. The first a free ascent the second with a Steinke hood. This was a nice bird’s eye view of the different islands. The one straight ahead of us was Daufuskie Island a sizable population of Gullah inhabitants from the end of the Civil War until very recently. Gullah are the descendants of freed slaves. The harbor had a majestic live Oak, a Teak and mahogany old time boat and some gigantic cruisers. We also found that shirt.
We then drove back through some out of the way streets to look at the local color. I for one like the more tropical Florida settings. I can see how people who come down here from the north during the cool weather appreciate the climate, look and golf courses.
Mid afternoon we started off to Beaufort SC, a artistic community with an ongoing display. It was only 30 miles or so. It is a little town with a historic seaside type front street. There were 13 stores, the parking was all metered. We found one with 22 minutes on it and started the run through the stores. The first store had the sweet grass baskets we were looking for but, Jerry said lets look at some of the other stores before we buy here. Down the street we went, lots of acrylic, water color and painted pictures of scenery, homes, flowers, trees with moss, birds. There was a lot of pottery, 75$ for one of your leaves Michelle, they did not have the color on the back like you do. We came to the fourth store and there were more baskets. I looked at the regular ones and pricing was similar to the first store. Ah ha, I founds some smaller ones, maybe more my pricing, nope these were 200$ and probably rightly so as they were no more that 1.5 inches long and ¾ inch high. A lot more effort went into the making. Down the street and a quick in and out of the stores because of the meter, we had no change. Well when we went back to the car I noticed the car behind us left and the meter had 42 minutes on it. You guessed it, my Bohemian kinship stepped in, I backed up the car to the other meter. We went in and found ths basket that fit our needs, a nice example of African American art, I think that is politically correct?
Enough of this town and off we went to find a room. We thought we would try and use some of the Hampton Inn points, well they were full. Next, Country Inn and Suites, I needed my card – probably in MN somewhere r a printed confirmation. This did not set well and I told them that there is no reason for me to stay at any of theirs again. Time for dindin.
We had found a nice looking and as the lady behind the chamber counter said, it is fine dining. I asked if I was properly dressed, she said now a-days it is acceptable. Even though many of the people who were there were dressed with my normal blue sport coat when we travel abroad. We ate at The Beaufort Inn – Veranda restaurant. Starting with a glass of Sterling cabernet Reserve each 11$, later I had a Lois Latour chardonnay 8$. We then shared a Cab Cake with a black eyed bean, small half tomatoes, collard greens and sauce accompanied with fresh buns with a butter blend with crushed pecan and black strap molasses. Our main meal was a split, it was a special with two six ounce lobster tails on a corn and red pepper hoe cake with a fine white sauce and three pieces of grilled asparagus. They plated both meals separately and only up charged 2$.
Of to beddie bye, we were going to go another 35 miles or so but said lets stop her in Beaufort. Tomorrow I think we are headed to Charleston unless we find something else here in town to do. Jerr - Got Joe's letter out this morn.
We went back into Hilton Head. Many azalea’s in full bloom throughout the Island. Many pine trees, a surprise to me, but still some palm trees and shrubs. Moss on many live Oak trees we saw. In order to go to the lighthouse side of the island, we had to pay 5$. A cheapie like me that hurts. There are many homes and villas tucked away along the road. We wandered through the stores and saw many nice items. I knew we were just a shirt away from leaving the stores. Before we climbed the tower we ate a small lunch at The Sea Pines Resort Quarterdeck Topside Restaurant, outside of course. We started with a Sycamore cabernet each a fine tasting wine. Shirleen with a BBQ Pulled Pork sandwich with chips and I a bowl of Sherry Crab Bisque.
We then went to the tower and climber all 114 steps, 65 feet high. I looked down the center and though this is a place I need not be. Although like I told Shirleen, I had to make free ascent escapes from a 100 foot tower, two different times. The first a free ascent the second with a Steinke hood. This was a nice bird’s eye view of the different islands. The one straight ahead of us was Daufuskie Island a sizable population of Gullah inhabitants from the end of the Civil War until very recently. Gullah are the descendants of freed slaves. The harbor had a majestic live Oak, a Teak and mahogany old time boat and some gigantic cruisers. We also found that shirt.
We then drove back through some out of the way streets to look at the local color. I for one like the more tropical Florida settings. I can see how people who come down here from the north during the cool weather appreciate the climate, look and golf courses.
Mid afternoon we started off to Beaufort SC, a artistic community with an ongoing display. It was only 30 miles or so. It is a little town with a historic seaside type front street. There were 13 stores, the parking was all metered. We found one with 22 minutes on it and started the run through the stores. The first store had the sweet grass baskets we were looking for but, Jerry said lets look at some of the other stores before we buy here. Down the street we went, lots of acrylic, water color and painted pictures of scenery, homes, flowers, trees with moss, birds. There was a lot of pottery, 75$ for one of your leaves Michelle, they did not have the color on the back like you do. We came to the fourth store and there were more baskets. I looked at the regular ones and pricing was similar to the first store. Ah ha, I founds some smaller ones, maybe more my pricing, nope these were 200$ and probably rightly so as they were no more that 1.5 inches long and ¾ inch high. A lot more effort went into the making. Down the street and a quick in and out of the stores because of the meter, we had no change. Well when we went back to the car I noticed the car behind us left and the meter had 42 minutes on it. You guessed it, my Bohemian kinship stepped in, I backed up the car to the other meter. We went in and found ths basket that fit our needs, a nice example of African American art, I think that is politically correct?
Enough of this town and off we went to find a room. We thought we would try and use some of the Hampton Inn points, well they were full. Next, Country Inn and Suites, I needed my card – probably in MN somewhere r a printed confirmation. This did not set well and I told them that there is no reason for me to stay at any of theirs again. Time for dindin.
We had found a nice looking and as the lady behind the chamber counter said, it is fine dining. I asked if I was properly dressed, she said now a-days it is acceptable. Even though many of the people who were there were dressed with my normal blue sport coat when we travel abroad. We ate at The Beaufort Inn – Veranda restaurant. Starting with a glass of Sterling cabernet Reserve each 11$, later I had a Lois Latour chardonnay 8$. We then shared a Cab Cake with a black eyed bean, small half tomatoes, collard greens and sauce accompanied with fresh buns with a butter blend with crushed pecan and black strap molasses. Our main meal was a split, it was a special with two six ounce lobster tails on a corn and red pepper hoe cake with a fine white sauce and three pieces of grilled asparagus. They plated both meals separately and only up charged 2$.
Of to beddie bye, we were going to go another 35 miles or so but said lets stop her in Beaufort. Tomorrow I think we are headed to Charleston unless we find something else here in town to do. Jerr - Got Joe's letter out this morn.
Monday, March 26, 2007
March 26 Monday Day 29 nite in Bluffton by Hilton Head Island
Today we pick up where we left off yesterday, only today we go by tour trolley. We again used Old Town Trolley, they do a number of large town tours. Last year we used them in San Diego, this year Key West, St. Augustine and now Savannah, next Washington DC. We find this agency to do a good job.
As we got on and became settled into our seats, the driver asked where everyone was from. After everyone tried to outdo the others I said Mankato. He said hey I like that city and the Dunkin Donuts. He said when he was going to the seminary in Sioux Falls that he would speed over to Mankato pickup donuts and go back speedily. I mentioned that the owner lives next door and I would pass on the message.
We traveled the whole route and then got off at and grabbed the trolley at one of the first stops to get us where we wanted to go. Again the white, pink and red azalea’s; the yellow daffodil’s and multi-colored pansies dotted the landscape. A new flower was spotted, a purple viney lilac used in arch ways and on fencing. We also found out that the amount of iron, pronounced - arn, fencing and house decoration such as alongside the windows determined your wealth. We then went through the artsy area, a number of galleries, many nice pictures of moss covered oak limbs along row houses, or elegant two and three level luxury old homes. Others pull in the palm and sea setting with a egret or so in the picture. Mary tune in test to follow, the first artist had three paintings around her easel. The one on the floor was sold, the one on the easel was not, but a couple wanted to buy it and she said it was not yet done, they indicated they would buy it whe she was done. That prompted my question to her and Mary? How do you determine when a painting (or art piece) is done?? The picture on her easel was a large floral garden in the lower left quarter of the panel, she then had a tree over it in the background and an open upper right half. Even though the next element was not in the original she then put an old two story federal type home in that area partially covered by the garden and tree. It was not yet done because she needed to tone down the house color and needed something in the upper right corner. Unknown at this time. She in essence said I just get the feeling. Upstairs another artist was asked this question. He said he judged it complete when he thought it was ready to hang in his house.
We walked around the area and grabbed the trolley to exit close to our lunch spot. On the way we passed a number of spots where notable films had been spotlighted. Forrest Gump’s bench in the park, Julia Roberts looking through the window of “The Six Pence” restaurant where her husband was stepping out on her. A number of others but surprisingly I remembered these even though I know I have not seen either.
We arrived at our lunch spot, the end of a long line. The guy in front of us came back from the check in and was told 45 minutes to an hour. It was “the Wilkes House”, another family style well known eating spot. The owner had died three years ago and the guy next to us said it was one of the biggest funerals in town. On the first seating, 16 people to a table, she would have her husband say a prayer. Not sure if they do, we were not the first seating, we waited 60 minutes. People in front of us from Edina, behind us Ohio. There were so many bowls you could not taste or find a place to put the food on your plate. One guy counted 17 vegetables, all the southern ones, potatoes au-gratin, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, now the meats, beef stew, BBQ pork slices done just right and of course her southern fried chicken. This chicken was lightly coated with flour and again I passed up the dessert – banana pudding for more chicken. The biscuts were really good and flakey, Not bad for 15$ even, to drink they only had sweet or unsweetened ice tea. This is another place I had seen on Food Network but had forgotten about it until the tour driver mentioned it.
We went through a catholic church that had its windows made in Austria and the stations of the cross hand carved in Germany. They asked for donations as it cost them 600$ a day to run the church. Made me wonder how much the guy that had had his funeral that morning had to pay, almost like the government.
We hopped the trolley and went through the areas we had seen before but easier than walking that distance.
Our next location to visit wa about twenty miles onto the intercoastal area again, Tybee Island, home of the largest lighthouse and miles upon miles of white sand beaches. On our way back we could not resist stopping at Paula’s brother Bubba’s restaurant. We stopped at Uncle Bubba’s Oyster House, said to be one of the best for seafood. They did have a couple of Paula’s recipes, the chicken would take 25 minutes to prepare. Seeing we had just basically got off the table we grabbed a cabernet and an order of crab balls wit a smooth not spicy tarter sauce.
Off to Hilton Head we go. Not sure what’s there but we will find out and let you know. Anyone know where to eat their? We already got a heads up for Charleston – the Flight Deck. jerr
As we got on and became settled into our seats, the driver asked where everyone was from. After everyone tried to outdo the others I said Mankato. He said hey I like that city and the Dunkin Donuts. He said when he was going to the seminary in Sioux Falls that he would speed over to Mankato pickup donuts and go back speedily. I mentioned that the owner lives next door and I would pass on the message.
We traveled the whole route and then got off at and grabbed the trolley at one of the first stops to get us where we wanted to go. Again the white, pink and red azalea’s; the yellow daffodil’s and multi-colored pansies dotted the landscape. A new flower was spotted, a purple viney lilac used in arch ways and on fencing. We also found out that the amount of iron, pronounced - arn, fencing and house decoration such as alongside the windows determined your wealth. We then went through the artsy area, a number of galleries, many nice pictures of moss covered oak limbs along row houses, or elegant two and three level luxury old homes. Others pull in the palm and sea setting with a egret or so in the picture. Mary tune in test to follow, the first artist had three paintings around her easel. The one on the floor was sold, the one on the easel was not, but a couple wanted to buy it and she said it was not yet done, they indicated they would buy it whe she was done. That prompted my question to her and Mary? How do you determine when a painting (or art piece) is done?? The picture on her easel was a large floral garden in the lower left quarter of the panel, she then had a tree over it in the background and an open upper right half. Even though the next element was not in the original she then put an old two story federal type home in that area partially covered by the garden and tree. It was not yet done because she needed to tone down the house color and needed something in the upper right corner. Unknown at this time. She in essence said I just get the feeling. Upstairs another artist was asked this question. He said he judged it complete when he thought it was ready to hang in his house.
We walked around the area and grabbed the trolley to exit close to our lunch spot. On the way we passed a number of spots where notable films had been spotlighted. Forrest Gump’s bench in the park, Julia Roberts looking through the window of “The Six Pence” restaurant where her husband was stepping out on her. A number of others but surprisingly I remembered these even though I know I have not seen either.
We arrived at our lunch spot, the end of a long line. The guy in front of us came back from the check in and was told 45 minutes to an hour. It was “the Wilkes House”, another family style well known eating spot. The owner had died three years ago and the guy next to us said it was one of the biggest funerals in town. On the first seating, 16 people to a table, she would have her husband say a prayer. Not sure if they do, we were not the first seating, we waited 60 minutes. People in front of us from Edina, behind us Ohio. There were so many bowls you could not taste or find a place to put the food on your plate. One guy counted 17 vegetables, all the southern ones, potatoes au-gratin, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, now the meats, beef stew, BBQ pork slices done just right and of course her southern fried chicken. This chicken was lightly coated with flour and again I passed up the dessert – banana pudding for more chicken. The biscuts were really good and flakey, Not bad for 15$ even, to drink they only had sweet or unsweetened ice tea. This is another place I had seen on Food Network but had forgotten about it until the tour driver mentioned it.
We went through a catholic church that had its windows made in Austria and the stations of the cross hand carved in Germany. They asked for donations as it cost them 600$ a day to run the church. Made me wonder how much the guy that had had his funeral that morning had to pay, almost like the government.
We hopped the trolley and went through the areas we had seen before but easier than walking that distance.
Our next location to visit wa about twenty miles onto the intercoastal area again, Tybee Island, home of the largest lighthouse and miles upon miles of white sand beaches. On our way back we could not resist stopping at Paula’s brother Bubba’s restaurant. We stopped at Uncle Bubba’s Oyster House, said to be one of the best for seafood. They did have a couple of Paula’s recipes, the chicken would take 25 minutes to prepare. Seeing we had just basically got off the table we grabbed a cabernet and an order of crab balls wit a smooth not spicy tarter sauce.
Off to Hilton Head we go. Not sure what’s there but we will find out and let you know. Anyone know where to eat their? We already got a heads up for Charleston – the Flight Deck. jerr
Sunday, March 25, 2007
March 25 Saturday Day 28 in Savannah tonight
Happy Birthday Uncle Pat.
