What's a visit to Florida without seeing at least one gator? Our first stop of the day was Swampy: The World's Largest Alligator, a roadside attraction that measures 200 feet long (almost 61 meters), where it sits alongside a highway waiting for visitors. There are real alligators in the surrounding park nearby, with gift shops and everything else that you'd want to have to lure a tourist.
Tiffany and His Artworks
After that, we went to the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art (The Morse Museum) in Winter Park, Florida. The Museum is noted for its Art Nouveau collection, and houses the most comprehensive collection of the works of Louis Comfort Tiffany. Most people are familiar with Tiffany & Co. jewelry, and Louis Comfort Tiffany was the son of the famous jeweler, renowned in his own right for his glass creations. He was a painter, architect, photographer and designer of pottery, furniture, enamels and jewelry in addition to glass lamps, windows, mosaics, and vases.
During his life, Louis set up foundation and study center for young artists, and a museum for his collection's and personal works. A few months after he died in 1933, Tiffany Studios filed for bankruptcy, and the Foundation had to move to New York City, and some of his prized collections were sold off. A fire destroyed many works, however fortunately, Hugh McKean and his wife Jeannette–who built the collections at the Morse–along with a number of former employees, have worked to preserve a lot of his works, which are now in the Morse Museum.
It costs $8 for admission and we thought it would be a small collection, but it has well over a dozen rooms and is very exquisite and extensive! We started off watching a short video to learn more about the Morse Museum and collection, and then tour the different artworks. We saw opalescent glass--the milky, light-diffusing glass that had tremendous commercial success and contrasted with the stained glass from Europe. We learned about Tiffany's glassmaking process and saw it manifested in lampshades, windows, pressed glass, and mosaics. We marveled at some of the art jewelry that was created for Tiffany & Co., which was distinct in design and color, using semiprecious stones and enamels. One of the most intricate pieces of jewelry was the Peacock Necklace, which features a peacock mosaic of opals and enamels surrounded by amethysts and sapphires, while the back of the necklace is an enameled design of pink flamingoes.
One of the exhibits that gets the most attention is the Tiffany Chapel, a Byzantine-inspired interior filled with ecclesiastical furnishings, as well as mosaic and glass decorations. It was meant to be a temporary structure, shown during the World’s Columbian Exposition, a world’s fair held in Chicago in 1893, but it's fortunately standing in all its glory in one of the rooms in the Morse Museum. We could have stayed for longer, and if we were locals we'd probably come back! Throughout the year, there are special events including live music, films, lectures, and the work is so magnificent that Lisette at least daydreamed of learning the art of glassmaking!
Another stop in Orlando was to pick up our mail. Something you might have wondered is "how do we get mail while we're traveling around the country?". Wel,l we have been using a service called Physical Mailbox. It's basically a small location where your mail gets redirected to and they have a website where we can see what has arrived. They scan the front of the envelope and we can decide to scan the contents or not. They even take out all the junk mail! We get a certain number of scans per month included in the plan and can pay per scan after we hit that number.. It's been great for us so we have decided to continue using it while in Nicaragua.
The McDonald's Orlando Experience
When people think of Orlando in Florida, most folks will have images of Disney World, EPCOT and theme parks come to mind. We'd been planning to visit at least a couple of these while we were here, as Michael has been to the theme parks but not to the Disney ones, and Lisette has been but she was 13 years old at the time. But we looked at how much it would cost to visit Disney World and EPCOT, for example, and even for the most basic tickets, it was very expensive! Plus we had the RV, would need to wait for each other in line while the other was with Sheila if we wanted to go on any rides, would need to pay extra for costly meals in the park... After mulling it over some more, we decided we'd skip this time but could go perhaps on another trip.
We didn't completely miss out on the theme park-like experience, however, as McDonald's, in its quest to localize when it makes sense, has the largest of its restaurants in Orlando. The McDonald's in Orlando is a massive 19,000-square-foot, 3-story building that not only has its own enormous arcade, and multi-level PlayPlace inside, but also offers a more extensive menu, with wood-fired pizza, pasta, and cheesesteaks! We didn't order any food when we were here, but we were amazed by how huge it was inside, with a ton of games and lots of kids running around. It definitely is looking to be on par with the other parks in the area--and hey, there's no admission fee to get in!
