Places Visited:
Florida: Sarasota, Sun N Fun RV-Resort

Thursday, December 29 through Sunday January 1: Sun N Fun RV-Resort in Sarasota, FL $35.30 FHU with 50-amps, paved interior roads N27° 20.66' W82° 24.96'

We continue to have a great time here in Sarasota. The weather has been nice, what else could we ask for? On Thursday Joyce led us to Sarasota's Jungle Gardens a private enterprise on the banks of Sarasota Bay. In the early 1930's David Lindsay purchased a 10-acre piece of land that was listed in the City records as "an impenetrable swamp". He had plans to turn this soggy banana grove into his home. A friend and nurseryman, Pearson Conrad, helped Mr. Lindsay chart the streams and build the lakes that visitors enjoy to this day in the gardens. Mr. Lindsay and Mr. Conrad planted thousands of exotic trees, shrubs and flowers, many of which still exist today. In late 1940 Mr. Lindsay decided to as a special place for local gardening enthusiasts and tourists. Today it is the oldest attraction in the area and one of the oldest in the State of Florida.

While everyone is familiar with the ubiquitous banana some of you might not be familiar with the bloom of a banana tree. That is it to the left. The bloom is truly colorful and each day a new set of blooms emerge from that big purple hatchery.

Check out the bananas on the right. You do see the ripe grapefruits hanging on the tree behind the banana, don't you?

That is a great egret on the left and a Louisiana heron on the right. These birds and dozens more are readily visible around any body of water.

Moorhens are really colorful birds. The camera does not do them justice.

To the left is a large staghorn fern hanging by chain from a large limb..........................................Mature Royal Palms such as these decorate the landscape of upscale yards and buildings in south Florida.

Next we traveled a few miles north to the John & Mable Ringling Museum Complex consisting of the 66-acre Ringling estate with three gems of the past: an internationally recognized Museum of art filled with masterpieces; a circus museum that revisits the excitement of the big top; and John and Mable's magnificent, 32-room Venetian-Gothic style mansion on beautiful Sarasota Bay.

In the John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art, you'll find Ringling's renowned collection-an astounding assortment of 17th century baroque paintings, including giant works that take up entire walls of special rooms designed to show off these paintings and the ancient Greek, Roman and baroque sculptures.

The Circus Museum offers a snapshot of circus history, with lavish costumes, intricately painted and carved wagons, and clown and performing arts memorabilia from the long and eventful history of the Ringling Bros. Circus.

And last but not least Ca d' Zan, the Ringlings' winter residence perched upon Sarasota Bay beckons amazed visitors. A tour of Ca d' Zan provides another look at the magnificent collection of decorative arts, furnishings, and paintings that spotlight how the wealthy half lived during the "Roaring Twenties".

While Joyce and I have toured these places before we chose to concentrate on walking the grounds today. The grounds include a wonderful rose garden and many magnificent banyan trees, a sausage tree, giant bamboo groves, stately oaks and royal palms and the ever present citrus trees complete and statues that for some reason did not fit into inside decor.

The sausage tree is a unique tree that we see from time to time in south Florida. That is the bloom on the left and the "sausage" aka fruit on the right. The blooms and the fruit hang from long "ropes" dropping from branches high above.

The sausage shaped fruit is woody and ineble but serves as an interesting garden novelty. Sausages come in two shapes long ones and short ones. The long sausages are produced by flowers that have been cross-pollinated ie., pollinated by flowers on another tree while the short sausages are from self-pollinated flowers (pollinated by flowers from the same tree).

The beautiful deep purple blossoms are fascinating as well. In their native African habitat the flowers are pollinated by bats thus they bloom at night. The blossom cluster resembles a chandelier in that it hangs from long "ropes" that have "arms" containing the blossoms that resemble the lights. The sausage tree evolved by dropping flowers down away from the leaves so that the pollinating bats sonar location sensor would not confuse the blooms with thick leaves. In South Florida blossoms are pollinated by insects.

We just loved the reflections on this tranquil pond.

We photographed these flamingos at Jungle Gardens in Sarasota. The bright color in these birds is truly astonishing.

These flamingos are part of Jungle Gardens Greater American Flamingo, breeding program. The Greater American Flamingo is endangered and all of the flamingos in these pictures are of this species. They nest on a small island in the middle of one of the lakes.

It is hard to take your eyes off these beautiful native birds. So far we have not seen any of these flamingo in the wild, however, there may not be any of them in the wild.

These are Banyan trees on the grounds of John & Mabel Ringlands estate. A much larger banyan tree can be viewed at the Eddison estate in Ft. Myers. "Banyan" is a common name for all fig trees which produce multiple trunk. The word "Banyan" means "trader" or "merchant" in India where these trees are native. The traders/merchants were usually found in open air markets held under the shelter of these mammoth trees. A really large Banyan can cover several acres of land. Some of these on the Ringling estate might cover a 1/4 acre while one at the Eddison estate in Ft. Myers probably covers an acre. The auxiliary trunks start as vine-like aerial roots hanging from the branches. When aerial roots reach the soil, they thicken and over time become auxiliary trunks which support the enormously long branches.

This is Ca d' Zan John & Mable Ringling's winter home ( Venetian-Gothic style mansion) here in Sarasota that captures the exuberant lifestyle of America's spectacular "Roaring Twenties."

There is a LOT of marble and sandstone in this place.

This statute was being consumed by one of the large banyan trees on the grounds of the John Ringling estate in Sarasota.

On Friday we headed for the barrier islands near Sarasota. Joyce had planned a day of visiting and walking through several nature parks on the keys.

This is a mangrove estuary on one of the barrier islands (keys) near Sarasota.

Joyce captured this picture of horseshoe crab shells washed into a mangrove thicket. To us it looked like a horseshoe crab graveyard. Two different kinds of mangrove are represented here. The hard to see black pencil like roots of the black mangrove are what seem to be entrapping these horseshoe crab shells. The gray roots belong to red mangrove trees.

This is looking to the east from one of the keys off Sarasota with several mangrove islands between us and the mainland in the distance. Is this a beautiful day or what?

These are pictures of Sarasota Bay. The temperature was around 78 degrees without a cloud in the sky. Does it get any better?

To the left is a juvenile night heron that is sure that we can't see him.

To the right is a horseshoe crab shell that washed up on a deserted beach.

The small sandpiper in these pictures is availing himself of a meal of opportunity. They normally feed on small crustacean in the surf but obviously will pick the meat out of a dead crab.

This clam shell was on one of the area beaches.

Until next week just remember how good life is.

Mike & Joyce Hendrix