Here, this image is looking from the pier across the edge of the island. This gives a good representation of what the islands are made of; large coral islands with little to no earth only some sand.
Pam and Jeff travelled to Florida November of 2001. The trip initially was set to visit Jeffs mother Mary 'The Mare' and to visit Pams longtime freind who lives in the Florida Keys.
Little did we realize the changes to come.
Click on any of the below links to see the photos from that stage of the "road trip."
Click on the images to see full size photos.
| Looks like Pam is diggin in the tash. Not really, its just the angle of the camera shot. She is getting into drawers to get cooking items. | |
| One heck of a night. Everything got blurry after a few brews. I think I saw a putty tat! Yup! I tat I think putty a saw! | |
| Pam and Jeff relaxing on the couch. | |
| On the fishing boat. Left to right; Stephanie, Pam, Scott. Behind the camera is Jeff. The water is a beautiful shade of blue, like the sky. The small mangrove islands dot the Florida bay. | |
| Left to right; Stephanie, Pam, Scott. | |
| Closer yet! Left to right; Stephanie, Pam, Scott. | |
| Closer yet again! Left to right; Stephanie, Pam. | |
| Left to right; Stephanie, Pam. | |
| Another shot while cruising. Left to right; Stephanie, Pam, Scott. | |
| Left to right; Stephanie, Pam, Scott. | |
| Left to right; Jeff, Pam, Scott. | |
| Left to right; Jeff, Pam, Scott. | |
| On the largest island in the Florida Bay, there is an old post. The mosquito's there were fierce small black terrors that left many a red bump on our legs. | |
| Stephanie and Pam walking back from the old building. If you get off into the grass, you would be wise to have on some mosquito repellant. It was nice and sunny while we were riding out in the boat that day. | |
| A beautiful view of the palm trees swaying in the wind. The island has a nicely manicured lawn with the cannons sitting at attention facing towards the bay. | |
| Stephanie and Pam hamming it up walking back to the boat dock. | |
| We stopped at an island that was attacked in the early 1800's by the Indians. These Indians killed many people here. All that is left now is the ruins of the houses and walks. The houses where made of tabby, and mixture of crushed shells, sand, lime and water. Here, this image is looking from the pier across the edge of the island. This gives a good representation of what the islands are made of; large coral islands with little to no earth only some sand. |
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| This is Jeff and Pam after having their lunch on the island; Stephanie took their photo. | |
| When we were boating back towards Islamadora, we came across a number of bottlenose dolphins swimming and playing. It was very difficult to get a good image of them since they swam so fast and we never could tell exactly where they were going to surface next. Here is an image of one of these dolphins jumping. | |
| Here is an image of a group of the dolphins swimming away just under the surface of the water. | |
| Back at the domicile, I took a photo from the hallway of Pam and Stephanie sitting on the couch having a cold drink. | |
| Before we left the Florida Keys, I wanted to get a photo of our guests' home. Here is Pam sitting outside in the sun reading in the early morning light. The red truck is the truck we rented. | |
| As I walked back to the house, I took another photo of Pam reading. | |
| And here is the obligatory close-up. Wait! She blinked her eyes at exactly the time I took the picture. | |
| The next day we all got up early and drove to Key West. Due to the recent terrorist activity of September 11 2001, the tourist activity was down. We shopped and got a decent room to sleep in for a total of $50. Not too bad since many in the area were over $130 a night. Since we only planned to be in the room to sleep and shower, we were interested in low cost, low frills rooms. This place fit the bill. Here Pam is showing us the bathroom. | |
| Pam is shown here walking on the outside of the rooms to the room our traveling companions stayed in. Note how nice a friendly the atmosphere of this place is. | |
| Here is Pam and Jeff outside Mel Fishers Maritime Museum, photo taken by Stephanie. Mel Fisher found the Atocha treasure at an extreame cost. | |
| Photo number 2 of Pam and Jeff outside Mel Fishers Maritime Museum. | |
| Image taken at Mallory Square of the 'One-Man-Band'. This guy actually played pretty good music. | |
| Another image of the 'One-Man-Band'. He looks like Crocodile Dundee. | |
| While walking and seeing the sights in Mallory Square, I held the camera over my head and got this shot of the crowd and water. Not too bad for not being able to see what I was getting. | |
| This guy is always a big hit there at Mallory Square. He not only tells mediocre jokes he juggles very well. | |
| Here is the Pirate Juggler walking the tight rope. The wind coming off the water was high this evening, and he had a semi-difficult time walking the rope. I think a few people were cheering for him to fall into the water. | |
| What is this photo? | |
| A beautiful sunset at Mallory Square, the southern most 'public' location in the continental US. | |
| Another beautiful sunset photo taken at Mallory Square, the southern most 'public' location in the continental US. | |
| There has to be a few of these with every set of photo's taken. This photo turned out sort of bad due to Pam and I being in front of the sunset, which made her and I turn out very dark. Bummer. | |
| A bizarre dude. The freaked out looking guy had some strange metal claw like objects on his fingers. I tried to get these in focus, and the entire photo came out fuzzy. | |
| Just for the heck of it, Jeff got into the photos with a newlywed couple. | |
| Although it is was very dark that night and we did not get to the sign until well after 9PM, I wanted to get a photo of Pam by the sign leading into Mallory Square. Here it is. | |
| Jeff and Scott standing outside the Capt. Tony's Saloon. This saloon is the original Sloppy Joe's, the watering hold of Earnest Hemmingway | |
| Stephanie and Scott shown here listening to music in the original Sloppy Joe's. The interior of this watering hole looks like the inside of an old blacksmith barn. From where Stephanie and Scott are sitting, if you turn the corner right you would go past a insert room that now barely holds a pool table, but closer inspection would reveal large wrought iron rings embedded in the brick walls with a fire hearth on one wall. | |
| Another group came into Sloppy Joe's and enjoyed the music. The fella holding the camera was extremely active and into the music. I think also extremely inebriated. It was a good show. Here they are contemplating the workings of a camera after taking a photo of us at the next table. | |
| Putting a good buzz on at a Key West Watering hole is, from left to right; Pam, Jeff, Stephanie, and Scott. | |
| Here we have The King of Rock and Roll and Bernie, famous from the hit movie series "Weekend at Bernie's" enjoying liquid refreshment at a hangout in Key West. So now we know the King hangs not at a Burger King in Michigan, but at Key West. | |
| This is a photo of the miniature dear nibbling at the grass on Big Pine Key. The government stopped development on Big Pine Key due to these miniature deer being on the endangered specie list. | |
| This is a photo of the miniature deer nibbling at the grass on Big Pine Key. Big Pine Key is the only location that these miniature deer are native to the United States. | |
Click on the images to see full size photos.
