Southern Extravaganza II

After an all-day flight, we arrived in Jacksonville late at night, rented our car, and hit our nearby hotel for a good sleep. It was the only hotel reservation we made for the whole trip. The weather was perfect. The red dots on this map represent the first leg - Florida from top to bottom and then bottom to top. Jacksonville certainly has grown up since I was there in the early 1970's. It is a large, sprawling city now. We skirted the fringes of downtown on the way to our first stop, crossing over a beautiful, fairly-new coastal bridge (one of many we would see on this trip). There is a historical record that unfolded to us as we went on our way that I think is unknown to the average American. We get the standard English version - the Mayflower, New England, the Thirteen Colonies, etc. - but the interaction between the powers of the time (England, Spain, and France) is somewhat lost. As a result, the efforts of France and Spain to colonize America before wars and land sales settled the issue are not treated with the same emphasis. The victors write history. An example of this is Fort Caroline National Monument. Fort Caroline was an attempt by the French to colonize the southeast Atlantic coast of North America in 1564. The settlement lasted one year, then was destroyed by the Spanish from their settlement in St. Augustine (1565). (Note: Mayflower = 1620). The Park Service has recreated the fort on its former site, as the original has been lost to history. We drove along the coast to Neptune Beach (picture below is the two of us on the beach there), where we loaded up on water and other items at a dollar store. We had a sandwich at Angie's Subs - found it on Urbanspoon - check it out, good sandwiches. St. Augustine lies 40 miles south of Jacksonville on the coast. It is a beautiful little city and very tourist-oriented. Definitely worth the visit. Unlike Fort Caroline, the Spanish settlement here survived and has been continuously occupied since 1565. The historical downtown has been preserved somewhat, although gentrified for the tourists. Castillo de San Marcos National Monument is a must-see. Very well preserved, it is the Spanish fortress on the bay sheltering St. Augustine. A short drive south along the barrier island is Fort Matanzas National Monument. The Spanish were concerned about a southern access to their St. Augustine stronghold that avoided the guns of the San Marcos fortress and built a smaller outpost on Matanzas inlet. The National Park Service has a boat that will take you from their visitor center across the inlet to a barrier island where the Spanish completed Fort Matanzas in 1742. Most of the original structure is extant and a very nice visit. Be sure and check out the incredible oak trees in the parking lot. After leaving the St. Augustine area, we made the long drive south through Daytona Beach, Ft. Lauderdale, and Miami to spend the night in Florida City, arriving hungry and tired in the early evening. Note: do NOT eat at the Mutineer Restaurant in Florida City, no matter how many people on TripAdvisor give it 5 stars. The food is average, the service is horrible, and the decor is dated, dark, and dirty. Anyway, we didn't get ill and were up and ready to go after a good rest. Florida City is the gateway to the Florida Keys and we were off! After driving through some flat scrub land (grass and small trees) for some miles (the last part borders Everglades NP on the right), we came to the first causeway or bridge that took us out onto Key Largo and the beginning of the Florida Keys. The drive to Key West from that point is about 100 miles. The road is nice and easily driven, with many, many bridges and a plethora of small and medium size islands. The round trip we made can be done easily in a day if you don't make too many stops. Actually, unless you are going there just to relax at a resort, there would not be that much to distract you (in my opinion). There are not many public beaches that we could see, mostly rocky shorelines line the islands. And the towns along the way were not that attractive as far as we could determine. We did like the giant crustacean. We stopped at a Hilton resort hotel to look around and they had a beautiful beach area - see photo below. I would guess the Keys are the type of place you have to explore and find the hidden gems. We just didn't have time to do that. Key West, on the other hand, was just as I imagined it would be. A very interesting little town with some atmosphere, but another place I think you would have to hang out in for a few days to discover its secret places. We toured the Ernest Hemingway House (thumbs up), checked out Fort Zachary Taylor (thumbs up, but I like forts), and had lunch in an interesting little cafe (thumbs down). The FZT was setting up a haunted house for Halloween in its older, Civil War-era section. Quite morbid. Hundreds of soldiers died there in the 1800's (mostly of tropical diseases) and that theme was incorporated into the haunted house. Ugghh. The Key West lighthouse kind of towers over the downtown area and is quite picturesque. It is close to the Hemingway House and evidently Ernest used it as a landmark in returning to his home after a night of partying at his favorite watering hole. The next morning we packed up the car and headed out with the goal of visiting both the Everglades NP visitor center in Homestead and the Biscayne Bay NP visitor complex east of Homestead on the Atlantic coast, all before lunch. We did it. The Everglades NP is so vast and has so few roads, that there really is not a way to adequately see it or its wildlife without making a major expedition. We had to content ourselves this time with a short visit on the fringes. Biscayne Bay NP mostly protects islands and water, again hard to visit without a boat and some time. But you could at least look out over part of it and learn about it from the exhibits. Unique and beautiful places - I am glad they are protected. We met Megan's folks and had a nice lunch with them at a Cuban restaurant in Miami. They drove in to meet us and we appreciated that - the food was good and we didn't get too lost trying to find them. Greater Miami is such a mega-city now - like LA, all of the cities have pretty much morphed together to form one big metropolitan area with a lot of traffic. We got out of town as fast as we could. We turned eastward from Miami and crossed the southern end of Florida on the Tamiami Trail (40\91) through Ochopee to Naples. We had inquired regarding an "air boat" tour in the Everglades and the ranger at Biscayne Bay recommended one at Coopertown, right off the Tamiami Trial. Not sure if she got a kickback or not, but after later seeing the other enterprises doing the same thing down the road, I am not sure we got the best experience. But the goal was to ride an air boat and that we accomplished. As a child, I used to watch the old TV show "The Everglades" (early 1960's) and it featured an air boat. I have always wanted to ride in one - in fact it made my bucket list. Conclusions: 1) it is VERY loud and the little cotton balls they gave us did not accomplish much, 2) the vibration level is extreme (may have been because our air boat was old enough to have been featured in the above-mentioned TV series), 3) with the noise and the vibration, I am quite sure all wildlife within 10 square miles can sense you are coming and flee, so don't go on one of these to revel in abundant wildlife, and 4) the guide\driver is not of much use since you can't hear him. But it was not too pricey and worth the stop to "fulfill the dream". KR overcame her fear and held an alligator (baby). Go girl! We stayed the night near Ft. Myers and headed north toward Tampa\Clearwater in the morning. I had been in this area many times in the late 1980's looking for Costco sites. We stopped in Bradenton at the DeSoto NM and looked around. His epic journey with his band of men is another episode in our history that is largely ignored. With all of the attention given the Lewis & Clark Expedition, you would think that DeSoto and his trek would be better known. Wrong language, wrong nationality, wrong era, and what he accomplished (or didn't) doomed his enterprise to a mere mention in our history books. Another very impressive tree next on the grounds - this one is a Gumbo Limbo. As we headed north after lunch, we decided to check out the campus of the University of Florida in Gainesville. It would break up the long drive we had between Tampa and our stop for the night (we wanted to get as close to Columbus, Georgia as we could). As we neared Gainesville, we started seeing more and more cars with Gator flags and realized it was Saturday, college football game day. I tuned into ESPN on the radio and discovered ESPN was in Gainesville for the UF-South Carolina game and we were going to pass through right at game time! I suspected we would be okay with traffic as they would all be tailgating by then; I assumed correctly and we breezed into town in the midst of one of the biggest parties you will every see. Thousands of people BBQ'ing, drinking, and walking to the game. Cars parked in every conceivable nook and cranny. Only in the SEC. Incredible.