Tag Archives: Florida

14 October 2017:
Key West, Florida:
The Sun Also Sets

October 14, 2017 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

Here in the Conch Republic, not everything is normal.

Let me rephrase that. In Key West, normal is not normal.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. But this is a place where you could walk down the street dressed in a scarf and a sneeze. . .

and receive compliments on the scarf.

But in a sense, Key West has more or less gotten back to its version of normal, just a month after an unwelcome visit by Hurricane Irma which came ashore 20 miles north of Key West, over the Big Pine, Summerland and Cudjoe Keys.

Key West was partially submerged, and suffered some damage but the locals have been working non-stop to restore the place to greet visitors much more appreciated: tourists. Silver Muse is among the first cruise ships to return to the town.

It was a hot and almost impossibly humid day…and this is autumn.

Here’s our ship, making her maiden call:

And I was glad to see that the street art survived, including this giant homage to a famous photo taken at the end of World War II:

This evening we set sail for two days at sea, headed for Puerto Limon, and beyond that a transit of the Panama Canal.

Key West was a regular home to Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, and President Harry S Truman and other notables.

They have a New Year’s Celebration that is out of this world, but that is just one of many fantastic fantasy festivals here at the very bottom of Florida.

In Key West, you can stand at the corner of South and Whitehead Streets and take a picture of a monument that marks the southernmost point of the United States.

Well, it’s close.

Here’s the fine print: the monument is in the general vicinity of the southernmost point of the continental United States.

Whitehead Spit, just west of the monument, is the true southernmost point, but that piece of land is U.S. Navy property, not ordinarily accessible to tourists.

The actual southernmost point of the United States is not on the continent.

It is at Ka Lae, on the Big Island of Hawaii.

But wait, if we broaden our definition to include U.S. possessions, the southernmost part of the United States is tiny Rose Atoll, in American Samoa, an unincorporated territory.

Actually, there’s an even more obscure spot: the Amundsen–Scott Station at the Geographic South Pole.

You can’t get any further south than that. But since Antarctica is by treaty an international zone, it is not a part of the United States.

Not that they quibble about true facts much around here.

This is, after all, a place where every night hundreds of tourists and many locals gather at Mallory Square to watch the same thing that happened roughly 24 hours ago: the setting of the sun.

Same sun as you’ll seen everywhere else on the planet. Except here, it’s different.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

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Now available, the revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler, for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

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13 October 2017:
Fort Lauderdale, Florida:
Musings on a Grand Voyage

October 13, 2017 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

Welcome aboard for the start of the Grand Voyage of Silversea’s beautiful new flagship, Silver Muse.

We’re heading southwest from Fort Lauderdale, with a first stop at the quirky semi-independent somewhat incredible, and always enjoyable Key West, the southernmost point of the mainland of the United States. It will be our last touch of the U.S. for more than two months.

From there it will be westward to the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, where we we will perform final weights and measures before Silver Muse makes her first transit of the Panama Canal, the pathway between the seas.

When we reach the Pacific, we’ll head south down the coast of South America with calls in Ecuador, Peru, and Chile on the first leg of our voyage.

Here’s our plan for the first segment of the Grand Voyage:

The second leg will go down to the bottom of the continent, with closeup encounters with the fjords and icefields of Laguna San Rafael and Garibaldi Glacier. After rounding the Strait of Magellan. we’ll start heading north with a scheduled call at the Falkland Islands on our way to Montevideo, Uruguay and Buenos Aires, Argentina.

And the third part of the trip will take us to seven stops in Brazil, including some less-known places and one of the most famous places of the deep south, Rio de Janeiro. From there we make an arrival…and a departure…from the famous French prison island of Devil’s Island.

I hope you’ll join me here throughout.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

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If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

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16 Jan 2017:
Fort Lauderdale, Florida USA:
Circling Back

January 17, 2017 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Back in the U.S.A., and headed home to rinse the sand from our toes.

We wish guests safe travels, and look forward to seeing them again somewhere on this wondrous, aqueous sphere.

We’ll be back in May on Silver Wind for a peripatetic tour: the Mediterranean, a circle of the United Kingdom and Ireland, and then a jaunt up the west coast of Norway. We will twice sail up the River Thames and through the Tower Bridge, a feat that only a few cruise ships are able to accomplish. I hope you’ll join me here.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

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If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

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5 Jan 2017:
Fort Lauderdale, Florida USA:
Out to Sea

January 5, 2017 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Welcome aboard for Silver Spirit‘s first full cruise of 2017, with hopes for a happy, healthy, and peaceable new year.

I’ll be posting photos and stories here throughout the cruise. Here’s our plan:

The first two days will be at sea, as we head southeast from Florida.

Our initial port of call will be San Juan, Puerto Rico. From there to the tres chic port of Gustavia on the island of Saint Barts.

So that means Cuban-influenced American Florida to Spanish-American Puerto Rico and then Swedish-French Saint Barts.

