Category Archives: Travel

A $200 Pizza – Worth Every Bite……

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Topside View Jules Undersea Lodge Key Largo

Topside View Jules Undersea Lodge Key Largo

In general, I wouldn’t recommend paying $195 for a pizza or a sub sandwich, although Tower Pizza in Key Largo does have good food. In this case, however, thanks to a friend who bid on “Lunch at Jules” at a charity auction, I finally experienced the three-hour session offered at Jules Undersea Lodge. (http://www.jul.com).  The single drawback to the wonderful diving we have in Key Largo is there is essentially no shore diving because the water is too shallow. (Yes, I know there are a few spots, but not like in places such as Hawaii and St Croix.) This makes it especially difficult for training when the weather keeps boats from going out. On those days, everyone who can’t wait for the weather to clear heads to the lagoon at Jules.

The lagoon is not large, but it has the distinction of being home to the underwater habitat (two actually) that was moved from the original location in the Caribbean. The two-bedroom habitat with a kitchen/dining/living room was of course designed for research to prove the viability of living underwater for extended periods of time. And while researchers do still use the habitat, it’s available for recreational options from three hours to overnight. It’s something I wanted to try, but since Hubby has to spend lots of training time with students in Jules, he wasn’t especially keen on the idea. Having now done it once, I’m not saying I would go again just to go, but it’s definitely the sort of thing I would do in the same manner that I take visitors to South Beach.

Okay, enough intro – I’ll describe the way it works. First, the staff is terrific in making sure you are comfortable and taken care of. (If you have your own equipment, you can subtract the rental fee. In this situation, my friend didn’t have equipment and I didn’t want to mess with hauling and cleaning my own gear.) You either have to be a certified diver or you can sign up for the one-day Discover Scuba – type class and that is a separate fee. Since both of us were certified, we arrived to what was a very quiet day and filled out the initial paperwork, to include our choice for lunch. There is a hot shower on the grounds and a hot shower in the habitat and they provide towels, shampoo, conditioner. I treated it like I would being on a dive boat and wasn’t going to bother with that part, but it is available. I did have a pair of shorts and t-shirt along just in case. You leave your shoes at the dock and anything else you take gets very carefully wrapped and placed into a watertight box. They are especially careful with your phones and any other electronic item you’re carrying.

There are steps that lead down into the water, so you simply sit on the step to gear up then launch into the water. Your Operation Specialist for the day will either enter the water with you, take you over to the habitat to orient you or you can do as we did and go for a dive of X-minutes (in our case about 30), then meet the staff member at the habitat. The lagoon is chockfull of items like old cannon, a second, smaller habitat, and is only about 25 feet deep.  The visibility is not particularly good due to several factors, however, there were plenty of fish and a nice crab. Nurse sharks will occasionally cruise through, too.

When we finished the dive, we made our way back to the habitat, swam underneath and came up into the “moon pool” as our guy was patiently waiting to remove our gear and give the orientation. This is like the foyer. The two bedrooms are to the right, the shower and marine head are straight ahead and the public area is to the left. Yes, there are portholes in the bedrooms and public area. Benches wrap around and there are two tables. The small fridge is packed with water and sodas, a little basket hold packs of snacks, there is a sink, microwave, TV with DVD player, some books, decks of cards, and a couple of board games. My friend opted to take a quick shower and then we settled in to pass the time until our same guy returned around noon with our piping hot lunch brought to us in a watertight container. When the staff called a while later to give us our “ten minute warning”, it hardly seemed like three hours had passed. We repacked our belongings and our guy secured them before we slipped back into our gear for the short swim to the dock to end our adventure.

Moon Pool Entrance Jules Undersea Lodge

Moon Pool Entrance Jules Undersea Lodge

Another Great Burger and More…..