After leaving the Florida Keys, Pam and Jeff drove across alligator alley to Bradenton Florida and then to Anna Maria Island where we stayed at the condo.
| Pam and I visited an Indian Mound site in Brandenton which is now a Florida State Park. On the mound were the ruins of where white settlers build a home in the 1800 and fell into ruins in the early 1900's This is a view looking into the jungle like area which surrounds the mound. |
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| This is another view looking into the jungle like area which surrounds the mound, looking to the North. |  |
| This is another view looking towards the braden River which flows into Tampa Bay from atop the mound. The river is located just beyond the palms. You can see the trees on the other side of the river if you look close. There is Pam waving at the bottom of the mound on the crushed shell path that leads to the river. |
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| This is another view looking towards the braden River which flows into Tampa Bay at the base of the mound. Now Pam about three fourths the distance to the river. |
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| This is another view looking into the jungle like area which surrounds the mound. |  |
| A side view of the plantation home. This home had fallen into ruins when the daughters of the American Revolution found that The Confederate Secretary, during his escape after the fall of the South, had evaded the Northern troops by staying at the house. The plantation owner eventually sold the plantation to pay off his debts. The fall of sugar prices helped in the demise of his plantation. |
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| A frontal view of the plantation home. Note the water cistern on the right side of the house. This collected the rainwater from the gutters that ran around the house. Fresh water was very scarce in Florida in the 1800's. The cistern had small minnows that swam in the water to eat any mosquito larva. The cistern was divided into two sections, both with sloping bottoms that angled towards the well water bucket. The divider was porous limestone that assisted in the purification of the water. |  |
| This image is a civil war flag, which is at the plantation. |  |
| This image is a close up of the flag at the plantation. Seven stars on a blue field with two red stripes with a white stripe in the middle. |  |
| This 1950's ish street scene make me think of times gone by. Pam and I were driving to the Braden Castle ruins when we entered this neighborhood which surrounds the ruins park. I just and to stop and take a picture of this. |  |
| Pam standing at the fence which surrounds Dr. Braden's ruins. This is where the namesake for the city of Brenton lived during the 1840's. Jeff is attempting to leave Lafayette Cemetery #1 (established 1789), we'd gotten locked in! |
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| The Braden historic sign describing the ruins of Dr. Braden. |  |
Click on the images to see full size photos.
Pam and Jeff drove on the fourth day to Sebring Florida from Anna Maria Island to visit with Stephanie's mom. While there we went to the VFW for a few drinks. Pat introduced us to her friends, one of who is a pilot and he invited us to go flying with him the next morning.
| Pam is checking her sun glasses as the Fred the pilot opens the hanger doors to get the plane out for a spin. |  |
| Pilot Fred and co-pilot Jeff. |  |
| Pam and Jeff standing beside the plane they are getting ready to jump from. |  |
| A backlit image of Fred while piloting the plane shows wonderful blue skies of Florida. |  |
| This is an image of the lake that Pat lives on in Sebrine. Pam was attempting to get a photo of thier house from the air. |  |
| Holy palm pilot Batman! Thats Jeff piloting the plane. I would not want to be up there with him then. He was nervious of the air turbulance. Photo taken by Pam in the back seat. |  |
| Pams photo of the flowers growing outside of Sebrine from the Piper. |  |
| More photos of the flowers growing outside of Sebrine from the Piper. |  |
| left to right: Pam, Pat, Bob; standing outside Pat and Bobs home in Sebrine Florida. |  |
| Pam, Pat and Bob standing outside thier house before we leave. |  |
Click on the images to see full size photos.
| Da Crib. This is Mare's condo on Anna Maria Island. This is a nice place that is fairly close to the water. You can see the truck we rented in the parking space below the main floor. |  |
| The view from the patio leading into the condo. Nice, warm and pleasent. |  |
| The inside living quarters. All the necessary things, necessary for us to need. |  |
| The view into where the block is located. |  |
Last Modified December 18 2001