We returned from our driving trip
through the Deep South in early June.
That meant that we were able to participate fully in the Hot Summer
Nights symphony orchestra events. In
July, we again enjoyed the New Music compositions played by Alarm Will
Sound.
Since the August primary elections would determine each
party’s candidates for the November general election, political events were in
full swing. We attended fundraisers for
candidates from the top to the bottom of the ticket and went door-to-door for
Claire McCaskill’s U.S. Senate campaign.
We were happy that Claire McCaskill and Nicole Galloway did win their
primaries. But we did not like the fact
that the total number of votes cast for Democrats was smaller than the number
of votes cast for Republicans. It did
not bode well for the November election.
Later in August, we attended a meeting organized by our county clerk
about replacing our voting equipment.
The new election machines were there for us to investigate. We were assured that whatever was chosen, we
would still be using paper ballots.
The day after Labor Day, marked the
beginning of our journey out west to visit more National Parks. During our
uneventful two-day drive to Denver, we spent the first night at the Best
Western Plus in Hays, Kansas. The next day it was drizzly and misty. We spent a nice afternoon with our Denver friends
Joe and Karen. This visit, we stayed at
the Hampton Inn at the Federal Center instead of their house. While driving to check in there, the sky
opened up with rain and pea sized hail making it difficult to see. Later, on our way to their house for dinner,
the hail was so thick it covered the ground like snow.
We spent the next day with Joe and Karen, and they
drove us downtown to the cultural center.
We first visited the historic home of an early to mid-1800s family
instrumental in early territory, state and city foundations. Then we went to the Denver art museum, first
having lunch at the Mad Greens restaurant.
We loved visiting the museum even though the old part was being
renovated. We viewed the special exhibit
on landscape photography by artists/photographers from all over the world. The photos were not at all like traditional
photographs such as Diane might take.
Often, we could only appreciate them as a piece of art. After resting a bit, we went to the Animals
in Art exhibit. At least we could
recognize the subjects.
We then drove back to Joe and Karen’s house where they
now had three Newfoundland dogs plus a new small dog. This is why we did not stay there. After the critters were fed, we went to a
nearby restaurant for dinner, and then they took us back to our motel.
We left Denver in the morning, driving north on I-25
until we passed Ft. Collins. The sky was
blue, and there was no rain. Shortly
after entering Wyoming, we merged onto I-80 West. It was then a scenic drive through southern
Wyoming, crossing the continental divide several times. We stopped in Rawlins for lunch at Bucks,
"The buck stops here." While
there we felt like we just had to eat red meat.
We made it to Rock Springs by late afternoon. After checking in, we went to a Walmart and
picked up our dinner and lunch for the next day.
The next morning started out cloudy. We drove north toward the Grand Teton
National Park. The traffic was light
until we got to Jackson. There was a
busy Saturday market downtown. We also
observed the large quantity of runners and bikers in the area. That was understandable considering all the
paved trails through the park. The sun
finally came out and we had a great view of the Tetons. We put the location labeled “Moose” on our
park map into our GPS. The map showed a
road there that would take us to Jenny Lake.
I remembered being there with my parents. When the GPS said "You have arrived at
your destination," we looked around to only see meadows, no road to the
lake. We proceeded to the next junction
and drove along the Snake River to Jackson Lake. It was beautiful. We followed another road south to the Jenny
Lake Visitor Center. We wanted to learn
more about the geology of the area, use the toilet, find a picnic table and eat
our lunch. The place was packed with
cars, no parking available and the visitor center was closed for construction.
We had no choice but to drive south. We
finally found a picnic area with a free table and a pit toilet.
Me and Diane in the Teton National Park
Jackson Lake and Mount Moran
Our route did not require a return though Jackson. We reached the road west that took us over
the Teton Pass to Idaho and our lodging at the Teton Teepee Lodge near Driggs,
Idaho. We arrived there about 3:45,
before the 4pm check-in. When we walked
in, we were surprised to see tables with place settings all set up in the
interior. The only people there were the
caterers for a wedding party. The owner
did not show up until about 4:30 by which time we were surrounded by a large
crowd of the wedding celebrants eating appetizers and having drinks. There was another man also waiting for his
reserved room. We had reserved ours
almost a year ago. The owner had booked
a wedding party that was using all of the rooms. She had to get busy on the Internet to find
us alternate lodging for which she would have to pay. After about half an hour, she was able to
book us rooms in a hotel about 10 miles back south in Victor, Idaho. We drove there and were told at the desk they
were overbooked. The original hotel
owner had rebooked us through Expedia which does not guarantee
availability. By about 5:45pm, the owner
in Victor finally decided to give us an upgraded room. Plus, his hotel included breakfast, whereas
the original place did not. We slept
better than any previous night on this trip.
