IT'S FRIDAY AND WE LEAFT PALM BEACH AND HIT THE ROAD

We went on the road and headed for Naples.  I finally got to see Alligator Alley, and the name on the expressway going from East to West is also posted as Alligator Alley.  I was surprised.  The temperature was only about 66 outside when we were driving by so I only saw about a dozen Alligators.  What was funny is I would see dark logs and it turned out they were also Alligators or I would see dirt and they turned out to be Alligators.  Is it my vision, were we going too fast, 65 miles an hour, or do I not know what an Alligator looks like.  We only had to cover 138 miles from Palm Beach to Naples.  We are now settled in Crystal Lake.  http://www.crystallakervresort.com/  It is a pretty special place.  We stayed here back in 2009 for 6 weeks.  We are here for a little over a month. 
Ronnie & Marybeth Scavo are here through next Wednesday and on Saturday Frank & Helen Yates that have a home here 6 months out of the year will be also be coming over for dinner.  Jim went to grade school through high school with these guys and Helen.  Yesterday Ronnie and Marybeth stopped by and we threw some chicken on the grill and Ronnie made one of his wonderful salads.  Ronnie has changed the way he eats and has lost 42 pounds.  What an inspiration, he looks great and still has a ways to go but he and Jim are up at the workout room this morning doing their thing.  They have a class A workout gym.  I will be walking the dogs and that will be my exercise.  I will take some pictures, who am I kidding, Jim will.  He takes such good pictures.
We found a church for Maundy worship on Thursday night, a Wisconsin Synod church, Our Saviors Lutheran Church, we are having a hard time finding an ELCA church.  The funny thing is the Pastor and his wife are both graduates of Bemidji State University.  Can ou believe it.  It is where Mac graduated from college.  We will probably go back for Good Friday services, we had a nice chat with the Pastor but not one person came up to us and greeted us.  It just goes to show you how important it is for us to do that at our church.  We did take communion though we know it's frowned on because of their beliefs but communion is important to us.  I need to speak to Pastor Dale.  Isn't it wonderful that he is such an easy go to guy when I want to know about other churches. 
After church which was at 6:30, and by the way their hymnal copyright date is 1941, we hadn't sung any of the hymns before.  After church we went over to Ronnie and Marybeth's camper and had snacks a wine and a visit.  (I had wine)

GREEN CAY BOARDWALK

I try to imagine the building of this place.  It's like a nature walk over the water and wetland.  They have a one mile boardwalk and a seperate half-mile boardwalk.  We only did the one mile walk and I included some of the things we saw along the way.

 

SECOND DAY OF SIGHTSEEING!

Well we had Detective Dave for dinner on Monday night, had steak, sweet potatoes, salad.  Nice visit.
I can't believe I didn't get a picture of the two of them.
We went off to The Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens yesterday.

Visitors are surprised to discover a century-old connection between Japan and South Florida. It is here that a group of young Japanese farmers created a community intended to revolutionize agriculture in Florida.

In 1904, Jo Sakai, a recent graduate of New York University, returned to his homeland of Miyazu, Japan, to organize a group of pioneering farmers and lead them to what is now northern Boca Raton. With the help of the Model Land Company, a subsidiary of Henry Flagler’s East Coast Railroad, they formed a farming colony they named Yamato, an ancient name for Japan.

Ultimately, the results of their crop experimentation were disappointing and the Yamato Colony fell far short of its goals. By the 1920s, the community, which had never grown beyond 30 to 35 individuals, finally surrendered its dream. One by one, the families left for other parts of the United States or returned to Japan.

One settler remained. His name was George Sukeji Morikami. A modest farmer, George continued to cultivate local crops and act as a fruit and vegetable wholesaler. In the mid-1970s, when George was in his 80s, he donated his land to Palm Beach County with the wish to preserve it as a park and to honor the memory of the Yamato Colony.

That tells you some of the history and what a beautiful place.

 

 

 

WE ARE IN PALM BEACH

At least close, we are in a campground near.  Jim has got together with his friend Dave Mulberry who is a private eye.   For real.  He was even a body guard to Burt Reynolds who has a home here, so does Tiger Woods and he said this is one of the richest cities in the U.S.  Today we will be driving to the Ocean, not for time on the beach, they broke a record today for cold.  Here it was 90 on Sunday and on Wednesday the temp was 44 this morning and the record was 45.  It should be in the 80ies.  It will warm up soon, we leave for Naples tomorrow and have to finish our sightseeing today.  Back to Dave.  They went out to lunch on Sunday after we went to church, and they spent the afternoon together and we had him here on Monday for dinner after  I did laundry.  Those sheets need doing you know.
We went to Mounts Botanical Garden in the afternoon, the temperature did get to 80.  I have to tell you about our drive there , we had a hard time finding it because the front of it was so insignificant.  It really was a diamond in the rough.  It used to be of all things an old Highway Patrol Office and they donated it for the Garden when they moved.

 

Love these flowers.

 

We just loved these trees with the upside down flowers, they came in all kinds of shades of pink.

 

The art in the park was fun.  Wish I would have kept my jacket on but it was 80 degrees.

 

This tree is so beautiful.

 

So is this one.

Jim wanted you to see how huge the fans on this tree are.

 

I just loved the airyness of the plant around the bench.  Did I just make up a word?

 

 

 

Pretty flowers.

See the ant on the flower.  Jim loved getting a picture of that.  Go figure.

More pretty flowers.

 

He thought he could build this arbor for me at home.

 

No comment.

 

 

Listen to the Mockingbird.  It was beautiful.

 

Can you believe this is a pineapple, I have never seen one growing.  It's beautiful.

Of course there were water Lily's.

 

This was called The Twelve Apostle's flower.   

"Neomarica gracilis, (Brazilian Walking Iris). Native of regions from Southern Mexico to Brazil. Also known as the twelve apostles, has intricately designed orchard-like white flowers of white with mottled crimson and a blue-violet banding. Glossy green, arching leaves, like an iris which are sometimes more than 24 inches long.....Grows in grassy clumps up to 5 feet wide and equally high, does well in pots and particularly suitable to hanging baskets."

 

 

This is going to be a fruit on a fruit tree.  Possibly Mango?

 

Of course all the pictures I took were on my phone.

 

THIS IS MY FAVORITE. 

 

 

This is just a beautiful picture.  Jim does such a great job framing.

 

Flowers.

 

I think this is the start of banana's, maybe.

 

More flowers.

 

And more flowers.