This morning we headed back to Savannah for a fun packed full day. We had seen that there was the 72nd Savannah Garden and Home Tour. We found the sight on-line and got the pertinent information. Now we had an hour to kill and we walked down around the historic district river street. I almost forgot , I wore my yellow Chihuly T-shirt today. One guy hollered Chihuly as we passed, neat her said. We picked up a chicken salad sandwich on one of the sidewalk cafes. The tour had a bus take us to one of Savannah's most beautiful historic neighborhoods - Ardsley Park. The tour allows us to visit one of Savannah's other Historic Districts. The wonderful little hamlet, located approximately three miles from downtown Savannah, was the city's first automobile suburb built in the 1900's. Ardsley Park is rich in history and embraces grand homes and lush gardens replete with huge, century old oaks and magnolias. We met a couple from Sheboygan WI and toured with them. The bus took us there but then the long and sweltering hot walk was by placing one foot before the other for three hours. The homes go without saying, for the rich and the famous. The richly decorated homes, with art specially painted for the owner, hand built ceiling moldings. Paintings from places these people had been from Europe and the Orient. One person had a damaged statue from a church in Budapest of the Virgin and Child. China from the orient and the pretty white and blue porcelain dinnerware. The gardens and greenery around the homes were immaculate, even on homes not on tour. We noticed the moss is greener and looks more alive than further south, I think the trees are more heavily leaved also. The wrought iron is remindful of Dad’s work. Many cute gates looking into back yards covered with vines and flowers all over them. I was surprised to see how many of the six homes we visited had attached guest homes.
We returned to the Episcopal Women of Christ Church. As we exited the tour bus this guy came up to me and said nice shirt he said Chihuly was his cousin, I said we loved his work. He said you ought to come to Tacoma and view his work shop. We then went in and bought a giclee (gyclee) print of the tour poster, I got 40/50. Why? Our 40th anniversary.
Yes, time for eats. Lets see if we can get into Paula Deen’s “The Lady & Sons” restaurant. There were no available tables for the rest of the days, but Shirleen remembered to ask for seating at the bar. So up we went to the third floor bar. On Sunday’s they only serve the buffet. Other days they do menu and buffet. We settled in with a cabernet and a #8 for me, she caught it after a few seconds. #8 is Dale Earnhardt Jr. Budweiser car number. Brought out the NASCAR in me. The buffet was well stacked with baked and deep fried chicken, a beef, potato and carrot casserole. Green beans, lima beans, delicious cabbage (with a shot of vodka to neutralize odor), collard greens tasty, mashed potatoes must have pureed or something special for the texture, turkey and dressing with biscuits and hoe cakes delivered to the bar (table). Now back to the fired chicken, Shirleen said what a flavor, a little sweetness to it. Ask Kim, our bartenderiss, how it is made. She said it is marinated with egg, red hot sauce (Tabasco) and spices overnight. Then floured and deep fried. I held myself back and only went back for the chicken twice. To top off the meal they bring, only to Shirleen – three desserts a peach cobbler, banana pudding and a brownie. All for 14.99$ and her fame.
Tonight we found a place in Savannah just a couple blocks from the river walk street. We drove around the historic downtown area and saw many magnificent homes. It struck us how many had steps up to the second floor doorways, Shirleen reminded me it was for the likelihood of flooding in the area. Again, the beauty of the massive live oaks, the moss in the trees, the vibrant colors of the flowering plants in the setting sun were just downright picturesque, wow. Footnote, live oaks, I had wondered what the significances was of that designation, it means they do not drop there leaves and go dormant.
We walked down town and viewed a bunch of old cars out on tour for a week around this area. Model T’s, A’s, Buick, Franklin’s, Auburn, Packard’s, a 7 passenger Moran, it had a dash between the driver and two passenger compartments. Had a nice talk with Dave the owner of the Moran, they were greasing his vehicle. jerr
This morning we headed back to Savannah for a fun packed full day. We had seen that there was the 72nd Savannah Garden and Home Tour. We found the sight on-line and got the pertinent information. Now we had an hour to kill and we walked down around the historic district river street. I almost forgot , I wore my yellow Chihuly T-shirt today. One guy hollered Chihuly as we passed, neat her said. We picked up a chicken salad sandwich on one of the sidewalk cafes. The tour had a bus take us to one of Savannah's most beautiful historic neighborhoods - Ardsley Park. The tour allows us to visit one of Savannah's other Historic Districts. The wonderful little hamlet, located approximately three miles from downtown Savannah, was the city's first automobile suburb built in the 1900's. Ardsley Park is rich in history and embraces grand homes and lush gardens replete with huge, century old oaks and magnolias. We met a couple from Sheboygan WI and toured with them. The bus took us there but then the long and sweltering hot walk was by placing one foot before the other for three hours. The homes go without saying, for the rich and the famous. The richly decorated homes, with art specially painted for the owner, hand built ceiling moldings. Paintings from places these people had been from Europe and the Orient. One person had a damaged statue from a church in Budapest of the Virgin and Child. China from the orient and the pretty white and blue porcelain dinnerware. The gardens and greenery around the homes were immaculate, even on homes not on tour. We noticed the moss is greener and looks more alive than further south, I think the trees are more heavily leaved also. The wrought iron is remindful of Dad’s work. Many cute gates looking into back yards covered with vines and flowers all over them. I was surprised to see how many of the six homes we visited had attached guest homes.
We returned to the Episcopal Women of Christ Church. As we exited the tour bus this guy came up to me and said nice shirt he said Chihuly was his cousin, I said we loved his work. He said you ought to come to Tacoma and view his work shop. We then went in and bought a giclee (gyclee) print of the tour poster, I got 40/50. Why? Our 40th anniversary.
Yes, time for eats. Lets see if we can get into Paula Deen’s “The Lady & Sons” restaurant. There were no available tables for the rest of the days, but Shirleen remembered to ask for seating at the bar. So up we went to the third floor bar. On Sunday’s they only serve the buffet. Other days they do menu and buffet. We settled in with a cabernet and a #8 for me, she caught it after a few seconds. #8 is Dale Earnhardt Jr. Budweiser car number. Brought out the NASCAR in me. The buffet was well stacked with baked and deep fried chicken, a beef, potato and carrot casserole. Green beans, lima beans, delicious cabbage (with a shot of vodka to neutralize odor), collard greens tasty, mashed potatoes must have pureed or something special for the texture, turkey and dressing with biscuits and hoe cakes delivered to the bar (table). Now back to the fired chicken, Shirleen said what a flavor, a little sweetness to it. Ask Kim, our bartenderiss, how it is made. She said it is marinated with egg, red hot sauce (Tabasco) and spices overnight. Then floured and deep fried. I held myself back and only went back for the chicken twice. To top off the meal they bring, only to Shirleen – three desserts a peach cobbler, banana pudding and a brownie. All for 14.99$ and her fame.
Tonight we found a place in Savannah just a couple blocks from the river walk street. We drove around the historic downtown area and saw many magnificent homes. It struck us how many had steps up to the second floor doorways, Shirleen reminded me it was for the likelihood of flooding in the area. Again, the beauty of the massive live oaks, the moss in the trees, the vibrant colors of the flowering plants in the setting sun were just downright picturesque, wow. Footnote, live oaks, I had wondered what the significances was of that designation, it means they do not drop there leaves and go dormant.
We walked down town and viewed a bunch of old cars out on tour for a week around this area. Model T’s, A’s, Buick, Franklin’s, Auburn, Packard’s, a 7 passenger Moran, it had a dash between the driver and two passenger compartments. Had a nice talk with Dave the owner of the Moran, they were greasing his vehicle. jerr
Saturday, March 24, 2007
March 24 Saturday Day 27 in Port Wentworth Comfort Suites
We start out the day with a visit to the old Spanish Fort with their battle flag still flying over it. Not there yet but getting closer. More info at: http://www.nps.gov/foma/ jerr
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This morning we mailed the following from St. Augustine for Danielle’s grade school class. Forgot to put the date on it.
Hello Class of Mrs. Case,
I have visited the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean since I last sent and e-mail. We are now headed north.
I have sent you a picture of the Oldest House in the USA and built in the 1700’s. The main floor is the only room and is no larger than your bedroom. The house had no bedrooms and no dining room. The people ate, played and slept in this room.
Have a Nice Day,
Flat Stanley
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Our main event for the day was the Castlillo De San Marcos National Monument, another free activity. For those over 62, you can get a lifetime free pass for all National Parks for 10$ once and use forever. It is a fort built by the first Spaniards to protect their holdings. It was built with that shell clay rock coquina, it turned out that the cannon balls would only stick in the wall because of its composition and not shatter the wall. This fort had never been attached and conquered, Only during the civil war the confederates took it over from one lone Yankee and 200 of them.
An interesting fact was that during the early 1800’s the fort was a refuge for blacks. If they could get out of Georgia and Alabama and make it to the fort they could become free if they became Catholics and became soldiers. There were a couple hundred who did this.
It is an interesting structure as it is not square but has a buttress at each corner that opens in two directions for cross fire. There is a group of volunteers who on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays fire a cannon five times during the day, quite the spectacle. They wear the clothing of the Spanish period. I thought well be have seen Burg’s battery do it what could be so different. Well the pomp and circumstance of the lead up to the firing. The five men have their stations and a leader person shouts out the instructions in Spanish. They start off by kneeling on one knee and signing themselves. It took probably 5 minutes to conduct the firing and it made a loud noise. They said the small cannons could shoot up to a mile and a half, with the heavier shells thee and a half miles. Also they had great accuracy, he said because the men were soldiers for life and they got extremely accurate as they would shoot 77 cannons six times an hour, hour in hour out.
After the firing off to Savannah we go. We worked close to the beach mostly with A1A. We ate at Jacksonville Beach’s Eddie Bahama’s, the merlots were non-descript, Shirleen’s coconut shrimp delicious, my buffalo shrimp quesadilla was non-descript, to hot to have a flavor but the fries were good.
On the north side of Jacksonville we took a 10 minute ferry ride with the car over St. John’s Bay, 3.25$. Nice touch as we were not in a hurry. After we left Florid and got into Georgia we went to the highway as there are no intercostals that we could find on any map we had.
Arrived downtown Savannah at 5 o’clock on a Saturday afternoon over a music-fest weekend. No accommodations, even asked if the Hyatt or Hilton had any rooms, the Hampton said not even the hotel that starts at 309$ a night had any. We had to go 15 miles out of town to find a spot, I am sure one of the run-down places would have had one but we are on vacation not a quick jaunt through the countryside. It turns out these nightly stays have become home for us, not our real home as that could never be replaced.
Ya, time to eat. We went down the line from where we were at and found a place that had an outside area to eat. The Island grill in Port Wentworth GA. I have nothing against bikers except for their smoking cig and we happen to be down wind, every one of them. That is a problem with eating outside as that many times becomes the smoking area. Shirleen’s merlot and my Bud draft were just fine, well I really would have like a glass like the wine had but I must have looked to shifty for one. We had a quick split order of grouper fingers with onion rings, really tasty.
jerr
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This morning we mailed the following from St. Augustine for Danielle’s grade school class. Forgot to put the date on it.
Hello Class of Mrs. Case,
I have visited the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean since I last sent and e-mail. We are now headed north.
I have sent you a picture of the Oldest House in the USA and built in the 1700’s. The main floor is the only room and is no larger than your bedroom. The house had no bedrooms and no dining room. The people ate, played and slept in this room.
Have a Nice Day,
Flat Stanley
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Our main event for the day was the Castlillo De San Marcos National Monument, another free activity. For those over 62, you can get a lifetime free pass for all National Parks for 10$ once and use forever. It is a fort built by the first Spaniards to protect their holdings. It was built with that shell clay rock coquina, it turned out that the cannon balls would only stick in the wall because of its composition and not shatter the wall. This fort had never been attached and conquered, Only during the civil war the confederates took it over from one lone Yankee and 200 of them.
An interesting fact was that during the early 1800’s the fort was a refuge for blacks. If they could get out of Georgia and Alabama and make it to the fort they could become free if they became Catholics and became soldiers. There were a couple hundred who did this.
It is an interesting structure as it is not square but has a buttress at each corner that opens in two directions for cross fire. There is a group of volunteers who on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays fire a cannon five times during the day, quite the spectacle. They wear the clothing of the Spanish period. I thought well be have seen Burg’s battery do it what could be so different. Well the pomp and circumstance of the lead up to the firing. The five men have their stations and a leader person shouts out the instructions in Spanish. They start off by kneeling on one knee and signing themselves. It took probably 5 minutes to conduct the firing and it made a loud noise. They said the small cannons could shoot up to a mile and a half, with the heavier shells thee and a half miles. Also they had great accuracy, he said because the men were soldiers for life and they got extremely accurate as they would shoot 77 cannons six times an hour, hour in hour out.
After the firing off to Savannah we go. We worked close to the beach mostly with A1A. We ate at Jacksonville Beach’s Eddie Bahama’s, the merlots were non-descript, Shirleen’s coconut shrimp delicious, my buffalo shrimp quesadilla was non-descript, to hot to have a flavor but the fries were good.
On the north side of Jacksonville we took a 10 minute ferry ride with the car over St. John’s Bay, 3.25$. Nice touch as we were not in a hurry. After we left Florid and got into Georgia we went to the highway as there are no intercostals that we could find on any map we had.
Arrived downtown Savannah at 5 o’clock on a Saturday afternoon over a music-fest weekend. No accommodations, even asked if the Hyatt or Hilton had any rooms, the Hampton said not even the hotel that starts at 309$ a night had any. We had to go 15 miles out of town to find a spot, I am sure one of the run-down places would have had one but we are on vacation not a quick jaunt through the countryside. It turns out these nightly stays have become home for us, not our real home as that could never be replaced.
Ya, time to eat. We went down the line from where we were at and found a place that had an outside area to eat. The Island grill in Port Wentworth GA. I have nothing against bikers except for their smoking cig and we happen to be down wind, every one of them. That is a problem with eating outside as that many times becomes the smoking area. Shirleen’s merlot and my Bud draft were just fine, well I really would have like a glass like the wine had but I must have looked to shifty for one. We had a quick split order of grouper fingers with onion rings, really tasty.
jerr
March 23 Friday Day 26 still in St. Augustine
Update later, tired tonight, takes 1/2 to an hour to think and write. jerr
here goes:
To the Trolley we went. We thought what we would do to wake up was to ride the trolley for a while. It is really nice to hear different versions of St. Augustine, its places and history. We finally got off the trolley by the area where the first mass in the America’s was supposedly said. It is a little way off the main area by a peninsula in a bay. There is a 208 foot stainless steel cross at the point. As one walks toward the old church in the approximate area of that mass there is a cemetery. It had been used during the early years with one I photo’d that said: Don Oliuerco – 1800 Consort of Dona Gonzalez 1797; love the consort. A quiet place. From here we walked the rest f the day.
