It was a long day, moving from the Glades up the edge of Fort Lauderdale, past Delray Beach where H’s Aunt Ruth used to live and up to Lake Worth. LOTS of traffic, a roll over auto accident, road construction and H’s CB radio that wasn’t working, didn’t help the stress. John Prince County Park has a golf course, soccer fields, fitness trails and miles and miles of paved bike trails. Lake Osborne and the attached canals that connect it to a half dozen other small lakes take up 2 sides of the campground. The third side is a VERY active county airport and a state college campus is across the road. The 14-day, short-term campsites are right along the lake and the two traveling brothers were assigned 2 close by spots in a small circular area. The other five of the seven sites had Quebec license plates on their vehicles. On the first day we were too tired to care. H and R needed their “Happy Hour – right away! On the 2nd day we took off to go explore the area – we needed to be sure of where the Tri Rail Train station was for the following day! H directed and Ron, obediently drove down to Delray Beach past the home where their Aunt and Uncle used to live and then out and up A1A along the narrow winding road, lined with 10 foot tall manicured hedges that protected and hid the mansions and estates of the “rich and famous” in Palm Beach. Since we had already attended the 100th Anniversary of the completion of the Flagler Railroad down on Pigeon Key, we used R&N’s GPS and located the Museum and Mansion of Henry Flagler. R parked the truck and the 4 of us approached the intricate black wrought iron gate that adorned the front fence to find out the museum was closed on Mondays. Go figure. Disappointment didn’t linger long after we climbed back into the truck and set the GPS to find the zoo in West Palm Beach – we were out exploring and now we were hunting for wild animals! The biggest wild animals there were a fat fuzzy lazy black bear, 3 half grown tiger cubs, a huge black Tapir and a young Jaguar whose coat was soft and spotted but his teeth said he wasn’t in the mood to be petted. The number of monkeys, brightly feathered ducks and long legged tropical birds was unreal! And did you know that if you rattle the animal feed handle they will all come a flapping! Great way to get up close pictures! In the Glades we watched Spoonbills while they swooshed their beaks thru the water, sifting for food. At the zoo we watched bright coral Flamingos with their entire heads upside down under water looking for bits of seafood for dinner!
Next day was our train trip to Miami. The Tri Rail Train is a double decker passenger train that runs from West Palm Beach south to Miami and back. Of course – SPFB! H prefers to play train tour guide on the weekend when us old folks get a reduced rate but we weren’t going to be there on the weekend. Ron and Nancy had wanted to do this trip! On our last trip, I didn’t remember how creepy the bus ride was from the train out to Miami Beach. The city map shows the area as “Little Havana”. Lunch was out on Lincoln Mall – just like the last time. The Panini and pizza was good but the people watching was even better!! N mentioned the “Art Deco” area so H led the way, via the boardwalk that followed the edge of the beach. Eventually we climbed back on another bus that took us back over the turquoise water. Up the steps and onto the people mover thru town to the Government Center where we climbed another set of steps to the Metro rail. Back to the Tri Rail station and we finished up our transportation chase with a northbound trip back to Lake Worth. We were exhausted!
