Jack Daniel's and George Dickel Distilleries

We woke early after a quiet night and packed for our visits to Lynchburg, Tullahoma and the return trip home.  Mr. Patel was not at the Knight’s Inn registration desk so after waiting for 20 minutes, we left the keys on the nightstand and cleared out of the room.

The drive to Lynchburg was beautiful.  There were spots of heavy traffic but since we were leaving Nashville at 7 am, we avoided most of the congestion.  Traffic coming into the city was unbelievable.  Traffic coming into Nashville from the southeast on I-24 was backed up for nearly 10 miles and at a standstill.  We were happy to be leaving that traffic.

We arrived at the Jack Daniel’s Distillery at 8:30 so we had some time to look around before they opened at 9 am.  We scheduled a tasting tour ($10 each) at 9:30 and were pleased that we were with a small group of pleasant people from all over the US.  Our guide, Wes, was very knowledgeable and gave us an excellent tour of the facility that is the largest distillery that we have ever visited.  This facility makes millions of gallons of Tennessee sour mash whiskey.

starting with the yard where ricks of maple are burned to produce the charcoal that filters and mellows the whiskey before being aged. 

He took us to grain milling and mixing areas, and where the mash is prepared and allowed to ferment for 5 days.  When he uncovered the mash tubs and allowed us to smell the fermenting grain we were quite shocked.  At visits to other distilleries on the Bourbon Trail we smelled mash from open tubs and found it to be pleasing.  These giant stainless steel tubs were covered and when we opened the access ports the odor made us weak at the knees.  We continued on to the distillation area where huge continuous stills make millions of gallons of raw whiskey that is sent to a filtration area where it is passed through 10 feet of sugar maple charcoal before being put in a new white oak barrel for 4-7 years to become Jack Daniel’s Whiskey.  We went to the spring where pure water emerges from a cave in the limestone giving desirable characteristics to the resultant whiskey. 

We also went to the original office building where Jack Daniel and Lem Motlow ran the company since 1866.  We also saw the infamous safe that Jack Daniel kicked in anger that caused an infection leading to his death in 1911 at the age of 62.

The tour ended with a tasting and education on some of the primary products of Jack Daniel’s Distillery.  Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7 is their signature product.  Like all Jack Daniel’s products, it is a sour mash whiskey meaning that a little of the mash from a previous batch is put into the new mash to assure continuity and consistency.  Old No. 7 is charcoal filtered prior to barrel aging and is a mixture of many barrels throughout the huge rickhouses.  It is 40% alcohol (80 proof) and has a nice color.  We found it to be very inoffensive.  The charcoal filtration removes many potential sources of unpleasant flavors.  However, many unique characteristics of flavor and aroma were removed as well.  For someone who mixes whiskey, Jack Daniel’s would be a great choice since it is affordable and is not unpleasant as a straight sipping whiskey.

Next we tasted the Gentleman Jack which is the same as Old No. 7 except it has been charcoal filtered a second time following barrel aging.  The color is very light and the flavor is very weak.  Like Old No. 7, Gentleman Jack is very smooth and has no bite whatsoever.  It is priced above Old No. 7 but we found it to be bland and not really interesting.

The last offering we tried was the Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Select.  For bourbon drinkers, this is the superior offering from jack Daniel’s by far.  This whiskey is made the same way as Old No. 7 but is stored on the top floor of the rickhouses where it ages to a dark color and robust flavor.  It is bottled at 94 proof and has a really nice warming feel in the mouth and throat.  There are pleasant vanilla and oak flavors that make this the best choice if you are considering a spirit from Jack Daniel’s.

We left Jack Daniel’s to walk into historic Lynchburg for lunch.  We ended up at the BBQ Caboose Café in town.  The walls were covered in photographs of celebrities who had dined there including a photo of the Sons of the San Joaquin over our booth.  We had met them at the California Mid-State Fair a number of years ago and loved the cowboy music so reminiscent of the Sons of the Pioneers.  Steve’s barbecue plate was excellent as was the barbecue pizza that Mary & Emily shared.  The café owner, Ken Fly came over to visit with us as he does with all visitors to his restaurant.  He told us that his mother was from Huntington, WV and that he always liked the city. The restaurant was doing a good business for a Wednesday in May.

From Lynchburg, we made the short drive to Tullahoma, TN, actually Cascade Hollow to the George Dickel Distillery.  The road to the Dickel facility is narrow and winding but isn’t far from the town of Tullahoma which has a surprising number of residents.  The compared to the massive facility and production at jack Daniel’s, George Dickel is tiny.  While Jack Daniel’s Distillery has nearly 400 employees at their Lynchburg operations, Dickel has a staff of only about 25.

