Guided Discovery: Local history discovered - Day 133

The temperature at 7:30 AM was 72 degrees under cloudy skies with a 50% chance of showers. Chicago was 12 degrees.

I volunteered to take Kodi for her morning walk. We walked across the bridge to an open lanscaped lot right across the street from this home and spent a twenty minutes playing retrieve with a soft Frisbee. Kodi had a ball and caught the Frisbee on almost every good throw. Then we took a walk into the neighborhood and quickly discovered an unusual small park (i.e., the width and depth of a standard Chicago lot) that looked out on Biscayne Bay.

Expensive home at the end of the Grove Isle Bridge

We were immediately joined by a couple with a 5 year old female yellow lab and a young woman with two yellow labs. The dogs were English and on the heavy side. Kodi had a ball getting the other dogs to chase her. At 55 pounds and highly athletic the other dogs could not keep up. Between the Frisbee and the chasing the Furry Kid got a thorough workout.

While the dogs were playing I chatted with the couple and in the process asked about the structures (houses?) we saw yesterday in the Biscayne Channel. They were visible from the park. "Oh," they said. "that's Stiltsville" and went on to explain that the structures were built on the shallow water in 1929 to allow wealthy Florida residents to drink and gamble outside the one mile limit. Click on the link to see the Wikipedia article.

Baldwins, Sessions and Shaw house

Jimmy Ellenburg house

Today there are 7 remaining structures. All the others have been destroyed or damaged by the numerous hurricanes that have struck the area. The remaining 7 are now part of Biscayne National Park and are posted against trespassing.

Kodi and I returned to the boat and she promptly passed out.

Later in the day, we launched the bikes with the goal of riding into Coconut Grove and I immediately ran into problems. My chain, which was badly rusted, was causing the gears to slip. First goal, find a bike shop. Note: The salt water is murder on the bikes that sit on deck uncovered.

We rode slowly south and found the downtown business district. It was large (several streets), charming, upscale and filled with restaurants, jewelers, book stores, clothing stores, antique stores, art galleries an improv theatre and lots more.

Inquiring at Starbucks we learned from a local that there was no bike shop. She directed us to a sports shop across the street that might be able to help. The proprietor directed us to a bike shop on the next block. Turns out the shop, Highgear Cycling, was a Bianchi dealer. Bingo. We left our bikes with them with instructions to tune them up. Problem solved.

I also stopped and got my watch fixed. Readers may recall that the battery went dead in Key West. After the clerk replaced it, the three chronograph hands would not return to their starting settings. The clerk declared the watch broken and stated she was not qualified to repair it. Mr. Robin Azoulay at Robin in the Grove Fine Jewelry & Watches immediately diagnosed the problem and with a few presses of the controls made everything right. Another problem solved.

After picking a place for dinner, we called Enterprise to be picked up. We agreed to meet the driver at the Dinner Key Marina (the one we could not get into) and walked there. In the process, we discovered, quite unexpectedly, another piece of history. The marina and the adjacent City Hall building were once a Pan American Airlines terminal for their famed flying boats. Again, Wikipedia provides the details. Click on the link for more information.