WHITE HOUSE to WHITE HOUSE (end of story)

 Last 24 hrs

From this

 

to this

 

 
Well, we were there whilst Obama had breakfast, but yet again he failed to invite us to join him.  We were just downstairs from him and the family on the 7.30 am tour!!

Somehow Allan managed to get us included in this, as well as an interesting tour the day before round the State Department - it has been great to have such an embedded contact in Washington DC life and we are so grateful to him for arranging such special visits.  Here we all are outside the WH - no cameras allowed inside and of course we had to jump several layers of security guards, machines and searches of person (no bags either)

Amazingly we were allowed to roam (under the watchful eye of security guards in each room (who answered our questions - unless they affected security ie. most of the questions! ) through many of the downstairs rooms (see here for the rooms) where you see dignitaries being met and posh meals being eaten.  Lots of photos of past presidents and visitors and beautiful flower arrangements in every room.  Someone had the gall to ask if they could have a rose - er, no!

It was a great way to finish our grand tour of DC - we had worn our feet out the day before round all the memorials and monuments in the Mall - all very interesting and different stories.  They do do memorials well - Roosevelt and the Martin Luther King ones rivalling the very poignant 9/11 Pentagon one that we saw at the beginning of our trip.

Then it was a quick look around the Arts and Crafts gallery where this piece was just incredible -


What do you think it is?  Just a piece of cloth hanging over a grandfather clock.?


Wrong.

Beneath Wendell Castle's clever shroud, there is neither a classic grandfather clock nor a statement about time. Castle's magnificent Ghost Clock is a haunting sculpture so still and timeless it suggests eternity. Constructed from laminated and bleached Honduras mahogany, Ghost Clock is a powerful example of trompe l'oeil, a French term that means "to fool the eye." Here, the "drapery" is not soft, supple cloth but beautifully carved wood that suggests muslin in color and texture. What we think we see is, in fact, not what is.

Then onwards to the airport, sad farewells to our wonderful hosts, Allan and Sue, and the red-eye special
 to Manchester.  Train to Grange-Over-Sands, with the snow getting ever deeper, and lovely pick up and lift back home by Phil and Joan.

Florida sun but a distant memory!







Thanks for reading the blog - hope you enjoyed it.

ALTERATIVE LIFESTYLES

Catching up on blogs by writing several installments on the plane from Florida back to DC.

As happens wherever we travel in the world, we see and hear of many different ways that other people live their lives – some we might love and others we might give a miss.  For instance, just talking to the taxi drivers in Key West gives a flavour of he melting pot that exists there – one was from Trinidad and one escaped from Zimbabwe 9 years ago – both black. 

The other was a white English guy who had travelled the world (whilst we were all wishing we could do the same, instead of doing mortgages and jobs), ended up in Thailand, found a wife (or more likely the wife found him!!), now got a 4 year old kid and straddling between Key West and Thailand. (+ still avidly watching England football,  so some roots there too, but impossible to go back)  Reckon he will be still driving taxis into his late 70’s before his son has left school.   A lot of the travellers we met back in the 70’s must now be in similar constrained circumstances, in their mid sixties and no assets behind them.  Perhaps the mortgages and jobs were worth the sacrifice. 

Discuss.

A HOUSE ON WHEELS or ON THE SEA

Previously blogged about the retirees who give up their houses to roam the country, or stay in trailer parks, with their enormous RVs or coaches.  The sizes of such homes have grown substantially in the campgrounds since we last camped around the Rockies about 12 years ago – then there would be 1 or 2 such monsters to gawp at – now they are all over the place.  Some are taken around like a truck with a huge cab – and most tow at least a car, if not a 4WD or trailer containing motorbikes – bit like the rock bands coaches you see.  This is a line of them where once there would have been tents and small campervans.





This is one way to double up!  Dave and Carole – ditch the campervan and just covert your boat to be a trailer tent on land (this was in the middle of a campsite) and a boat on the sea!!






Alternatively, just buy yourselves one of these at the next Boat Show – the Norwegian Queen is No.77 out of 100 Super Yachts in America.  I looked it up on Google and its pretty amazing how much privacy you actually have – within 5 minutes I had full details of the design, building details, interior decoration and details of its whereabouts and itineraries.  The owner is the President of an Insurance Company (married into it) – full personal details obtained, plus on a Celebrity House Owners site there is a complete aerial picture of her house and grounds (palatial!).  Bit creepy really.