Like Jack Daniel’s, the whisky from George Dickel is a sour mash type of whisky that is charcoal filtered before barrel again.  Unlike Daniel’s, Dickel chills the white whisky before filtering.  They believe that the undesirable elements are better removed from the liquid by the charcoal if they are cold.

Our tour group was very small but the guide, Cathy, gave us a walk around the facility and a lot of information about the whisky and how it is made.  They were not offering any tasting tours at the time we arrived so we were unable to make first had comparisons of the various Dickel products.  Their 80 proof George Dickel No. 8 and the 90 proof No. 12 get very favorable reviews and are often cited as good value bourbons at less than $15 for a fifth.  Their premium sour mash whiskey is the 86 proof George Dickel Barrel Select that compares well with drinks at three times the price.

By the time we finished our tour at George Dickel, we were ready to start home after a great time in Nashville.  The GPS took us north on US 231 which is a pretty two lane highways through Tennessee until we got to the Martha Lane Collins Bluegrass Parkway at Cave City, Kentucky.

After the large lunch in Lynchburg, we weren’t terribly hungry for dinner so we stopped at the world’s slowest McDonalds which is in Bardstown, Kentucky.  We have stopped there before and have had terrible service in the past but we don’t travel through the area often enough to remember to not stop here.  We had a simple order of four chicken snack wraps and a chicken salad that took over 25 minutes to fill.  When we got the order, they gave us only two chicken snack wraps so we waited another 10 minutes for the balance of the order.  Hopefully, we will remember to stop somewhere else in the future.  We really like Bardstown but we won’t return to the McDonalds.

We dropped Emily off at her apartment around 9 pm then continued on home arriving after 11:30 pm, tired but pleased to have had a great visit to Nashville and central Tennessee.

Photos will be added to this blog entry soon.

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Cheekwood & Belle Meade Plantation

No loud neighbors last night made sleeping very good and we awoke around 6 am.  The Loveless Café leftovers from last night made for a good breakfast this morning so we could get on the road by 9 am.

Our first stop for the day was Cheekwood Art and Gardens.  The volunteers in the grounds were very helpful in planning our walk around the grounds.  We learned that Cheekwood was the home of an early investor in Maxwell House Coffee that originated at the Maxwell House Hotel here in Nashville.  The estate was named for Mr. Leslie Cheek and his wife whose maiden name was Mabel Wood.  Cheek sold his interest in Maxwell House Coffee to Postum (General Foods) for stock holdings.  In the early 1930s, Cheek traded his Postum stock for stock in IBM.

The architecture of Cheekwood is such that the buildings blend with the landscape.  The mansion blends with the rolling topography of the area.  There are a variety of gardens from the Japanese gardens, to herb gardens, to perennials to wildflowers.  The area is large and has a lot of plant varieties but there was limited signage so we had difficulty identifying many of the plants.  There was a number of interesting sculptures along the many walking paths that cut through the property.  The mansion was being redecorated so we were unable to see many of the inside exhibits.  Since the day was heating up to the mid 80s, we were all ready for lunch and a cool drink so we found a nearby Subway and had a nice meal.

After lunch we visited Belle Meade Plantation nearby.  In the late 1800s the plantation was over 5400 acres and raised some of the world’s finest thoroughbred racehorses.  All horses entered in the Kentucky Derby in the recent past can trace their ancestry back to Belle Meade.  We learned that the championship bloodlines go back to a stud named Iroquois who was the pride of Belle Meade.  In the early 1900s, the plantation fell on hard times and the Jackson family (no relation to Andrew Jackson) had to sell off the plantation in sections to raise money.  The decline in the popularity of horseracing and the decline in the stock market both contributed to the demise of Belle Meade.  Today, the plantation is held by a nonprofit agency, The Association for the Preservation of Tennessee's Antiquities, who conducts tours and makes wine to provide for the upkeep the plantation’s remaining 30 acres.  Our guide was excellent and gave us an excellent tour of the mansion with the living quarters, servant areas and supporting structures.  We finished our tour by enjoying a sample of four wines made at Belle Meade Winery today; white, muscadine, red and blackberry.  All the wines were good but Emily and Steve liked the muscadine wine but Mary liked the blackberry best.  After the wine tasting, we walked through the slave and servant cabins and the dairy on the grounds before driving back to the Knight’s Inn to rest before going to dinner.

We drove to Mary’s Aunt Mary Anna’s home for dinner.  She prepared a delicious ham with scalloped potatoes, asparagus and mixed fresh fruit.  For dessert, we had homemade chocolate pudding with fresh raspberries which was excellent.  After dinner, we looked at photos and shared stories.  It was a very nice evening.
After leaving her house, we drove past the former home of the late Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash who were their neighbors.  We stopped for gas before we got on the highway and were pleased to get it for $3.13 per gallon in contrast to the $3.69 that is the going price back home in West Virginia.

