On September 20th Bill and I and Hurricane Isidore headed for Miami. Isidore chickened
out and headed for Mexico, and we set out to visit sites neither of us had seen since we were youngsters. And we tossed
in some new ones as well.
About ten years ago, for Christmas, Bill gave me a book showing the American houses that best
exemplified different architectural styles. I immediately said I wanted to visit all those houses in person. Bill
has declared that that book has been the most expensive present he has ever given me. We
have seen most of the houses, but there were still 2 in Florida that we hadn't seen. After Florida, we will have 1 in
California, 1 in Ohio, and 1 in Illinois.
Our visit began in Miami. The first house we visited was Vizcaya, a museum and gardens,
owned by the City of Miami. John Deering, a vice-president of International Harvester, built the house in the style
of Italian Renaissance villas he had visited and adapted the style to subtropical South Florida. Construction began
in 1914, took two years, and employed 10% of the population of Miami. Gardens weren't finished until 1921, after WWI.
The house was built to have all the modern conveniences of the time and contains a wonderful collection of 16th to 19th century
decorative arts. Its waterside location has led to some hurricane damage, but it is still gorgeous. An outside orchidarium
caught my attention. It is not in as good repair as the other two great houses we visited on this trip, however.
For pictures and more info, click here on www.vizcayamuseum.com.
We could hardly wait to see South Beach, the mecca of the beautiful and bad. We were disappointed
as it is not totally restored. A totally rehabbed building is right beside a boarded-up one. Although some of
the art deco buildings were great examples of the style, other buildings were just painted up to resemble art deco.
Altogether, it was a little shabby overall. Since we were neither beautiful (speaking for myself only) nor bad, we did
not see it at night when I am sure it shows up best.
We thought Coral Gables was one of the prettiest parts of the Miami area, and the shops in Bal
Harbour were the best available all in one area. Very posh.
We kept an eye on the weather as hurricanes were all around during our stay, and we carried
umbrellas almost all the time. We only got sprinkled on one time, however, so again the weather gods were kind.
I had forgotten how humidity makes you feel, and my hair most days looked as if it had Crazy Glue on it. One does get
used to dry heat. . .
We drove through the everglades and saw the "sea of grass." One sobering stop was a the
memorial to the Valujet crash. I flew that airline all summer long in 1994 when Bill's stepmother was ill. So
one of those markers could well have been mine. We went through several Indian villages. A ty;e of structure present
in all of them was an open-sided, thatched-roof shelter, similar to the Apache ramadas here. There is a picture on our
website, click here: http://kayandbillwehunt.tripod.com.
On Marco Island we saw our dear friends Maxine and Herman who had been our neighbors in East
Dallas. They were busily cutting the cocoanuts off their palm trees so if a hurricane hit, the cocoanuts wouldn't damage
their house. In late September when we were there, Marco Island has a population of about 18,000 and looks somewhat
deserted. In 6 weeks from then, the population will rise to 89,000 and gridlock and two-hour waits in restaurants.
We were pleased to see how happy they are there and that they live in such a beautiful setting.
Our next stop was Fort Myers. One thing that struck us both as we drove along a state
highway was how many furniture stores there were. Perhaps we are more conscious of furniture than most since my dad
was in that business. But there were lovely stores everywhere! Far more than we had seen in any other part of
the country. Maybe it's all the new housing and influx of new residents, but we have that here and don't have nearly
as many stores. Intriguing.
In 1885 Thomas Edison started spending his winters in Fort Myers. At the time he was the
most famous man in the world. The roads were so bad that he would travel to the area by boat. In time his good
friend Henry Ford bought the vacation home next door and for at least two weeks every summer, these two titans of industry
would explore their mutual interests. The site is beautifully managed and is a stop we would recommend to everyone.
The grounds are as lovely as the houses and are covered in banyan trees which all came from one specimen on Edison's estate.
