Hi,
Just got back from Lake Worth, Florida. Had a wonderful week. Stayed at The Mango Inn. Chet & Staff do a nice job. Friendly staff, clean rooms & grounds, excellent breakfasts. Since they don’t offer breakfast until 8 (same as me) 🙂 and I get up early, I would walk over to the beach and get a coffee at Benny’s on the Beach, drink it, read my book and watch the sun rise. I took a picture each morning, here’s two of my favorites:
And another:
What a great way to start a day. 🙂
I had about a dozen friends on my dance card for lunch, dinner or cocktails up in the Lake Worth/West Palm area. John is an architect/interior designer that stayed with me when I first opened. He came down from Manhattan to work on Nancy’s new West Palm residence and we’ve stayed in touch. He now lives in Ft Lauderdale. My suggestion was we go to Monkey Jungle, one of my favorites down in South Florida. Turns out he hates monkeys and wanted to go to John Deering’s Vizcaya in South Miami. It was something always on my list but never made it. It turned out to be such a great choice. I loved it, here’s the front:
They built a barge as a breaker to protect the mansion:
Originally there was a pergola on the one end. When he had parties, they would shuttle the guests out on a gondola.
I’ve often seen things called a casino, I always assumed it meant a gambling hall, I guess I assumed that because of the years I worked at the Atlantic City casinos. In Italian, it can also mean small room or brothel 🙂 Vizcaya also has a casino, small room. Mr. Deering seemed to love coral rock, you find it everywhere. Here’s his casino from the outside:
This inside picture shows some of his use of coral rock:
And this picture shows some detail work in the original orchid garden:
I was planning on returning today, Monday, January 23. It’s just over an 18 hour drive and initially planned get up early this morning and drive up. Sunday was my free day and thought I’d drive half way, pull over for awhile, watch the Steelers in some hotel. I drove through all that nasty weather the South had on Sunday, every five minutes they had tornado warnings break into the radio. I got into Virginia, grabbed a bite, got a second wind and decided to push on through and listen to the game on the radio, maybe stop at a bar in Beckley and watch the last quarter. I heard the first two quarters then went through the tunnels on I77 and lost that station. Apparently, the Steelers aren’t real popular in southern WV, couldn’t find another station strong enough to hear well. I was arriving close to Bekley when Roethlisberger threw the interception and I decided why waste my time. Got in around 2 am safe and sound to the great joy of da kidz, they were dancing and jumping. Dogs always make you feel special.
That’s it today guys,
ed