THE KEYS – PART 3 – Bogart & Hemingway

AFRICAN QUEEN – a mystery

The actual boat as used in Bogart’s adventure with Hepburn –  Graham had to go see it!It was made in Lytham, Lancashire a 100 years ago – see here for more details – or was it?  See below from Wikipedia that says it was made in Gloucestershire.

The boat was built in 1912 in the United Kingdom for service in Africa on the Victoria Nile and Lake Albert where the movie was filmed in 1950. She was used by the British East Africa Railway from 1912 to 1968 to shuttle cargo and passengers across Lake Albert.The boat was found in Cairo, Egypt in the 1970s and purchased and shipped to USA. It was at the Holiday Inn in Marathon, Fl owned by John Linebaugh. The boat was of sheet iron riveted construction and still had coal in the bilges.^{[citation needed]}
In 2009, researchers found the craft was built by the marine architect Isaac J Abdela of the Abdela & Mitchell shipyards on the Stroud Canal at Brimscombe, Gloucestershire.^[2] The vessel was refurbished, including installation of an interior steel hull, and restored to service as a tourist boat in 2012.^[3]


But further quote from current owner
“Owner Jimmy, whose father originally bought the vessel, and who sailed it up to his death 15 years ago, has always believed the Queen was built on the banks of the River Ribble, near Lytham St Anne's, south of Blackpool on the Lancashire coast, before doing service in central Africa.
He gives short shrift to a claim that she was built in a Gloucestershire shipyard, saying: "Our research, helped by the Steam Museum in London, points to the Lancashire yard as the place where the Queen was built."
Holmquist adds: "If there's a degree of mystery and controversy about her origins, that's fine. There's even been talk that she was built in the same yard as the Titanic! That seems fanciful. The main thing is she's under full steam again.”

HEMINGWAYS HOUSE

A delightful old colonial house in Key West with stories of Hemingway's 4 wives, several children, and lots of cats.  His writing studio is still as it was from when he lived there for 9 years, before decamping with new wife to Cuba, and the descendants of the cats are now in charge.  There are over 40 of them, all over the house and garden, and their lives are documented with many retaining the gene that gives them a 6th toe – see picture.


It was interesting to hear about his contempories – Dali, Fitzgerald, Picasso – a pretty talented bunch living through tough times of Depression and Spanish Civil war – Hemingway himself was badly wounded in the WWI.  Made us both want to go away and read some of his books.

THE KEYS – PART 2– Sunsets and “Robert is Here”

Couldn’t fit these bits on the previous blog – bits and pieces of oddities and such.

SUNSETS

The main thing to do in Key West is to go to Mallory Square on the main promenade and watch the sun go down alongside stacks of other tourists.  And all whilst enjoying entertainment from an assortment of jugglers, musicians and various ex-hippie/new age leftovers, all trying to make a buck from the hundreds of people who flock there every evening.  The patter is great, if repetitive when watched each night, and the mood is buzzy and up for a good night out – then everyone adjourns to the myriad of great bars with live music until the small hours – a boozers paradise.  We found an excellent restaurant and ate there outside in the warm evening (no mossies here) doing plenty of people watching – young, old, tattooed, fat, very fat, enormous, dressed up, dressed down, hardly-dressed-at-all, gay, not-so-gay, definitely not-gay-at –all – but all enjoying themselves.

We found an alternative place whilst staying in Marathon, half way down the Keys, by chance at this lovely little cove.  Places like this seem pretty impossible to find as the whole coast either side of the one main road down the Keys has been snaffled up by private homes, marinas and resorts – all with their own sea or water frontage containing their own fishing boat and lifting gear and dock.  But this spot has been bought for the community and every night it is a gathering place for locals with their wine and pre-dinner snacks, and  a few tourists, to watch the sun go down whilst the regulars play a rousing melody as it disappears, followed by community singing.


A very social idea, which would be great to introduce in Beck Head – if only we had the same warm evenings.  We shall just have to make do with the impromptu summer gatherings that we do anyway – and any time soon, if not already, we should be hearing of an extra addition to the BH community – we are thinking of you, Alison and Charlie and wishing you all the best.





ROBERT IS HERE

This is a most brilliant Florida veg and fruit stall – the most humungous avocados, grapefruit etc, as well as a vast range of key lime marinades, fruit preserves and pickles – but best of all and the best we have ever had (a lot over the years in the US and Bermuda) – milkshakes made with this outstanding tropical fruit we had never heard of - Black Sapote.  Tastes like chocolate pudding and shakes come as BS +coconut or strawberry or cherry or ....    AMAZING!  Am starting the campaign to bring BS to the UK.