But wait, there’s more. On to English-French Saint Kitt’s, then English Antigua and Tortola. We’ll then move north to the Dominican Republic, the Spanish-speaking country shared with the French-speaking nation of Haiti on the island of Hispaniola.

The final stop on this sojourn will be Grand Turk in the semi-independent nation of Turks and Caicos, a British dependency that uses (and very much reveres) the U.S. Dollar.

Welcome aboard.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

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If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

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29 January 2016
Fort Lauderdale, Florida: Turnaround to the Eastern Caribbean

January 29, 2016 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Welcome aboard. We’re heading out on a cruise that samples almost every one of the many imported and native cultures of the eastern Caribbean: British, Spanish, Swedish, French, Dutch, and American.

Some of the residents of the Key West Aquarium in Florida

From Fort Lauderdale, we sail to Grand Turk island in the British territory of Turks and Caicos.

Next, we’re on to the tourist enclave of Samana in the Dominican Republic, on the Spanish side of the island of Hispaniola, a place that also holds the much-less-developed nation of Haiti. I’ll talk a bit about theories why two nations on the same island are so different in my lecture aboard ship.

From Samana, Silver Wind heads to Road Town on Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. This is another playground of the Caribbean, with an interesting hodgepodge of history and arrivistes.

Next is Philipsburg, Sint-Maarten, the Dutch capital of the island that is shared with the French (who call their half St-Martin.)

Then on to Gustavia on the oh-so-tony island of Saint-Barthélemy, known to most as Saint Bart’s, and to many as one of the essential stopovers on the social global circuit: Saint Bart’s, San Tropez, Monte Carlo, Nantucket. The name of the capital and port, Gustavia, is a reminder of the one-time presence of the Swedish on the island; today it is tres, tres French.

And then we conclude at San Juan, Puerto Rico, with a very Spanish culture within the political and cultural bounds of an American territory.

Here’s our plan:

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27-28 January 2016
Key West, Florida: The Sun Also Sets

January 28, 2016 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Key West island, at the tip of the Florida Keys archipelago in the Straits of Florida, is a small place with an oversized place in American culture.

It is closer to Cuba (94 miles) than it is to Miami, about 129 miles away.

The Spanish established their colony in Florida. They named the little island at the bottom of the archipelago, Cayo Hueso, Spanish for “bone cay.” The cay, the low island, was littered with the bones of natives, who used it as a communal graveyard.

During the American Civil War, Florida seceded and joined the Confederate States. However, Key West remained in Union hands because of the U.S. Naval base there.

Major industries in the early 19th century included fishing, salt production, and salvage of the many shipwrecks offshore. About 1860, the salvage industry made Key West the largest and richest city in Florida, and the wealthiest town per capita in the U.S.

The town was noted for the unusually high concentration of fine furniture and chandeliers that locals used in their homes after salvaging them from wrecks.

The Caribbean is still littered with the wrecks of galleons and other vessels, and Key West is still a center for treasure hunters.

Sculpture by Seward Johnson at the old Customs House in Key West

At the beginning of World War II the Navy increased its presence greatly; at its peak employing 15,000 military personnel and 3,400 civilians. The base included Naval Air Station Key West, a training facility for pilots.

The area next to Fort Taylor became a submarine pen and was used for the Fleet Sonar School.

And it was here that President Harry S. Truman chose to make his Winter White House. He used the commandant’s home on 11 visits to Key West, a total of 175 days.

The Truman Little White House in Key West

Later, Dwight D. Eisenhower stayed in Key West recuperating from a heart attack. And in November 1962, John F. Kennedy visited Key West a month after the resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Presidents Clinton and Carter also made visits in their post-presidency.

Ernest Hemingway is said to have written part of A Farewell to Arms while living above the showroom of a Ford dealership at 314 Simonton Street. And it was here Hemingway was introduced to deep-sea fishing.

During his stay he wrote or worked on Death in the Afternoon, For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Snows of Kilimanjaro, and The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber. He used Depression-era Key West as one of the locations in To Have and Have Not—his only novel with scenes in the United States.

Tennessee Williams became a regular visitor in 1941 and is said to have written the first draft of A Streetcar Named Desire in 1947 at the La Concha Hotel. He bought a house in 1949 and listed Key West as his primary residence until his death in 1983.

A selection of watering holes in Key West, including the second incarnation of Sloppy Joe’s, a favorite of Ernest Hemingway

Today, they do not need much—or any—excuse for a party in Key West.

This is, after all, a place where every night hundreds of tourists and many locals gather at Mallory Square to watch the same thing that happened roughly 24 hours ago: the setting of the sun.

Sunset at Mallory Square, which comes complete with jugglers, fire-eaters, swird-swallowers, and tourists.

But there are a few special celebrations each year, including Conch Republic Independence Day, several Gay Pride events, and one festival that seems to combine all others: the Key West Fantasy Fest.