Time for lunch, we were told that the restaurant across the street from our motel was good. It was Le Pavillon, French and German foods. The owner was Claude with wife Geisle. She from German, he from Switzerland and Italy, he was a chef with the Hilton chain for many years. Nice old gent, we spoke with him at our table before our lunch. We had cabernet’s with Shirleen’s crepe with chicken and a light sauce, and I the Friday special there Seafood puff pastry, scallops, shrimp and a tasty sauce. What was special about this meal was the salad with Boston (butter) lettuce with a light Italian dressing accompanied with a super parmesan toasted bread. The bread was a nice soft texture, halved and spread with fresh parmesan and toasted. I think the bread was warm before it was toasted because the bread was soft and warm.
Flagler Memorial Presbyterian Church, the one Mr. Flagler built for his daughter and her child his first wife and his self. The church was built within a year. He hired two crews of 500 people who worked day and night to finish it by the anniversary of his daughter’s death. It was appointed with rich mahogany and marble. The baptismal font is a six foot by three foot solid piece of marble. The grounds of the church have a nice garden area with a wall for ashes. As you would expect quiet.
We also saw where Lincoln had signed the emancipation Act. The Woolworth where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a sit in, the pool where the owner poured hydrochloric acid into when DMLK was swimming and a house he slept in. and a church he preached in. Neat!!
Across from this was the Flagler College. It is the old Hotel Ponce De Leon that Flagler owned in 1877. He had his friend Tiffany do the windows in the restaurant now students eating area. They are valued at 37 million dollars. Not that exciting but for some multicolored ones higher up from the floor level ones. The chairs were also made by Tiffany, there were five left. They were wood back with a leather seat fully packed for comfort. The front legs had wheels on them for easy pulling out and putting under the ladies. The wood back had the face of a happy lion (lions were used throughout the structure as Leon means Lion) – guess you just change vowels for a Spanish influence. These chairs were sold to the prof’s for five chairs they paid 75$.
We walked over to the Lightner building which housed a large museum, but we opted out for a walk to the Hotel San Marco. Just a walk through not much compared to the college.
The bridge of lions is being refurbished. A bridge has been built alongside the old one. In another four years the new bridge will be removed and relocated to some other place as a bridge and the old bridge will be again in use. 67 Million dollar renovation. It is also a law that no buildings within the old district can be higher than 34 feet, three stories.
We thought we would try a different restaurant instead of eating across the street from where we were staying. So off for downtown we went, it was already 6:30 and hunger was evident. We walked past many places packed full on St. George street, the old city street. We made the corner and tried Hungry Harry’s again packed and a 45 minutes wait for an outside table. Stopped at the Hilton, no one eating we left quickly. Down the road we went, yes you guessed it, we ate at the place across from us. Again Shirleen with a cabernet and I with two faz bier Warsteiner’s, the bread, salad the same but this time we split a Vienne Schnitzel, made with pork. The breading was with an egg wash and then cracker crumb breading and fried in butter. Vegetables were carrots, green beans and a vinegary purple cabbage – I thought one of the best I have had. Split charge was only 5$. jerr
here goes:
To the Trolley we went. We thought what we would do to wake up was to ride the trolley for a while. It is really nice to hear different versions of St. Augustine, its places and history. We finally got off the trolley by the area where the first mass in the America’s was supposedly said. It is a little way off the main area by a peninsula in a bay. There is a 208 foot stainless steel cross at the point. As one walks toward the old church in the approximate area of that mass there is a cemetery. It had been used during the early years with one I photo’d that said: Don Oliuerco – 1800 Consort of Dona Gonzalez 1797; love the consort. A quiet place. From here we walked the rest f the day.
Time for lunch, we were told that the restaurant across the street from our motel was good. It was Le Pavillon, French and German foods. The owner was Claude with wife Geisle. She from German, he from Switzerland and Italy, he was a chef with the Hilton chain for many years. Nice old gent, we spoke with him at our table before our lunch. We had cabernet’s with Shirleen’s crepe with chicken and a light sauce, and I the Friday special there Seafood puff pastry, scallops, shrimp and a tasty sauce. What was special about this meal was the salad with Boston (butter) lettuce with a light Italian dressing accompanied with a super parmesan toasted bread. The bread was a nice soft texture, halved and spread with fresh parmesan and toasted. I think the bread was warm before it was toasted because the bread was soft and warm.
Flagler Memorial Presbyterian Church, the one Mr. Flagler built for his daughter and her child his first wife and his self. The church was built within a year. He hired two crews of 500 people who worked day and night to finish it by the anniversary of his daughter’s death. It was appointed with rich mahogany and marble. The baptismal font is a six foot by three foot solid piece of marble. The grounds of the church have a nice garden area with a wall for ashes. As you would expect quiet.
We also saw where Lincoln had signed the emancipation Act. The Woolworth where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a sit in, the pool where the owner poured hydrochloric acid into when DMLK was swimming and a house he slept in. and a church he preached in. Neat!!
Across from this was the Flagler College. It is the old Hotel Ponce De Leon that Flagler owned in 1877. He had his friend Tiffany do the windows in the restaurant now students eating area. They are valued at 37 million dollars. Not that exciting but for some multicolored ones higher up from the floor level ones. The chairs were also made by Tiffany, there were five left. They were wood back with a leather seat fully packed for comfort. The front legs had wheels on them for easy pulling out and putting under the ladies. The wood back had the face of a happy lion (lions were used throughout the structure as Leon means Lion) – guess you just change vowels for a Spanish influence. These chairs were sold to the prof’s for five chairs they paid 75$.
We walked over to the Lightner building which housed a large museum, but we opted out for a walk to the Hotel San Marco. Just a walk through not much compared to the college.
The bridge of lions is being refurbished. A bridge has been built alongside the old one. In another four years the new bridge will be removed and relocated to some other place as a bridge and the old bridge will be again in use. 67 Million dollar renovation. It is also a law that no buildings within the old district can be higher than 34 feet, three stories.
We thought we would try a different restaurant instead of eating across the street from where we were staying. So off for downtown we went, it was already 6:30 and hunger was evident. We walked past many places packed full on St. George street, the old city street. We made the corner and tried Hungry Harry’s again packed and a 45 minutes wait for an outside table. Stopped at the Hilton, no one eating we left quickly. Down the road we went, yes you guessed it, we ate at the place across from us. Again Shirleen with a cabernet and I with two faz bier Warsteiner’s, the bread, salad the same but this time we split a Vienne Schnitzel, made with pork. The breading was with an egg wash and then cracker crumb breading and fried in butter. Vegetables were carrots, green beans and a vinegary purple cabbage – I thought one of the best I have had. Split charge was only 5$. jerr
Thursday, March 22, 2007
March 22 Thursday Day 25
Today we wake up in sunny St. Augustine. Off to a Trolley tour of the city/old city. This gives us a good idea of where we should go back too. The architecture is of Spanish/Moorish days. The person most associated with the town is a Mr. Flagler, he had built a railroad from Pittsburg to Key West, all on the bet that there would be a need for coal to fuel steamers going through the Panama Canal. This was back in the late 1890’s to 1910. He was good to the people that worked for him, giving them a place to live and hospitalization. Along with this he built/owned three of the best hotels in the city. Turns out he lays claim to owning 3 hotels f stature within three blocks of each other. One way to fill them was by getting people down here. He did this by building many different denominational churches with the thought that the more denominations the more people would come here. The trolley we were on allowed us to exit and enter as many times as we want for three days. That’s why we are staying over a night. We also passed the Love tree, where it is said anyone that kisses the other, they shall stay together for eternity. So we did kiss!
Out first stop was the oldest house in the US. It was built around 1564 or so. The blocks to make up the base of the house were Coquina a shell stone that is quarried. The overhead beams were the originals, beds were actually bed rolls. So in the day they could be rolled up and placed against the wall. Remember the house was no more than 10 by 17 feet. In the direct center there was a 2 foot round low silhouette that burned charcoal. This would keep the place warm in the winter and keep the bugs and mosquitoes away. Now think of it there was no smokestack so it was the smoke that stayed in the house and into there lungs each day. No need for anti-perspirants! Being old like this it had many owners and uses over the years. There is a quaint garden and outside sheds with the house. One of the neatest things I saw was the rock that had been used as ballast in the ships. This rock was semi-porous and was used to filter their drinking water. The water in the top rock was like dirty river water and underneath in the catch basin was clear. Of course clear does not necessarily mean drinkable, but in there case it was as the town survived.
From here we walked to the old town and guess what we found a place to eat. The White Lion Pub and Restaurant. Shirleen had her chocolate martini and I a chardonnay. Her fried Mahi Mahi turned out to be two big hunks of fish, of which I got one, and I fried clams with pole beans well cooked with onions, really good taste; also had a bowl of yellow rice. Don’t need to again try a glass of Bud’s Heffevisen.
The afternoon was spent watching Shirleen eat an ice cream cone. The cone was one of those homemade dark batter sugar cone, smells go and tastes better. We looked at a number of shops and didn’t find anything to take back.
We found a new place to stay a Comfort Suites in downtown St. Augustine. We are just a couple blocks from the horse and carriages. We sauntered down for a delightful half hour ride through the city, many of the same stories but some with a different twist. Did I mention dinner time? We ate at O. C. Whites restaurant, Shirleen and I had a glass of house cabernet, She coconut shrimp and fries - tasty, I Pasta A La Vodka - plum tomatoes, with fresh basil and garlic simmered in a light cream sauce with a splash of vodka over angel hair pasta with shrimp, a great dish. We strolled back in the dark our hotel. We were passed by four groups of people who were doing the Ghost and Gravestone tours. A neat thing but we didn’t need it we walked past the Huguenot (French Protestants) Cemetery by ourselves. Not as scary as it used to be, maybe the closer we get to it ourselves the less scary it gets?
Tomorrow we will go to the fort and catch some of the other things we missed today. Really nice town, somewhat commercial but laid back.
jerr
Out first stop was the oldest house in the US. It was built around 1564 or so. The blocks to make up the base of the house were Coquina a shell stone that is quarried. The overhead beams were the originals, beds were actually bed rolls. So in the day they could be rolled up and placed against the wall. Remember the house was no more than 10 by 17 feet. In the direct center there was a 2 foot round low silhouette that burned charcoal. This would keep the place warm in the winter and keep the bugs and mosquitoes away. Now think of it there was no smokestack so it was the smoke that stayed in the house and into there lungs each day. No need for anti-perspirants! Being old like this it had many owners and uses over the years. There is a quaint garden and outside sheds with the house. One of the neatest things I saw was the rock that had been used as ballast in the ships. This rock was semi-porous and was used to filter their drinking water. The water in the top rock was like dirty river water and underneath in the catch basin was clear. Of course clear does not necessarily mean drinkable, but in there case it was as the town survived.
From here we walked to the old town and guess what we found a place to eat. The White Lion Pub and Restaurant. Shirleen had her chocolate martini and I a chardonnay. Her fried Mahi Mahi turned out to be two big hunks of fish, of which I got one, and I fried clams with pole beans well cooked with onions, really good taste; also had a bowl of yellow rice. Don’t need to again try a glass of Bud’s Heffevisen.
The afternoon was spent watching Shirleen eat an ice cream cone. The cone was one of those homemade dark batter sugar cone, smells go and tastes better. We looked at a number of shops and didn’t find anything to take back.
We found a new place to stay a Comfort Suites in downtown St. Augustine. We are just a couple blocks from the horse and carriages. We sauntered down for a delightful half hour ride through the city, many of the same stories but some with a different twist. Did I mention dinner time? We ate at O. C. Whites restaurant, Shirleen and I had a glass of house cabernet, She coconut shrimp and fries - tasty, I Pasta A La Vodka - plum tomatoes, with fresh basil and garlic simmered in a light cream sauce with a splash of vodka over angel hair pasta with shrimp, a great dish. We strolled back in the dark our hotel. We were passed by four groups of people who were doing the Ghost and Gravestone tours. A neat thing but we didn’t need it we walked past the Huguenot (French Protestants) Cemetery by ourselves. Not as scary as it used to be, maybe the closer we get to it ourselves the less scary it gets?
Tomorrow we will go to the fort and catch some of the other things we missed today. Really nice town, somewhat commercial but laid back.
jerr
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
March 21 Wednesday Day 24
at the St Augustine FL Quality Inn
One of the things I fail to mention is our side trips. We do not always stick to the A1A we slip closer to the ocean or gulf depending on where we were. Today we drove down Daytona Beach for half an hour each way, each of us one way. The speed, well not like a race track 10 miles an hour.
This morning started out at Daytona USA, the race track. We got there really early and people of all ages where visiting. There was a tour of the track and a stop for pictures at the Winners Circle. You get a real feel for what racing is when you look at the corners, they are three stories high around 31 feet. So you are running at about a 30 degree angle when making those corners. The next thing we did was take a ride on a simulated race track lap. It had all the bumps and jostling the intense noise of the high revving engines that one would have in the car. Really fun. There was an Imax NASCAR film in 3-D. Again it was well do, by Disney, and gave the thrill of a real race. The clincher was when the wheel came off one of the cars from in front of us and whizzes right to the right of our shoulders. Dale Ernhardt was mentioned a couple of times, tastefully. To this day he is alive in peoples heart much like Elvis lives. The day that Dale crashed on the last lap of the fourth curve of the Daytona 500 that Michael Waltrip and Dales son came in second and was right in front of Dale. Well as the race was about to start, the TV camera panned over to Dale and his wife holding hands and I said to myself, someday they won’t be able to do that, meaning he would be killed in an accident, I am not a profit but it does give me a funny feeling every time I see something about him.
We stopped at an Olive garden in Daytona for lunch, nothing different except Shirleen had a strawberry Siciliano ice cream drink.
Up the road we go towards St. Augustine, I have already mentioned the driving on the beach.
After bedding down we took off south to the beach area for eats. Looked in my rear view mirror and saw a red C-6 Z06 behind me, ah, I can always dream. Off to the left was a small road, so down it I go. It turned out to go to the beach, but right alongside the end of the road is a restaurant, Beachcomber, wouldn’t you know. We seat ourselves out side on the only open table. It turned out to have one of the few views of the ocean, as the dunes are high and in the way for a good view. The tables are thick wooden tables with wooden benches. We ordered house wines, merlot and shiraz, with a cup of Maorcan (not sure of spelling) clam chowder, spicy tomato base beans, onions and clams. We split a beachcomber fish combo plate consisting of fish of the day today fried in bread crumbs Mahi Mahi, butterfly shrimp and sea scallops.
Tomorrow we are doing the St. Augustine tour thing and off for Jacksonville. jerr
One of the things I fail to mention is our side trips. We do not always stick to the A1A we slip closer to the ocean or gulf depending on where we were. Today we drove down Daytona Beach for half an hour each way, each of us one way. The speed, well not like a race track 10 miles an hour.