We plan to rise early on Wednesday morning and drive to Lynchburg to tour Jack Daniels and George Dickel Distilleries before returning home on Wednesday afternoon.

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Old Hickory

We had a good night’s sleep.  The neighbors next door were quiet after 11 or so and we all slept well.

We woke around 6 am and watched the morning news and had breakfast before leaving around 8:30.  We arrived at Andrew Jackson’s Nashville home, The Hermitage.  We had an interesting and informative tour through the mansion and a walk across the grounds to the original log home that Jackson and his wife, Rachel built when they purchased the 1000 acre tract that they built to the magnificent plantation.  We also visited the slave quarters and the other buildings that supported life on the Hermitage.  We especially liked the beautiful gardens with a wide variety of flowers and herbs. 

Many of the plants were identified with signs and the volunteer gardeners were very helpful.  The garden privy was built like the proverbial brick outhouse.  A group of third graders from a local elementary school served as junior docents for the day.  We were impressed that the children were able to present information to visitors at their assigned stations throughout the grounds.  They were dressed in period clothes and were very much in character.

We stopped at a Penn Station for lunch which was good although it took forever to get our food. We drove to the Grand Old Opry House to take some snapshots outside then to the Gaylord Opryland Hotel.  The display of tropical plants was as good as many conservatories.   There is even a canal that runs through much of the hotel public space where visitors can take a gondola ride.  It is quite a place and has nearly 2900 guest rooms making it one of the nation’s largest non-casino hotels.

We came back to the room to relax around 3:30 and make plans for dinner.  We met Mary’s Aunt May Anna, her cousin, Sandy and Sandy’s two daughters, Maria and Anna along with Maria’s friend, Tanner at the Loveless Café.  This restaurant is a Nashville landmark and from the quality or the food it is easy to see why.  The menu is Southern home-style cooking with fried chicken as a specialty.  The restaurant is located just west of Nashville on the Natchez Trace and has been in business since 1951.  Emily had excellent grilled catfish, Mary had pulled pork and Steve had smoked turkey.  Everything was excellent and the portions were huge.  Mary & Emily bought a slice of Goo Goo Clusters pie back as a snack for later.  We enjoyed the conversation and stories over the meal.  It was really great seeing them all.

We returned to the Knight’s Inn for the evening and will plan to our visit to Belle Meade Plantation and Cheekwood Art and Gardens for tomorrow.

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Mother's Day

We slept fine at the Nashville Knight's Inn last night. We feared that the noisy group in the next room would keep us awake but they quieted down before midnight. 

The Knight's Inn is certainly no frills but it is clean, comfortable and quiet. In addition, it is very convent to most of the places we will be visiting and was the most affordable place in the area. Since we are in the motel only from about 11 pm until 7 am there is little logic in paying for a pricier motel when we are in the room so little. 

We grabbed a quick breakfast from what was available at the motel (pretty much the standard Belgian waffles, Fruit Loops and small apples) supplemented by some items brought from home. 

We left the motel for the Country Music Hall of Fame around 8:30 and arrived quickly since our motel is close.  Parking is a premium in Nashville.  The first place we attempted to park had a fee of $32 for us to park for the day.  We went to the public library where weekend parking has a flat rate of $7 which suited us much better.

We were at the County Music Hall of Fame when the doors opened at 9 am and enjoyed our walk around the museum.  Like the night before at the Grand Old Opry, photography is not only allowed but is encouraged.  That is so unlike other museums.  The exhibits were excellent and well displayed.  We had audio devices that narrate the self-guided tour but the signage was very descriptive and there were many videos throughout the exhibits.  We enjoyed seeing the guitars, clothes and memorabilia from many Nashville stars such as Hank Williams, Kitty Wells and George Jones. 

One of the special exhibits was on the Bakersfield Sound, a movement that came from singers and songwriters that came from the San Joaquin Valley.  Many of these performers or their families migrated to California during the dust bowl era from the South when times were hard.  Featured in the Bakersfield exhibit were Buck Owens and Merle Haggard.

Our appointment to tour the famous Studio B was at 10:30 so we boarded a bus to the facility on Music Row.  Our guide was excellent and gave us a lot of information on the acts who have performed there that included some of the biggest names in country, bluegrass and rock music in history as well as today.  We were able to sit at and play the piano in the studio where Elvis most liked to play and record.  The studio is still in operation and was recording music as recently as yesterday.

After returning to the County Music Hall of Fame, we went to Patsy Cline exhibit that we didn’t have time to see earlier.  We were surprised to learn that she had her first performance in Martinsburg, WV.  There was information on Huntington’s own, Hawkshaw Hawkins and Cowboy Copas from West Union, Ohio.

