I-95 Gas Price Update - Sunday, November 22, 2009

Below are average posted prices as of Sunday, November 22, 2009 for unleaded regular gas for selected I-95 exits

For more I-95 information, visit www.i95exitguide.com, the Internet’s largest and most complete website devoted to America’s Interstate Main Street. Detailed exit service listings… lodging, camping, food, gas and more for every exit from Maine to Florida!

Traveling along Florida’s I-4? Gas prices are now available for selected cities along this route as well. Visit www.i4exitguide.com

I-95 Gas Price Update - 8/6/09

Below are average posted prices as of Thursday, August 6, 2009 for unleaded regular gas for selected I-95 exit cities:

Houlton, ME	: $2.74/gal		Springfield, VA	: $2.49/gal
Bangor, ME	: $2.60/gal		Dumfries, VA	: $2.44/gal
Augusta, ME	: $2.65/gal		Fredericksburg, VA	: $2.41/gal
Portland, ME	: $2.66/gal		Ashland, VA	: $2.45/gal
Portsmouth, NH	: $2.63/gal		Richmond, VA	: $2.45/gal
Seabrook, NH	: $2.67/gal		Petersburg, VA	: $2.41/gal
Danvers, MA	: $2.65/gal		Emporia, VA	: $2.44/gal
Dedham, MA	: $2.59/gal		Roanoke Rapids, NC	: $2.53/gal
Mansfield, MA	: $2.59/gal		Wilson, NC	: $2.62/gal
Attleboro, MA	: $2.59/gal		Selma, NC	: $2.53/gal
Pawtucket, RI	: $2.58/gal		Fayetteville, NC	: $2.55/gal
Providence, RI	: $2.58/gal		Lumberton, NC	: $2.54/gal
Warwick, RI	: $2.58/gal		Rowland, NC	: $2.53/gal
Wyoming, RI	: $2.60/gal		Dillon, SC	: $2.53/gal
New London, CT	: $2.70/gal		Florence, SC	: $2.41/gal
New Haven, CT	: $2.77/gal		Manning, SC	: $2.37/gal
Bridgeport, CT	: $2.86/gal		Santee, SC	: $2.36/gal
Greenwich, CT	: $2.84/gal		Walterboro, SC	: $2.37/gal
Rye, NY	: $2.84/gal		Savannah, GA	: $2.43/gal
New Rochelle, NY	: $2.75/gal		Richmond Hill, GA	: $2.47/gal
Bronx, NY	: $2.88/gal		Darien, GA	: $2.51/gal
Secaucus, NJ	: $2.92/gal		Brunswick, GA	: $2.50/gal
Woodbridge, NJ	: $2.85/gal		Woodbine, GA	: $2.55/gal
East Brunswick, NJ	: $2.71/gal		Kingsland, GA	: $2.56/gal
Bordentown, NJ	: $2.46/gal		Yulee, FL	: $2.57/gal
Cherry Hill, NJ	: $2.46/gal		Jacksonville, FL	: $2.56/gal
Penns Grove, NJ	: $2.46/gal		Saint Augustine, FL	: $2.58/gal
Wilmington, DE	: $2.47/gal		Palm Coast, FL	: $2.62/gal
Newark, DE	: $2.45/gal		Daytona Beach, FL	: $2.56/gal
Elkton, MD	: $2.47/gal		Orlando, FL	: $2.56/gal
Perryville, MD	: $2.44/gal		Cocoa, FL	: $2.50/gal
Aberdeen, MD	: $2.49/gal		Palm Bay, FL	: $2.65/gal
White Marsh, MD	: $2.49/gal		Fort Pierce, FL	: $2.65/gal
Baltimore, MD	: $2.51/gal		Cape Coral, FL	: $2.65/gal
Greenbelt, MD	: $2.49/gal		West Palm Beach, FL	: $2.66/gal
District Heights, MD	: $2.49/gal		Miami, FL	: $2.66/gal

For more I-95 information, visit www.i95exitguide.com, the Internet’s largest and most complete website devoted to America’s Interstate Main Street. Detailed exit service listings… lodging, camping, food, gas and more for every exit from Maine to Florida!

Traveling along Florida’s I-4? Gas prices are now available for selected cities along this route as well. Visit www.i4exitguide.com

Daytona Lagoon - When it Rains on Your Daytona Beach Vacation

Daytona Beach is the perfect place to enjoy the sun, the ocean, and the beautiful Florida weather.  While it’s hot as… um, somewhere really hot… inland, the coastal breezes and the Atlantic Ocean offer plenty of relief from scorching temperatures.

