FLORIDA KEYS - "Vacation Memories".

MAINE VACATION - 2006 - 2007

* "Looking Forward To Returning Back To Maine!!!"

FLORIDA: KEY WEST - The Southernmost House - Grand Hotel & Museum.

The Southernmost House was built in 1896 for a cost of $250,000 (approximately $6 million today) by Judge J. Vining Harris, who married into the prominent Curry family. In 1939 the Ramos family purchased the property, which had been converted into a Cuban nightclub called Café Cayo Hueso (Bone Island Café), for $49,000. In 1954 it was converted back into a residence and remained so until 1996 when a $3 million restoration began to turn it into a 13-room hotel, with a museum on the first floor.
Today 43 U.S. presidential signatures are on display including William Henry Harrison's, which is a rare piece of historic memorabilia, as is President Johnson's original swearing-in statement.
The Ernest Hemingway room boasts a large collection of written memorabilia including letters to friends, relatives, and professional acquaintances.
Artifacts and treasure salvaged by Whitey Keevan from the shipwreck of a Spanish galleon are also on display and for sale.
Exterior paint colors are authentic, as are elegant crown moldings, ceiling medallions, ornamental woodwork and friezes, which were originally painted white, but have been redone in splashy shades reminiscent of its days as a Cuban nightclub.

FLORIDA: Key Largo - Jules' Undersea Lodge.

When guests visit Jules’ Undersea Lodge in Key Largo, Florida, they discover that the name is no marketing gimmick. Just to enter the Lodge, one must actually scuba dive 21 feet beneath the surface of the sea. Jules’ really is underwater. Diving through the tropical mangrove habitat of the Emerald Lagoon and approaching the world’s only underwater hotel is quite an experience. Even from the outside, Jules’ big 42 inch round windows cast a warm invitation to come in and stay a while, relax and get to know the underwater world that so few of us have even visited.

Entering through an opening in the bottom of the habitat, the feeling is much like discovering a secret underwater clubhouse. The cottage sized building isn’t short on creature comforts: hot showers, a well stocked kitchen (complete with refrigerator and microwave), books, music, and video movies. And of course there are cozy beds, where guests snuggle up and watch the fish visit the windows of their favorite underwater “terrarium”. Jules’ Undersea Lodge manages to reach a perfect balance of relaxation and adventure.

Guests sometimes describe their visit to inner space as the most incredible experience of their lives. One couple decided on a career change after visiting Jules’ Undersea Lodge, and they now operate Aquanauts’ Dive Shop. Another couple named their baby after Jules’, when they later discovered their recently conceived child had accompanied them in their wonderful adventure in undersea living.

Although the underwater hotel may sound like the latest tourist fun spot, Jules' Undersea Lodge, actually began its existence as La Chalupa research laboratory, an underwater habitat used to explore the continental shelf off the coast of Puerto Rico. The authenticity of the underwater habitat is what really sets it apart from amusement parks and other similar attractions. The mangrove lagoon in which Jules' is located is a natural nursery area for many reef fish. Tropical angelfish, parrotfish, barracuda, and snappers peek in the windows of the habitat, while anemones, sponges, oysters and feather duster worms seem to cover every inch of this underwater world. Guests of the Lodge explore their marine environment with scuba gear provided by Jules' Undersea Lodge and are given an unlimited supply of tanks. Jules' Undersea Lodge may have a comfortable futuristic decor, but its sense of history is inescapable. It is the first and only underwater hotel, but is also the first underwater research lab to have ever been made accessible to the average person.

“Marine life is actually enhanced by the presence of an underwater structure”, explains Ian Koblick, owner and co-developer of the Lodge. “Jules’ Undersea Lodge serves as an artificial reef, providing shelter and substrate for marine animals. And the flow of air to the Lodge constantly adds oxygen to the entire surrounding body of water, creating a symbiotic relationship between the technology of man and the beauty of nature.”

The entire structure of Jules’ Undersea Lodge is underwater, sitting up on legs approximately five feet off the bottom of the protected lagoon. The Lodge is filled with compressed air, which prevents the water from rising and flooding the rooms. A five by seven foot “moon pool” entrance in the floor of the building makes entering the hotel much like surfacing through a small swimming pool. Divers find themselves in the wet room, the center of three compartments that make up the underwater living quarters. The wet room, as the name implies, is where divers leave their gear, enjoy a quick hot shower and towel-off before entering the rest of the living area. Designed for comfort, the air conditioned living space has two private bed rooms and a common room. The eight by twenty foot common room is a multi-purpose room providing the galley, dining and entertainment areas. Each of the bedrooms and the common room is equipped with telephone, intercom, VCR/DVD and a stereo sound system. But the main focus of attention is the big 42 inch round window that graces each room. “Waking up to view a pair of angelfish looking in your bedroom window is a moment you'll never forget”, states Koblick.

