Pumpkin and Spice

Since we got into Coral Springs a little late (1:00a) last night, we slept a little late this morning. Well... late for my mom. 8:00ish, which is about normal for me. We ate breakfast (I had raisin bran, coffee, a Silk chocolate soy milk and a banana) and then headed out to a fabulously quirky, odd-ball attraction- The Coral Castle!

The Coral Castle was built in Florida City in the 1920s by a Latvian immigrant named Ed Leedskalnin. As a youth in Latvia, he had his heart broken by his fiancee. Shortly after, he moved to America, where he began work on the Coral Castle. He quarried his own coral, and began building himself a fantasy world. In the 1930s, he moved to Homestead, FL, and spent three years moving the pieces he had already carved to his new home. Once settled in, he continued work on his castle. He carved and quarried all of the coral rock himself, and refused to allow anyone to watch him work. He never told anyone exactly how he carved and moved the pieces, but he did not use any mechanical devices. That is remarkable on its own, but even more so when you take into account the fact that Leedskalnin was only 5 feet tall, and weighed only 100lbs.

Amongst the objects in his "castle" and the garden are a bedroom, with beds and chairs carved from coral, a table in the shape of Florida, a working sundial, a fountain, and a gate carved from a 9-ton block of coral. It is a truly mystifying and bizarre experience! (Billy Idol even wrote a song inspired by Ed's sad love story- "Sweet Sixteen".)

After the Coral Castle, we headed to the Everglades National Park. None of us have ever been to the Everglades- I expected them to be murky and swampy, with cypress trees and Spanish moss. However, at the visitor's center, we learned that the Everglades are not actually a swamp. Rather, it is a large, shallow river. The water is constantly moving through a flat "prairie" of Sawgrass. Dotting the flat wetlands are raised areas of land (called "domes")with mangrove trees, cypress, palms and other plantlife. As you drive through the park, there are several areas with nature walks- unlike most national parks, though, these nature walks are on raised boardwalks.

We stopped and did several of the walks, seeing quite a variety of landscape and wildlife. We saw lot of egrets, cranes and vultures, fish, including a crayfish and a Florida garr. We saw some turtles, lots of spiders and dragonflies and four aligators! Two of them were so close we could have reached down to touch them! (I've seen aligators on the side of the road, but have never been so close to one before.)

We spent most of the afternoon in the Everglades, and having not gotten a proper 8 hours of beauty sleep, needed a little mid-day pick-me-up, which I got, courtesy a packet of raspberry Emergen-C and a Caribou Coffee granola bar that Mom brought. I've not had the Caribou Coffee bars before, but it was really good. Chewy and crispy, with a nice chocolate-espresso flavor. I think it would be great for an afternoon candy craving- and given that it's only 140cals, plus it has some whole grains, it's a much better option than a candy bar. I was very pleased with it!

As it started getting dark, we made our way back to US 1, and headed south to our final destination for the day- Key Largo, the northernmost Key. After checking into our cabins and dropping off our bags, we went out for dinner.

The Fish House came highly recommended, both on-line and by the clerk at our lodgings. Outside, it's very funky and flashy- covered in white Christmas lights. As we were getting out of our car, we encountered a group of patrons leaving the restaurants. "Oh, man," one exclaimed to us. "That's some good food- you're in for a great meal!" The rest of his party murmured in agreement. You know that's a good sign!

The restaurant was just as funky inside- tiny and packed, with novelty party lights, mounted fish and quirky folk art on the walls. We were seated quickly, after only a five or ten minute wait. Towards the front of the restaurant is a case with all the fresh fish- they buy it daily, and whole, then filet it in house, to ensure that the fish is as fresh and high-quality as possible. After much deliberation (everything looked sooo tasty!) we ordered. We shared a plate of fried conch to start. If you've never had conch (pronounced "conk"), it tastes very much like fried clams.

I decided on chilled stone crab claws with mustard sauce. (They came with boiled red potatoes, coleslaw and corn, but I didn't get a picture.) They were fabulous- perfectly steamed, sweet and just a little salty. I barely used the sauce.

They came partially cracked, but I still had to do a little work to get some of the stubborn bits out... it was not the tidiest meal I've ever had, but man, was it good!

Kyle got Mahi Hemingway, which was lightly breaded in flour, sauteed, then served with a basil cream. It was good- very rich and decadent!

Mom got the Mahi Matecumbe, which was baked, then topped with tomatoes, capers, shallots and basil. I didn't get a picture, but it was delicious and light- very summery and fresh. Mom raved about it!

After dinner, we all shared a slice of Key Lime pie. I'm going to do a Key Lime Pie round-up at the end of the trip, so I'll go into the details then, but it was a lovely way to end our meal. We all left happy and full- and completely understanding why the man stopped us in the parking lot to exclaim about the food!

Tomorrow will be an early morning, and the plans include heading south to Marathon. There will be great adventures for my next installment- see you then!