Thursday, 11/17/18 - We have been here a week and really haven't done any sightseeing in Fort Lauderdale but the one day with Bev so we decided to head out & see something in the area. We chose the Bonnet House down on Fort Lauderdale Beach. Actually, it is 35 acres of pristine property that was donated to the city of Fort Lauderdale in the 1990's to be used as a museum.
It is a subtropical historic house museum that was began in 1920 and took more than 20 years to complete. We had an extraordinary tour guide, Lorraine that was able to share the incredible history of this house and the families that lived here. The house was built by Frederic Clay Bartlett and his wife Helen, on property that her father gave to them. Fredrick was an incredible artist and all of the paintings, furnishings, china are original to the house. After Helen died, he married Evelyn who was married to Eli Lilly...yeah, that one. Evelyn was also an artist so the displayed works are of both of them. Evelyn lived to be 109 years old and was the one who donated the place to Fort Lauderdale. When you see an ariel view of the property, these acres are filled with fully grown trees and plants with the Atlantic ocean on one side, the inter coastal waters behind it and completely surrounded by huge hotels and developments. However, when you are on the property you feel completely removed from all of that. Lorraine gave a wonderful tour and history of the house and then she gave us a tram ride through the gardens and explained many of plants and trees on the property. We must have been there for a good 3 hours. It was a wonderful time. www.bonnethouse.org By the way, the Bonnet House is named for the bonnet lily that grows here. A beautiful yellow, water lily that the flower doesn't open up, they were in all the ponds on the estate.
It has been pretty warm and humid here and actually harder on Will than me. I, of course am laying out by the pool, greased up and spraying myself with a water bottle...not a bad way to spend November.
Friday, 11/18/11 - Well, how quickly the weather can change here, last night it just poured rain. One more time in the middle of the night I was running to close the 3 ceiling vents to keep the rain out. Then today, NO sun just rain off and on all day. A perfect day to just stay inside and read which is about all we did. Tomorrow is "moving day" we have a big trip in front of us.....50 miles down I95 to Miami where we will be for the next 2 months. This has been a nice park but we are hopeful to have more English speaking Americans in the next park. Much love to all our family and friends.
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