This morning started out at Daytona USA, the race track. We got there really early and people of all ages where visiting. There was a tour of the track and a stop for pictures at the Winners Circle. You get a real feel for what racing is when you look at the corners, they are three stories high around 31 feet. So you are running at about a 30 degree angle when making those corners. The next thing we did was take a ride on a simulated race track lap. It had all the bumps and jostling the intense noise of the high revving engines that one would have in the car. Really fun. There was an Imax NASCAR film in 3-D. Again it was well do, by Disney, and gave the thrill of a real race. The clincher was when the wheel came off one of the cars from in front of us and whizzes right to the right of our shoulders. Dale Ernhardt was mentioned a couple of times, tastefully. To this day he is alive in peoples heart much like Elvis lives. The day that Dale crashed on the last lap of the fourth curve of the Daytona 500 that Michael Waltrip and Dales son came in second and was right in front of Dale. Well as the race was about to start, the TV camera panned over to Dale and his wife holding hands and I said to myself, someday they won’t be able to do that, meaning he would be killed in an accident, I am not a profit but it does give me a funny feeling every time I see something about him.
We stopped at an Olive garden in Daytona for lunch, nothing different except Shirleen had a strawberry Siciliano ice cream drink.
Up the road we go towards St. Augustine, I have already mentioned the driving on the beach.
After bedding down we took off south to the beach area for eats. Looked in my rear view mirror and saw a red C-6 Z06 behind me, ah, I can always dream. Off to the left was a small road, so down it I go. It turned out to go to the beach, but right alongside the end of the road is a restaurant, Beachcomber, wouldn’t you know. We seat ourselves out side on the only open table. It turned out to have one of the few views of the ocean, as the dunes are high and in the way for a good view. The tables are thick wooden tables with wooden benches. We ordered house wines, merlot and shiraz, with a cup of Maorcan (not sure of spelling) clam chowder, spicy tomato base beans, onions and clams. We split a beachcomber fish combo plate consisting of fish of the day today fried in bread crumbs Mahi Mahi, butterfly shrimp and sea scallops.
Tomorrow we are doing the St. Augustine tour thing and off for Jacksonville. jerr
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
March 20 Tuesday Day 23
Tonight we are in Comfort Suites in Daytona Beach.
We did not have breakfast at the Inn so we headed out to find something. We were going to see another Botanical Garden and on the way I spotted The Gathering in Largo FL. Turns out a home-style restaurant. Many selections on that menu, even half orders of eggs Benedict, with four different types. The coffee was tasty. Shirleen’s eggs and potatoes and my frittata with mushrooms, tomatoes, onions and ham were really good.
Off we went to the Florida Botanical Garden. This was a mix of gardens with many of the same palms we became familiar with more south of here. We see fewer orchids but still many lovely flowers. We did see Shirleen’s most sought after animal an alligator next to a Watch Out for Alligator sign, what a coincidence.
Another part of this Garden was a heritage farm. There were many structures, houses, barn, smoke house, general store with a little garage. The store had many cans of food, boxes of crackers, and man household items. The garage had a 1925 Model TT truck, the two TT’s are right. A neat sign which I think I will put up in my garage was “Mechanic Out”.
Down the line was a LaFrance fire truck, one of the different elements on that truck was the rear tire. It was solid rubber with a deep grove in it.
Then the quaint little house, a kitchen, setting room and two bedrooms, I found an instant connection with the front porch and two rockers, one which fit me just fine. To the back was an outhouse with directions for use, cute, wish I had photo’d, the garden for the house had carrots, little green tomatoes, a scarecrow with a moss beard with grass clippings between the rows of plants.
Now off to the University of Southern Florida’s Botanical garden. No need to go there, they are too interested in football and basketball to give monies to a program like gardening.
We found a nice place to stay for the evening. ¼ mile from Daytona 500 Racetrack! I asked the desk where a good steakhouse was? He said Gene’s Steak House in Daytona Beach since 1948. When I got back to the car Shirleen said she found a good place Gene’s, so must be good. After going the wrong way for five miles, I turned around and went another ten miles the other way to find the restaurant. It is an unpretentious building on an open highway. We were seated by the daughter of the owner. She told us that her grandparents owned the restaurant, when they died their daughter took over. The third generation daughter is now the manager, her brother the night manager and her mother owns it. We were handed a wine menu, it had some of the fine wines of France, most twice to 30 times my budget. Louie XIII shot of cognac for 125$, no period in there. We bought a bottle of Cabernet by Salmon Creek, California 2002, tasty. If we had not finished it there state law permits taking the leftovers home. There complimentary starters were spicy hot garlic pickles, baby corn with corn relish, and carrot sticks. We ordered a flame broiled filet Mignon for Shirleen with a baked potato and I a New York Strip with French fries. Our salads were accompanied by ranch and Roquefort cheese. Those steaks were among the best tasting I have had in a long long time.
Now came the fun part. Did I mention this restaurant caters to the rich and famous race car drivers, and motorcycle enthusiasts? Well it is. We sat behind a picture of Shirleen’s favorite race car driver – Paul Newman. At Elkhart Lake I have a pic of her by his pink race car. Pat, the owner, sat by the people who were next to us and soon we became part of the conversation. Pat had come by the table before we ate and I asked why she was working, she said one of the waiters had a sick mother in the ICU, so she came in to help. Turns out her son came in for a snack after working 14 days straight, now he is waiting tables to help out. A family thing I guess. Now the table next to us mentions Paul Newman and how he made her mother feel really good after she had lost her brother three weeks before. Turns out he rarely is part of a picture and never autographs. This gal had asked him to be part of the picture and he obliged and autographed for her. Well it turned out that he likes Oreo cookies for desert and they had given him the leftovers, which he gave to this lady. Turned out that her deceased brother, each night had had 6 Oreo’s with milk before sleeping. Paul giving her those Oreo’s was just divine guidance. Now the conversation drifted to his love of apple sauce. A couple times before they had made some for him when he came in. this time Pat made some from scratch, brought it out to him and he said no thanks. she said she had just made it for him, he said, he only used it on baked potatoes and tonight he had French fries. Really cute stories. Pat also talked about her run in with Montoya, Target’s race car owner Chip Ganassi. When we left she was sitting at the bar I went over and said how much we enjoyed the evening. Her question was, were we locals? No from Minnesota and had a daughter in Milwaukee. She asked if we had eaten at Mader’s, of course we had. She said the schnitzel was delicious and I agreed with her as I had also had it. She said go to the Harley factor and tell the president that Pat Young from Gene’s told us to stop by. Love these racing freaks, I fit right in. jerr
We did not have breakfast at the Inn so we headed out to find something. We were going to see another Botanical Garden and on the way I spotted The Gathering in Largo FL. Turns out a home-style restaurant. Many selections on that menu, even half orders of eggs Benedict, with four different types. The coffee was tasty. Shirleen’s eggs and potatoes and my frittata with mushrooms, tomatoes, onions and ham were really good.
Off we went to the Florida Botanical Garden. This was a mix of gardens with many of the same palms we became familiar with more south of here. We see fewer orchids but still many lovely flowers. We did see Shirleen’s most sought after animal an alligator next to a Watch Out for Alligator sign, what a coincidence.
Another part of this Garden was a heritage farm. There were many structures, houses, barn, smoke house, general store with a little garage. The store had many cans of food, boxes of crackers, and man household items. The garage had a 1925 Model TT truck, the two TT’s are right. A neat sign which I think I will put up in my garage was “Mechanic Out”.
Down the line was a LaFrance fire truck, one of the different elements on that truck was the rear tire. It was solid rubber with a deep grove in it.
Then the quaint little house, a kitchen, setting room and two bedrooms, I found an instant connection with the front porch and two rockers, one which fit me just fine. To the back was an outhouse with directions for use, cute, wish I had photo’d, the garden for the house had carrots, little green tomatoes, a scarecrow with a moss beard with grass clippings between the rows of plants.
Now off to the University of Southern Florida’s Botanical garden. No need to go there, they are too interested in football and basketball to give monies to a program like gardening.
We found a nice place to stay for the evening. ¼ mile from Daytona 500 Racetrack! I asked the desk where a good steakhouse was? He said Gene’s Steak House in Daytona Beach since 1948. When I got back to the car Shirleen said she found a good place Gene’s, so must be good. After going the wrong way for five miles, I turned around and went another ten miles the other way to find the restaurant. It is an unpretentious building on an open highway. We were seated by the daughter of the owner. She told us that her grandparents owned the restaurant, when they died their daughter took over. The third generation daughter is now the manager, her brother the night manager and her mother owns it. We were handed a wine menu, it had some of the fine wines of France, most twice to 30 times my budget. Louie XIII shot of cognac for 125$, no period in there. We bought a bottle of Cabernet by Salmon Creek, California 2002, tasty. If we had not finished it there state law permits taking the leftovers home. There complimentary starters were spicy hot garlic pickles, baby corn with corn relish, and carrot sticks. We ordered a flame broiled filet Mignon for Shirleen with a baked potato and I a New York Strip with French fries. Our salads were accompanied by ranch and Roquefort cheese. Those steaks were among the best tasting I have had in a long long time.
Now came the fun part. Did I mention this restaurant caters to the rich and famous race car drivers, and motorcycle enthusiasts? Well it is. We sat behind a picture of Shirleen’s favorite race car driver – Paul Newman. At Elkhart Lake I have a pic of her by his pink race car. Pat, the owner, sat by the people who were next to us and soon we became part of the conversation. Pat had come by the table before we ate and I asked why she was working, she said one of the waiters had a sick mother in the ICU, so she came in to help. Turns out her son came in for a snack after working 14 days straight, now he is waiting tables to help out. A family thing I guess. Now the table next to us mentions Paul Newman and how he made her mother feel really good after she had lost her brother three weeks before. Turns out he rarely is part of a picture and never autographs. This gal had asked him to be part of the picture and he obliged and autographed for her. Well it turned out that he likes Oreo cookies for desert and they had given him the leftovers, which he gave to this lady. Turned out that her deceased brother, each night had had 6 Oreo’s with milk before sleeping. Paul giving her those Oreo’s was just divine guidance. Now the conversation drifted to his love of apple sauce. A couple times before they had made some for him when he came in. this time Pat made some from scratch, brought it out to him and he said no thanks. she said she had just made it for him, he said, he only used it on baked potatoes and tonight he had French fries. Really cute stories. Pat also talked about her run in with Montoya, Target’s race car owner Chip Ganassi. When we left she was sitting at the bar I went over and said how much we enjoyed the evening. Her question was, were we locals? No from Minnesota and had a daughter in Milwaukee. She asked if we had eaten at Mader’s, of course we had. She said the schnitzel was delicious and I agreed with her as I had also had it. She said go to the Harley factor and tell the president that Pat Young from Gene’s told us to stop by. Love these racing freaks, I fit right in. jerr
Monday, March 19, 2007
March 19 Monday Day 22
Added a couple things later this evening.
Tonight we are in Clearwater FL Quality INN up 30 miles from St. Petersburg.
One of the reasons we came back to St. Petersburg, besides the warmer weather down here versus Daytona Beach, was to see the Sunken Gardens – A Botanical Experience. That was an understatement. The guide was a horticulturalist with a stunning presentation. It was a two and a half hour walk through a ¾ mile path. He, after being there since 1998, knew each plant there botanical name and common name. You would think we have seen everything tropical by this time as it is our 10th garden. Well we have but this garden was started in 1903, a number of the royal palms were planted that year and have withstood many hurricanes, graceful and tall. The Cuban flamingoes were from the early 60’s and generally live 50 to 60 years. There are a number of caged birds. They and the flamingoes are taken in to a shelter each night so the raccoons don’t get to them. There was a pond full of Koi, a couple adults and there offspring. I found a fascination in cycads: Cycads have crowns of large, feathery compound leaves and cones at the ends of their branches. Some have tall, unbranched, armor like trunks; others have partially buried stems with swollen trunks – from Wikipedia. These plants have survived for 200,000 years, I have heard this number used a couple of times and figure it is within two standard deviations of the real date. A must for those who love gardening.
Off to the waterfront in Tampa Bay for lunch. We found Fresco’s Waterfront Bistro, watched the sail boats and birds while we sat and ate. Shirleen’s Chocolate Martini was scrumptious and I started with a Maddalena Cabernet followed by a Mezza Corona chardonnay. Shirleen opted for the fish of the day – a baked trout with a fine mango salsa and I a Quesadilla. This I got for Abby, as she likes them, not sure this one would be similar to her liking. It had fire grilled chicken, Andouille sausage, green tomatillo, onions and jack cheese folded in a cheddar jalapeno tortilla. Wow what a bite to it.
Down the block for another one of those mind-boggling exhibits Dalí - http://www.salvadordalimuseum.org/home.html The current exhibit is DALI & THE SPANISH BAROQUE. The guide we had was marvelous, she pointed to the hidden portions of the paintings. Showing how his art incorporated other artist’s ideas. One of his themes was a small picture of a father, most of the time, holding his sons hand. This was what Dali would have loved to have had his father do. His father wanted traditional painting not this style. He did approve of his initial still lives. He was a master of color and technique. He had paintings that were line drawn, pastels and hard intense colors. One must understand what he has put into the painting and the time of the world he did it in. He was a very religious man in life and in his paintings. He drew a perspective of Christ on the cross; this picture was from the top and Christ's head hanging down so that one could not see his face. It turns out Dali does not paint the face of God, he always has something in the way, one was the fist of God in front of his face. This is the exact opposite of yesterday’s sculpture/painter. Dali's work included using the hidden - item – person – thing – into the picture, something you didn’t see until it was pointed out. Then you wonder how you missed it. One that I noticed was a painting with a line drawing of a lady, here nose and eye were actually a man on a horse holding a lance, yes really. I am now an avid lover of his work, I think ever since I saw his long legged giraffe elephant in a window in a French village near Cannes at a store in St Paul de Vence.
We went to the west to take in the sunset over the Gulf. But ended up eating again, at Caddy’s Waterfront BBQ and Restaurant in Treasure Island a couple glasses of Merlot and Shirleen’s pulled pork and my pastrami, we expected sandwiches it was just plated no bread with our double order of beans. The gals said she was glad she was not going to be between the sheets with us. The scenery was nice, but the food was just adequate. The wind had just changed direction now it is blowing from the Gulf all day it was the other way. Coats and sweatshirts came on, and me in my T-shirt.
We found the Quality Inn just in time, as the sun was setting out our lanai. The sun was obscured by clouds the last twenty minutes or so but the color was dramatic – yellow, orange and reds. Much like some of Dali’s work, jerr
Tonight we are in Clearwater FL Quality INN up 30 miles from St. Petersburg.
One of the reasons we came back to St. Petersburg, besides the warmer weather down here versus Daytona Beach, was to see the Sunken Gardens – A Botanical Experience. That was an understatement. The guide was a horticulturalist with a stunning presentation. It was a two and a half hour walk through a ¾ mile path. He, after being there since 1998, knew each plant there botanical name and common name. You would think we have seen everything tropical by this time as it is our 10th garden. Well we have but this garden was started in 1903, a number of the royal palms were planted that year and have withstood many hurricanes, graceful and tall. The Cuban flamingoes were from the early 60’s and generally live 50 to 60 years. There are a number of caged birds. They and the flamingoes are taken in to a shelter each night so the raccoons don’t get to them. There was a pond full of Koi, a couple adults and there offspring. I found a fascination in cycads: Cycads have crowns of large, feathery compound leaves and cones at the ends of their branches. Some have tall, unbranched, armor like trunks; others have partially buried stems with swollen trunks – from Wikipedia. These plants have survived for 200,000 years, I have heard this number used a couple of times and figure it is within two standard deviations of the real date. A must for those who love gardening.
