We recently embarked on a journey taking us across country to Florida where we boarded a ship that would take us to South America, through the Panama Canal and back to California. The first segment is a long one, a full day's flight from Seattle to Miami.
After going about as far as possible from one corner of the country to another, our destination the next day was Vizcaya Museum and Gardens since history and beautiful gardens are two of our favorite pursuits. Vizcaya is an estate build by one of America's wealthiest early industrialists,
James Deering. He was a part of the family that created the International Harvester Company.
If this place looks like a mansion to you, let me assure you, it is. Deering spent the last part of his life building the place which is now a museum. The gardens are amazing.
Deering even created an Orchidarium ... the first one of these we've seen. The original orchid garden was destroyed by a hurricane but a replica was built with a contribution from David A Klein, so the new garden is dedicated in his name.
The climate around Miami seems about perfect for orchids.
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The David A Klein Orchidarium. Some of the individual
flowers are shown below. |
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Not an orchid (as far as we know)
but sure liked the colors. |
While in the area, we drove out to Key Biscayne. Being from Seattle we are impressed with the palm trees lining the streets.
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| Island Paradise :-) |
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| Looking back at Miami from the Rickenbacker Causeway |
The thing that amazed us about Miami was all the construction ... it's booming and all the glass buildings are impressive.
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We don't see many beautiful trees like this
in the middle of a busy boulevard. |
In our next segement of the journey: Aruba, aka "One Happy Island", in the Southern Caribbean.
Thank you for stopping by John's Island.