By then it was nearing lunchtime so we left in search of barbecue but passed Ernest Tubb’s Record Shop along the way.  There was a huge variety of music on CD as well as vinyl there along with sheet music and biographies.  The store isn’t large but has a lot of music.  The staff was extremely helpful and knowledgeable.

Jack’s Barbecue was calling our names.  We stood in line briefly to order (Mary=brisket, Emily=smoked turkey, Steve=pork shoulder) then took our meals upstairs to eat.  We shared each other’s meat couldn’t make a decision as to who had the better choice.  Everything was very tasty.  The meat was fully cooked but very moist and tender.  The side dishes were quite good with the baked beans being a little smoky with bits of pork, the cole slaw had a nice vinegar dressing with no mayo and the apples were sweet but not overly so with a lot of apple taste.  This was an excellent choice for lunch.

After lunch, we walked a short distance to the famous Ryman Auditorium where the Grand Old Opry was housed from 1943-1974.  The acoustics in the auditorium were outstanding.  It is said that only the Mormon Tabernacle has better acoustics than the Ryman.  There was a lot of memorabilia on display and a number of video and audio stations.  Our backstage tour left at 2:20 taking us through dressing rooms and backstage areas of the auditorium that still hosts many concerts and shows.  We were impressed that the seats allowed everyone an excellent view of the stage.  It was clear that the new home of the Grand Old Opry borrowed design elements from the old Ryman.

On leaving the Ryman, we visited the Music City Walk of Fame and saw where many influences of Nashville’s music are honored.  We drove back to the Knight’s Inn to rest before going out to dinner at La Hacienda Taqueria.  Emily had a chile relleno burrito, Mary had huevos con chorizo and Steve had a barbacoa platter.  All of us enjoyed the meal.

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To Music City

We left home around 7 am and headed to Nashville via Lexington for a short spring vacation.  We picked Emily up around 9:30 at her apartment and got on the Bluegrass Parkway south toward Nashville.  We stopped in Bowling Green, Kentucky for a quick lunch at Bob Evans then on to Nashville. 
The black locust trees were in full bloom all along our drive along I-64 to Lexington then on the Martha Lane Collins Bluegrass Parkway to Elizabethtown, Kentucky where we picked up I-65 that took us all the way to Nashville.  We always love to drive when the trees are in bloom.  There is nothing like having the highway lined with red bud in April or black locust in May.  Of course in the fall a completely different show of color brightens our drive.

We arrived at our motel, the Knight’s Inn then realized that it was only noon due to the change to Central Time.  Since we figured it was too early to check in, we drove around Music Row and passed by some famous recording studios then went to the Parthenon.  Although Centennial Park was busy, we had no trouble parking within an easy walk of the Parthenon.  Lake Watauga and Parthenon are all that remain in Nashville from the 1897 Tennessee Centennial and International Exposition.  The original Parthenon was intended to be only temporary, lasting only a few months for the Tennessee Centennial.  However, due to public demand, it was rebuilt as a more permanent structure only to suffer major damage from a tornado shortly thereafter.  It was rebuilt as it is today and is the only full scale replica of the Parthenon in existence. 

There were a lot of reproductions of statuary and artifacts from the Parthenon in Greece and plenty of signage to explain the significance of the items.  The42 foot tall stature of Athena has also been recreated, not from ivory and gold like the original but from plaster, gypsum and fiberglass.  It is made to replicate how the original would have looked in 438 BC.

After leaving the park, we check in at the Knight’s Inn and rested before the evening out at the Grand Old Opry.  We left the motel at 5 pm and went to the Opry Mills Mall and ate at the food court there.  There were a lot of options and we all enjoyed our dinner.  We had a short drive around to the Grand Old Opry and walked around the grounds a bit before going in.  A Minnie Pearl look-alike was posing for photos and chatting with visitors outside.  We found our seats in the auditorium and was pleased to have a good view of the stage.  We learned later that as Minnie Pearl was aging she wanted her character to continue.  To assure the continuity and quality of the character, she interviewed and approved the actors portraying her character today.  Around 6:30 the Minnie Pearl impersonator came out and warmed up the audience before the first host, Jeannie Seely took the stage.  She did a couple of her songs and introduced a young singer-songwriter, Sara Haze who performed two of her songs.  Bobby Osborne was next, the surviving member of the Osborne Brothers.  They did three songs including Ruby and, of course, Rocky Top, their most famous hit.  We were surprised when Bobby announced that they will be coming to Hamlin to perform on June 1.