Off to the waterfront in Tampa Bay for lunch. We found Fresco’s Waterfront Bistro, watched the sail boats and birds while we sat and ate. Shirleen’s Chocolate Martini was scrumptious and I started with a Maddalena Cabernet followed by a Mezza Corona chardonnay. Shirleen opted for the fish of the day – a baked trout with a fine mango salsa and I a Quesadilla. This I got for Abby, as she likes them, not sure this one would be similar to her liking. It had fire grilled chicken, Andouille sausage, green tomatillo, onions and jack cheese folded in a cheddar jalapeno tortilla. Wow what a bite to it.
Down the block for another one of those mind-boggling exhibits Dalí - http://www.salvadordalimuseum.org/home.html The current exhibit is DALI & THE SPANISH BAROQUE. The guide we had was marvelous, she pointed to the hidden portions of the paintings. Showing how his art incorporated other artist’s ideas. One of his themes was a small picture of a father, most of the time, holding his sons hand. This was what Dali would have loved to have had his father do. His father wanted traditional painting not this style. He did approve of his initial still lives. He was a master of color and technique. He had paintings that were line drawn, pastels and hard intense colors. One must understand what he has put into the painting and the time of the world he did it in. He was a very religious man in life and in his paintings. He drew a perspective of Christ on the cross; this picture was from the top and Christ's head hanging down so that one could not see his face. It turns out Dali does not paint the face of God, he always has something in the way, one was the fist of God in front of his face. This is the exact opposite of yesterday’s sculpture/painter. Dali's work included using the hidden - item – person – thing – into the picture, something you didn’t see until it was pointed out. Then you wonder how you missed it. One that I noticed was a painting with a line drawing of a lady, here nose and eye were actually a man on a horse holding a lance, yes really. I am now an avid lover of his work, I think ever since I saw his long legged giraffe elephant in a window in a French village near Cannes at a store in St Paul de Vence.
We went to the west to take in the sunset over the Gulf. But ended up eating again, at Caddy’s Waterfront BBQ and Restaurant in Treasure Island a couple glasses of Merlot and Shirleen’s pulled pork and my pastrami, we expected sandwiches it was just plated no bread with our double order of beans. The gals said she was glad she was not going to be between the sheets with us. The scenery was nice, but the food was just adequate. The wind had just changed direction now it is blowing from the Gulf all day it was the other way. Coats and sweatshirts came on, and me in my T-shirt.
We found the Quality Inn just in time, as the sun was setting out our lanai. The sun was obscured by clouds the last twenty minutes or so but the color was dramatic – yellow, orange and reds. Much like some of Dali’s work, jerr
Sunday, March 18, 2007
March 18 Sunday Day 21
Tonight we are in St. Petersburg Florida at another Comfort Inn & Suites.
We started the day by traveling south to Winter Park. We had seen a advertisement about an Art Fair, turns out the 48th one. It was four streets long and three tiers deep. Many wonderful crafts were displayed. We found people from the Twin Cities and Minnesota, along with a number of Wisconsinites. We found a nice piece of art from a lady in New York city it is a painted flower arrangement with a border done in another style. Many of her paintings reminded us of the 1800’s art we have seen overseas.
Time to eat, this time we ate indoors, as it was a bit chilly. Again it was a spot along the street, Pannullo's Italian Restaurant in Winter Parkwhere the art show was being held. After Shirleen’s Guenoc Cabernet and my Ravenswood Shiraz it was off to pizza. They had an item on the menu that was different, two pieces of pizza with three ingredients. Shirleen had pepperoni, sun dried tomatoes and onion; mine was fresh Italian sausage, spinach, and anchovies – what a treat. Turns out they pre-bake the pizza with cheese, then the ingredients you order are if to bulky pre-cooked and re-baked in their oven. What a nice touch.
The reason we went to Winter Park was to see a sculpture garden by the Slovak sculpture Albin Polasek from the Carpathian mountain area of what is now he Czech Republic or Moravia. He was quite the sculpture as he never had a problem with money. At the age of 72 he married a 62 year old woman who only lived 18 months. He then at the age of 82 married again and another 62 year old woman. He made a Christ on the cross looking up instead of down, named The Victorious Christ, a larger than life sculpture of the crucified Christ gazing heavenward. This signified his dying in Glory not defeat. He was deeply religious and had a prayer chapel in his garden. There were the Stations of the Cross that he had drawn but hid away. On these he had drawn his mother as Mary and himself as an observer who did not want to be seen as upstaging the reason for the drawings. The museum includes Polasek's former retirement home, studio, galleries, and chapel, as well as surrounding gardens containing figurative sculpture and mythological pieces.
Another attraction in Winter Park was Harry P. Leu Garden. An immense garden alongside a large lake with many trees, flowers and vines. The different item was a clock in the outer part of the garden. It was apparently run by a motor and place on a slant wall surrounded by petunias it was 12 ft in diameter. The time was right on 3:15, I had to wait until the minute hand moved to 25 to show the difference. During that time Steve A. called and they were in Marco Island, he asked where we ate and it turns out they are staying right across from the restaurant we ate at last week. Ya never know.
Where now? It turned out we got the answer from Danielle’s friend – Flat Stanley – he wanted to go to see the gulf. So westward we went to St. Pete. We plan on showing him the gulf tomorrow, those interested in him please write and I will explain this school project.
The traffic was heavy but interesting. Alongside came a pewter C5 Z06 and next to him a black Porsche turbo. They were pacing each other that meant to me if they had a chance they would see who would come out on top. When they got 5 car lengths ahead of me an opening to the right of the Vette came open, he burst through the small opening and the Porsche right after him. All I could see because of the many cars in between was two guys racing each other. Two minutes later another Z06 came by. I have seen many of them down here, also a lot of the new Pontiac Solstice converts.
Time for supper, we had passed the Texas Cattle Company – Worlds Greatest Steaks. According to the waitress, the owner originated Red Lobster and sold it to General Mills. Turns out it is one of eight in a local chain now owned by that same man. He also has one of the ten top steakhouses in the country – Charley’s in Orlando. Sounds like another adventure to me. Shirleen had a Tobin Cabernet and I a Rosemont Shiraz. Her fillet Mignon and my T-bone were real tasty. As we went into the restaurant we thought about our experience in the Cattle Company Steakhouse in the Twin Cities, that was a disaster and there are no longer open. This is not part of that chain.
Tomorrow will be another adventure I am sure. jerr
We started the day by traveling south to Winter Park. We had seen a advertisement about an Art Fair, turns out the 48th one. It was four streets long and three tiers deep. Many wonderful crafts were displayed. We found people from the Twin Cities and Minnesota, along with a number of Wisconsinites. We found a nice piece of art from a lady in New York city it is a painted flower arrangement with a border done in another style. Many of her paintings reminded us of the 1800’s art we have seen overseas.
Time to eat, this time we ate indoors, as it was a bit chilly. Again it was a spot along the street, Pannullo's Italian Restaurant in Winter Parkwhere the art show was being held. After Shirleen’s Guenoc Cabernet and my Ravenswood Shiraz it was off to pizza. They had an item on the menu that was different, two pieces of pizza with three ingredients. Shirleen had pepperoni, sun dried tomatoes and onion; mine was fresh Italian sausage, spinach, and anchovies – what a treat. Turns out they pre-bake the pizza with cheese, then the ingredients you order are if to bulky pre-cooked and re-baked in their oven. What a nice touch.
The reason we went to Winter Park was to see a sculpture garden by the Slovak sculpture Albin Polasek from the Carpathian mountain area of what is now he Czech Republic or Moravia. He was quite the sculpture as he never had a problem with money. At the age of 72 he married a 62 year old woman who only lived 18 months. He then at the age of 82 married again and another 62 year old woman. He made a Christ on the cross looking up instead of down, named The Victorious Christ, a larger than life sculpture of the crucified Christ gazing heavenward. This signified his dying in Glory not defeat. He was deeply religious and had a prayer chapel in his garden. There were the Stations of the Cross that he had drawn but hid away. On these he had drawn his mother as Mary and himself as an observer who did not want to be seen as upstaging the reason for the drawings. The museum includes Polasek's former retirement home, studio, galleries, and chapel, as well as surrounding gardens containing figurative sculpture and mythological pieces.
Another attraction in Winter Park was Harry P. Leu Garden. An immense garden alongside a large lake with many trees, flowers and vines. The different item was a clock in the outer part of the garden. It was apparently run by a motor and place on a slant wall surrounded by petunias it was 12 ft in diameter. The time was right on 3:15, I had to wait until the minute hand moved to 25 to show the difference. During that time Steve A. called and they were in Marco Island, he asked where we ate and it turns out they are staying right across from the restaurant we ate at last week. Ya never know.
Where now? It turned out we got the answer from Danielle’s friend – Flat Stanley – he wanted to go to see the gulf. So westward we went to St. Pete. We plan on showing him the gulf tomorrow, those interested in him please write and I will explain this school project.
The traffic was heavy but interesting. Alongside came a pewter C5 Z06 and next to him a black Porsche turbo. They were pacing each other that meant to me if they had a chance they would see who would come out on top. When they got 5 car lengths ahead of me an opening to the right of the Vette came open, he burst through the small opening and the Porsche right after him. All I could see because of the many cars in between was two guys racing each other. Two minutes later another Z06 came by. I have seen many of them down here, also a lot of the new Pontiac Solstice converts.
Time for supper, we had passed the Texas Cattle Company – Worlds Greatest Steaks. According to the waitress, the owner originated Red Lobster and sold it to General Mills. Turns out it is one of eight in a local chain now owned by that same man. He also has one of the ten top steakhouses in the country – Charley’s in Orlando. Sounds like another adventure to me. Shirleen had a Tobin Cabernet and I a Rosemont Shiraz. Her fillet Mignon and my T-bone were real tasty. As we went into the restaurant we thought about our experience in the Cattle Company Steakhouse in the Twin Cities, that was a disaster and there are no longer open. This is not part of that chain.
Tomorrow will be another adventure I am sure. jerr
Saturday, March 17, 2007
March 17 Saturday Day 20
Tonight we are in Sanford Florida, another Comfort Inn.
Today we traveled up A1A where possible and through to Orlando today. Saw many people with green on today, must be John Deer or Packer fans.
A stop at McKee Botanical Garden in Vero Beach FL it was right alongside highway 1. it had been damaged by the last three hurricanes but looked amazingly well kept. Out front was a big cypress the circumference was roughly 16 feet and 20 feet tall. We had seen the live ones at Fairchild and were told they were from the African continent and that elephants used to rub off the bark for moisture. The inside of these trees were mostly water with a wood outside structure. It had a noticeable large reservoir internally. Another good morning walk.
The scenery was pretty, many palms and underbrush. An emperor palm grove was one of the nicest displays of that variety of palm. There were waterways and stone bridges to breakup the greenery. Three or four painters were painting the scenes that we took in visually.
We traveled up the ocean side highway enjoying the big homes and condos. Most painted in the yellow orange shades. We found an out of the way restaurant. We sat outside even though it was around 64 and real windy, but no snow. The waves crashed along the shore giving that rhythmic beating of the surf against sand. The Sebastian Beach Inn by Melbourne FL. Both had a bowl of good chili and a Yuengling beer.
We drove by Patrick Air Force base and it reminded me of my Navy days. We had gone to Cape Canaveral to fire a A3 Polaris missile down range, I seem to remember 1,800 miles and within 100 feet of the target. I digress, we were coming back from the E-Club and cut across an landing strip. All of a sudden there were the Air Patrol telling us we were in a restricted top secret area. The air strip was being used by U2 planes flying over Cuba. We told them who we were and they said OK get back on the road.
Towards Cape Kennedy we went. Found a nice close parking space, got to the gate and saw a 37$ entrance fee for both, I said I thought we paid for this with our taxes? We looked at each other and said we saw this twice already and the second time the kids in their mid teens didn’t think much of it. Back to the car we went. Heading out of the area there was a bunch of cars parked alongside the road all looking toward the Cape. I stopped and ask a guy what’s up. He said there was an air show and it was just about over. He said did you hear about the accident they had here yesterday, one of the planes did a couple rolls and an end over and crashed near by. Reminded me of 1961 when I was in Seattle on the old Blackfin, there was a flyover of 5 or 6 planes and one veered off to the right and crash beyond my sight line.
Off toward Orlando we went. We found Universal Studios Citywalk to find Emeril’s Restaurant. We went to the parking lot and mentioned we were going to Emeril’s to eat, he asked if we had a reservation? No we were just going to try, he gave us a free pass, otherwise 11$. Got to the front door of the restaurant and were told that the only reservation open for two was 11pm. Or we could eat at the bar, first come first served. That was our ticket. Skip to the next paragraph if you don’t want to know what we ate. Sitting down with a couple other couples, one that frequents the restaurant, and said many times during the year they are 4 to 6 weeks out. Shirleen a glass of cabernet Lady in Red I think by Kestrel, frightfully full and rich and I a cosmopolitan and a glass of chardonnay. Shirleen’s dinner was comprised of a Roasted Filet Mignon With a White Cheddar Grit Cake, Sunnyside Up Quail Egg, Serrano Ham and Natural Reduction Sauce and I Andouille Crusted Texas Redfish With a Grilled Vegetable Relish, Creole Meunière Sauce, Toasted Pecans and Shoestring Potatoes. What a treat!! jerr
Today we traveled up A1A where possible and through to Orlando today. Saw many people with green on today, must be John Deer or Packer fans.
A stop at McKee Botanical Garden in Vero Beach FL it was right alongside highway 1. it had been damaged by the last three hurricanes but looked amazingly well kept. Out front was a big cypress the circumference was roughly 16 feet and 20 feet tall. We had seen the live ones at Fairchild and were told they were from the African continent and that elephants used to rub off the bark for moisture. The inside of these trees were mostly water with a wood outside structure. It had a noticeable large reservoir internally. Another good morning walk.
The scenery was pretty, many palms and underbrush. An emperor palm grove was one of the nicest displays of that variety of palm. There were waterways and stone bridges to breakup the greenery. Three or four painters were painting the scenes that we took in visually.
We traveled up the ocean side highway enjoying the big homes and condos. Most painted in the yellow orange shades. We found an out of the way restaurant. We sat outside even though it was around 64 and real windy, but no snow. The waves crashed along the shore giving that rhythmic beating of the surf against sand. The Sebastian Beach Inn by Melbourne FL. Both had a bowl of good chili and a Yuengling beer.
