Around the World with Marsha & Joel

From the Everglades to South Beach…what a contrast! We pull into the Art Deco Welcome Center on Ocean Drive and rent a couple of iPods for a walking tour of the characteristic architectural structures that make the area what it is.

The Leslie Hotel getting some additional restoration.

As we walk along Ocean Ave. toward the next building we come across this laid back/thrown back artisan, weaving palm fronds into amazing baskets, bowls, etc. with incredible speed and skill. His patter also sucks us in and we make a couple of purchases. You never know.

The Carlyle is up and running, and like many of the restorations on Ocean and Collins Aves. offering al fresco drinks and meals to the young South Beach set.

The Cardozo, named after the  Supreme Court Justice (I knew his great grandson in college) seems to be thriving.

The Cavalier is a real classic reflecting the geometric patterns and colors of the era.

The “eyebrows” and rounded corners of the Winter Haven are classic too.

The Winter Haven interior brings back the true feel of the Art Deco movement.

The Commodore with its portholes and rounded corners seems to welcome you aboard.

Public buildings didn’t escape the design. Here’s the working post office. It has a spectacular interior as well.

Not exactly art deco, but stepping into the present/future. Marsha only bought one pair – not.

The tour continues….

The Tiffany building is ready for blast off.

As we move back toward the center we get the distinct feeling that the area is changing again. Between the type of retail stores (plenty of tattoo parlors and head shops) and the replacement of the hip, chic young inhabitants with kind of sloppy, uncool high school and college kids…we’re reminded of what happened to places like New Hope, PA and South St. in Philly.

It’s still an architectural wonder, and real thanks goes to the Miami Design Preservation League.

As the sun sets on the Marlin we start heading to our old favorite Miami eatery, Joe’s Stone Crabs to celebrate a belated Marsha Birthday.

A picture is worth….

The expansive “River of Grass” that is the Everglades gives you two distinctly divergent looks. One is the spectacularly beautiful gifts that nature provides. The other, the greedy, self-serving, destruction that only man can produce.

Since the 1930’s the rapid development of the south Florida landscape and the diversion of its water has wreaked irreversible damage. There are now 93% fewer wading birds than when development began.

The National Park was created in 1947 to help save part of the Glades (it’s the only park in the US ever created just for that reason).

Gators are everywhere, but even they are becoming endangered by the lack of water (drained off by man-made canals) in certain seasons.

We climbed the observation tower at Pa-hay-okee for some amazing vistas of the salt and freshwater habitats and hardwood hammocks. A wonder of different micro-environments in an area that never gets more than 8-feet in elevation.

We hiked the Anhinga and Gumbo Limbo trails with a little alligator trepidation, but came away unharmed and in awe. Go visit as soon as you can!

Fortunately, sometimes man can get it right too. Our next stop was at the extraordinary Vizcaya Museum and Gardens on the Biscayne Bay.

No photos allowed inside, but the grounds themselves are as spectacular. We stepped out the back door to find “The Barge”, a concrete “ship” on which guests could party.

Vizcaya was built by wealthy businessman James Deering (International Harvester) as many American industrialists were inspired by the palaces of Europe. It was completed in 1916, but made to look as though his family might have occupied it for years.

The gardens mix Italian and French design with plants that thrive in the subtropical setting. This is the view from the south terrace.

There are a surprising number of levels and specialty themed gardens with beautiful sculpture and stonework.

The theater garden…no performances today though.

A sphinx looking back at the house, probably contemplating an escape from the National Landmark. We make plans too, but to head for the art deco center on South Beach. Another era, another tribute to man’s creative side. So head up Rt. 1 and over the causeway. We’ll meet you there at five…in time for cocktails.

Haven’t been here for years, but a great discovery that’s not in most tour books. If you’re ever near Boca Raton find this place. The Seminole name means “created waters”. Indeed it is…by the Palm Beach County Water Utilities Department. Fifty acres created as a natural filtration system. And boy did it work.

Believe it or not all this area was created (in an ongoing process) from highly-treated waste-water. It’s nutrients have attracted over 140 species of bird…and plenty of gators.

Turtles line up for a bit of sun. We saw four different varieties that day.

Marsha checks the guide book to help identify some swamp cabbage…or something. There is about a mile and a half of boardwalk throughout the wetlands.

A little blue heron seems pretty much unfazed by our presence.

Drying its wings before another dive, one of hundreds of anhingas and cormorants living high on the environment.

Rookeries everywhere. We catch mama feeding baby here.

Birders’ paradise….

Another flora and fauna “hidden treasure”, again by the water department, is the nearby Green Cay Nature Center. Our first time there and even larger and more spectacular than Wakodahatchee. Check that out too, as well as the better known Morikami Japanese Nature Center…very beautiful and different — manicured, precise, and a delicious place for lunch.

Tomorrow, deep into the Everglades.