Teton Teepee Lodge
The next day we drove north through rural Idaho and
Montana to the town of West Yellowstone, Montana. We stopped briefly at the Visitor Center to
use the facilities and then crossed into Yellowstone National Park and
Wyoming. We saw our first wildlife, mule
deer and buffalo. Then we headed east
along the scenic Madison River until we turned north to the Mammoth Hot Springs
Hotel where we would join our Road Scholar tour The Best of Yellowstone:
From Colter's Hell to America's Hot Spot.
We checked in, registered with Road Scholar, received our food vouchers,
moved our car to the long-term parking lot and found our cabin. We stayed at the more rustic cabins rather
than the lodges during our tour. Before
our welcome dinner in the lodge, we met our fellow travelers at the
orientation.
First buffalo
In the morning, the group met in front of the lodge,
and we walked to the lower entrance into the Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces,
passing by the large “Liberty Cap.” It
is a conical rock, 45 feet high, formed by the limestone deposits of an old,
formerly-active, hot spring. The
Terraces result from rain water seeping into the rocks. Once they reach a certain depth, they heat up
by the action of boiling magma. Then they rise back up to the surface through
the rocks and deposit limestone sediments on the surface. The warm waters
slowly flow from one basin to another, forming terraces.
Liberty Cap
Terraces
The north trail boardwalk took us by many interesting
features, starting with the Palette Springs.
This was our introduction to the many colors in the terraces. We learned they are caused by organisms that
thrive at different amounts of heat. We
continued on the trail with stops along the way to rest from the altitude gain
on the boardwalk and to cool down from the warm day. Diane took pictures at the stops to view
different hot springs or terraces. We
exited at the upper terrace parking lot where the guides took us on a walk to
the lodge that Diane and I found very difficult. It was not on a walking path. Rather it was a narrow downhill walk that
required us to straddle a rocky dry stream bed.
We were, by far, the last ones back to the lodge for lunch. In the afternoon, we had a lecture on the
Geology of Yellowstone.
The next day, the group checked out of the hotel and
drove east, then south, to the Tower Fall overlook. We could see the water plunging for a
stunning 132 feet. The unusual rock columns north of the fall were created by
lava flow that cracked as it cooled. We walked along the trail to see Tower
Creek flowing into the Yellowstone River.
Our bus then took us to Canyon Village for a pit stop. We traveled back west to visit the Norris
Geyser Basin, the hottest, oldest, and most dynamic of Yellowstone's thermal
areas. Diane and I did the Back Basin
trail that goes by Steamboat Geyser which was rumored to be ready for an
eventful eruption. Unfortunately, it
didn’t happen. Leaving that area, we ate
our box lunch at picnic tables by the Gibbon River. Then we went on to the Old Faithful area and
checked into our cabin.
Tower Fall
Steamboat Geyser, let us see you erupt
Cistern Spring in Norris Geyser Basin
The next morning, we skipped walking tours of the Upper
and Lower Geyser basins and found front row seats to watch Old Faithful. After it erupted, we walked at our leisure
along the river geyser walk, entertained by both the geysers and a wandering
buffalo. We went to the visitor center
to watch some movies. After lunch, we
joined the rest of the group and boarded the bus for the drive to Lake
Yellowstone, stopping to view the Kepler Cascades.
Dependable Old Faithful
Buffalo or car ride?
Kepler Cascades
Lake Yellowstone
Lower falls
Me and Diane at Inspiration Point overlooking upper
falls
We met up with our group at breakfast. Our bus drove us back through Mammoth Hot
Springs and then east through the Lamar Valley looking for wildlife. We saw pronghorn antelope and lots of buffalo,
including big herds. We had lunch at
Buns & Beds in Cooke City. Back in
Gardiner, we had our farewell dinner at the group lodging restaurant.
Pronghorn antelope
Buffalo herd
Some other people in our group told me that our next
Road Scholar tour in the Black Hills started a day later than I had
planned. Thinking I had been mistaken,
and that we had an extra day to get there, Diane and I drove north from
Gardiner along the Yellowstone River to I-90, then east toward Billings. We stopped at Greycliff Prairie Dog Farm to
eat our picnic lunch. After checking in
at the Best Western Clock Tower motel in Billings, we did several loads of
laundry. The adjacent Stella’s
restaurant was great, and we took carryout quiche and salad to our room that
night.