We drove by Patrick Air Force base and it reminded me of my Navy days. We had gone to Cape Canaveral to fire a A3 Polaris missile down range, I seem to remember 1,800 miles and within 100 feet of the target. I digress, we were coming back from the E-Club and cut across an landing strip. All of a sudden there were the Air Patrol telling us we were in a restricted top secret area. The air strip was being used by U2 planes flying over Cuba. We told them who we were and they said OK get back on the road.
Towards Cape Kennedy we went. Found a nice close parking space, got to the gate and saw a 37$ entrance fee for both, I said I thought we paid for this with our taxes? We looked at each other and said we saw this twice already and the second time the kids in their mid teens didn’t think much of it. Back to the car we went. Heading out of the area there was a bunch of cars parked alongside the road all looking toward the Cape. I stopped and ask a guy what’s up. He said there was an air show and it was just about over. He said did you hear about the accident they had here yesterday, one of the planes did a couple rolls and an end over and crashed near by. Reminded me of 1961 when I was in Seattle on the old Blackfin, there was a flyover of 5 or 6 planes and one veered off to the right and crash beyond my sight line.
Off toward Orlando we went. We found Universal Studios Citywalk to find Emeril’s Restaurant. We went to the parking lot and mentioned we were going to Emeril’s to eat, he asked if we had a reservation? No we were just going to try, he gave us a free pass, otherwise 11$. Got to the front door of the restaurant and were told that the only reservation open for two was 11pm. Or we could eat at the bar, first come first served. That was our ticket. Skip to the next paragraph if you don’t want to know what we ate. Sitting down with a couple other couples, one that frequents the restaurant, and said many times during the year they are 4 to 6 weeks out. Shirleen a glass of cabernet Lady in Red I think by Kestrel, frightfully full and rich and I a cosmopolitan and a glass of chardonnay. Shirleen’s dinner was comprised of a Roasted Filet Mignon With a White Cheddar Grit Cake, Sunnyside Up Quail Egg, Serrano Ham and Natural Reduction Sauce and I Andouille Crusted Texas Redfish With a Grilled Vegetable Relish, Creole Meunière Sauce, Toasted Pecans and Shoestring Potatoes. What a treat!! jerr
Friday, March 16, 2007
March 16 Friday Day 19
Addition to Yesterday March 15 we ended the day by going to the American Orchid Society sight in Delray Beach. The many varieties were overwhelming. We were able to see a chocolate tree with its fruit, situated alongside a vanilla bean - technically an orchid. The vine blooms one day a year, during that day it has to be fertilized. In Madagascar it is done with little brushes. The guide said that it is a male hormone and that if a female does this work she may grow facial hair.We also smelled a number of orchids that the guide asked us too. One had one inch sized brown and white blossoms. It was a real heavy smell of Shirleen thought vanilla and he said chocolate, I thought it smelled very sweet - more than any other blossom of any plant I had ever smelled.
The 16th, we started off to the Mounts Botanical Garden in Palm Beach. It was a nice time to walk. This is not a must see but as I said we walked the garden for he exercise.
We then went to the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach. They had an exhibition of Georgia O’Keefe. Last year we went to her home in the Arizona desert and her exhibit in Santa Fa New Mexico, this again was a fun exhibit to view, this was more of her still life portion of her life along with a portion of her pelvic bone collection and one of her favorite mountain in the desert. I am amazed by some of the colors she uses just beautiful. Other exhibits were of some of the masters, Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso and Gauguin. What else should we see but a ceiling made by Chihuly. This could only be viewed from the bottom with the sun passing through from the top which accentuated the colors.
We moved up A1A and Dixie Highway and Highway 1. As we traveled the outside Beach Drive we felt the food urge coming, we traveled a long way until we found something. Most restaurants are on Highway 1 not on the pavement close to the Atlantic. We found Schooners Restaurant – Tavern, they had sold fresh seafood since 1984 but only food now. With the wind blowing through this semi outside seating we had a cabernet and pino grigio, we had fish and chips and dolphin fingers and chips. Down the road we go. This is when we ran into the heavy rains, but no snow or hail.
We did not find a room at the Inn and had to go back south for 21 miles to find accommodations. We then went 11 miles further south for dinner. What we really wanted was a pizza, no such luck. We did find a nice outside seating at St. Lucie FL, where the Mets have their summer camp. We found the West End Grill, we took the outside seating and luck did have it there was a gas fired heater to heat up Shirleen. We ordered a bottle of [yellow tail] - The Reserve - cabernet sauvignon, we did not order the reserve but that’s all they had and compt the price. The flavor was full and flavorful. We did eat light, Shirleen a bacon cheeseburger and I the portabella burger, both with fine fries. Tonight at Comfort Suites at Fort Pierce FL. jerr
The 16th, we started off to the Mounts Botanical Garden in Palm Beach. It was a nice time to walk. This is not a must see but as I said we walked the garden for he exercise.
We then went to the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach. They had an exhibition of Georgia O’Keefe. Last year we went to her home in the Arizona desert and her exhibit in Santa Fa New Mexico, this again was a fun exhibit to view, this was more of her still life portion of her life along with a portion of her pelvic bone collection and one of her favorite mountain in the desert. I am amazed by some of the colors she uses just beautiful. Other exhibits were of some of the masters, Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso and Gauguin. What else should we see but a ceiling made by Chihuly. This could only be viewed from the bottom with the sun passing through from the top which accentuated the colors.
We moved up A1A and Dixie Highway and Highway 1. As we traveled the outside Beach Drive we felt the food urge coming, we traveled a long way until we found something. Most restaurants are on Highway 1 not on the pavement close to the Atlantic. We found Schooners Restaurant – Tavern, they had sold fresh seafood since 1984 but only food now. With the wind blowing through this semi outside seating we had a cabernet and pino grigio, we had fish and chips and dolphin fingers and chips. Down the road we go. This is when we ran into the heavy rains, but no snow or hail.
We did not find a room at the Inn and had to go back south for 21 miles to find accommodations. We then went 11 miles further south for dinner. What we really wanted was a pizza, no such luck. We did find a nice outside seating at St. Lucie FL, where the Mets have their summer camp. We found the West End Grill, we took the outside seating and luck did have it there was a gas fired heater to heat up Shirleen. We ordered a bottle of [yellow tail] - The Reserve - cabernet sauvignon, we did not order the reserve but that’s all they had and compt the price. The flavor was full and flavorful. We did eat light, Shirleen a bacon cheeseburger and I the portabella burger, both with fine fries. Tonight at Comfort Suites at Fort Pierce FL. jerr
Thursday, March 15, 2007
March 14 Thursday Day 18
Guess what we are going to do today? Visit a plantation style home, Bonnet House in Ft. Lauderdale. It is a spot, 35 acres, within the city limits in a natural tropical landscape. Prior to the tour we walked round the large pond. There was a beauty of a swan floating through the pond. An outside ----- away from the house. The walk way to the ---- was select fossilized limestone quarried from Palm Beach and partially moss covered. It is one of those nice looking light yellow homes, built with an internal courtyard. The house was built in 1920 by Frederic Bartlett. You walk through the double gate with a large fish sculpture over the top. Centered in the yard is a running fountain with four paths leading to it.
The home itself was designed and built by Frederick and it was decorated by Frederick and Evelyn in the style of a museum. On the courtyard walk areas are tables with carved animals sitting on top an elephant funerary. Pictures from Bavaria adorning the walls, large monkey and giraffe statues in the hallways, painted overhead areas with tortus and fish. The kitchen had dishware made of English Devonshire clay, causing a pumpkin color cast to the hand painted fruit and compote dish set. We spent time in the room the artist painted many pictures. There were pictures of there family and scenery also some pictures of paintings they gave to art museums, like Van Gogh, Cezanne, and others. Both became established painters with completely different styles. Many of there own paintings are hung in major art galleries. The hidden away home must have sat well with Evelyn, as she died at the age of 107.
Up the coast we went, stopping at Sea Watch Restaurant on north Ocean Blvd a fine fish restaurant sitting right on the water on the north side of Ft. Lauderdale. We were seated in the rear side of the restaurant looking onto the beach, could have not been better. With a glass of Rutherford cabernet sauvignon and mine a St. Michelle sauvignon blanc. They gave us some downright tasty pumpernickel bread for starters, I had a bowl of Bahamian chowder and Shirleen had a lobster and I a red snapper with green beans and candied carrots.
We have see Hiway #1 have an alternate name since Kendall FL – Old Dixie Hiway – seen up through Lantana. Gas in Florida has been between $2.53 and $2.78, Key West had $2.87.
I was glad we are staying at a hotel I would not mind washing clothes at, so it was done. Now it is 8:30am and we want a light dinner. We got the address for a local pizza restaurant but it turned out to be a pick up no eat in. Down the road we go, spotted The Station Grill, looked like a quick place to pick something up. Had a bunch of cars around it. We walked in and found linen table clothes, booths down both side and tables in the middle. Toward the kitchen they had a eating bar, which had six people seated there. The menu was $$$$ with options for lobsters from ½ pound to 8 pound for 146$. We ordered, Shirleen, a bowl of French onion soup and I crab cakes with a glass of cabernet each. The waitress said that they normally don’t do just appetizers but she would check. Well they let us outsiders eat. at Lantana Florida Comfort Inn. jerr
The home itself was designed and built by Frederick and it was decorated by Frederick and Evelyn in the style of a museum. On the courtyard walk areas are tables with carved animals sitting on top an elephant funerary. Pictures from Bavaria adorning the walls, large monkey and giraffe statues in the hallways, painted overhead areas with tortus and fish. The kitchen had dishware made of English Devonshire clay, causing a pumpkin color cast to the hand painted fruit and compote dish set. We spent time in the room the artist painted many pictures. There were pictures of there family and scenery also some pictures of paintings they gave to art museums, like Van Gogh, Cezanne, and others. Both became established painters with completely different styles. Many of there own paintings are hung in major art galleries. The hidden away home must have sat well with Evelyn, as she died at the age of 107.
Up the coast we went, stopping at Sea Watch Restaurant on north Ocean Blvd a fine fish restaurant sitting right on the water on the north side of Ft. Lauderdale. We were seated in the rear side of the restaurant looking onto the beach, could have not been better. With a glass of Rutherford cabernet sauvignon and mine a St. Michelle sauvignon blanc. They gave us some downright tasty pumpernickel bread for starters, I had a bowl of Bahamian chowder and Shirleen had a lobster and I a red snapper with green beans and candied carrots.
We have see Hiway #1 have an alternate name since Kendall FL – Old Dixie Hiway – seen up through Lantana. Gas in Florida has been between $2.53 and $2.78, Key West had $2.87.
I was glad we are staying at a hotel I would not mind washing clothes at, so it was done. Now it is 8:30am and we want a light dinner. We got the address for a local pizza restaurant but it turned out to be a pick up no eat in. Down the road we go, spotted The Station Grill, looked like a quick place to pick something up. Had a bunch of cars around it. We walked in and found linen table clothes, booths down both side and tables in the middle. Toward the kitchen they had a eating bar, which had six people seated there. The menu was $$$$ with options for lobsters from ½ pound to 8 pound for 146$. We ordered, Shirleen, a bowl of French onion soup and I crab cakes with a glass of cabernet each. The waitress said that they normally don’t do just appetizers but she would check. Well they let us outsiders eat. at Lantana Florida Comfort Inn. jerr
March 14 Wednesday Day 17
Today is going to be one of my favorite arts and garden exhibits. So we are headed to the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Coral Gables with an exhibition of Dale Chihuly: at www.fairchildgarden.org or www.chihuly.com . We arrived and found that today was volunteer appreciation day with a program and luncheon. That did not prevent us from doing our thing. This garden has 3,500 palm trees and over 600 variety’s, to many to list. It spreads over many acres and has ponds, paths and buildings to view. We were greeted by glass bulbs, around two feet in diameter tied to concrete blocks laying on the bottom of the pond, 30 to 40 of them. They were his Walla Walla onions, ideas from his home state of Washington. Then we saw floating free form what looked like ice pieces floating in the next pond. They turned out to be made of poly moldings. Colors of the glass ranging throughout the spectrum of color. His color uses in all his displays are brilliant and deep color not dark. He had found a red he liked when working in Norway, this he used in a desert setting He had hundreds upon hundreds of objects outside and in the buildings. Some mimicked the palms or reeds and hanging plantings. How can one describe his brilliance? One way is to go to the Museum of Art in Minneapolis or The Mayo Clinic Gonda building. There are many chandlers hanging in there entry way.
We followed paths through the park seeing a cardinal, many iguana and small lizards. We also saw a great egret snacking on a lizard. Again I did not find a snake, have been looking especially hard over the last two days. One of the main plantings we wanted to see was the gingerbread palm. Its growth pattern is similar to a bunch of celery with the centers taken out with 5 or 6 individual palms 20 feet tall. We also saw the flowering bush called yesterday, today and tomorrow; this plant has a blossom that is purple yesterday, pink today and white tomorrow. Similar to a tree we saw in Amsterdam.
We ate on the grounds, Shirleen ham quiche and I a Cuban type sandwich, grilled with pickles, ham, mojo pork slices and white cheese.
Mid-afternoon we headed into Miami on Route 1, the same one we started out from at mile zero in Key West. Along the way we turned down route A1A into Miami Beach and traveled through its art deco area. Again the housing was orange, pink, light green and many combinations of those Mediterranean colors. The traffic was not as bad as I had expected, seeing a Lamborghini, Mercedes and BMW’s of many varieties, some never seen before, Bentley’s, Rolls Royce and Ferrari’s. Of course I have noted many Corvettes.
We turned down some of the back streets and saw many great styled and large houses with well trimmed vegetation, both in Coral Gables and Ft. Lauderdale.
We ate at Oasis Café on Seabreeze Blvd in Ft. Lauderdale, Shirleen’s mudslide was not up to expectations. I had a mango margarita which was tasty. Shirleen’s grouper fish wrap and my seafood paella that had grouper, scallops, shrimp and mussels with saffron rice. jerr
We followed paths through the park seeing a cardinal, many iguana and small lizards. We also saw a great egret snacking on a lizard. Again I did not find a snake, have been looking especially hard over the last two days. One of the main plantings we wanted to see was the gingerbread palm. Its growth pattern is similar to a bunch of celery with the centers taken out with 5 or 6 individual palms 20 feet tall. We also saw the flowering bush called yesterday, today and tomorrow; this plant has a blossom that is purple yesterday, pink today and white tomorrow. Similar to a tree we saw in Amsterdam.
We ate on the grounds, Shirleen ham quiche and I a Cuban type sandwich, grilled with pickles, ham, mojo pork slices and white cheese.