The name of the place comes from 2 generations ago when 6 year old Robert was told to stand by the side of the road and sell cucumbers.  But he was so small that no-one could see him and he didn’t sell any – so the next day his Dad wrote out a sign saying ROBERT IS HERE.  He sold all his cucumbers and that's the way a thriving business and essential tourist stop in Florida was built.

THE KEYS – WEIRD AND WONDERFUL– PART 1

The journey down the Keys is one of alternating between stretches of marinas, motels and shops (not in a nice compact place you can wander – more typical America scattered blocks of shops, restaurants and offices) snaking their way along a busy 2 way road – US1 – and bridges across turquoise reef waters.  The bridges connect the islands that are the Keys, until you reach the end, which is Key West itself.  Part 1 and 2 blogs are a mixture of sights and sounds along the way and also at Key West itself – in no particular order:

CHILI PEPPER SHOP

One for cousin Allan, or anyone else into hot stuff (the food kind) – a shop full of every kind of chili sauce, paste, marinade from around the world  - with 6 tasting stations so you can blow your head off in stages.  This is the link to one of their webpages – but this blog bears no responsibility for any of the wording therein or other pages – those of a delicate sensibility should not read the list of sauce names!!! 

Smack My Ass and Call Me Sally- The Slap Heard Around the World Hot Sauce – is one of the more moderate ones!


TARPON FEEDING


These huge fish were just floating around waiting to be fed at one of the marinas – along with the pelicans that tried to get there first.







GLASS BOTTOM BOAT




A sign of the times – we used to scorn the lazy gits that went out on these to look at the reef instead of snorkelling or diving.  But that was then and this is now.  And the fish are only separated by a piece of glass.

 I know, I know – you’re right - it’s not the same as Bermuda (1978-81) and Israeli (now Egyptian and ruined) Dahab (Niki) in 1977 – but it was still a good trip out to the reefs.







NO NAME PUB

Does what it says on the tin – the pub in No Name Key.  Full of tourists, and with dollar notes all over the walls and ceilings – several pubs like it - buzzy, beery and making hay whilst the sun shines and the mossies and humidity are banished for the winter.





WRECKS AND REAL TREASURE

The story of Mel Fisher and his 16 year search for 2 of the Spanish ships sunk in 1660’s carrying massive quantities of gold, silver, etc has been made into a film and has been reported in the press over the years.  There is a fascinating museum in Key West exhibiting lots of the finds and showing how the wrecks have given up so many facts about the day to day lives of sailors, adventurers, missionaries, crew, slaves, merchants, soldiers and ordinary folk.  A great visit.

The quote below is from the Mel Fisher website – more about the wrecks can be read here.

July 20, 1985 was "the day" at last when Mel Fisher, the world's greatest treasure hunter, found his dream of dreams, the priceless treasure cargo of the fabled lost Spanish galleon Atocha.

At 1:05 p.m. that amazing day, Mel Fisher learned from his son Kane that his greatest dream had been realized. The marine radio crackled to life in the Key West, Florida office of Mel Fisher at Treasure Salvors, Inc. "WZG9605. Unit 1, this is Unit 11." From aboard the vessel Dauntless of which he was captain, Kane told his beaming father: "Put away the charts. We've got the 'Mother Lode'!"

The dream that had consumed Mel Fisher for more than 16 years now came true before the eyes of the world. He had found the "rainbow's end" including stacks of silver bars, chests of silver coins, gold, jewels, and thousands of other unique artifacts from the Nuestra Senora de Atocha. Mel Fisher found what adventurous souls through centuries had only dreamed of finding!

Thousands of artifacts, silver coins, gold coins, many in near mint condition, period and earlier amazing Spanish objects and wares, exquisite jewelry set with precious stones, gold chains, disks, a variety of armaments and even seeds (which later sprouted!) were recovered. These and more discovered by Mel Fisher and his "Golden Crew" reflected the richest treasure find since the opening of King Tut's tomb in the 1930s. The lives of Mel and Dolores Fisher, their family and all their crew were lifted onto the world's stage as people who truly contributed to the priceless historical and cultural heritage of the world.

KEY WEST - NO TIME TO BLOG!

Party time for 2 days - blog will be restored soon.  Perhaps during enforced airport stop Saturday night due to flight disruption on East Coast due to northern snow storm!

In meantime here is our itinerary for the last few days in Washington DC prepared by cousin Allan - the shared super-organisational gene between him and me (the Hartley ancestors) is in overdrive!

Events:

Saturday night:  I will meet you at airport

Sunday:  Brunch/lunch  with Newlens, walk in Prince William Park and/or shopping (Yankee Candle, etc.) at Potomac Mills; dinner (home made chili, etc.)