Prairie dogs
After a delicious breakfast at Stella’s, we started our
drive to Buffalo, Wyoming. Our first
stop was at the Pictograph Cave State Park where we took our time in the
visitor center and walked the trail to the cave. We then drove on to the Little Bighorn
Battlefield where we ate a picnic lunch and listened to an entertaining
presentation by a park ranger. Then we
drove on to Buffalo and our stay at the Sure Stay Plus Hotel by Best Western
where we had pizza delivered to our room.
Exhibit showing details of pictographs inside the cave
We detoured on our way to South Dakota to visit the
Devils Tower National Monument featured in the movie Close Encounters. There were long delays as cars were asked to
pull over so trucks with big loads could go by.
After viewing the Tower up close, we ate our leftover pizza at a picnic
table and then drove on to meet our Road Scholar group. After arriving at the K Bar S Lodge, I
discovered we were a day late for The Best of Mount Rushmore, the Black
Hills and Badlands and had missed the Homestake Program earlier that
day. It was about the mine 4,850 feet
underground now serving as a laboratory for the study of neutrinos. It turned out that Road Scholar had two
programs going on at about the same time.
The one which had the later date was for more active Road Scholar
people, not for us. We met with our tour
leader and were briefed. That night we
attended a presentation at the Lodge on the geology of the Black Hills.
Devils Tower
The following morning, our bus took us on the scenic
Iron Mountain Road. It was specifically
designed to have a large number of curves, including switchbacks, in order to
limit the speed of travelers to 35 miles per hour so they could enjoy the
beauty of the Black Hills. It had some
unique architectural features including wooden structures, called pigtail
bridges, and one lane tunnels that were built to showcase the American patriotic
symbol, Mt. Rushmore. Diane took really
good pictures of the Presidents. We then
arrived at the Western Heritage Center, the Visitor Center for Custer State
Park. After watching a movie, we
departed for the Wildlife Loop.
Following lunch, we spent the afternoon at Crazy Horse Memorial, having
a lovely guided tour of the museum.
Mt. Rushmore
Working on the Crazy Horse Monument
Scale model of what the completed monument should look
like
The next morning was supposed to be the time for our
big tour of Mount Rushmore, but the monument was cloud covered. The clouds were so thick that nothing was
visible. We watched movies and viewed
the exhibits in the museum. Then we had
some ice cream. The afternoon was also
pretty boring. The bus dropped us off in
Rapid City, SD where our guide took us on a walking tour. After lunch at a downtown restaurant, Diane
and I just walked around Rapid City until it was time to meet the group. The bus took us to The Journey Museum where
we saw a movie about Black Hills history and Native American culture. After dinner at the lodge, there was a
lecture about the Custer expedition.
The following day started with a presentation at the
lodge about South Dakota women in agriculture.
We then drove south to Hot Springs in order to visit The Mammoth Site, a
museum and paleontological site where research and excavations are continuing
in a huge protected warehouse. It is the
largest mammoth research site in the world!
The history of the discovery of the site was amazing. A heavy equipment operator was grading a
small hill when his blade struck something that shone white in the sunlight. It
turned out to be a seven-foot-long tusk.
We watched a movie, visited the lab where they clean the bones, then
were taken on a guided tour of the dig, all under one roof. This was a great morning. After lunch, we drove back north through Hill
City. The clouds had cleared but Diane
and I still skipped the trip back to Mt. Rushmore. Diane took good pictures the other day, and
we didn’t need the fireworks show. We
just had dinner at the lodge and relaxed in our room.
Mammoth skeleton in situ
Inside warehouse with view of assembled mammoth
skeleton
The next day started with a drive thru Rapid City to
get on I-90 and then a visit at the Prairie Homestead. We learned about the Homestead Act of 1862
and went inside a sod dugout cabin that was built by Mr. and Mrs. Ed Brown in
1909. They used native cottonwood trees for beams, and plowed buffalo grass sod
for the upper walls of their home. The sod construction kept their home cool in
the summer and warm in the winter. There was a cave and chicken house that were
also dug into the bank next to the house. The cave served as a refrigerator in
the summer, and kept food from freezing in the winter. There were goats and chickens wandering
around and several prairie dogs.