Mid-afternoon we headed into Miami on Route 1, the same one we started out from at mile zero in Key West. Along the way we turned down route A1A into Miami Beach and traveled through its art deco area. Again the housing was orange, pink, light green and many combinations of those Mediterranean colors. The traffic was not as bad as I had expected, seeing a Lamborghini, Mercedes and BMW’s of many varieties, some never seen before, Bentley’s, Rolls Royce and Ferrari’s. Of course I have noted many Corvettes.
We turned down some of the back streets and saw many great styled and large houses with well trimmed vegetation, both in Coral Gables and Ft. Lauderdale.
We ate at Oasis Café on Seabreeze Blvd in Ft. Lauderdale, Shirleen’s mudslide was not up to expectations. I had a mango margarita which was tasty. Shirleen’s grouper fish wrap and my seafood paella that had grouper, scallops, shrimp and mussels with saffron rice. jerr
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
March 13 Tuesday Day 16
Today we started our day at the Corkscrew Swamp Wildlife Sanctuary maintained by the Audubon Society outside of Naples. It is an elevated two mile boardwalk winding through woodland, marsh and much wildlife. The first bird we say was a red shoulder hawk, got a picture of it diving toward me to swoop onto a branch above me. We saw blooming iris’s. Shirleen was excited to see an alligator in the wild. I told her if we get separated and one attacks her to holler and I will take a picture for remembrance – not to romantic. We say many ibis, cranes, barred owl, wren and Shirleen’s alligator. It was a mother whom had little ones last year but she still maintains them and is their custodian. We also saw crawl marks in the soft mud, suspect it was her coming to her young. Many people taking pictures, some with lens bigger than my cars trunk. They and Shirleen saw a painted bunting, I almost did. We saw cypress knees, reminded me of Mr. Fellegy’s woodworking in high school. Moss covered trees, 600 year old bark less cypress. We viewed a colored sketch of some birds in a pond that a lady was doing. Towards the end of the trip we started to speed up our departure as the coffee was catching up with us.
Off to Marco Island. This Island is much more populated than Sanibel Island. Many high rises along one side of the Island. Houses on canals with boats and gigantic yachts. We drove all over looking for a spot to eat, we finally found one and we used Shirleen’s old adage and it worked again. We ate at Snook Inn, Shirleen with her grouper sandwich and me with my fried clam strips.
Across alligator alley we go. We stopped at an overlook and saw many sunning alligators, all sizes of fish swimming among the alligators.
This evening we ate at the hotel, a first this trip. Surprising, it was tasty, our lightly breaded onion rings, Shirleen’s dolphin sandwich and my deep fired oysters.
Tomorrow we will go through the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Coral Gables with an exhibition of Dale Chihuly. jerr
Off to Marco Island. This Island is much more populated than Sanibel Island. Many high rises along one side of the Island. Houses on canals with boats and gigantic yachts. We drove all over looking for a spot to eat, we finally found one and we used Shirleen’s old adage and it worked again. We ate at Snook Inn, Shirleen with her grouper sandwich and me with my fried clam strips.
Across alligator alley we go. We stopped at an overlook and saw many sunning alligators, all sizes of fish swimming among the alligators.
This evening we ate at the hotel, a first this trip. Surprising, it was tasty, our lightly breaded onion rings, Shirleen’s dolphin sandwich and my deep fired oysters.
Tomorrow we will go through the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Coral Gables with an exhibition of Dale Chihuly. jerr
March 12 Monday Day 15
In Ft. Meyer’s there is a winter home that Thomas Edison and Henry Ford used. Edison had many laboratories here. The one we saw in Greenfield Michigan was moved from here. There was his botanical laboratory but it was closed. The main feature was one of the biggest banyon trees in the US.
Because the Twins website said the game was at 12:05 and Shirleen’s information was 1:05 we decided to leave and get there before time. As I had heard the players are more accessible than at home games. Twenty minutes later we were paying 5$ for parking at Hammond Stadium on Albertson lane two away from Kerby Puckett Parkway. Hunger set in so we got in line for a small and large weenie, chesse, nacho’s and a large beer. So who turns around in front of us but Wally E., the original owner of Eberts Drive-Inn in New Ulm from my high school days. I see him at Burger King in NU when I get coffee and chat. We talked a bite, I mentioned that his BBQ’s were the best. His wife said he still makes her make that same old recipe, Wally said he would give me a copy. She asked whom my mom and dad were but Wally said she would not have known them. He asked if I had a brother or sister in NU. I said my sister was Mary GG, he said the one with the beautiful voice. Of course I said I had taught her everything she knows and we all laughed. Now why was that funny???
We watched the pictures warm up, the batters hit and the fielders catch fly’s. as most know I went to the game for Shirleen, but I’ll tell you what, outside games are great!! I could become a fan. The Marlin’s have this pitcher named Willis, he is long and lanky and throws a neat looking sidearm or what every they call it, but it looked great. Another game inspiring fact is that we have never attended a Twins game where they won. Maybe today is the day. The first inning had us out in front 3:0 and never behind again. Really a fun game. A couple twins players wore there black socks up over the calf mussel, another neat nostalgic item.
Heck we still have some time, lets drive 24 miles out into the hinterland to Corkscrew Cypress park. We arrive exactly at 4:30, that corresponds to the time that the walking path is shut down for the evening. This, as those that know me, irked me to no end. It looked good enough to come back to in the morning.
And again, time to eat, but where? Back into Bonita Springs we go, up the road and back and then up again but not far as I had noticed a Italian restaurant on one of the change of directions. As Shirleen says, if there are a lot of cars in there it has got to be good. Of course I saw the Lexus and Mercedes and thought oh boy it is going to be expensive. She was right I was wrong. After a 20 minute wait at the bar and some fine red wine we ere escorted to our table. We were served Italian bread with olive oil with dried tomatoes in it. I looked through the window and I spy Jim H. and ahead through the next window Marge. They were with friends but I snuck up behind Marge and asked her in a professional voice if I could check her ID card. She turns around and started laughing as to the coincident of us stopping at the same place they were going to eat. Boot’s, there long lasting friend from Burlington had found 5$ coupons and they all decided to eat there. Enzo’s Ristorante Italiano in Bonita Springs is a well thought of Italian restaurant, Shirleen’s shrimp and my grouper in lemon sauce with capers was done to a T. Upon leaving we stopped by their table and wished everyone well.
Tomorrow the swamp, Marco Island, trip back through alligator alley ending up at Kendall FL. Now back to the room for some e-mail correspondence and shut-eye. jerr
Because the Twins website said the game was at 12:05 and Shirleen’s information was 1:05 we decided to leave and get there before time. As I had heard the players are more accessible than at home games. Twenty minutes later we were paying 5$ for parking at Hammond Stadium on Albertson lane two away from Kerby Puckett Parkway. Hunger set in so we got in line for a small and large weenie, chesse, nacho’s and a large beer. So who turns around in front of us but Wally E., the original owner of Eberts Drive-Inn in New Ulm from my high school days. I see him at Burger King in NU when I get coffee and chat. We talked a bite, I mentioned that his BBQ’s were the best. His wife said he still makes her make that same old recipe, Wally said he would give me a copy. She asked whom my mom and dad were but Wally said she would not have known them. He asked if I had a brother or sister in NU. I said my sister was Mary GG, he said the one with the beautiful voice. Of course I said I had taught her everything she knows and we all laughed. Now why was that funny???
We watched the pictures warm up, the batters hit and the fielders catch fly’s. as most know I went to the game for Shirleen, but I’ll tell you what, outside games are great!! I could become a fan. The Marlin’s have this pitcher named Willis, he is long and lanky and throws a neat looking sidearm or what every they call it, but it looked great. Another game inspiring fact is that we have never attended a Twins game where they won. Maybe today is the day. The first inning had us out in front 3:0 and never behind again. Really a fun game. A couple twins players wore there black socks up over the calf mussel, another neat nostalgic item.
Heck we still have some time, lets drive 24 miles out into the hinterland to Corkscrew Cypress park. We arrive exactly at 4:30, that corresponds to the time that the walking path is shut down for the evening. This, as those that know me, irked me to no end. It looked good enough to come back to in the morning.
And again, time to eat, but where? Back into Bonita Springs we go, up the road and back and then up again but not far as I had noticed a Italian restaurant on one of the change of directions. As Shirleen says, if there are a lot of cars in there it has got to be good. Of course I saw the Lexus and Mercedes and thought oh boy it is going to be expensive. She was right I was wrong. After a 20 minute wait at the bar and some fine red wine we ere escorted to our table. We were served Italian bread with olive oil with dried tomatoes in it. I looked through the window and I spy Jim H. and ahead through the next window Marge. They were with friends but I snuck up behind Marge and asked her in a professional voice if I could check her ID card. She turns around and started laughing as to the coincident of us stopping at the same place they were going to eat. Boot’s, there long lasting friend from Burlington had found 5$ coupons and they all decided to eat there. Enzo’s Ristorante Italiano in Bonita Springs is a well thought of Italian restaurant, Shirleen’s shrimp and my grouper in lemon sauce with capers was done to a T. Upon leaving we stopped by their table and wished everyone well.
Tomorrow the swamp, Marco Island, trip back through alligator alley ending up at Kendall FL. Now back to the room for some e-mail correspondence and shut-eye. jerr
March 11 Sunday Day 14
Well it is off to Sanibel Island this morning. We checked out of the Baymont motel in Bonita Springs. Went up a couple miles to the Comfort Inn and they were packed for that evening, went back to the Baymont and got the next two nights for less than last night, still to much but the traffic bears it.
Again the scenery is European as to home styles and plenty of palms and flowering red, pink and white bougainvilleas. As we are headed up over the bridge a two tone purple and pink 55 Chevy was in front of us. It had a bad sounding engine, like in fast, but kicked out some engine oil. We turned onto the Island and it takes 6$ to cross onto the island, suspect they want to keep out the riffraff but I sunk through. It is like much of this area, large waterfront homes, two to three stories high with guest accommodations. Yards are kept immaculate, I am sure not by the occupant. We stopped by the info center and picked up another 5 pounds of material. Our adventure was headed to the northern tip of the island called Captiva Island, Shirleen found a restaurant that caught her attention, Keylime Bistro at Captiva Island Inn. She quickly found a Keylime Melon Martini on the menu and I a Margarita of the Sea before lunch. As we ordered lunch I noticed a Shrimp to Shore bloody Mary, two shrimp, a skewer of three green olives, two asparagus and a root vegetable I forgot to ask the name of, I hope I should have ate it as I did. Lunch was ordered my appetizer fried shrimp with orange marmalade with horseradish and Shirleen’s fried grouper sandwich with aioli sauce. Some unique trees were found on Sanibel but never found out what they were.
Off to visit Marge and Jim H. in Bonita Springs, this was found easily with the directions Jim gave us. We sat out on their veranda and looked directly onto the gulf, what a beautiful apartment they are renting. They have had this location for the last 12 years, and I can see why. We had some snacks with beverages before we went to dindin.
We went to Marge’s favorite, although full we found the last parking space. We ate at The Fish House, after a couple of Key West ales, we ordered. My grouper tacos were right on along with Jim and Shirleen’s coconut shrimp, Jim said we should try the Outback ones as they are his favorite, Marge had a quesadilla.
We went back to their apartment and watched the sun set slowly in the gulf. Maybe a little clouds but that made it really different. The apartment that they used is for sale, if anyone has over half a million for 950 sq. ft. and a beautiful sunset step forward. Said our do’s and told them we would see them in Burlington next. jerr
Again the scenery is European as to home styles and plenty of palms and flowering red, pink and white bougainvilleas. As we are headed up over the bridge a two tone purple and pink 55 Chevy was in front of us. It had a bad sounding engine, like in fast, but kicked out some engine oil. We turned onto the Island and it takes 6$ to cross onto the island, suspect they want to keep out the riffraff but I sunk through. It is like much of this area, large waterfront homes, two to three stories high with guest accommodations. Yards are kept immaculate, I am sure not by the occupant. We stopped by the info center and picked up another 5 pounds of material. Our adventure was headed to the northern tip of the island called Captiva Island, Shirleen found a restaurant that caught her attention, Keylime Bistro at Captiva Island Inn. She quickly found a Keylime Melon Martini on the menu and I a Margarita of the Sea before lunch. As we ordered lunch I noticed a Shrimp to Shore bloody Mary, two shrimp, a skewer of three green olives, two asparagus and a root vegetable I forgot to ask the name of, I hope I should have ate it as I did. Lunch was ordered my appetizer fried shrimp with orange marmalade with horseradish and Shirleen’s fried grouper sandwich with aioli sauce. Some unique trees were found on Sanibel but never found out what they were.
Off to visit Marge and Jim H. in Bonita Springs, this was found easily with the directions Jim gave us. We sat out on their veranda and looked directly onto the gulf, what a beautiful apartment they are renting. They have had this location for the last 12 years, and I can see why. We had some snacks with beverages before we went to dindin.
We went to Marge’s favorite, although full we found the last parking space. We ate at The Fish House, after a couple of Key West ales, we ordered. My grouper tacos were right on along with Jim and Shirleen’s coconut shrimp, Jim said we should try the Outback ones as they are his favorite, Marge had a quesadilla.
We went back to their apartment and watched the sun set slowly in the gulf. Maybe a little clouds but that made it really different. The apartment that they used is for sale, if anyone has over half a million for 950 sq. ft. and a beautiful sunset step forward. Said our do’s and told them we would see them in Burlington next. jerr
Sunday, March 11, 2007
March 10 Saturday Day 13
Well today is our last partial day in Key West. Yesterday we heard about the local Flower Society’s garden tour. Four houses are on the itinerary. We pickup the tickets at the orchid show at Fort Martello, where I almost backed over a little MG, but his hollering stopped me and it became a near miss.
The first house was a beauty; it sat on the corner and had a butterfly garden that surrounded that corner. There was matronly lady of age whom recognize Aunt Vi’s name, we will take that at face value. If the last house was being sold for 2.7 million, this one was 5 million. Many full grown palms of semi-rare status and plenty of orchids. A swimming pool of good size, an outside eating and sitting area that was out of a fashion magazine. If we could all pool our money we could buy it and I would maintain it!!
The second house was designed and built by the Fairchild’s whom have a botanical garden in Coral Gables which is where we are headed too in two days. They had a real unique ginger palm tree, supposedly one of two in the country, the other at Coral Gables. There was a royal palm from Cuba that differs from the local by the bulging of the trunk in multiple spots not just a smooth upward trunk. Supposedly a sign of lack of water.
The third house had more of the same, palms, ferns, orchids, and neat pots for plants. We have noticed that most pots are the dark blue.
The last house was the 2.7 million dollar one, small by the other standards but managed to have a swimming pool in it. They had a little cabana alongside it for what looked like a guest lodging. Again many plants, on the neighbor’s mango tree was a gecko that was eating one of the fruits. Again, I could manage this.
We were given an address for a pottery place, after cruising the blocks they mentioned we came up empty handed. Come to think of it, the only planters we ran into are for orchids.