The next hosts were the Whites.  We have always liked the Whites with Buck on piano, Cheryl and Sharon on guitar and vocals and Rosie doing vocals.  They played Keep on the Sunny Side from their part in O Brother, Where Art Thou and introduced a new singer-songwriter, Joel Crouse, from Massachusetts.  One of the main acts introduced by the Whites was Dr. Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys.  At 86, Stanley didn’t do any vocal solos but accompanied his grandson, Nathan Stanley and others in performing some bluegrass favorites.

After a brief intermission, George Hamilton IV performed his popular song, Abilene, along with his son, George Hamilton V.  He introduced Old Crow Medicine Show who played two of their more popular songs as well as performing Tennessee Whiskey as a tribute to the late George Jones who recently died.  The Opry Square Dancers finished out the George Hamilton IV set.

The last host was “Whispering” Bill Anderson who sang a couple of his songs and introduced Charlie Daniels who came out with his characteristic gusto.  He went through two fiddle bows in his first song, The South is Gonna Do It Again.  Of course, he played The Devil Went Down to Georgia as well much to everyone’s delight.  We were impressed with the helpful staff at the Grand Old Opry and that people were encouraged to take photos or even to approach the stage to get better snapshots.  Bill Anderson and other hosts chatted with visitors during breaks and seemed to genuinely welcome guests to the Grand Old Opry.

We left the Grand Old Opry around 9:45 and fought traffic for the short drive back to the Knight’s Inn and to bed.

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Dead Sea Scrolls

After several weeks of gloomy early spring weather, we had a beautiful Saturday and took advantage of the day to make a road trip to one of our favorite places, the Cincinnati Museum Center.  We have had a membership at the museum for several years and always enjoy visiting the permanent exhibits in the Museum of Natural History & Science and the Cincinnati History Museum.  Even just touring the old Union Terminal building with the art-deco architecture and beautiful murals is fascinating.  Although there remains a working Amtrack station in the building, most of the structure is dedicated to the museums.  When the museum center was constructed, it was the central hub for all railroads having connections in Cincinnati.  Prior to the opening of Union Terminal, passengers had to find transportation between terminals of different rail lines that may be across the city.  Like a modern airport, Union Terminal provided concourses for the major passenger railroads serving Cincinnati allowing travelers easier transfers between rail lines.

We had been telling our friends, Rex & Natialie Dillinger about the museum for some time and we were thrilled that they could join us for the day.  We left Milton before 7 am and had a pleasant drive down the AA Highway through Kentucky to Cold Spring and on to Cincinnati.  The early morning fog was thick but disappeared once the sun came out.

The traveling exhibit that brought us to the Cincinnati Museum Center on this day was the Dead Sea Scrolls.  We were thrilled to be able to see some of the most important documents in our culture up close.  The scrolls were well displayed with clear translations and interpretations.  There were also displays of jars that contained the scrolls as well as many artifacts of life the area 2000 years ago including weighing scales, coins, jars, building stones and ossuaries.  Ossuaries are boxes that are used to hold the bones of dead loved ones.  One set of ossuaries held the names, Joseph, Mary and Jesus.  However, we learned that those were very common names in those times and are unlikely to contain the remains of the biblical family.

The museum guides and the printed information accompanying the scrolls and artifacts were very helpful in understanding life in the area over 2000 years ago when the Dead Sea Scrolls would have been written.  A short movie described how the scrolls were found in 1947 and efforts that were made to locate, obtain and preserve the scrolls in the years since.  We were especially pleased that the oldest known version of the Ten Commandments was included among the scrolls on exhibit.  We learned that this scroll can only be shown for ten days then must return to storage in total darkness for a full year before being shown again.  We were thrilled to be able to see them.  We spend about two and half hours in the exhibit from 10:30 am – 1 pm.

While at the museum, we also saw a display of beautiful wood turnings and walked around the inside admiring the Rookwood Pottery tiles and the depression era mosaics.

We left the museum around 1 pm and drove across the Ohio River to Newport, Kentucky for lunch at Hofbräuhaus.  That is one of our favorite places to eat.  We have been to the Hofbräuhaus in Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and Munich.  We have had excellent dining experiences at all of these. 

After lunch, we met Sarah & Greg at their house for a visit then went to Findlay Market for some shopping.  Rex was interested in getting some German sausages from one of the butcher shops there and had success at Kroeger & Sons Meats.  We spent time in the city, walking around the OTR (Over the Rhine) neighborhood of Cincinnati and spending some time in the newly renovated Washington Park.  We also drove up Mt. Adams to the overlook near the Rookwood Restaurant at the site of the former Rookwood Pottery.  We drove down to the Krohn Conservatory but they were closed by the time we arrived so we walked around Eden Park for a while to see the Capitoline Wolf statue showing Romulus and Remus being suckled by the she wolf who adopted them after they were thrown into the Tiber River.  The statue was donated to Cincinnati by Bonito Mussolini in 1929.

