Mornin', everybody ! Happy Wednesday !!
Coffee's on
Remember the Keys from age four on a family fishing trip there, clinging desperately to the piling, certain if I hooked a fish it would pull me into the sea..:))
My two sons reside there; one in the West Palm Beach area - the other the Ft. Lauderdale area.
Long Cut, St. Augustine is fascinating, isn't it? The varied history of it is so interesting - the necessity of having the houses so close together to protect the residents from the assorted 'hostiles' who wanted to possess it, ownership ebbing and flowing.
To stand at the point where Ponce de Leon came ashore is to be able to 'see' his vessels - and appreciate the sight he saw that prompted him to declare the spring there a Fountain of Youth!
By virtue of the Indian Chiefs being required to take the tallest eligible young woman of the tribe for his wife, and their good diet, the result was the Indians were seven feet tall!
In the theater building over the spring, a lifesize paiting shows them greeting the puny Europeans - Ponce de Leon a mere four feet tall, as were so many Europeans then, with their inferior diets.
The Indians, of course, had access to vegetables and fruit most of the year, and plentiful game. Luckily, they were friendly!
Most Americans do not realize that this occurred in 1513, and was the first time American soil was dedicated to our God.....Jamestown and Plymouth Rock came more than a hundred years later, as the first English colonies.
Dansy and .45MAN - I remember when Miami Beach was mostly sand dunes and palmettos, going there to swim, before WWII....when most of both coasts were, too.
Sebastian did not even have a caution light, and was a blink of the eye in the dash ( 45 mph the highest speed limit on all of U.S. 1 ) through.
My grandparents moved from Pennsylvania to Orlando in 1909, when my father was ten years old.
In 1923, he married my mother (from South Carolina) and took her there to live. I know the Old Florida as persons today never couls imagine. Saw the Cape develop in the county where I resided, and watched space flights launched.
The West Coast sands are finer and softer, but eveywhere are the magnificent sunrises and sunsets and skies filled with beautiful clouds - - those things I miss.
Long Cut - in your treks between Daytona Beach and Jax, did you ever discover the awesome scenery at Bulow Creek and its State Park?!!
It is so lovely, John James Audobon spent two months there sketching the changing savannas and birds!
The huge ancient oak at the park is something to see, too.
I love living in FL because of the palm trees, exotic birds, gorgeous beaches, friendly people and our wonderful Governor JEB!
The history is so interesting.....each area is so diverse & has it's own special beauty.....Panhandle, West Coast, the Keys, St. Augustine, Central Highlands (283ft above sea level), the Everglades....I've tried to explore it all.
Have you read "A Land Remembered"? It is a historical novel about the struggles & triumphs of the early settlers....not great literature but I learned a lot.....the origin of the term 'Florida Cracker' and that FL probably has more beef & cowboys than Texas!
The only parts of your state that I have visited are the Orlando area, when my son graduated from boot camp and Nuclear Power School there, and Key West.
I LOVE Key West!! It is one of my top ten favorite places. I can imagine how wonderful it would be to live there...just idyllic, until a hurricane arrives, of course. I don't ever want to be on an island that is little more than 2 feet above sea level (slight exaggeration, LOL) and have a hurricane go over!
Speaking of hurricanes, please, everyone in Isabel's path, take precautions and stay safe.
Good afternoon friends and hostesses.
