Thoughts from tropical Florida

We spent the last 6 days in Central Florida, in Lake Wales for 5 days and now in Apopka/Orlando. Lake Wales is 'famous' as the place where, in 2004, the eyes of hurricanes Charley, Frances and Jeanne all passed over Lake Wales, causing residents to evacuate and leaving massive damage in their wake. But the area residents rebuilt quickly and today there are no obvious signs of the destruction.

Perhaps the best known attraction in Lake Wales is Bok Tower Gardens, a botanic garden and sanctuary designed by Frederick Law Olmstead. It is designated a national historic landmark. It is a beautiful peaceful place with miles of paths. (Gloria would tell you that it also, unfortunately, has thousands of mosquitoes.) The singing tower which houses a carillon, sits on what is billed as the highest point in peninsular Florida, with a view for miles. We did visit the garden, but only spent a short time as the temperature was in the mid-nineties, the humidity was high and the sun was shining. It would be a great place to visit in January......

We also visited Spook Hill where cars roll uphill. Here is the legend:

"Many years ago an Indian village on Lake Wales was plagued by raids of a huge gator. The Chief, a great warrior, killed the gator in a battle that created a small lake. The chief was buried on the north side. Pioneer mail riders first discovered their horses laboring down hill, thus naming it "Spook Hill." When the road was paved, cars coasted up hill. Is this the gator seeking revenge, or the chief still trying to protect his land?"

I don't know the real story, but our car rolled uphill backwards, not once but twice. The second time we were picking up speed, but I am not a great backwards driver and we hit the curb.

Mostly our stay in Central Florida was about visiting family. We spent several days with my father, who is 91. While he is doing pretty well, he isn't interested in much activity, so we spent the time at his house, which backs up to a swamp. We found it endlessly fascinating to sit on the screen porch and look over the swamp. It is filled with birds and frogs, which make for lots of interesting sounds. The smallest of frogs makes the biggest of sounds. There are some heron or egret like birds that are brown with red heads, the adults are at least 3 feet tall.

This is the rainy season in this tropical place, so most days between 3 and 10PM there is rain, much of it really heavy. The storms bring out the frogs in full force. And all the wildlife attract predatory birds. We weren't sure if they were eagles or hawks, but there are many, many of them circling above.

Today we visited with my husband's family, there were 5 generations in the house. We had a good time, the house was full of visitors, roughly 20 people. It gave me a good chance to practice Spanish (more listening than speaking skills). Now we are in Altamonte Springs, it is still raining lightly and we elected to not try to attend Red, White and Boom, the fireworks display in Altamonte Springs.