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Gator Grill on the Way to the Everglades National Park

Gator Grill on the Way to the Everglades National Park

The restaurant business is brutal. Trying to keep costs competitive, trying to keep good help and a thousand other things (only a slight exaggeration) owners/managers have to deal with. I have nothing against chains and dine in them, but we try to patronize independent places as much as possible.  And when we see an independent making moves that are apparently good ones to improve their business, we give a little “Hooray”. So it would seem is the case with Gator Grill. It’s always been of interest that with the millions of people who visit the Everglades each year, there was literally nowhere to eat close by. The small Gator Grill that opened several years ago in what seems to have been a little store previously had excellent food, but like four picnic tables beneath the trees. Not that it wasn’t good, but unless you knew about it, the inclination was not to stop. Things have changed. The “Grill” isn’t any larger, but they’ve added a nice-size Tiki Hut with 9 or 10 picnic tables and a fan to circulate the air. With the trees still mostly in place, it’s still warm of course, but definitely an improvement. They’ve also had the exterior done with eye-catching murals.

They are positioned not far from Robert is Here as you drive toward the Everglades and with the new murals, it raises your curiosity as you approach. The single drawback, if you think of it as such, is they do make to order and they don’t hurry. If you are really hungry when you first order and there are several people already seated or in line, it’s best to grab a little packaged snack to tide you over. They are also one of the places that cook to order and if you like your burger rare, etc., – go for it.

(I posted several months ago about the Redlander Restaurant at Schnebly’s which is a more up-scale dining option not too far from Robert is Here, so there are two choices in fair proximity to the Everglades now.)

The Senior Benefits…..

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At this stage, I can still subscribe to the point of not being distressed about aging. As much as I would like to have back the less hefty body, our health in general is quite good and there aren’t many things we’ve had to give up yet in the way of activities. We aren’t at Medicare age and we’re able to let our Social Security continue to build for at least another year, but tomorrow I do plan to take advantage of one of those lesser known benefits. (Yes, I usually take senior discounts in places where applicable.) The National Parks Senior Pass is $10-30 depending on which method you use to get it and it is a lifetime pass. That’s correct. It’s good in every single National Park and there are a lot more of them than many people realize. Not all of them have entry fees (our Biscayne Park doesn’t), but many do and even though it isn’t usually very expensive, still, it is a charge. Now, at the moment, we won’t be visiting a lot of National Parks because our focus continues to be dive trips when we aren’t on family-related or business travel. The simple truth is most of the parks are not in dive-friendly places, so they have to take a later priority. Hubby has been to the Grand Canyon and we have of course done Shenandoah and Blue Ridge.

The intent will be to incorporate multiple parks into road trips as many people do. The parks were my daddy’s destinations for plenty trips and he didn’t miss many of them when they were still able to travel. I think they were 84 or 85 when they made the last excursion. Despite his short-term memory loss issues, long term is still pretty good and there are the photos. And speaking of photos, with Hubby being such an excellent photographer now, I can only imagine what our collection will be like once we start on this particular path.

It’s Not Taking a Chance on Chance…..

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Okay, I was interrupted in writing this post and I can’t resist a good pun. We, as in the Homestead Center for the Arts (HCA), put together a special committee to work on an exciting project. They’ve been working very hard and it’s time to share the news. This is the centennial for the National Parks System and with Homestead being the Gateway to the famous Everglades and the less well-known Biscayne Park, we have a special relationship with them. For those who may not have been there, Biscayne Park is mostly underwater, but sitting on the boardwalk with a cup of coffee and watching the sun rise is a great view for we morning people. Anyway, there are obviously a lot of different things being done to celebrate the Centennial and based on a recommendation from one of our favorite park rangers, HCA has booked the ensemble Chance to perform Friday, Oct 21st at the Seminole Theater. Chance has played in many National Park settings, internationally, and on public television and radio. Their music is categorized as Urban Chamber, but think Celtic crossed with folk and a dash of country mixed in. They pay special tribute to John Muir, who is more well-known for his work with the Western parks.

Concert tickets are $35 each and went on sale last week. There will be a limited seating cocktail party before the concert also for $35, but there will be an opportunity to speak with the group after the concert as well. It’s going to be a wonderful evening and I would urge everyone to go ahead and book their tickets as soon as possible. You can go to either the HCA website or Seminole Theater. http://homesteadcenterforthearts.com and http://www.seminoletheatre.org or if you want to hear the details about the group, their website is http://www.chanceworld.com

If you have friends or family who come seasonally or visit occasionally, I recommend you talk to them about coming in time to share this experience.

