Week 1 at John Prince Park: ML & J’s Visit

We arrived at John Prince Park Campground in Lake Worth on Monday, January 30 for a two week stay, our 4th year to stay at this very nice Palm Beach County park.  Our site was on Lake Osborne with views of the lake which is surrounded by a paved trail.  We enjoy seeing the birds there and this year George photographed a blue heron in the edge of the lake by our site. 

                          

                 

The weather was mostly pleasant, but we had a few rainy days and a little cool weather at the end of our stay.  George and our chihuahua Tina are enjoying the sun in photo above.

Mary Lou and Jack joined us for our first week at John Prince Park as they headed to New Orleans for a Southeast Country Coachers rally and to the Country Coach International rally in Tucson.  We enjoyed bicycling around the lake at John Prince Park (about 8 miles) and also in the old West Palm Beach neighborhood of Northwood developed in the 1920’s during the Florida land boom.

       

We visited Morikami Japanese Gardens and enjoyed having lunch there as well.   The six distinct gardens are inspired by famous gardens of Japan and represent gardens in six different time periods between the 9th century and early 20th century.

               

      

              

On Saturday we drove to Fort Lauderdale and strolled along the River Walk, ate lunch at an outdoor restaurant, and walked over to Las Olas Avenue (the shopping street) for ice cream before seeing a comedy at the Broward Center for Performing Arts.  We paused for a “photo shoot” along the way.

             
             
In addition to our activities together, Mary Lou and Jack visited friends in Boca Raton, and George and Irene met Irene’s friend Iris for lunch, a little shopping, and lots of visiting at City Place on Sunday.  Iris and Irene went to school together and hadn’t seen each other in years until their 50th high school reunion in April 2011.  It was great to get together.

Visiting the Biltmore

 

On our last day in Miami we visited the famous Biltmore-Miami hotel which offers tours on Sundays http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coral_Gables_Biltm 

           

It is one of the “jazz era” hotels built by the renowned New York architects Schultze and Weaver who also built the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, and the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York among several others. During its heyday there were special trains named “Biltmore Special” that brought northeastern guests to the hotel.

                                  

Quite a few years ago we visited Miami and went to Coral Gables. We couldn’t help noticing this tall structure that we were drawn to, but we were quickly turned back by a security guy in a suit and tie. That was during the time that the Biltmore was empty and in disrepair, but fortunately it has been saved and now operates as a hotel once again and has been designated as a National Historic Landmark. Only three percent of historical buildings qualify for that designation.

       

We had a knowledgeable guide and were very fortunate that on the day we were there the 15th floor suite was unoccupied.  The guide had carded elevator access to the three bedroom suite on the fifteenth floor. The views to the south looking over the golf course and to the north towards Miami were spectacular. No point in asking the nightly rate of the suite!

                               

 

		Miami Biltmore at Coral Gables VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Zoo Miami

 

We spent Saturday at Zoo Miami adjacent to our RV park, Larry and Penny Thompson Park. Zoo Miami has grown over the years and the loop is three miles around. We decided to rent a four wheel Safari Cycle which would offer sun/rain protection and give us a place to store our stuff. 

        

                                                                                                                                                  The highlight of the day was seeing Irene feed a giraffe (click to play video).

Irene Feeds giraffe

The chimps and gorillas were also quite entertaining.  The primates liked to swing along the rope between trees.     

                            

      

And of course, the king of the jungle looked down on everyone from his “throne”!

                     

But we thought the strangest looking creature was the okapi, native to a rain forest in the Congo.  While its legs look like a zebra’s, it is most closely related to the giraffe.  How do you like those “socks”?

                     

Biking Key Biscayne

 

Key Biscayne is a great place to ride and the name is very familiar from the Richard Nixon era. Indeed, Nixon’s helipad still exists on the island. We parked at Key Biscayne village and rode north to Crandon Park. We were puzzled by the enormous parking lot until we learned that Crandon was formerly the location of the Miami Zoo. There was a nice beach there that we rode along, and we had a good view of downtown Miami.

              

              

We rode back to the village and had a really pleasant lunch at Sushi Siam restaurant. The air conditioning felt really good and we re-hydrated ourselves on the ice water. The dragon roll and masaman curry were great.

After lunch we headed south to Cape Florida State Park where we checked out the light house. As we left Key Biscayne we stopped for another view of the Miami skyline.  All in all it was a great day of biking.

                                                           

                     

South Beach (without the Diet)

 

On Thursday we went to Miami Beach to South Pointe Park to bike and check out the famous art deco hotels.  South Pointe Park is located where the ship channel enters the Atlantic Ocean, so it is a good place to see cruise ships.

                

                

Some of the art deco hotels we saw include the Savoy, the Barbizon, the Bentley, the Park Central, the Beacon, the Colony, and the Cardozo.

                

                

We also saw the Versace mansion where Gianni Versace was shot to death on the front steps. We ended our ride with a late lunch at Monty’s overlooking the cruise ship channel.

                

Miami Nice

We had a great visit in Miami having good weather and staying on the go the entire time. On Wednesday (1/26) we went to the Coconut Grove area and visited the Fairchild Tropical Gardens http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairchild_Tropical_Botanic_Garden, one of the world’s best tropical gardens featuring palms, cycads, flowering trees and shrubs, vines and fruit trees.  
               
We arrived in the morning and spent a couple of hours in the garden and took the guided tram tour.  A number of sculptures adorn the gardens including  “Icon” (below) and other flower sculptures by Will Ryman
 
                 
                               
Then we biked Old Cutler Road about four miles into Coconut Grove
                 
where we had lunch at the Jaguar Restaurant which we had seen reviewed on a Miami public TV program called “Check Please South Florida.” The Jaguar is known for its cerviche dishes, but we chose the ahi tuna sandwich and chicken and cheese quesadillas.
    
After lunch we continued biking north and came upon a big marina, and to our surprise we also found there the Miami City Hall. Frankly, the building looked like an airport terminal. We asked a local, and sure enough this building originally was the Pan Am Clipper Ship Terminal where flying boats provided service to South America.
               
               
The marina office had old photographs of the terminal and the flying boats.
                  
     
We biked back to Fairchild and spent more time in the gardens and saw the three glass sculptures by Dale Chihuly including “End of DayTower.”