Cruising with Colette

 Yes, we still celebrate Spring Break despite our age. Who wants to forget those days when you left all responsibilites behind and headed out for sun and fun. So, we packed our Speedo and Bikini ( our plan was to empty the beach and have it for our own—we don’t have to do that on Dewees) and headed to Key West. Fortunately, the younger group celebrated a couple of weeks earlier so we only encountered a cruise ship crowd, some dedicated fishermen, and locals. We visited the Audubon House, not Audubon’s home, as Audubon only visited and stayed nearby for a short time much as he did in Charleston while documenting the birds of America. Preservationists used Audubon’s connection to the property’s owner to preserve one of the older homes in Key West; however the home does possess some of his originial drawings and prints of the 22 birds that Audubon identified while in the area. In contrast, the Hemingway home is indeed the house in which he lived for four years in Key West during the 1930’s . It was much more popular as a tourist attraction, needless to say. In addition to the photographs, the furnishings, the books, the memorobilia, cats are still a prominent part of the house. We  did not know that he had a love for cats but obviously he did as cats are still on the premisies—in the bed, on the furniture, and roaming the gardens. The only other notable historic home is the little White House where several presidents stayed and used as a retreat—from Truman to Clinton. We viewed but did not tour the house, despite its historical significance, as our house tour time was exhausted—only so much history in one day for us. We forsook the Speedo and Bikini but did spend time in the sun at our campground before departing for the Everglades National Park a day later.

The Everglades are comprised of a vast expanse of small palms, dwarf cypress, and grasslands interspered with lakes and ponds. We used one of the two campgrounds in the park, Flamingo Campground, which is about 40 miles from the park entrance to its water’s edge on the Bay of Florida. If you want quiet and isolation, this is the place. The wildlife here features crocodiles ( South Florida is the only place that has crocs and aligators), panthers, manatees, and a large number of bird species. In fact, the Everglades National Park was the first national park to be formed solely for preservation of wildlife. We took a ranger bird walk and if we were Big Year birders, we would have made a significant contribution to our counts. Fortunately we did not encounter the two negative aspects of the park. The mosquito alert—posted at the entrance to the park—was low and the black vultures did not attack our rooftop or our winshield wiper blades. No one has any idea why they are attracted to the rubber compounds of vehicles but they do warn you to be aware that they have a fetish for rubber as well as road kill! The main camping season is from November to April because the remainder of the year is very hot; however if you want to escape civilization, fish, canoe, kayak, or hike; other than Alaska this is the place.

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