It was a fairly long drive--over 82 miles (131 kilometers), so it took us about a couple of hours to arrive at our designated Cracker Barrel for the night. Today may not have been as packed with attractions to see, especially compared to what folks typically do in Orlando, but we still have quite a few places to check out while we're in Florida!
Fender Bender
The next morning, we planned to head to our friend Chip and Chris' home in Tampa, doing some errands before we got there. We were at a Walmart parking lot after getting some groceries, about to drive out, when a Lincoln Navigator SUV started to back out of its parking spot. It kept coming and coming towards us, and Michael started honking his horn repeatedly, but it didn't stop! So it hit us, and started to drive away!
We were shocked that the person backed out without looking, didn't seem to care or listen to the repeated and long honks on the horn, and just drove off! As a common courtesy, when these things happen people should obviously stop, get out of the car, inspect the damage, and exchange vehicle/insurance info as necessary. Now, we figured that the damage wasn't major given that they weren't backing out at full speed, but the way they acted was so terrible! Where is the common courtesy these days...
Michael was able to run up to the driver's window as they were stuck behind some cars in the lot, but they refused to cooperate, and Lisette got a photo of the car and license plate as they drove off. We were really annoyed, and ended up calling a police officer to come. We knew nothing would likely happen, but perhaps we could get some kind of report for insurance. Looking at the front of our car, the SUV had bumped our e-bike rack, and one of the arms on it wasn't standing up anymore--this didn't affect the use of the rack, fortunately. Eventually the policeman came (we had to wait a couple of hours, it's busy in Florida and he had another case to prioritize where there were injuries in a car crash). He ran the license plate of the SUV and got their details, and gave us some documentation in case we wanted to file an insurance claim. When he spoke to the man who owned the SUV, the man simply said that he saw on his cameras that there wasn't any damage to our vehicle so just drove away. Hmmm.... For us, it was the principle of this that was irksome. If he had just gotten out of his car and apologized we would have been more apt to brush it off.
Chip, Chris and Paul
Finally, we arrived at Chip and Chris' place in the afternoon, and Sheila got to meet their adorable Labrador Retriever, Paul. By sheer coincidence, we'd traveled to Florida exactly a year prior, although without Sheila. Paul had trained to be a guide dog, but a little niggling cough prevented him from finishing, and Chip and Chris adopted him after that. He is one of the sweetest and gentlest dogs, and whenever Chip and Chris go on holiday, their friends and family always fight after who gets to look after Paul!
Sheila was a bit anxious meeting another dog (as she always initially is), but they met at a park across the road, which was perfect for helping them both feel at ease. Because it was well past lunchtime we were both hungry, and Lisette was excited to try a Filipino mung bean soup, which Chris makes regularly after finding a recipe online (in Tagalog, it's called Ginisang Munggo). Lisette used to eat this soup all the time as a kid, and it's one of her favorites! Come to think of it, we're not sure who was more excited--Chris to see what Lisette thought of the soup after trying it, or Lisette to be able to eat one of her fave dishes from her childhood. At any rate, it was absolutely delicious and it's a very healthy soup, a must-try!
Sheila and Paul were adorable playing together, sharing toys (or Sheila stealing a toy when Paul wasn't looking). In the evening we had a delicious dinner made by Chef Chris, spaghetti squash pasta, with a Caesar salad, and sourdough bread. We also cracked open the tiki mix that we bought in St. Augustine to drink along with the meal. That night, we got to sleep in the guest room, and even Sheila had a guest bed, using Paul's comfy day bed in the living room. We'll be exploring a different part of Florida tomorrow that we hadn't seen from our previous visit, and getting things ready in the RV ahead of making our way back to Texas, the state from where we'll cross the border into Mexico!