Kitchen inside sod house
We then drove to the Ben Reifel Visitor Center for the
Badlands. Badlands National Park
consists of 244,000 acres of sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles and spires
surrounded by a mixed-grass prairie ecosystem. The buttes and spires of the
park were formed through the geologic processes of deposition and erosion. We stopped to walk on a few trails and view
the scenery at several overlooks. We
viewed the exhibits at the visitor center and had lunch at the Cedar
Lodge. Before returning to our lodge,
many in the group wanted to see “the wall," so we stopped at the Wall Drug
Store. Diane and I are not shoppers, so
just sat and people-watched. Back at the
lodge, we had our farewell reception and dinner.
Badland pictures
We checked out of the lodge and began our drive
homeward. We took a break at the
location of the Dignity Sculpture near Chamberlain South Dakota on a bluff
overlooking the Missouri River. The
stainless steel, 50-foot-tall statue by sculptor Dale Lamphere depicts an
Indigenous woman in Plains-style dress receiving a star quilt. It was designed
to honor the cultures of the Lakota and Dakota people. Not only was there a great view, but also a
nice visitor center. We spent our last
night on the road at the Hampton Inn North Sioux City, IA where we again had a
pizza delivery.
Dignity Sculpture
It turned out to be a longer drive home than we
expected. Shortly after crossing the
border into Missouri, we encountered a long detour through country roads. It was beautiful Missouri landscapes, so we
weren’t too upset.
As usual, we were glad to be back home. We would be here until January 2019, so we
settled into our usual routine of Tai Chi, plays, movies, Osher classes and
sharing meals with our friends. These
were increasingly at restaurants as Diane’s cooking skills were waning. After this trip, I also insisted that I start
doing the driving. From the beginning of
our relationship, Diane wanted to do all of the driving. However, she was headed for an accident as
she was having trouble staying in the same lane if it curved or if she was in
one of two left-turn lanes. At first, I
corrected her when she made a mistake, but that wasn’t working anymore. She wasn’t following my instructions and I
was tired of yelling at her and getting frustrated. After this trip, I was finally able to
convince her that she was going to cause an accident and started doing almost
all the driving. She wasn’t happy with
my driving and not shy about expressing her opinion, so I tried ways of distracting
her. The best one was taking a book for
her to read since that kept her eyes off of the road. She settled down to the new routine before
too long.
Along with our weekly meetings at Muleskinners, there
were fundraisers going on leading up to the November election. Diane and I canvassed again for Claire
McCaskill. There was a change in the
Boone County Democratic Party officers.
I had several meetings with the new Treasurer since she had not
previously been very acquainted with the relationship between Muleskinners and
the county party.
In mid-October, I listened in despair to the debate
between our current Senator McCaskill and the Republican challenger Josh
Hawley. It was not pretty. He was vicious in his attacks on her, and it
kept her on the defensive. After hearing
the debate, I knew she would lose, and she was soundly defeated.
I contracted with our original builder to remove the
plastic dome topping the center peak of our house. Over the years, it was a constant source of
leaks and maintenance issues. I asked
him to extend the roof line in an attractive way both inside and out. While the scaffolding in the living room was
still up, Craig replaced the fire alarm in the living room ceiling. Mid Missouri Electric came over and replaced
all the light bulbs in the living room ceiling and inside the fluorescent light
fixtures in the high wooden beams. Then
the interior rooms were repainted.
On Tuesday November 27, Diane’s sister, Susan Belanger,
died as a result of a blood clot. She
was 69 years old, three years younger than Diane. Her husband, Joe, and their three children, Joe
Jr. (39), Tracy (38) and Kelly (35) were still alive. We quickly made arrangements to fly back and
spend a few days with her family. It was
the children’s first experience of a family member’s death. Diane and I met with Joe Jr. and Kelly to
give our advice on handling the legal arrangements.
After that sad trip, the year 2018 ended quietly. We had no particular plans for Thanksgiving, Diane’s
December birthday or Christmas. Larry and Carl drove Diane and me to Nancy and Harry’s
country home for a New Years dinner. I
did the fourth quarter Muleskinner Ethics Report. I did my annual Required Minimum Distribution
Excel file update. Then, Diane and I
were ready to get away from the winter weather in Missouri.
On the 25th of January, 2019, the St. Louis airport
shuttle picked us up. I wanted to have
an unhurried schedule on this trip, so our pickup wasn’t until the afternoon
and we spent the night at an airport motel.
Our flight arrived in Miami the next afternoon, and we spent the night
at an airport motel. Paulette, my Kansas
State University office mate, came there to have dinner with us.
