Miami - Day 3: Lazy Rainy Nothing Day

S and P drove me around all day but we didn't get out of the car much because it was raining.  First we went to Coral Castle. Coral Castle is a bunch of stone furniture, monuments, and totally bizarre things like sundials and telescopes that was built by a lunatic and genius on 10 acres out in the middle of Nowhere, Florida, for his young intended bride who never did come over from Latvia to marry him. He built it around the age of 25, took 20 years to build, and he lived in it until he died in 1951 at age 64. The stone beds and chairs are amazingly comfortable for all types of bodies, and there are some remarkable inventions in his stone kingdom. Everything is exactly the same as it had been when he was living in it. The only thing that is different now is the plant life, as the original plants got destroyed in Hurricane Andrew.

One of the staff seemed to have nothing better to do so I asked her for a tour. She was what S called "a true believer" in how this genius created all these things mysteriously, such as no stone shows any groove marks where any machinery was used to drag it, and scientists come from around the world to explain it and can't come up with how he did all the stuff he did. They looked at all the tools he used and thought maybe he left tools there he didn't use, just to fake people out. Pete pointed out groove marks on the rocks, and had explanations for how the guy could have built all of it with the tools he had. Who should we believe?? Regardless, the man and his creation could not help spark one's imagination.

This is where this man lived, under the sky, sleeping in his stone beds, carving masonic and planetary symbols into coral and creating amazing bells and whistles.

This is the valentine table he made for his love that never came. He made a flowerpot in the middle so there would always be fresh flowers on the table.  That is his original plant in the table - it didn't get destroyed in the hurricane.

This is the entrance that he carved into his home, where he lived in his stone castle far from anyone and anything:

As you can see, he was also a modest and humble man.  All cattiness aside, this guy truly did set one's imagination on fire.


Then we went to Biscayne Bay to see where they had had many family outings with the kids.

And we passed a few palm tree farms.  This is a really small one.

Then we came home and they taught me how to play canasta, which we played all night. Great fun! And friend Patti is driving down tomorrow!  Yay!!  I hope she likes canasta!