From Frozen Tundra to Tropic Thunda: Day 11: Lake Worth to Key West, FL

Hello all! We woke up on Friday morning feeling the seabreeze in our hair and ready to make our way to Key West. But first, we had to visit some Japanese gardens.

The Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens of Delray Beach was founded by George Morikami, a farmer and landowner who was part of the first wave of Japanese settlers in Florida at the turn of the 20th century. Upon his death, he donated his land to Palm Beach County for the purposes of making it available for public enjoyment.

Indoor exhibits tell the story of the settlers (some of whom were later interred by the US government during World War II) and contain Japanese art. It's quite a beautiful place.

Our next stop was in Miami, where we admired the curves and spikes of an international metropolis (our first, really, since DC)

and headed to the beach.

This is the view of US 1 in Florida, near Miami. We invite you to compare it to the similar shot taken out of the window of the Mossmobile in US 1 in Connecticut, and feel a pang of jealousy for the tropical bounty that we are now enjoying.

Our next stop of the day was the wacky yet alluring Coral Castle in Homestead, FL, just before Route 1 took us off the mainland to the Keys. The Coral Castle, which is not actually a castle but more of a compound filled with coral furniture and Masonic and astrological symbols that all weigh in at 2.2 million tons, was allegedly singlehandedly built and sculpted by one man, Latvian immigrant Ed Leedsklanin.

The official story is that wee Ed, 5 feet tall and 100 pounds, built the place to impress the 16-year old woman who jilted him at the alter, and was notoriously secretive about how he did it, often working at night-- but our guide was (intentionally, we guessed) skeptical, citing the meticulous math, physics, and occult imagery that comprise Coral Castle as the real motivations. (Interestingly in the story behind how the castle made its transition from labor of love to tourist attraction, we asked our guide to identify the current proprietors. He would only identify him/her/them as "a private owner." Wikipedia says that it's a company called Coral Castle, Inc.)

We ran into some first-class royalty in the Throne Room,

and witnessed some well-deserved disciplining in the Repentance Corner,

both of which were built for the family Ed never had.

As the winds picked up and we arrived at the start of the Keys, we stopped by Jules Undersea Lodge in Key Largo, which unfortunately was closed for the night. However, the huge front door to the "only underwater hotel" was swinging noisily, so we crept onto the grounds and saw the body of water under which we assumed guests were peacefully slumbering after scuba diving to their rooms earlier in the day.

And finally we were on the home stretch as the Overseas Highway wound over water and land to Key West, Florida! After 11 days of driving, thrills, and merriment, we victoriously reached our destination.