After leaving Eden Park, we took Sarah & Greg back to their house and headed home after spending a great day in Cincinnati.

National Parks Visited

On this trip through Southern Florida and the Miami area, we visited the following National Parks:

• Biscayne National Park
• Big Cypress Preserve
• Everglades National Park
• Key Deer National Wildlife Refuge
• Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge

Back Home

We left the Fort Lauderdale Travelodge around 5:30 am to get to the Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood Airport.  When we arrived last week, the flight crew advised us to arrive at the airport at least two hours in advance of our return flight since the check in process takes a while at that airport.  We returned the rental car at Enterprise by 6 am and made our way to the Allegiant desk.  We learned that Allegiant Air doesn't check passengers in before two hours prior to departure.  We waited until 7 am and checked in with no problems.  The rates of about $50 for the flight is excellent but Allegiant is certainly no frills.  

After checking in we made our way to security.  We couldn't believe the line!  People were lined up across the street then winding around before the TSA checkpoint.  It took about an hour to get through the process and put us at our gate well in time for our flight.

As with our flight to Florida last week, our flight had few. if any, vacant seats.  I am certain that Allegiant has to keep their jets filled.  There was a crying baby early on but it didn't last long.  We all took a snooze on the flight. 

We arrived at Huntington TriState Airport around 11 am.  Mary picked up our checked bag while I got the van out of parking.  Going out in the cold and snow after our week in the warmth and sunshine was a shock.  We made a quick stop at Kroger for groceries then came home to get ready for the week ahead.

We had an excellent week in Florida and think that we spread our time well.  We liked the Key West area but wouldn't have wanted to spend more than a couple of days there.  If would have had more time in the Keys, we would have spent a day at the Dry Tortugas National Park.  It is a long ferry ride but we understand that the island is beautiful and has some interesting historical locations at Fort Jefferson.

It is not surprising that we enjoyed the Everglades more than any other part of our vacation.  The Anhinga Trail and the trails at Shark Valley were both excellent places to walk and photograph alligators and birds from literally inches away.  Our day at the Gulf Coast Visitor Center at Everglades City was also excellent since is showed a very different part of Everglades National Park.  We tend to enjoy nature and history oriented vacations rather than sitting on a beach for a week.  This week was a good mix of things to do.

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Last day of winter 2013 vacation

All good things must come to an end and our vacation has been very good.
We left the Florida City Travelodge around 9 am. When we checked out, I chatted with the motel owner, Mr. Patel, who said that he would give us a free room upgrade if we return there in the future. We may just do that since we really liked the location and the rooms were very quiet, clean and comfortable. The rates were about half what we were paying for a room on Key West. Granted lodging is more expensive on Key West but in Florida City we had a great hot breakfast that was included.
We drove up through Miami which was hectic driving even on Sunday morning. I can't imagine what driving would be like on a weekday. We drove much of the way to Miami on Old Cutler Road passing through Coral Gables and Sunrise Harbor. Once we were out of the city center we drove through Miami Springs, Hialeah Gardens, Miramar and Pembroke Pines. We stopped for a couple of geocache hunts along the way including one in Brian Piccolo Park. Piccolo, who played for the Chicago Bears in the late 1960s, was the subject of a popular movie, Brian's Song following his death in 1971. We arrived at the Travelodge on Sunrise Blvd. in Ft. Lauderdale a little after 1 pm.
We were able to check in on our arrival. The room is acceptable but the Internet is sketchy and there is no place at the motel for guests to print boarding passes. The bed is comfortable and the area seems quiet so far. That will be important since we plan to leave at 5 am tomorrow. We understand that the check in process at the Ft. Lauderdale airport takes a long time.
After resting for a bit, we drove down to A1A along the Ft. Lauderdale Beach area and parked. A nice Canadian family was leaving and gave us their parking pass with a good bit of time left. We walked along the beach past the usual bars, T-shirt shops, restaurants and souvineer shops across from the beach area. The beach here is very narrow. Not surprising since Florida really had no natural beaches. Mangroves were cleared from the coast many years ago when developers wanted to attract tourists and their money to coastal Florida. Of course, once the protective mangroves and sea oats were cleared away, beach erosion became a perpetual problem. The sandy beach areas that are in Florida were created by pumping sand up and making an area where people can wade and sunbathe. Whenever a major storm comes through fresh sand has to be pumped back up on the beach. If there were no beach here the economy would cease to exist. Walking along the beach for a couple of hours was about all we were interested in doing. Traffic along the beach was crazy so we were just as happy going back to the room and getting ready for the return trip home.
The temperatures today were in the mid 70s and sunny. The forecast for tomorrow is in the mid 80s here. We have been perfectly happy with temperatures in the 70s here, especially since there is snow, wind and cold back home. All schools in the area around home were closed last Friday and it is expected that many will be closed tomorrow.
Mary normally checks Road Food, Diners, Drive Inns and Dives and TripAdvisor for dining tips. Recently, she has found that TripAdvisor has been a reliable source of information for eating, lodging and attractions. She found another good spot for dinner tonight called Zona Fresca. It appears to be a local chain of a few locations in the Ft. Lauderdale area. In appearance it is a little like a Chipotle but they specialize in Latin food that is healthier. She had the fish taco that she said was very good. I had chile rellenos that were filled with cheeses and roasted. Every other place that I have had them batter dips and deep fries the filled chiles. Not that batter dipped and deep fried is a bad thing but these were very good. My meal came with black beans and rice on the side. They have a salsa bar so I added habanero and tomatillo salsas. It was a very good dinner.
We came back to the Ft. Lauderdale Travelodge after dinner to finish preparations for our early morning departure while we watched the Ravens and 49ers play in the Super Bowl.
As with any vacation, we are sorry to see it come to an end. Thanks to advice from Sarah and Greg, Debby (across the hall at work) and my pal, Joe, we were able to target many of the "must see" locations in South Florida. While going back home and to work is always rough, we both have busy times ahead at work with much to be done. Taking a week off for some time away in "the Sunshine State" was just what we needed.