Monday:  Tour State Dept (10:00), lunch, tour of memorials (Lincoln, Vietnam, WWII, Franklin Roosevelt, ML King, Jefferson); dinner at Carlye Grand w/ Roy

Tuesday:  White House Tour (7:00), lunch/breakfast, Smithsonian Renwick Gallery, top of Post Office Tower, depart DC no later than 3pm and go to Dulles Airport

Please DO NOT DISTURB for rest of week back at Beck Head - we shall be in super-jetlag and exhaustion mode!!!

THINGS THAT BITE

We leave the Everglades National Park tomorrow (Monday) for 5 days in the Keys and feel we have done the area some justice – given that the vast majority of the huge area is underwater – albeit very shallow water.  We have discovered that it is not just 1.5 million acres of swamps, but also vast saw-grass prairies and sub-tropical jungles.  I have already posted some pictures of the mangrove swampy bits, but this is what it is like over huge areas – with a massive sheet of slow moving water draining Lake Okeechobee to the Gulf of Mexico.

As you can see from the present day diagram, this flow has been severely disrupted and thus threatens the whole area and its unique ecosystem.






SNAKES

Burmese Pythons (set free by owners or from zoos etc during hurricanes) are causing huge problems as they can grow to 8 m (26 ft.) in length and have been reported in extreme south Florida since the 1980s, with an established population now located mainly within the bounds of Everglades National Park. Juvenile Burmese pythons and python eggs are eaten by a variety of animals, but when the snakes reach lengths of over 8 feet they become a top predator – they are breeding like mad and eating vast quantities of the smaller mammals and wildlife.

Because of the problem there is currently a competition being held for this month, to see who can catch the biggest.  Only 41 caught so far since mid January – so a bit of a way to go.  Graham and I have been searching, but with no success so, sorry to Phil and Joan, who wanted us to enter the competition – this is the best we can do.

But we did see this Cottonmouth a few feet away from the boardwalk – extremely poisonous, so kept our distance!  Zoom lenses are good!  And a few other smaller and non-venomous ones.








BITING INSECTS

As anyone will tell you, the major problem in South Florida is the mossies and no-see–ums - apparently unbearable in the summer but OK in winter.  We have covered up a bit and only got a few bites, but this is what appears at the Visitors Centres – not temperatures, but mossie count. 





I like the idea of the complete coverup jacket – would be useful in many other parts of the world.  Not elegant but functional!!




ATTACKING VULTURES

As previously posted, the black vultures have been causing problems in some of the car parks by chewing up the rubber bits and wipers – hence it is true – here we are with our very own anti-vulture kit on loan!

AND

LAST, BUT NOT LEAST

THESE BIGGER BITERS

THE COLD WAR – in a warm State

Made an unexpected tour this week, after travelling across South Florida to the other side of the Everglades National Park. after a great week in Everglades City.  Drove to east side of the Park from our Travel Lodge in the midst of Any Street America in Florida City – anyone who has been to visit or lives in the US knows this lot – Wendys, MacD’s, Dennys, Red Lobster, Walgreens, Walmart, gas stations, liquor stores and drive-in banks, same chain motels, etc.  Pretty depressing really that they are still the same from our last visit 10, 20 and 30 years ago – and a lot of the restaurants still amazingly with the same decor/layout – rows of formica tables and hard chairs.    Possibly even the same as in the 1960's - see below.

 THE NIKE MISSILE TOUR 

(the text being nicked from the web + some of the photos)

The Everglades National Park houses one of the best preserved relics of the Cold War in Florida. An historic Nike Hercules Missile Site, called Alpha Battery or HM-69, remains virtually the same as it was when official use of the site was terminated in 1979.

Aerial View of Nike Missile Base Launch Area

A Relic of The Cold War

This missile base was built by the United States Army Corps of Engineers, completed in 1964 at the height of the Cold War, immediately following the Cuban Missile Crisis of October, 1962. At a time when national security against Soviet attack was America's main priority, the United States Army chose this strategic site within Everglades National Park, located 160 miles from the Cuban coast, to build an anti-aircraft missile site.  (Ooops! - all the US defences were in the North expecting attacks up and over the Arctic - when suddenly Florida became very close to a real threat from Cuba - 90 miles away.  Doh!)

An Historic Site

The base was listed on the U.S. Department of the Interior's National Register of Historic Places on July 27, 2004 as an historic district. The area includes 22 buildings and structures associated with events that have made a significant contribution to American history. Some of the extant structures include three missile barns, a missile assembly building, a guard dog kennel, barracks and a number of other features.