Oh yes, time for lunch. We headed down to Mallory square with the thought that we would eat at the Conch Republic Seafood restaurant. It was shown on the Paula Deen boy’s show a couple months ago. Turns out it was a good place. We started the heavy noon lunch with two key lime pie margaritas, smooth with a bite and a graham cracker crust around the lip of the glass. We then split a 10 oz lobster with a vanilla bean infused drawn butter along with rice, and steam vegetables accompanied by an order of deep fried conch that was accompanied with a orange marmalade with a hint of horseradish. Off the open air seating area we watched the pelicans being fed fish from a local. Again three foot tarpon’s were cruising the area. We walked slowly to our car as Shirleen drove out and off the island.
The trip through the Key’s was uneventful, but we did notice the old train bridge that had had the old road that we had taken built on top of it, now viewed from the new causeway. Along many of the bridges were people fishing from purposely built or old highway concrete abutments. Along with the people mergansers waiting to spot fish for lunch.
Well we got back to the town of Florida Keys and that is when the fun began. We had intended to go to the alligator alley again, but the turn I should have made was not and I thought we could pick it up later. Thoughts are not actually. We got off on a turnpike and asked the attendant for directions, which we followed twice because of 6 lane confusion with two turn off’s. We got another attendants directions and low and behold we were headed north out of Miami. I notice a sign Pembroke Pines, I said to Shirleen, isn’t that where your cousin Jerry S. lives, we were there two years ago. Now I know we are far north out of Miami and not where I thought we should be, but out of the gloom rose a sign that said hiway 75 to St. Petersburg, that’s the way we are headed. By this time it is dark and the alligator crossing signs make you wonder how it feels to run over one? Half way across the state we see what appears to be a long drawn out fire line. As we got closer we could see the swamp burning viciously for many miles into the swamp. One TV camera on a boom truck and a fire vehicle further up were the only sign of emergency vehicles. Looked like they were waiting to see what was happening.
We arrived in Bonita Grand Crossing and found a place to sleep and eat. We ate at a local plaza pizza house, Marsala Pizza Bonita. A nicely made crispy but thickish crust toped with tomato, fresh mozzarella and basil, accompanied with a glass of Chianti and cabernet. jerr
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The first house was a beauty; it sat on the corner and had a butterfly garden that surrounded that corner. There was matronly lady of age whom recognize Aunt Vi’s name, we will take that at face value. If the last house was being sold for 2.7 million, this one was 5 million. Many full grown palms of semi-rare status and plenty of orchids. A swimming pool of good size, an outside eating and sitting area that was out of a fashion magazine. If we could all pool our money we could buy it and I would maintain it!!
The second house was designed and built by the Fairchild’s whom have a botanical garden in Coral Gables which is where we are headed too in two days. They had a real unique ginger palm tree, supposedly one of two in the country, the other at Coral Gables. There was a royal palm from Cuba that differs from the local by the bulging of the trunk in multiple spots not just a smooth upward trunk. Supposedly a sign of lack of water.
The third house had more of the same, palms, ferns, orchids, and neat pots for plants. We have noticed that most pots are the dark blue.
The last house was the 2.7 million dollar one, small by the other standards but managed to have a swimming pool in it. They had a little cabana alongside it for what looked like a guest lodging. Again many plants, on the neighbor’s mango tree was a gecko that was eating one of the fruits. Again, I could manage this.
We were given an address for a pottery place, after cruising the blocks they mentioned we came up empty handed. Come to think of it, the only planters we ran into are for orchids.
Oh yes, time for lunch. We headed down to Mallory square with the thought that we would eat at the Conch Republic Seafood restaurant. It was shown on the Paula Deen boy’s show a couple months ago. Turns out it was a good place. We started the heavy noon lunch with two key lime pie margaritas, smooth with a bite and a graham cracker crust around the lip of the glass. We then split a 10 oz lobster with a vanilla bean infused drawn butter along with rice, and steam vegetables accompanied by an order of deep fried conch that was accompanied with a orange marmalade with a hint of horseradish. Off the open air seating area we watched the pelicans being fed fish from a local. Again three foot tarpon’s were cruising the area. We walked slowly to our car as Shirleen drove out and off the island.
The trip through the Key’s was uneventful, but we did notice the old train bridge that had had the old road that we had taken built on top of it, now viewed from the new causeway. Along many of the bridges were people fishing from purposely built or old highway concrete abutments. Along with the people mergansers waiting to spot fish for lunch.
Well we got back to the town of Florida Keys and that is when the fun began. We had intended to go to the alligator alley again, but the turn I should have made was not and I thought we could pick it up later. Thoughts are not actually. We got off on a turnpike and asked the attendant for directions, which we followed twice because of 6 lane confusion with two turn off’s. We got another attendants directions and low and behold we were headed north out of Miami. I notice a sign Pembroke Pines, I said to Shirleen, isn’t that where your cousin Jerry S. lives, we were there two years ago. Now I know we are far north out of Miami and not where I thought we should be, but out of the gloom rose a sign that said hiway 75 to St. Petersburg, that’s the way we are headed. By this time it is dark and the alligator crossing signs make you wonder how it feels to run over one? Half way across the state we see what appears to be a long drawn out fire line. As we got closer we could see the swamp burning viciously for many miles into the swamp. One TV camera on a boom truck and a fire vehicle further up were the only sign of emergency vehicles. Looked like they were waiting to see what was happening.
We arrived in Bonita Grand Crossing and found a place to sleep and eat. We ate at a local plaza pizza house, Marsala Pizza Bonita. A nicely made crispy but thickish crust toped with tomato, fresh mozzarella and basil, accompanied with a glass of Chianti and cabernet. jerr
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Saturday, March 10, 2007
March 9 Friday Day 12
I called a brother of a schoolmate of mine Chuck Malby, he has lived down here for since June 1949. He also turned out to be a submarine sailor, or pig boat sailor. We chatted for awhile, turned out he didn’t know my Aunt whose house is on the front of the blog right now. He was busy tomorrow and we today, but as I said we had a nice chat. He graduated with Junior Traurig and did not know that my Aunt lived here. Nice to hear he goes to St. Mary’s church where we had a mass said for her. After our phone conversation we started off by going back downtown for more sightseeing.
We went along the far coast to catch the furtherest point south in the United States, by Higg’s beach. We picked up a bottle full of sand from this point for the girls to give to their teacher. At the beach we walked through the Key West Garden Club at Martello Fort. Many interesting flowers, they grow so much bigger when you have warm days, today 78 – 80, and 12 months to grow. A couple of noteworthy items, there were blue bottles of all shapes, sizes and depth of blue, that we placed upside down over the metal fence pickets. When we got closer we could hear the wind blowing across the mouth piece of the bottles and making a quiet whistle like we do when we blow over the top. This is a Cuban tradition.
We then walked down the path and there were many yellow ribbons tied to the fence as a symbol of a good wish, seeing there were no yellow cloths lying around I took a long stemmed yellow flower and tied it around the fence wire.
Further up the path was a heavy leafed bush called an autograph plant. Many leaves had names inscribed in them; we found a stick and carved our names with 3\9\07 MN in a leaf. They were also bringing in orchids for tomorrows show, many varieties.
We then went downtown to a butterfly exhibit, they were flying all around. There were many species of butterflies and birds.
We did find close-in parking spot for 2.50$ per hour or 16.50$ per day, it turned out we did the day thing. Behind where we parked we knew the restaurant “Turtle Kraals” was located. It was another place Aunt Vi had taken us for lunch and that is where we had lunch. Shirleen a 6 oz. grilled split lobster tail and I could not resist the deep fried oysters and a bowl of black beans. What can I say delicious with a Key lime margarita to wash the meal down.
Along side the restaurant was the turtle kraals museum. We found out that when we ate there in 1972 that the place quite doing the turtle butchering. And that the tower Shirleen was taken down. I seem to remember that Humphrey Bogart visited these places when doing some movie. We talked to the gal about Aunt VI’s shrimp boat “the St. Michael” named after her father. She said she did not know where a list of boats many be but that there were over 500 of them at one time. The shrimp boats no longer unloaded at the pier as they did in ’72. She said we should go to the library as a Tom Hambright, the local historian, may be able to help. Off we go with map in hand. It would be just a couple blocks away, if you could believe the directions we were given. A right not a left would have made it 6 blocks closer. When we arrived we were warmly greeted by Tom. He and his wife were in there mid 50’s. I also promised him that I would copy the picture of the St. Michael that Aunt Vi had given to us – someone remind me. He brought out the name list for obituaries and we found Lew’s. We then looked through the business books and found them listed in the Polk Co. City Directory of 1958 as owners of Poinciana Package Liquor Store. The previous book was 1952 and they were not listed in it and no books were published in between those years. The next two listing were 1961 and 1962, they were listed as shrimper for those years. From that date forward to 1973 she was listed only as a widow. In 1974 she was no longer listed, seem to remember she let John run the business for her. Ya, doing genealogy on our gypsy tour.
We were off to a guided tour of President Truman’s house. That was a grand visit and history lesson. He visited the place numerous times during and after his presidency. Along with other presidents – Taft, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Carter and Clinton. Like I said it was a history lesson. The house was used by two admirals’ but made into one house for Truman. There are five bedrooms and two are not open to the public but used by dignitaries as above. This again sounds easy but the maps were misleading and again we walked many blocks out of the way. The redeeming fact is that we walked trough The Truman Annex, a privately held rental area with beautiful homes, well out of my price range I am sure.
We went to Jim Buffet’s shirt shack, I wanted to buy one but nothing appealed. We then went past the first Sloppy Joe’s that Ernest Hemmingway frequented hanging on the ceiling were business cards, pictures of people and undergarments of various kinds. What a dive!!
All day long we saw chickens running in yards on the main street and the roosters crowing, even saw a mother with a small brood of chicks.
For a late afternoon snack at Fogarty’s, we split an order of Bruchetta Pomodoro, well seasoned tomato pieces, fresh mozzarella and ½ inch fired bread slices. Neat the way they put the 5 pieces pointing out to the rim of the plate with the mozzarella heaped in the middle. The thickness of the bread was just right and added to the eat ability. Washing this down with Shirleen’s strawberry daiquiri and my chardonnay.
Walking down the street we saw the hand printed fabric shop that Aunt Vi took us too. It turns out that they no longer print themselves, it is bought in China.
We then walked down to the other side of town, I forget if this was time 4 or 5?, to watch the sunset. This evening it was through thin clouds but striking.
Back to our lodging for the evening to plan tomorrows assault on our last day in Key West. 16,000 steps today, well over Shirleen’s 10,000 daily steps.
We went along the far coast to catch the furtherest point south in the United States, by Higg’s beach. We picked up a bottle full of sand from this point for the girls to give to their teacher. At the beach we walked through the Key West Garden Club at Martello Fort. Many interesting flowers, they grow so much bigger when you have warm days, today 78 – 80, and 12 months to grow. A couple of noteworthy items, there were blue bottles of all shapes, sizes and depth of blue, that we placed upside down over the metal fence pickets. When we got closer we could hear the wind blowing across the mouth piece of the bottles and making a quiet whistle like we do when we blow over the top. This is a Cuban tradition.
We then walked down the path and there were many yellow ribbons tied to the fence as a symbol of a good wish, seeing there were no yellow cloths lying around I took a long stemmed yellow flower and tied it around the fence wire.
Further up the path was a heavy leafed bush called an autograph plant. Many leaves had names inscribed in them; we found a stick and carved our names with 3\9\07 MN in a leaf. They were also bringing in orchids for tomorrows show, many varieties.
We then went downtown to a butterfly exhibit, they were flying all around. There were many species of butterflies and birds.
We did find close-in parking spot for 2.50$ per hour or 16.50$ per day, it turned out we did the day thing. Behind where we parked we knew the restaurant “Turtle Kraals” was located. It was another place Aunt Vi had taken us for lunch and that is where we had lunch. Shirleen a 6 oz. grilled split lobster tail and I could not resist the deep fried oysters and a bowl of black beans. What can I say delicious with a Key lime margarita to wash the meal down.
Along side the restaurant was the turtle kraals museum. We found out that when we ate there in 1972 that the place quite doing the turtle butchering. And that the tower Shirleen was taken down. I seem to remember that Humphrey Bogart visited these places when doing some movie. We talked to the gal about Aunt VI’s shrimp boat “the St. Michael” named after her father. She said she did not know where a list of boats many be but that there were over 500 of them at one time. The shrimp boats no longer unloaded at the pier as they did in ’72. She said we should go to the library as a Tom Hambright, the local historian, may be able to help. Off we go with map in hand. It would be just a couple blocks away, if you could believe the directions we were given. A right not a left would have made it 6 blocks closer. When we arrived we were warmly greeted by Tom. He and his wife were in there mid 50’s. I also promised him that I would copy the picture of the St. Michael that Aunt Vi had given to us – someone remind me. He brought out the name list for obituaries and we found Lew’s. We then looked through the business books and found them listed in the Polk Co. City Directory of 1958 as owners of Poinciana Package Liquor Store. The previous book was 1952 and they were not listed in it and no books were published in between those years. The next two listing were 1961 and 1962, they were listed as shrimper for those years. From that date forward to 1973 she was listed only as a widow. In 1974 she was no longer listed, seem to remember she let John run the business for her. Ya, doing genealogy on our gypsy tour.
We were off to a guided tour of President Truman’s house. That was a grand visit and history lesson. He visited the place numerous times during and after his presidency. Along with other presidents – Taft, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Carter and Clinton. Like I said it was a history lesson. The house was used by two admirals’ but made into one house for Truman. There are five bedrooms and two are not open to the public but used by dignitaries as above. This again sounds easy but the maps were misleading and again we walked many blocks out of the way. The redeeming fact is that we walked trough The Truman Annex, a privately held rental area with beautiful homes, well out of my price range I am sure.
We went to Jim Buffet’s shirt shack, I wanted to buy one but nothing appealed. We then went past the first Sloppy Joe’s that Ernest Hemmingway frequented hanging on the ceiling were business cards, pictures of people and undergarments of various kinds. What a dive!!
All day long we saw chickens running in yards on the main street and the roosters crowing, even saw a mother with a small brood of chicks.
For a late afternoon snack at Fogarty’s, we split an order of Bruchetta Pomodoro, well seasoned tomato pieces, fresh mozzarella and ½ inch fired bread slices. Neat the way they put the 5 pieces pointing out to the rim of the plate with the mozzarella heaped in the middle. The thickness of the bread was just right and added to the eat ability. Washing this down with Shirleen’s strawberry daiquiri and my chardonnay.
Walking down the street we saw the hand printed fabric shop that Aunt Vi took us too. It turns out that they no longer print themselves, it is bought in China.
We then walked down to the other side of town, I forget if this was time 4 or 5?, to watch the sunset. This evening it was through thin clouds but striking.
Back to our lodging for the evening to plan tomorrows assault on our last day in Key West. 16,000 steps today, well over Shirleen’s 10,000 daily steps.
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