Happy Bastille Day……

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With everything that’s been going on, I wasn’t paying attention to the fact today is Bastille Day. We usually celebrate and under the circumstances, I just can’t pull together the really fancy meal. That would be beef tournedos with peppercorn sauce, potatoes dauphinois, haritcots vert, and tart tartin (or chocolate mousse made from scratch). Tonight’s menu will be the less intense modern version of coq au vin although I did get bacon to render, shallots, and I am using bone-in, skin-on chicken. What I am not doing is cutting up a whole chicken, finding lardons, and making a bouquet garni. I also confess to having bought chocolate mousse cups from Jello, but I did look in the dessert freezer section just in case there were some authentic ones there.

Anyway, this gets us close enough. In actuality, the way we started celebrating Bastille Day was many years ago the first summer we were together. The wonderful Baltimore Aquarium did a Bastille Day sunset harbor cruise and we were able to enjoy that two years in a row. Although we’ve missed a few years because of schedules, we’ve been able to celebrate properly most of the time. I don’t actually think there’s any French ancestry on Hubby’s side of the family and I don’t recall where it is on mine. I’ll have to check that out again one of these days. I know there was someone on my paternal side and it might be maternal as well.

It Should Be Fun….

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I have of course posted about how thrilled we are to have the Seminole Theater open again and some of the events we’ve attended there. (http://seminoletheatre.org) The regular season has concluded, but there are several events during the summer and more will be added as they become available. Not long ago, a representative from WLRN Radio Theater contacted the on-site manager. I’ll admit I didn’t know there was such a thing, but there is, and the gentleman was excited about the Seminole being open. So, on July 22d, War of the Worlds will be presented. From what I understand, the stage will be the “broadcast station” that is doing the original broadcast from 1938. As the audience, we will be seeing into the radio station. I’m not sure how much lead-in and close-out there will be on either end of the broadcast, but it ought to be a fun evening. It is another 8-9:30 p.m. show and we’ll plan to either have appetizers somewhere before and dine late or eat before hand if we can make the timing fit. It will all depend on whether Hubby has afternoon boat that day. While it’s possible he might be off, this is peak dive season and it isn’t likely he won’t be working.

The are also doing Plan Nine From Outer Space in August, but we have no interest in that one. And speaking of no interest – Rocky Horror Picture Show (stage version) will be on-stage in October. I know I may be one of the few of my generation who has never seen it, but it’s true, and I don’t intend to change that. Hubby may go without me though and that’s fine – we do that sometimes.

Salute to Summer Solstice……

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In my Twitter account, I have a number of followers and individuals I follow who travel and others who make their living as travelers/travel writers. It’s hardly a surprise one of them posted a lovely shot of Stonehenge with the sun for Summer Solstice. That’s one of the items on our travel list. Stonehenge, not necessarily during Solstice. By the way, there’s a similar area of the Carnac Stones in the Brittany region of France and we’ll probably combine that trip someday. As I’ve posted in the past, for the time being, other than family-related and business trips, our vacations (fewer than we’d hoped due to several factors) are mostly devoted to diving. That will be the case for probably another decade, then we’ll work off the to-do list for places such as Stonehenge. Of course, I have promised Hubby the Whiskey Trail in Scotland as a priority and that does get a pretty high priority.

Even though I traveled the Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxemburg) during my first tour to Germany, we didn’t make it up there when we were both assigned to Germany. Neither of us have been to Spain, Portugal, or Greece though and I definitely want to do Prague and quite possibly Budapest. Those two could well fall into the river cruise option which will definitely come after dive cruises. The issue of course is distance of travel and even though we’ve done the 3-4 day excursions to Paris in the past for Valentine’s Day, the 8-9 hour flights are becoming more tiring. I think with the long trips in the future, we’ll plan the two-week versions. And with that kind of time, we’d really hate to pass on diving, which is why returns to Europe will probably be delayed. As for Asia – those are truly long trips, but there is a new diving charter in Thailand. We’re still debating about if we want to include it in the mix.

Anyway, having now drifted from the original topic – Happy Summer to all!

A Big Change for a Small Town…..