The next day we met the Road Scholar group at an
airport baggage claim to begin our tour Keys and Everglades: Human and
Natural History Outdoor Studies. We
walked with our luggage to a shuttle in the parking lot. It drove us from the Miami airport to our
lodging in Key Largo. We picked up our
Road Scholar welcome packet and key to what turned out to be rooms in a
timeshare. The owners of our suite
obviously had arranged for the management company to rent them out. Our rooms were several floors up and opened
to a balcony with a view of the Atlantic.
Later in the afternoon, we met with our group for introductions and
orientation. Then we traveled in vans to
a local restaurant for a plated regional dish.
We rode in the
vans the next morning to the same restaurant as the night before to eat
breakfast. Then we took a field trip to
Everglades National Park's "River of Grass” where we were given a tour by
a local expert along the Anhinga Trail.
We saw plenty of anhinga, but also the colorful Purple Gallinule with
its red beak as well as many alligators.
We might even have seen a crocodile.
The Everglades National Park is the only ecosystem in the world where
alligators and crocodiles coexist side by side. Although alligators only thrive in
freshwater because they can't digest salt, crocodiles can live in both fresh
and saltwater. When it was lunch time,
we had a box lunch at some picnic tables and went on a short hike in the pine
flat woods and grass prairie. Before
leaving the park, we stopped at the Ernest Coe Visitor Center, viewed the
exhibits and saw a short video. Back at
the lodging, we walked around the area and then went up to our room and sat on
the balcony. We had dinner at a local
restaurant.
Welcome to the Everglades
Anhinga drying off its wings
Purple Gallinule
Alligator
The following morning, we visited the John Pennekamp
Visitor Center and Aquarium and were given an introduction to the importance of
mangrove habitats on the Keys. After
some time at the visitor center, our group leader took us on a walk in the park
on a path through mangrove habitats. We
saw the three species that are native to Florida: red, black and white
mangrove. We rode the Pigeon Key Island
boat from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico and crossed beneath the new
7-Mile Bridge as well as a 2.2-mile segment of the old 7-Mile Bridge! Once on the island, we explored the historic
buildings and the Pigeon Key Museum led by an expert from the park staff. The buildings were constructed in 1909 to
house more than 400 laborers who were working 14-hours a day, six days a week,
to build Henry Flagler's Florida Overseas Railroad. We also got a look at the baby falcon on its
nest.
Our group leader among the mangroves
Baby falcon
After preparing our own sandwiches and salads for lunch
from the buffet, we ate while enjoying a panoramic view of the Atlantic Ocean
and Florida Bay. We then boarded the
boat and took it back to US-1 to continue our journey to Key West, where we
checked into the very busy Havana Cabana Resort motel. We walked to a local restaurant for
dinner. As a group, we were dropped off
close to Mallory Square for the Sunset Celebration—a unique Key West
experience. It was a very touristy,
noisy scene with plenty of interesting people-watching opportunities. After sunset, we headed back to the hotel
with the group leader.
We left our
motel early the next morning and went to the dock to board the Dry Tortugas
National Park Ferry where we enjoyed the breakfast buffet. During the over two-hour trip, our onboard
naturalist provided an orientation on the area in and around the national park. It is about 70 miles west of Key West in the
Gulf of Mexico. We passed the Marquesa
Islands and Boca Grande as we watched for turtles and dolphins.
Dry Tortugas Ferry
Upon arrival at the park, we enjoyed a walking field
trip through Ft. Jefferson, led by a National Park Ranger, and learned about
its role in U.S. history. During the
Civil War, Union warships used the harbor in their campaign to blockade
Southern shipping. Ft. Jefferson was a
vital link in a chain of coastal forts that stretched from Maine to
Florida. It was an undeniable symbol
that the United States wanted to be left alone.
Following a buffet lunch on the Catamaran, we went bird watching and
took a walk around the island. After our
long ride back to Key West, we had dinner in the hotel's back garden, a buffet
featuring local dishes. Then our group
leaders discussed ideas, recommendations and brochures for things to do on the
upcoming free day in Key West.
Ft. Jefferson
Diane and I started our free day by going to the Key
West Museum of Art and History at the old Custom House. We had a good time there. They had an exhibit of 59 Guy Harvey pen-and-ink
drawings depicting scenes from Ernest Hemmingway’s Old Man and the Sea. We saw a collection of witty works, the
majority of which were Bon-Mots, by Ferron Bell. Since we had already heard about it, we
breezed through the exhibit about Henry Flagler’s building of the railroad to
the Keys.