Habitat operations are monitored by the Mission Director from the land-based “Command Center”, located at the edge of the Emerald Lagoon. The control center is connected to Jules’ Undersea Lodge by an umbilical cable which delivers fresh air, water, power, and communications. “The entire facility is monitored 24 hours a day by our staff”, says Koblick, “the Lodge has independent support systems as well as redundant backup systems. We’ve taken every step to ensure a safe yet exciting adventure for our guests”.

The FLORIDA KEYS: The Seven Mile Bridge.

The Seven Mile Bridge, in the Florida Keys, runs over a channel between the Gulf of Mexico and the Florida Strait, connecting Key Vaca (the location of the city of Marathon, Florida) in the Middle Keys to Little Duck Key in the Lower Keys. Among the longest bridges in existence when it was built, it is one of the many bridges on US 1 in the Keys, where the road is called the Overseas Highway.

There are two bridges in this location. The older bridge, originally known as the Pigeon Key-Moser Channel-Pacet Channel Bridge, was constructed from 1909-1912 under the direction of Henry Flagler as part of the Florida East Coast Railway's Key West Extension, also known as the Overseas Railroad.

This bridge was badly damaged by the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, and subsequently refurbished by the United States Federal Government as an automobile highway bridge. It had a swing span that opened to allow passage of boat traffic, near where the bridge crosses Pigeon Key, a small island where a work camp for Flagler's railroad was located. Hurricane Donna in 1960 caused further damage.

The present road bridge was constructed from 1979 to 1982. The vast majority of the original bridge still exists, used as fishing piers and access to Pigeon Key, but the swing span over the Moser Channel of the Intracoastal Waterway has been removed.

The new bridge is a box-girder structure built from precast, prestressed concrete sections, comprising 440 spans. Near the center, the bridge rises in an arc to provide 65-foot-high clearance for boat passage. The remainder of the bridge is considerably closer to the water surface. The new bridge does not cross Pigeon Key.

The total length of the bridge is actually 35,862 ft or 6.79 miles (10.93 km).

The spectacular bridge has attracted many film makers. Its film 'credits' include scenes in True Lies, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Licence to Kill and Up Close & Personal. In True Lies, filmed in the early 1990s, a section of the old bridge is shown being destroyed by missile strikes. The missiles were edited in, and the explosions were done on an 80-foot (24 m) model of the bridge, but filming was done on the actual bridge, and the "destroyed" section is the former swing span, which had been removed upon completion of the new bridge.

Each April the bridge is closed for approximately 2.5 hours on a Saturday and a "fun run" of 1,500 runners is held commemorating the Florida Keys bridge rebuilding project.

MAINE: Fort Knox - Prospect, Maine -"American Forts From Maine to Florida"

Fort Knox is located on the west bank of the Penobscot River in Prospect, Maine, in an area known as the Penobscot Narrows, Fort Knox is one of the best preserved fortifications on the New England seacoast. The Fort has many architectural features present only to itself, as well as a rich history behind it's cannon batteries.
Maine was repeatedly involved in northeast border disputes with British Canada, and the area between Castine and the rich lumber city of Bangor was invaded and occupied by the British during the American Revolution and the War of 1812. Despite the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842, Fort Knox was established in 1844 to protect the Penobscot River valley against a possible future British naval incursion.

The Fort was engineered by famous West Point graduate Isaac Ingalls Stevens, who superintended fortifications on the New England coast from 1841 until 1849. Named for Major General Henry Knox, America’s first Secretary of War, friend of first president George Washington, and a native of Maine. The Fort garrisoned troops from 1863 to 1866, mostly volunteers who were in training before being sent to their active posts, including members of the celebrated 20th Maine, and again in 1898, but never saw military action.

Explore the Fort and discover this treasure of Maine and United States History. Fort Knox is open May 1 - Nov 1, from 8:30 - sunset. The grounds are open year round for your visiting pleasure.

FLORIDA: Fort Jefferson, Dry Tortugas - American Forts from Maine to Florida

After the War of 1812, a group of forts from Maine to Texas was envisioned to provide defense for the United States of America from foreign invaders. Fort Jefferson was built to protect the southern coastline of the United States and the lifeline of commerce to and from the Mississippi River. The fort was planned to be the greatest of the group.

Fort Jefferson is a six-sided building constructed of 16 million handmade red bricks. In 1825, a lighthouse was built on Garden Key, one of six islands that make up the Dry Tortugas, to provide warning to sailors about the dangers of reefs and shoals surrounding the Dry Tortugas.

Construction of the fort began in 1846, and in 1847 the islands became a military reservation. In 1850, the officers' quarters were completed and the fort was officially named Fort Jefferson, after our country's third President Thomas Jefferson. The walls reached their final height of 45 feet in 1862.

Construction of the fort dragged on for more than 30 years, and it was never really finished. Construction of the moat was also an engineering challenge and was not completed until 1873. The invention of the rifled cannon during the Civil War rendered the walls of the fort vulnerable to destruction and made the fort itself somewhat obsolete.