His laboratories and home are just as he left them and the Ford estate has been brought back to period style. For more
info click http://edison-ford-estate.com.
In Sarasota we visited the winter home of John Ringling which he named Ca'd'Zan. It and
its companion building, the Ringling Museum of Art, are breathtaking. They have just undergone a two-year renovation
and are perfection. It is now under the control of Florida State University. The Circus Museum on the grounds
was a little disappointing but lunch in the estate restaurant was great. The banyan trees are all started from one that
was a gift from Edison. It is a terracotta Venetian palace on the gulf waterfront and is filled with priceless art
and decorative furnishings all of which, right now, are in gorgeous condition. The art collection is said to be one
of the top 20 in the nation, but it must be only about #19; however, certainly worthy of a look. For more info:
http://www.ringling.org.
In Tampa/St. Petersburg at our motel, every morning 3 sand cranes waited outside the front door
until employees fed them muffins or they started eating the landscaping. They are 4 ft. tall, grey, with black wings,
and a red-topped head. Good opportunity for us to get a close-up look, but, alas, got a lousy picture.
Two good stops in St. Petersburg are both on the waterfront facing Tampa Bay.
The Salvador Dali museum houses one of the world's best collections of the surrealist's work.
We both came away with renewed appreciation of his talent.
The Museum of Fine Arts is about 3 blocks north of the Dali. A small little jewel of a
museum. The building is as worthy of a visit, moreso than the art collection. We ate lunch on a nearby pier at
the Columbia restaurant--wonderful Spanish and Cuban food--justifiably famous. Tampa has a downtown area struggling to become
a tourist attraction. Reminded us of Deep Ellum in Dallas as it was full of clubs.
On the way to Palm Beach Bill had found a Frank LLoyd Wright stop--and what a stop! A
whole college campus designed by Wright, still open to the public, and still very much in use. Students and administrators
alike ignore tourists gawking in at their classrooms and offices. The school is Florida Southern University in Lakeland,
FL, and was built from 1941-1958. One lure of a FLW site is that you cannot make a bad picture. The angles and
shadows are so wonderful, and here there was some color too. Some offices still had Wright-designed furniture.
The downside of the campus is that many of the hallways are low-ceilinged and narrow, as are stairwells--part of Wright's
loving for people to have to go through narrow portals so that his rooms seemed to "expand" when you enter.
Palm Beach is simply elegant. The houses, the hotels, the shops--you feel pampered just
looking at them. We did splurge and have lunch at the Breakers--the most beautiful hotel I have ever been in.
Service is wonderful. Food is divine. The prices were extravagant. Our lunch was almost ruined by seeing
on the bulletin board that Campus Crusade for Christ was holding a week-long meeting there. We had just had a letter
from a friend involved in their work, telling of her money problems, and here, the bigwigs were dining at the table next to
us--not for just one meal--but for many! We were both angry.
Our next-to-last stop was at the Flagler Museum which is Henry Flagler's winter retreat home
Whitehall. It also has been newly restored and is in like-new condition. Flagler did for Florida what Fred Harvey
did for the Southwest. He saw the potential, built the hotels and got the railroads there, then developed a tourist
market by clever advertising.
Flagler had been a co-founder and the legal mind of Rockefeller's Standard Oil, but turned his
interest to the development of Florida. By 1912, the entire east coast of the state was linked with railways and luxury
hotels. He established tourism as one of Florida's two leading industries and Palm Beach as one of the world's great
winter resorts.
Our last stop was at the Norton Museum of Art in Palm Beach. A gem of a collection and
the building is just as perfect.
Bill has always thought he wanted to retire by the water. Arizona looks good after dodging
hurricanes and seeing mile after mile of senior condos (old people in cans). We had a good time, appreciate the beauties
of Orangeland, but were glad to be home.
(Bill and Kay Wehunt reside in Tucson but you are
likely to run into them anywhere in the world. They are consummate travelers. We shared a two week tour with them of Eastern
Europe.)