This base was part of a larger missile defense system built in South Florida in response to the Cuban Missile Crisis. There were four Nike Hercules missile sites; B Battery in north Key Largo (now Key Largo Hammocks State Park), C Battery in Miramar, D Battery that is now the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Krome Detention Center, and A Battery located in Everglades National Park.

 
Nike Hercules Missiles on missile launcher in South Florida.

HM-69 was also highly significant because of the technologies employed. The South Florida missile defenses were integrated with HAWK missile sites to provide an all-altitude defense capability around South Florida.

Approximately 140 crew operated the three aboveground missile barns and guarded against attacks from Cuban air strikes. The personnel of Battery A received a meritorious unit commendation from President John F. Kennedy, which was one of the few times the award was presented for a Cold War deterrence mission.




The tour was narrated by a retired ex-army guy who was fascinating and all these areas we went to with him and saw the bits of rockets now in place.

He was a typical American retiree, of the kind we met many years ago, – sold his house 9 years ago and now spends his time 6 months in Florida in winter and 6 months in Yellowstone NP in summer.  They get free parking for their huge RV coach (their only home) and earn a few dollars along the way. 


These are the types of RVs – and they tow big 4WDs (the cars are bigger than your campervan, Dave/Carole!!) + canoes + bikes in some cases.


The NP’s love the retirees, as they are reliable staff for Ranger duties and shop assistants – much better than irresponsible students, who only party the nights away and come to work with hangovers, if at all.  There is even a directory  (CoolWorks.com or similar) which has all the vacancies in the NP’s and State Parks – a complete way of life for many Americans tracking the good weather, all year round. Anyone want to join us?

The living history talk really brought back the anxiety that was felt (if didn’t quite understand as children) in the early ‘60’s and it highlighted how the missiles and lots of the buttons (and possible decisions) were in the hands of 22-28 year old soldiers manning these weapon sites.  Scarey!

Anyway – the tour made a change to ‘Gators, birds and ecosystems!  Think we are on our 5th Everglades Visitor Centre now.

EVERGLADES PAST AND PRESENT

As anticipated, I could fill this post with yet more bird and gator photos but will spare you the detail – suffice to say “there are lots of birds and animals” here.  

 And some would say a dead Gator is the best sort – so here are 2 types – a skull held by a Ranger and a plate of yummy fried fishy things – including gator.
Brilliant casual fish cafes by the water - fish goes straight from boat to kitchen to plate.  Order at the counter, collect and eat by the waterside on basic wooden benches - Michelin stars be damned.


EVERGLADES PAST

The history of the area around Everglades City is one of long lost Indians, the Caluso, wiped out by Spanish attackers or their diseases, or the American pioneers (fugitives and adventurers) who tamed the swamps and islands for themselves.  Building roads and bridges across the South Florida strip in heat, humidity, swamps, dangerous animals and horrendous mosquito swarms.  They say that one lot of workers would be arriving, one lot working and one lot leaving because they couldn’t stand it!  But it was well paid.

This is the type of country they were dealing with.









One of the best ways we followed the stories was in this amazing store, that is stuffed full of 1920’s to 70’s paraphernalia of living and working as a trader with the Indians and pioneers. 

“Ted Smallwood's Store was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. It remained open and active until 1982. When the doors were shut, 90% of the original goods remained in the store. In 1989 Ted's granddaughter reopened the store as a museum, and today it serves as a time capsule of Florida pioneer history. The centre section of the building remains as Ted would have known it.”





These shelves are just crammed with ancient boxes and containers for everything an isolated community would have needed – anywhere else they would have been specially bought for a museum, but these were just left in the store!







This is one portion of the long building that housed the family, Post Office, general store, kerosene for the generators (no electric here!) and Indian traded goods – the Indians insisting on using silver for their exchanges.



EVERGLADES PRESENT

So nowadays, the few towns such as Everglades City on this West side of Florida, cater to the fishing and hunting enthusiasts – and the wildlife watchers.

Plus a load of tourists from nearby Naples and more civilised condo land, who come to ride in noisy airboats and take pictures of gators – full stop!









These are some of the areas we have taken smaller boats into and walked (heaven forbid!) along boardwalks to catch a glimpse of what the area is like.  To take wilder and longer hikes requires fully waterproof boots, trousers and tracking by the Ranger Stations.  Bit too adventurous for us – this time.






Thought you might like this “Tourist Tree” – because it looks like Brits peeling in the sun!!  A bit harsh I feel! 

And much more like an Aussie comment (sorry Niki!) than an American.