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Groundhog's Day

We didn't leave the Florida City Travelodge until nearly 9 am this morning for no other reason than we were being lazy.  The day was warm and breezy with abundant sunshine.  Even when we left the motel, it was in the mid 60s and beautiful.  The nice weather we are enjoying makes us feel a little bad for family and friends back home facing several inches of snow and wind chill temperatures well below zero.

We took the short drive to Biscayne National Park on the coast.  Most of this park is underwater since it is on the world's third largest coral reef.  Turns out that the area was threatened with major development in the 1960s but when the property was made a National Park in 1980, it was protected from development.  There is a nice visitor's center and a short but interesting boarkwalk.  There were TONS of bicyclists on the road to the park since it roads are flat and don't receive a lot of automobile traffic.  

It didn't appear that this park gets the volume of visitors that come to many other parks.  However, many local people come here to fish for grouper and mullet along the banks in the park. There are a lot of picnic tables and places to relax in the park too.  The temperature warmed to the mid 70s while we were there but the breeze kept walking comfortable.

After leaving Biscayne National Park, we drove to Zoo Miami to spend most of the day.  The zoo is very large but the layout is logical and well organized.  The main path of the zoo is in a "figure 8" and the majority of animals are organized by continent.  We were amazed at how few visitors at the zoo were speaking English.  In fact, on the few English speaking groups that we saw there were tourists from England!

The animals at Zoo Miamo seem to have a lot of room and there is a nice assortment.  We watched a couple of red river hogs chasing each other around and enjoying the day.  They had excellent enclosures for the Asian and African elephants.  They had a large collection of tortoises and an area to feed giraffes.  There was a lot of walking at the zoo but we enjoyed our day.
After leaving the zoo, we were in the mood for a snack so we went back to Robert is Here.  It was even more of a zoo!  We could not believe the number of people packed into that little farm stand.  They make milkshakes from fresh fruits and other ingredients. Mary had a fresh coconut and I had a key lime milkshake.  They were both excellent and filling.  Mary bought some key lime chocolates for the guys at work and I bought some guacamole that they make there at the deli.  The guacamole had big chunks of avocado and other goodies.  We enjoyed munching on it on tortilla chips. 
We crashed in the room for a bit to shower and change before dinner.  There are many great choices for dinner here but we figure we can get good Mexican, Chinese or seafood back home.  However, we can't get Cuban food any place close to home so we went back to Mario's Latin Cuisine for dinner.  We had the same friendly and helpful waitress as Thursday night.  Mary had passionfruit juice again and I had mango this time.  For her main course, Mary had the Cuban sandwich which had generous portions of ham, pork and cheese on grilled Cuban bread.  I had the tamal appetizer as my meal.  The Cuban style tamale was a block of seasoned pollenta with slices of pork, ham, cheese and pickles.  Everything was very good.
We retired to the room and watched "Groundhog Day" on AMC which just never gets old.



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Gators, gators and more gators

We left the Travelodge in Florida City around 8 am after a good breakfast at the motel.  Although the parking lot isn't nearly full, there is a "No Vacancy" sign at the registration desk.  Like the motel in Key West, we have noticed a lot of Europeans here.  We have heard a lot of people in the breakfast area speaking French and others speaking some Eastern European languages.

