Traveling Home

While I try to blog about our primary stops and the places we visit, I usually don't post about our driving days. So I decided to talk a bit about the things we do getting from place to place. The cat photo is of a Siamese named Sweet Blue. I met her in one of the quilt shops I stopped at on the road. My spouse very generously stops when I find an interesting quilt shop entry in my Quilters' Travel Companion. Some of the entries lead to strange shops, but more often to lovely places with friendly people. That was the case this afternoon. Rachel's Quilt Patch in Staunton, Virginia, is a real quilter's home. 

The view is from my window last evening at our friends' home in northern North Carolina. They graciously hosted us and fed us fantastically! I love the hobby (cooking) that she has taken up in her retirement. 

The other night we stayed at an rv park in Lexington, SC. The host there directed us to a restaurant nearby for dinner. This is not a place we would have found on our own, as it was located in a house in a neighborhood, not in a commercial area. The name, Vegetable Medley, gave me pause. It turns out that it was a real Southern buffet with pulled pork, great fried chicken, and vegetable dishes that made me eat too much! The locals filled the place as soon as it opened for dinner. 

We will arrive home soon. We are going back to cold weather. Oh well, I guess I will get some quilting done. 

Cocoa Beach

We stopped in Cocoa Beach to visit with our friends DruAnne and Dave. We arrived in time to watch the Super Bowl. In spite of that inauspicious start to our visit, we had a terrific time! We had dinner at the local must go to spot, Coconuts. 

The highlight had to be our nature walk at the Viera Wetlands, a reclaimed marsh. We saw a huge variety of birds and lots of alligators. Some of my favorites were the great egrets, the blue herons, and the Sandhill cranes that I spotted as we were walking back to the car. Mike and I have decided that this was our nature trip to Florida. It has been spectacular! 

Sandhill cranes

Great Egret

Blue Heron

Another alligator. Almost becoming humdrum. Not! 

Orlando

We spent the last few days with our friends the Frames in Orlando. We were so busy that I did not get to posting. We played games and went to a neat state park - Blue Springs State Park - where the manatees come in the winter to stay warm. Manatees need to maintain their body temperature at 70 degrees or so to survive. The day we were there they had a current count of 400+ residents in the waterways. It was fascinating to  see them. 

On Friday we took an airboat ride with Marsh Landing Adventures to see alligators and birds. We were in the headwaters to the Florida Everglades. I did not know that the Everglades originated this far north. We saw Big John and many more gators. Olivia, a mother protecting her young, did not like us getting too close. 

We saw lots of birds, too, including the short-tailed hawk, an endangered bird. I caught him taking off from a tree. 

I also learned that the snowy egret is one of the alligators biggest predators, as they eat young gators almost as quickly as they hatch. 

Our airboat captain, Scott, was a very entertaining tour guide! 

We visited a neat farmers market and Downtown Kissemee, a throw back to the sixties. And we let the guys win all the games we played. Next time the women get to win. 

Key West - the Rest

We spent almost a week in Key West. We saw beautiful sunsets and rode our bike everywhere. It was restful and gorgeous. I even managed to read a couple of books. That always makes me happy. 

I made it to Blue Heaven twice, once for a spectacular dinner and both times I visited I had their wonderful key lime pie. It is the best one in Key West and even though some may not agree - there are those who think it should be topped with whipped cream rather than meringue - I say it is the best. 

A highlight of our visit was our boat tour to Fort Jefferson on the Dry Tortugas. This island fort is 70 miles from Key West. It is often the stopping point for Cuban refugees, as it is US land. If they make it there they can stay. We saw some of the boats they use in the crossing. We had about 30 people on the fort tour which is how many they pack into a boat. Incredible! 

We took the moat tour around the fort, too, and learned about the marine life that makes this area their home. We even saw their resident crocodile, but I did not get a photo. He hid too quickly. Mike took one with the good camera, but it isn't downloaded yet. 

Today we are driving north again. 

Key West

We arrived in Key West a couple of days ago. We are so glad that we brought our folding tandem along. We can pretty much get anywhere on it. Especially now that we know which streets to avoid and where the best bike routes are located. 

We went to our favorite local place, Pepe's, for lunch yesterday and then returned for their happy hour $1 drafts.

We also visited the Truman Little White house. We could not take photos inside, but our guide was good and I loved Truman's poker table! He played with his staff nearly every night when he would visit. It was his second favorite place to be, right after Missouri. 

Today we stopped at the West Martello Tower, maintained by the local garden club. This one acre site is an old Civil war fort that was never finished. The Key West Garden Club took it over in the 1960s and turned it into a garden. Since it never gets to freezing in Key West, the club has planted many unique specimens from tropical locations. My favorite was the oyster plant. There was also a tree whose name I can't remember that had these interesting hanging roots. (Okay, Mike remembered its name - Strangler Fig). 

It is nice and warm here! Hopefully I get my first taste of key lime pie later today. 

Charleston - Days Two and Three

We decided on day two, Tuesday, that we would go visit some plantations, as it was still rainy. We bought tickets to go to Boone Plantation, but when we got there it was closed. So we headed down to the Charleston Tea Plantation, the only working tea plantation in the US. We visited the processing plant and took a tour of the fields and greenhouses. 

Since I am not a tea drinker I did not know that green tea, oolong tea, and black tea all come from the same tea bushes. The difference in the teas is created in the processing. 

After we visited the tea plantation we stopped at Angel Oak, the oldest known live oak tree on the East Coast. It is over 400 years old, 60+ feet tall, measures 28 feet in circumference, and produces shade that covers 17,200 square feet. The photo at the top of the page is of this tree. It was an impressive sight, even if way off the beaten path and difficult to locate (we found its gravel road with help from the locals). 

That is Mike next to its trunk. 

Yesterday we drove back into Charleston and parked at the end of the peninsula on Murray Blvd. Our bus tour driver had told us about this little known free area to park that accommodates rvs easily. Since it was another cold day, it never really went above 40 degrees, we left the tandem in the sprinter and walked. The homes SoB - south of Broad - are some of the most impressive in the city! Later, when we visited the Charleston Museum, we learned that the most wealthy rice and cotton plantation owners had their homes here. The gardens beside these homes were gorgeous. 

We also walked by Rainbow Row, featured in every gift shop in some form - platter, painting, magnet, etc.  

We ate dinner at the restaurant suggested by my sister, Poogan's Porch. It is next to Husk and down from 82 Queen. It wasn't as expensive and the food was excellent! But the best place we ate was Five Loaves, located in Summerville. All in all, a good visit if NOT warm. 

On the Road Again. Charleston, SC

We are heading to Florida and stopped in South Carolina so I could finally visit Charleston. All the church steeples seem to be really tall! 

It was raining all day so we took a history based bus trip. Our guide said the tall steeples were good targets during the Civil War. After the bus tour we decided to get our umbrellas out and walk to the Market. 

We had a late lunch, early dinner at Hyman's Seafood, recommended in Road Food and reiterated by some locals. 

One of the 4th generation owners, Eli, stopped by to be sure everything was as it should be. He posed with Mike. 

We will visit plantations today and go back downtown tomorrow. Hopefully the rain will stop so we can get the tandem out and ride. 

I also talked Mike into a quilt shop stop at People, Places & Quilts in Summerville. It was a lovely shop!