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For those who have not been raised in the Deep South (yes, it is culturally capitalized) this post may seem a bit odd. If you can find a copy of it, I recommend reading Southern Ladies and Gentlemen by Florence King for a frame of reference. Allowing liquor in the predominantly Baptist realm has always been tricky. Considering the reputation of New Orleans, that may not make much sense, but therein lies one of the unique aspects of Louisiana. Aside from being the only state with parishes instead of counties, there is a definitive regional dividing line between North and South Louisiana. (It happens to be the small town of Lecompte). South is Cajun (I won’t use the other term) with predominantly Catholic influence and party time is fully embraced along with plenty of booze. North, however, is mostly Baptist, (and I mean serious Baptist in my youth), piney woods, and lots of teetotalers. Places like Bossier City and Shreveport (the big cities) were expected to be “wicked” with bars and such. Smaller towns, however, often remained “dry” well past when you would have thought.

Minden is an example. I don’t recall exactly when, but Dixie Inn is the little town that practically adjoins Minden. They decided to vote to go “wet” a number of years ago and for whatever reason, Minden held off. Now, we’re not talking much distance here so if you wanted a cold beer with your meal or a margarita with your Mexican food, it was a short drive. When I was here a few weeks ago, I was startled to go to the Chinese buffet place and see a hand-printed sign that they now had beer and wine (not on Sundays apparently, but that’s a different kind of post). I didn’t inquire as to what happened, but I had also driven past the Roma Italian Bistro (relatively new) on Main Street and thought, hmmm, surely they wouldn’t have an actual Italian place without wine. I popped in this trip to ask the direct question. Yes, I was assured, they not only had wine, but also a bar. A bar?! Hooray, and not surprisingly, that is where I dined last night. Good food, good service, and real, honest-to-goodness wine.

Good Progress, But…..

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The good news, and it is good news, is that my father is continuing to make progress in his recovery, but not as quickly as he believes. The therapy team wants to work with him for another 5-6 days. The “up” side to that is the follow-on treatment can then all be at the Assisted Living Facility. That keeps someone from having to take him into appointments. Everyone in the rehab wing is friendly and certainly seems to be dedicated. The food isn’t bad, so that helps, too.

I’m planning to call my cousin tonight that lives about an hour and a half away and see if they will be in on Saturday. Part of why I scheduled to stay three extra days this time was to help transition my father back into the ALF, but since that isn’t going to happen, that leaves me time to head down for the other visit provided anyone will be around. They tend to have lots of events that take them away and this could be just such a weekend. On a completely different subject, in walking around this morning, I saw a red mulberry tree, although the remaining fruit on it was shriveled. It brought back memories of one place where we lived that had two trees and we used to make a terrible mess in eating the berries. They are delicious and do make quite a purplish-red stain when you squish them. I don’t think anyone cultivates them commercially and if not, I’m  not sure why. Maybe they’re prone to disease or something. Peaches and pecans are common orchards in this part of the state – not nearly in the kind of quantity as somewhere like Georgia, yet excellent quality. And pecan trees do grow wonderfully tall with huge spreading limbs.

The Other Two Restaurants….

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We have never watched “Vampire Diaries” and all we know about it is it’s filmed in Covington, GA. (So was the TV series, “In the Heat of the Night”.) Mystic Grill is apparently a place where characters in the series hang out. Or it might be where the actors hang out or both. At any rate, it’s not only a restaurant on the town square, it also has an unenclosed rooftop area. Being open air does mean you’re subject to the weather, but it is a lovely view. The indoor space is fun, too, and this is a case where you focus on ambience rather than food. That’s not to say the food isn’t good, merely that it isn’t the proverbial “star of the show”. I’m fine with that and while I have no difficulty in recommending the place, I personally wouldn’t spend a long time waiting to get in.

RL Off the Square was also an interesting find. The RL is for Real Louisiana, complete with gold fleur-de-lis on the sign. Now, they did not have Abita beer which is not precisely a requirement, but it does give pause for thought. On the other hand, the distributors in that area may not carry Abita and RL’s did have some excellent regional craft beers. The menu had appropriate dishes and the crawfish I tried and Hubby’s jambalaya were both quite good. I have no reason to think everything else wouldn’t have been equal. I would be torn if we could only dine in one place and we haven’t yet been to what is supposed to be a nice Italian spot. There are worse things in life than having too many restaurants to choose from.