As we drove toward Everglades City, I had a conference call for work to set up a training session with RCBI and NASA on March 9.  The call was productive and only took about 30 minutes, long enough for us to get to US 41 which we would be on for most of the day.  Route 41 is sometimes called the Tamiami Highway since it runs from Tampa on the Gulf Coast to Miami on the Atlantic Coast.  The first 11 miles of Route 41 were under construction and down to one lane in many areas.  The construction didn't slow us down much.

Our first stop of the day was at the Shark Valley Visitor Center in Everglades National Park.  There was a strong breeze making the air seem cooler than the actual temperature in the low 70s.  The trail along a small canal was a great place to see many interesting birds and TONS of alligators.  The birds and alligators were nearly as good for viewing as the Anhinga Trail that we visited on Thursday.  There were several types of ergets, storks, herons, and Purple Gallinules that we had been looking for earlier in the week.  There were alligators everywhere sunning in the morning light.  The trail runs 14 miles to an observation tower along a canal.  There is a tram that takes visitors along the trail or people can walk and bicycle there.  Since we wanted to get to Everglades City, we choose to not walk or tram to the tower but rather move on west.  

Our next stop was at the Oasis Visitor Center in the Big Cypress Preserve where a nice boardwalk paralleled the Tamiami Highway (US 41) and a canal where many huge alligators basked.  We stood in one place and counted 18 alligators, most of which were over 8 feet in length.  We saw several that were at least 12 feet long.  The canal also had many Florida gar, walking catfish and several types of freshwater turtles.  The water was clear enough to provide good visibility of life in the canal.  There was a volunteer ranger on the boardwalk who was very helpful in identifying the fish and other wildlife in and around the canal.

We drove on to the Big Cypress Visitor Center that was small but had an interesting short boardwalk.  There was a lot of information on the cypress trees of the area and the creation of the park in the early 1970s to preserve them.  On the boardwalk, there was a canal where we didn't see alligators but there were manatees.  They were difficult to see since they only came up briefly for a quick breath.  Mostly, you could see bubbles from the paths of the manatees underwater. 

Just before we got to Everglades City, we stopped at the H. P. Williams Picnic Area where there were a number of alligators out in the sun.  We watched anhingas feeding including on that caught and swallowed a large cichlid that left a lump in the anhinga's throat.  It was a tiny area but was an interesting stop because of the concentration of alligators.

We made it to Everglades City a little before noon and checked in at the Gulf Coast Visitor Center.  We learned that a tour boat around some of the mangrove islands in the Gulf would be leaving at 1 pm.  We couldn't resist the opportunity to go.  The boat had about 20 people on board and traveled around many of the islands and to rookeries and areas frequented by dolphins.  Only Mary and one other person on the boat managed to see a dolphin but there were many types of birds and the 90 minute ride was nice.  After returning to Everglades City around 2:30, we drove around the area and to the old Smallwood Store in Chokoloskee.   The store has quite a history since it was built in 1906.  There is a small airport in Everglades City that mostly brings private planes with visitors to the Park.  We learned that the airport had a very different purpose not long ago;  In the 1970s, over 80% of Everglades City's residents had a drug conviction!  With the presence of the Park Service in the area, the drug trade in town decreased dramatically.  

We left the area and continued northwest on the Tamiama Highway toward Naples.  We found a well reviewed seafood restaurant in Naples called Randy's Fishmarket.  In addition to the restaurant, Randy's sells fresh locally caught seafood.  Since we just had snacks for lunch at the Gulf Coast Visitor Center at Everglades City, we were pretty hungry.  At 4:30, the other diners in the restaurant were mostly senior citizens.  The population of Naples is generally very wealthy and very old.  On our way to the restaurant, we passed dealerships for Bentley, Porsche, Mazzarati and Land Rover.  Since we are here in stone crab season, we started with an appetizer of stone crab claws.  To harvest the claws of the stone crabs, fishermen collect the crabs in traps and remove the claws in such a way that the crabs are released unharmed to regenerate claws.  For our meals, Mary had crab cakes with a baked sweet potato and green beans.  I had pan seared mahi mahi on a bed of whole wheat penne pasta with garlic olive oil, portobello mushrooms and wilted spinach.  We both had good spring salads with blue cheese dressing. After our meal, the waiter brought us each a complementary slice of Key Lime Pie since were were first time visitors.  We would recommend Randy's as a place to eat when in Naples.

We left Naples around 6 pm and drove back to the Florida City Travelodge arriving at 8:30.  
In checking the weather back home, we see that the Tri-State is being hit with a blanket of snow and that schools across the state are closed.  It sounds like more snow is coming for the rest of the weekend.  That sure makes us happy to be in The Sunshine State this time of year!

   

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