Florida's oddities...

Well, I guess that they arent really oddities but they are different for me. I havent seen a palm tree like this before. They call it a Cuban Roayl Palm. It is different as it is smooth all the way up.


And has a pretty green smoother area near the top of the tree.
They can grow very tall as well.....
When they loose a frond, the whole thing peels off like a banana peel. Leaving the tree smooth...kinda cool . This is why they are smooth.

We headed to a local market. The customers were lined up for such cool treats as key lime milkshakes, or guava shakes...They guy had a GOOD business.
We found some crazy fruit there as well. Read the cards on the fruit.....(if applicable)

Plantains...small banana's
Geeze, Gayle, I didnt know Jack had a fruit!!!!lol And check out the coconut tree growing beside it.

This one says that you must eat it when it is very soft. It tastes like a sweet and creamy custard.

Yummy papaya's and mango's behind them

Sounds yummy I think.
And, this is my favorite....A fruit only a mom could love....LOL

HELPFUL WORDS FROM MY FRIEND IN MEXICO
If you want to view a pic from here larger...just click on it. It seems to work for all except the side profile ones...enjoy

OUR VIEW CHRISTMAS EVENING....

MERRY CHRISTMAS

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEARS

TO ALL OUR WONDERFUL FAMILY AND FRIENDS

FROM THE SOUTH.....Shannon and Daniel

SAVANAH THE BEAUTIFUL II

The riverfront in Savanah Georgia. The city was actually built on a cliff. So the streets are up a steep hill made of cobble stones. These stones were used as ballist in the ships that sailed into Savanah to pick up cotton. They would throw the stones off the ship as they loaded. The town used them to pave the streets and make sidewalks with them...very industrious.
The street actually runs up and to the right of this photo. The walk way is called Falkers Walk. The owners of the cotton distributors would walk from their offices accross the falkers walk to the buildings at sea level and grade and watch the cotton being boarded on the ships for export.



This is at sea level, where today they have made a lovely walk way and maintained the streets as close to original as possible. Of course in the buildings to the right are tourist spots. Ie: t-shirt shops, tour companies, restaurants, pubs, candy and novelty shops. Still very pretty. We actually had lunch down here one day, and saw a HUGE container ship bringing goods into the port of Savanah.





Another cobble stone street. And Savanah is one of 4 citites where you can walk around with your drink....so when in Rome ect ect ect





The city of Savanah has a lot of what is called Tabby. Tabby is made of shells, sand, water and lime. This was also used widely in building homes. Here is a sample of both cobble stones streets and recreated tabby sidewalks.


Bay street, Savanah. Such pretty streets. Here is a good shot of the trees dripping with spanish moss. Pretty as well as lending some mystery to the city. Especially at dark.


City Market in historic downtown Savanah. You can browse the shops or enjoy some good food at one of the fabulous restaurants while enjoying some good music. Reminds me of Granville Island. (Vancouver BC)

Savanah is full of gorgeous old homes... some quite famous. This is Mercer House and besides being a historic homesite, it was used greatly in the film "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" This shows will give you a really good sense of what Savanah is like. Very cool city.

This is the catholic church....we had to take this pic. Amazing, such great architecture and paintings as well.....massive building.
Some more historic buildings. This was actually the original showroom for Model T's in the south. Check out those windows....they are curved.

A wrought iron gate, (one of three we saw) very ornate. If you look closely you can find 3 humming birds in this one.


And this is actually a down spout for a gutter. They took decorating their homes rather seriously...

The back enterance of the Ownen Thomas house. Built between 1816-1819 and was designed by William Jay who had a penance for symetry. Notice how there are two staircases and each object (window, door ect) has one matching it....kinda cool. Even went so far as to have blind stairways and windows. It survived the depression of 1820 (although the owner lost her) served as a bording house and survived the revolutionary war.....
The back gardens.....

The Colinial Park Cemetary....some grave stones marked as far back as late 1700's. This cemetary once served as a spot for war horses to be kept when Savanah was taken over by General Sherman

A old grave with.......spooky..........
The bird girl pic in front of the museum where she is now....more Midnight in the Garden stuff....

And of course, once again, if you are in Rome....we had lunch at Paula Deen's restaurant. We enjoyed some good ole souther cookin'

Fried chicken with collard greens ( I know how to cook them now), mac and cheese, mashed potatoes with homemade gravy, corn bread cassarole, green beans with potatoes, sweet potatoe cassarole, baked beans, butter beans (yuk) awesome bbq'd pulled pork. As welll as these awesome garlic cheese biscuits and some "hoe" bread. (pan fried corn bread) Full salad bar and then of course some peach cobbler....

For the movie buffs...this is where Forrest Gump sat and told his story. The magic of hollywood had them sitting up on a platform so you didnt actually see the existing bench..... and in the movie the traffic runs both ways, while in real life, the traffic only goes to the right.

A beautifull fountain in Forsyth park....


And these guys are called gaurdian angels...no affiliation but they cruise the streets and keep it safe for tourist and locals alike...

More to come....

SAVANAH, GEORGIA....so beautiful

SOMEONE IS WAITING FOR SANTA CLAUSE IN CHARLESTON, SC

Looks like someone is waiting for Santa Clause....looks kinda like Cleo!!!!!

A SOUTHERN PLANTATION

THE AVENUE OF OAKS AT BOONE HALL PLANTATION

The Avenue of Oaks at Boone Hall Plantation....Charleston, SC. These trees were planted by the son of the original owner. Some of them are the originals but some have been lost to pure old age (live oaks can live to be 700 years old) and some to of all things, lightning. Makes sense though.
This plantation used to be a cotton plantation, as well as a pecan farm and finally it was used as a brick building plantation. Most of the buildings in Charleston were built from bricks made on the plantation. Here is a picture of rows of cotton. It seemed weird to actually see how cotton grows. I always just invisioned it as a raw material.

The cotton ball startes as a flower and when it blooms....viola, a fluffly soft cotton ball. It feels just like the ones that come out of the package. Weird but cool. The fields were worked by slaves for many years. At the beginning of this plantation there were about 30-40 slaves and they lived in these slave houses. Mind you, only skilled slaves got the luxury of living here. Others, such as field workers only had wooden shacks out near the edge of the cotton fields. Skilled slaves included folks who could sew, carpenters, or a blacksmith. And at one point they figured there were around 350 plus slaves living on the plantation.

This is a re-creation of what they think the inside of the cabin would look like. Since slaves weren't allowed to learn, yes, not allowed to be educated, they couldn't read or write. so as such there is little information regarding them. But the basics would be there. such as the fireplace to cook, table, cutlery and plates. This shows a bed but it would have been in the carpenters home and only after the slaves were freed. The slaves would have to work too many hours while under their masters rule, but once freed, they would "earn" their way. And as such would be able to work on there own land as well as "contract" themselves out. Also, they would have more time on there hands to make their own lives more liveable.

This is one of the original trees on the plantation. Not quite as big as the redwood cedars us westerners are used to but much older and the arms extend out quite far.

This is the Boone Hall home. It was actually rebuilt in 1935 after the orginal home was taken down. A couple from Canada rebuilt it to this. The present owners live upstairs when they are in Charleston but made the lower part into a museum when they found people continually looking into the windows. Imaging sitting down to lunch with a audience. tee hee