As a resident of Coral Gables, Florida I love our community’s interesting history and the colorful role it may, or may not, have played in the boom years leading up to the Great Depression. You won’t get much argument the city’s founder, George Merrick, was a visionary who created a town celebrating the South Florida lifestyle and sub-tropical climate. Coral Gables has turned out to be a community for the ages and today thrives as an oasis in the middle of urban Miami-Dade County.
In past blogs, I’ve covered the Seven Villages that still exist and some of the beautiful homes in those Villages. Coral Gables Magazine recently published an article I wrote taking a much deeper dive into the background, creation, and outcomes of those planned neighborhoods. If you’re curious for more, check out: Unraveling Merrick’s Villages.
However you choose to celebrate our great country this July 4th, I hope it’s fun and festive. Let’s focus on the positives as we join family and friends on this special day. I’m sharing a few shots of our precious grandchildren enjoying Family Fun Day in our wonderful NC mountain community.
Be safe!
I have been absent from posting for the last six months – due to some family health issues. Helping my mother navigate today’s medical system has been a daunting and emotionally draining undertaking – but more on that topic in a future post.
For today, I want to get back to capturing a small slice of what makes life in the North Carolina mountains so special. Lush mountain landscapes have always enveloped me with a sense of calm and comfort. And the High Country in western North Carolina really checks all the boxes for the perfect summer combination of cool temps, gorgeous scenery, and good potential wildlife spotting.
My husband and I chose to restart our usual summer Sunday adventures with a trip south on the Blue Ridge Parkway to the Chestoa View Trail. From the parking area (mile marker 320.8) you really can’t miss the steps leading down to the first overlook offering a scenic view across the gorge. The trailhead is not far away, taking hikers on an easy .6-mile loop. Unfortunately, the second overlook is overgrown. Still, we enjoyed the quiet, shady forest walk. Very few other visitors were around. We met one family when we arrived, and they pointed out the snakes just below the rocks at the first overlook (yes, apparently there were several). As we finished up, a cute fluffy white dog was leading her human down the path.
It’s a shame so many of the Parkway’s views are now obstructed. Untamed overgrowth has made it more and more difficult to see the vistas from the Parkway and it’s sad to see the state of disrepair to the road itself. I have read that funds have been allocated to do the needed maintenance, but I don’t see results. America’s most scenic and visited highway deserves more; and so do we.
I love Miami. The diversity here is what makes it such a wonderful place to live, with interesting people from all over the world, an endless array of activities, and of, course, the incredible weather we have. Well, at least the weather from Nov – May!
Miami benefits tremendously from its geography and for that same reason, is a wildlife haven. I can walk out my door in the Coral Gables neighborhood of Miami-Dade and see crocodiles, manatees, and a variety of birds befitting a zoological aviary.
Recently I decided to do a bit of a deeper dive into what was indigenous versus native and wrote about it for Coral Gables Magazine. The article would not have been possible without the incredible photography by my good friend and neighbor Don Elliott and his amazing captures of birds in action. Don also took the closeup of the croc that is my featured photo for this post. Just going through all his photos was a treat.
I hope you enjoy reading the article as much as I did writing it: Wildlife in the UrbanTropics.