Found a new friend in the museum
Scene from Old Man and the Sea
Then we went outside to the trolley stop. We were tired after being on our feet in the
Museum to look at all the exhibits. We
planned on taking the trolley down Whitehead Street to the Key West
Lighthouse. The trolley stop was mobbed
by people who had come off a cruise ship.
We walked down to the next stop that had fewer people. I talked with one man who was there with his
wife. They had sold their house and
lived on cruise ships, going from one port to the next. I was amazed at that lifestyle. The trolley came, and I annoyed the driver
greatly as I shoved Diane and I up onto the entry stairs before he could shut
the door on the very full vehicle. We
got off two stops later to tour the lighthouse completed in 1825. Diane loved lighthouses. We walked by the Hemingway House and then
down Duval Street back toward the docks, remembering our earlier trip here with
Paulette. Exhausted, we were seated at
the Conch Republic Seafood Company where we relaxed and enjoyed a late seafood
lunch. Fortified, we made the long walk
back to our hotel.
Key West Lighthouse
After checking out of the hotel and beginning our
transfer back to Key Largo, we stopped for an expert-led field trip at
Florida's southernmost state park to learn about some U.S. military history and
the role that Fort Zachary Taylor played in it.
It predates the Civil War yet houses the largest cache of Civil War
armament. Heading north, we stopped at beautiful
Sombrero Beach to have our picnic boxed lunches. Continuing north there was another stop at
the Windley Key Fossil Reef State Park. Formed of Key Largo limestone, or
fossilized coral, this land was sold to the Florida East Coast Railroad, which
used the stone to build Henry Flagler's Overseas Railroad in the early 1900s. We walked along eight-foot-high quarry walls
to see cross-sections of ancient coral.
For our last night on the tour, we checked into the same timeshare as
before but a different apartment. We
were taken to a local restaurant for our farewell dinner.
Fort Zachary Taylor State Park
Fossilized coral
After checking out the next morning, our vans drove us
to the Biscayne National Park. It
encompasses coral reefs, islands and shoreline mangrove forest in the northern
Florida Keys. The Park is so close to Miami that the skyline can be seen from
its shores. Our tour guides then dropped
us all off at the Miami International Airport.
Diane and I grabbed some lunch and then we took a shuttle to the same
airport hotel we stayed at before the tour.
We did two loads of laundry in the afternoon and Paulette joined us for
dinner at a nearby restaurant.
We had a lazy morning at the Residence Inn and then
took the shuttle to the airport, so that we could take another shuttle to the
Courtyard Miami Coral Gables. We stayed
there for the next four nights during our Road Scholar tour Coconut Grove
and the Many Faces of Miami. After
registration and group orientation, we had dinner at the motel where one of the
city's leading historians joined us to discuss the history of greater
Miami. We learned about Julia Tuttle,
known as “the mother of Miami,” who was the driving force behind the founding
of the city. Marjory Stoneman Douglas
was a journalist, author, environmentalist and feminist whose work vastly reshaped
environmental policy on the Everglades.
The next morning, we boarded a motorcoach to explore
the Coral Gables neighborhood while hearing our guide’s commentary. Then we visited Fairchild Tropical Garden,
where we explored the garden’s impressive collection of tropical and
subtropical plants and learned about its creation from volunteer experts. While there, I also saw some very long-tailed
iguanas. After a box lunch, the
motorcoach took us through the Coconut Grove neighborhood. After dinner at a local restaurant near the
hotel, we learned about the history of Cuban exiles and the connection between
Cuba and Miami from a local expert.
Long-tailed iguana
The next day started with a docent led tour at the
Perez Art Museum. In addition to their
permanent collection, they were having a special exhibit about the 1980s
project in which the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude wrapped 11 islands in
Miami’s Biscayne Bay with fabric. After
lunch at a restaurant in the Little Havana neighborhood, we met a local expert
who led us on a walking field trip through Little Havana. We learned about the history, culture, and
people of Little Havana and stopped along the way for Cuban coffee.
Display of boats at the Perez Art Museum
After breakfast the following day, we took a motorcoach
to the Bayside Marina where we boarded a boat to experience Miami from the
water. An on-board narrator expanded our knowledge of the historic locations
along the five and a half miles of the Miami River. Next, we went to the Barnacle House — Miami’s
oldest house in its original location.
After that, the program was over.
Lunch and dinner were on our own. We flew back early the next morning and
were home by early afternoon. We enjoyed
being out of Missouri for two winter weeks.
Now we would have to get used to grabbing our coats before heading
outside.
Scene during our tour to see Miami from the water