During and after the Civil War the fort began to be used as a prison for deserters and other criminals, most notably Dr. Samuel Mudd, who was sentenced to life in prison for his part in President Lincoln's assassination. Dr. Mudd, perhaps unknowingly, repaired the broken leg of John Wilkes Booth - the man who assassinated President Lincoln. In 1874, the army completely abandoned the fort after several hurricanes and a yellow fever epidemic. It wasn't until 1898 that the military returned, in the form of the navy, which used the facilities during the Spanish-American War. The fort was also used from 1888 through 1900 as a quarantine station, and was garrisoned again briefly during World War I.

In 1908 the area was designated as a bird reserve and transferred to the Department of Agriculture. On January 4, 1935, it was designated by President Franklin Roosevelt as Fort Jefferson National Monument, the first marine area to be so promoted. On October 26, 1992, the monument was upgraded to national park status in a bill signed by President George Bush.

"The Yankee Freedom's Fast Cat Ferry is the only way to go,.."

Sure there are other ways to get to Fort Jefferson,..but in my visits to the fort for over 20+ years,..I along with most groups choose to travel the Yankee Freedom.

MAINE: Bar Harbor - Fast CAT Ferries to Nova Scotia

Traveling between Bar Harbor, Maine and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia in just under three hours and between Portland, Maine and Yarmouth in 5 ½ hours, The Cat brings a unique travel experience to these two distinctive ports. The famous rockbound coast of Maine and Acadia National Park in Bar Harbor, historic Portland and the unique cultural heritage of Nova Scotia are yours to discover on this route.
The Yarmouth to Bar Harbor service was served by the conventional ferry mv BLUENOSE in the summer of 1997. In 1998, Bay acquired "The Cat", a new 91 metre high-speed ferry constructed by Incat of Tasmania. This was North America's first high speed ferry of this type. In 2002 Bay Ferries introduced a new high speed ferry to North America by acquiring a 98 meter Evolution 10B design fast ferry, the largest and most modern vessel ever built by Incat. At a cost of US $50.2 million this new CAT renewed our commitment to stay on the leading edge of technological developments and innovation in marine transportation. The Digby - Saint John service operates 12 months per year while the Yarmouth/Bar Harbor service operates approximately six (6) months per year.

MAINE: Bar Harbor - ACADIA NATIONAL PARK -Warblers and Wildflowers Festival

Year after year, as summer approaches, flocks of small, brightly colored songsters return to Bar Harbor. The warblers have arrived! For some, Mount Desert Island is their summer destination while others pass through to nesting sites still farther north. Mourning Warbler, Blackburnian, Canada and Magnolia Warbler were some of the Parulidae family highlights, while Ruffed Grouse, Pileated Woodpecker and numerous ocean and wetland birds were also among last year's festival total of 100 species.

By the end of May, the sun has warmed the earth and is welcoming the wildflowers of Acadia. Wild Rhodora, Viburnum and forest floor wildflowers abound in the woods and gardens of Mount Desert Island.


Everyone is invite to join the town of Bar Harbor May 24-May 28, 2007 as we celebrate this annual return of song and color during the Sixth Annual Warblers and Wildflowers Festival. Explore Warblers and Wildflowers through numerous events and venues. Early morning birding walks around picturesque Mount Desert Island, Peregrine watches and various boat tours provide endless bird watching and learning possibilities. Guided tours of famous Mount Desert Island gardens, walks through native forests, and various Ranger-led programs in Acadia National Park satisfy garden lovers of all ages. Enjoy warblers and wildflowers through Art with afternoon gallery tours and "meet the artist" demonstrations. Evenings are filled with social events, films and lectures.

Islands have a special magic, and none more so than Bar Harbor, set on Maine's rock-bound coast. From the stonewall-lined and tree-covered road leading you into the village, to the sweeping vistas from atop Cadillac Mountain, there is a special mystique to Bar Harbor. Nestled on the east side of Mount Desert Island, surrounded by Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor has welcomed visitors for over a hundred years.

KEY WEST, FLORIDA : Hemingway Days - 2007

"Hemingway Days" - KEY WEST, Florida Keys - 2007.

The legacy of Ernest Hemingway, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author who lived and wrote in Key West for almost a decade, is to be recognized during the annual Hemingway Days celebration. Now in its 27th year, the festival celebrates the accomplishments of the man who fished for big game in local waters, embraced Key West's unpretentious lifestyle and wrote American literary masterpieces in a small studio behind his Whitehead Street home.

The 2007 festival is expected to draw participants including stocky white-bearded Hemingway look-alikes, anglers pursuing blue marlin like those the author once fought and aspiring writers hoping for recognition of their work.

Events are to include a look-alike contest for erstwhile Ernests, readings and book signings by nationally acclaimed authors, an awards ceremony that caps a leading American literary competition, and a commemoration of the 108th anniversary of Hemingway's July 21 birth.