It is held for ten days leading up and including Halloween at the end of October. The 2015 event had the theme, “All Hallows Intergalactic Freak Show,” which seems to me to be pretty much the theme every year.

To our guests leaving in Fort Lauderdale, I wish you arrivederci: until we meet again.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

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If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

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18 January 2016
From the Gold Coast to the Mayan Coast

January 19, 2016 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Welcome aboard. We’re headed south by southwest from Florida’s Gold Coast to Mexico’s Mayan Coast, and then back by way of the Offshore Bank and the Conch Republic.

Allow me to explain.

We depart Fort Lauderdale aboard Silversea’s handsome Silver Wind headed first for the Mexican resort of Cozumel along the dead end of the Gulf of Mexico. And then we make a visit at Costa Maya, another tourist playground, a small place with a large history in the ancient cultures of Mexico.

From there we continue south along the Gulf Coast to the somewhat-less-visited port of Belize City in the somewhat-obscure nation of Belize (a former Imperial colony known as British Honduras until 1973). Belize is the only nation in Central America where the official language is English, albeit with a strong influence of Spanish and Creole.

After then to the island of Roatan in the nation now known as Honduras, before then as Spanish Honduras. It also was known as the original “Banana Republic”, a not-complimentary nickname bestowed on the nation and the region by an American writer in 1904.

We turn away from the coast to head to George Town, Grand Cayman–a most unlikely address for a large number of banks, accounting firms, lawyers, and multinational companies that come to worship the sun and very liberal taxation and regulatory schemes. There are some lovely beaches, too.

And finally, we have ahead of us an overnight at the very quirky port of Key West in Florida, the southernmost point in the continental United States. Just about anything goes here, and in fact the place even tried to go away from the mother country, an effort memorialized by Conch Republic flags.

I’ll be writing more about each of these ports in upcoming blogs. Here’s our plan:

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16 APRIL 2015
Fort Lauderdale, Florida: California Bound

April 16, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

California, here we come.

We begin a new cruise today, headed toward the north coast of South America at Cartagena, Colombia and then through the passage between the seas to the Pacific Ocean.

I’ve been through the Panama Canal more times than I can remember, and I look forward to the trip again and again. Especially coming from the Atlantic side, the sight of a large cargo or cruise ship sitting 80 feet above you on the top step of a watery ladder is something you do not forget.

After we reach the Pacific, we will turn north and make calls in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, and then arrive in California: San Diego and finally the spectacular city of San Francisco.

Welcome aboard.

Here’s our plan:

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

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3 APRIL 2015
Fort Lauderdale, Florida: Heading for a Bermuda Triangle

April 3, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Welcome aboard once again.

Silver Shadow is on her way to an unusual itinerary heading up the southeast coast of the United States to Savannah in Georgia, Charleston in South Carolina, Morehead City in North Carolina, and Norfolk in Virginia.

And then we will make a right turn, heading east for a three-day visit to Bermuda. We’ll complete the third leg of our Bermuda Triangle with a stop at Nassau before returning to Fort Lauderdale in two weeks.

I have it on good authority that the Bermuda Triangle actually used to be a Rectangle…before one side mysteriously disappeared.

Here’s our itinerary, which I fully expect we will complete:

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16-17 January, 2015
Floating on a Cloud into the Caribbean

January 16, 2015 Corey Sandler

Silversea Silver Cloud from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to Bridgetown, Barbados

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

After a vacation at home for the holidays, we’re back on the Cloud for a journey to the southern Caribbean and, on later cruises, to South America and up the amazing Amazon River.

We sail from Fort Lauderdale, with our first stop the bustling island of Nassau where we will not be alone.

This cruise includes several of the obvious suspects: well-known places like Nassau, San Juan, St. Barts, and Sint Maarten. Not that there’s anything wrong with them; they are well-known for good reason.

But there are also some less-visited gems including the lush green islands of Dominica, St. Lucia, and Barbados.

I’ll be posting photos and commentary throughout; I hope you’ll join me here.

Around the World with Corey Sandler

Tag Archives: Florida

14 October 2017:
Key West, Florida:
The Sun Also Sets

By Corey Sandler

13 October 2017:
Fort Lauderdale, Florida:
Musings on a Grand Voyage

By Corey Sandler

16 Jan 2017:
Fort Lauderdale, Florida USA:
Circling Back

5 Jan 2017:
Fort Lauderdale, Florida USA:
Out to Sea

29 January 2016
Fort Lauderdale, Florida: Turnaround to the Eastern Caribbean

27-28 January 2016
Key West, Florida: The Sun Also Sets

18 January 2016
From the Gold Coast to the Mayan Coast

16 APRIL 2015
Fort Lauderdale, Florida: California Bound

3 APRIL 2015
Fort Lauderdale, Florida: Heading for a Bermuda Triangle

16-17 January, 2015
Floating on a Cloud into the Caribbean

Cruise Photos and Stories by Corey Sandler