Crane Point, South Florida Agriculture and a Casino

It's blustery and chilly today (ok...68 or so).  A good day for doing puzzles and hanging out inside.  But Monday and Tuesday were superb--high 70's to low 80's and bright sun! 

Monday we took our excursion to Crane Point...a preseve set up on property owned by the Crane family of Massachusetts after they bought the 64-acre tract in the 1950's. We are wondering if this is the same family of Crane's beach near Ipswich, Mass. It was a lovely walk--a little over a mile to make the loop past the Adderly House and out to the point.

The Adderly House was built in 1903 by a Bahamian who farmed Florida Bay sponges and also preached.  This was before roads. Everything was done by small skiffs and sailboats--even the 50 mile trip to Key west to sell the sponges.

Bud and Maggie explore Crane Point. The preserve also has an injured wild bird infirmary--an interesting outdoor arrangement of large contained areas for pelicans, hawks and other birds recuperating from injuries (mostly a result of contact with with humans).





Next order of the day was...happy hour!  A local woman recommended Sparky's Landing (http://www.sparkyslanding.com/) at Key Colony. It turned out to be great--25c shrimp and wings for happy hour, the best price we have found. And very dog friendly--they brought Maggie her own bowl of ice water!

Yesterday was so calm and foggy--they ended up closing some of the highways just north of us due to limited visibility. This is at the same time highways up way up were closed due to snow and ice--go figure!

We decided to pop Maggie in the car and go north for a ride through Homestead and the farmlands to the east of the Everglades. Turned out to be interesting--mile after mile of farms.  Everything from avacados, mangos and other fruits and veggies to nurseries raising all kinds of landscaping plants.  One nursery had huge 30' palms trees in pots--row after row.  We figure they are headed for Vegas-style resorts somewhere.

Just north of Alligator Alley we happened upon a casino (ok...we were sort of headed there!), the Miccosukee Resort and Gaming Center (http://www.miccosukee.com/). They have a large poker room and several rooms of slots, including a few that do keno--but the keno has extremely bad payouts.  Nothing like Foxwoods or Vegas. Nevertheless, I put $2 in to try it--and hit a $20 payout on the last 50c! Enough to fund our next happy hour.

When we got home the bay was still flat calm.  Perfect for relaxing with a book on the dock or exploring the water's edge.



Maggie browses for something interesting on our beach.




Does it get much more relaxing?