On January 15th we will depart for south eastern USA and Cuba. We will take one week traveling down to Miami, spend one week in Havana, Cuba, then fly back to Miami and drive down to Key Colony Beach, Florida. We have rented a house with Marsha's cousin Linda and her husband Dan for 1 month. On March 1, Will will join us for the trip back to Lexington taking two weeks to go to Ft Myers for Red Sox spring training, Sarasota to visit our friend Alex and Kathy McKenzie, and Atlanta to see Marsha's brother's family, including 2 new babies. Then a three day drive back with a stop in Washington to Lexington. We're eager to go where it will be warm and we can live more outside than we tend to in the winter in New England. We are also eager to stretch our minds beyond our current national nightmares and to remind ourselves that our country is better than the Trump regime. Stay tuned for the good news we discover in our travels! Love, -- Harry & Marsha P.S. Here are items regarding viewing posts and images in this blog:
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Click below right to see more about our plans for Cuba and the Florida Keys:
After we sgtarted planning our annual trip south to escape the New England Winter, we decided to add Cuba since it seemed possible now to make our own plans. We are flying on American Airlines to Havana and staying in an AirBnB for much less than it would take to stay in almost anywhere else in the US. We plan on concentrating our 8 days on the sights and sounds of Havana, possibly with a day trip away from the center.
Our AirBnB is with a very nice couple, Mylena and Otto. We like to stay in AirBnB's where we get to be in contact with the owner. Not only will they tell us about things to do and see in the neighborhood but they can be very helpful in arranging transportation for arrivals and departures. We have arranged for a very reasonably priced tour of Havana in one of the 1950 cars for which Havana is famous. After that, we have a number of museums and historical sites in Havana on our list for our Educational trip.
When we get back to Miami we will drive down to Key Colony Beach, half way down the Florida Keys -- quite close to Marathon. In addition to relaxing at the beach, we also plan to ride our bicycles and paddle our new kayaks. Sort of like Winter Camp. Also, hopefully there will be time to do some watercolor sketches. Stay tuned...
From: Wikipedia:
Of course, the development of the Florida Keys is relatively new and pretty artificial.
The Florida Coast Railway started service to Key West in 1912. Prior to the early 1950s, Shelter Key (on which most of Key Colony Beach is located) was a 97-acre low-lying island. Then, Phil Sadowski began dredging around the island, adding to its size and increasing its height to six feet above mean sea level, and later built developments on the island.
Around 1956-1957, residents of nearby Marathon began discussing incorporating the entire area. Sadowski was not keen on having his development swallowed up into Marathon, so he began the process of incorporating the island into its own city. The Florida Legislature passed legislation in June 1957 allowing incorporation, which local residents passed unanimously in September, thus creating today's Key Colony Beach.
Incorporation would become a blessing in 1960, when much of the city was destroyed by Hurricane Donna. As a separately incorporated city, Key Colony Beach received its own federal grant to rebuild; nearby Marathon (not yet incorporated) had to settle for a portion of the grant given to Monroe County. However, the storm (and subsequent takeover of Cuba by Fidel Castro) caused a depression of real estate prices, which would take several years to stabilize.