Unfortunately, there is also a really, really good chance that you’ll get rained out if you visit Daytona Beach from May to September.  And as fabulous as the beaches of Daytona are, they are considerably less fabulous during a thunderstorm.

Daytona Lagoon offers the perfect solution when you’re vacation gets rained out.

As the name might suggest, Daytona Lagoon is an outdoor waterpark.  Which, OK, doesn’t sound like the best place to go to escape rain, thunder, or lightning.

But, Daytona Lagoon is also a huge indoor arcade!  It is an air conditioned nirvana of flashing lights and ticket spouting video games.  You and your family (or loved one, if you’re the type of couple who finds competition romantic), can spend hours challenging each other to skeeball tournaments and electronic dance offs.  And that’s just what you can do with your tokens.

Daytona Lagoon also offers laser tag, rock climbing, mini golf and ridiculously fast go kart racing.

The mini golf course is devoid of windmills or waterfalls and can easily be played in about an hour with a family of four.  It’s definitely not a world class putt putt course, but it’s clean and fun.  You get 18 holes for $7 per person.

The laser tag is fantastic.  Of course, this is the only place I’ve ever played laser tag, so I have nothing to compare it to, but I had a blast.  Even if I did have someone else’s kids whooping and hollering about how easy I was to shoot the entire time.  I was nervous going into it, but the staff was very helpful and the arena was safe enough that I would feel comfortable letting my 9 year old run loose inside of it.  You’ll pay $7 per person, per game for laser tag.

The rock climbing is much, much harder than it looks - and extremely fun.  There are four seperate courses and you can race against other climbers.  Your victory (or defeat, in my case) will be announced by a giant bell when you reach the top.  A $6 rock climbing ticket will get you 3 climbs and 2 limp noodle arms.

Of course, a rainstorm in Florida rarely lasts all day.  When the clouds break, you can immediately hop out and enjoy the waterpark.  If you have school aged kids, this is a nice, safe alternative to the slightly more intimidating ocean - what with the sharks and rip tides and lack of depth markers.  Admission to the waterpark varies, but starts as low as $11.99.

Your best deal is to make a day of Daytoona Lagoon and pay for the all access pass.  You’ll certainly find plenty of ways to amuse yourself, and lots of different activites to keep up with the short attention spans of school agers and teenagers.

As an added bonus, parking in the Daytona Beach parking garage can be purchased at a discounted price of $3 from Daytona Lagoon.  You can park here to spend the day at Daytona Lagoon, and leave your vehicle there when you head out for dinner or a trip down the Daytona boardwalk at night.  Daytona Lagoon is just a short walk from the beach, the boardwalk, shopping, and several restaurants.

If you’re with kids, I highly recommend you make the 3 block trek to Cruisin Cafe Bar & Grill.  There is a ton of Nascar memorabilia to look at, the service is great, and the food is very reasonably priced for a themed restauarant just off a tourist beach.

Daytona Beach is an excellent vacation destination to enjoy the warmth and sun.  But if the sun refuses to shine, there are still plenty of ways to enjoy your Daytona Beach vacation.

Bishop Planetarium, Bradenton, Florida

by Barbara Weibel at Hole In The Donut Travels

As a child, I’d sneak out after dark, lie on the prickly grass in our back yard, and gaze up at the heavens. Chicago’s street lights limited my stargazing to the major constellations: the Big Dipper, Little Dipper, Orion, and Scorpio, but I was delighted in my ignorance. I never imagined how many billions of stars were visible in the night sky until I made my first cross-country camping trip at the age of 18. In a remote campground far from city lights, I crawled from my tent after dark, peered up into the moonless sky, and was astonished to see a bright white arc painted across the sky. It was my first view of a Milky Way so choked with stars that it was impossible to identify individual constellations. I was hooked!

Astronomy still fascinates me, although these days I rarely have the opportunity to lie on my back in the middle of the night and count stars. Fortunately, I recently visited the Bishop Planetarium, which is part of the South Florida Museum in Bradenton, Florida. The planetarium’s 50-foot high dome theater is equipped with a $1-million state of the art digital projection system; one of only three systems of its kind in the world. I stepped into the darkened dome and groped my way up the steps to a plush theater seat with only seconds to spare before Live Star Talk began. As I reclined my seat for a better view, the dome was magically transformed into the Florida night sky and soon an astronomer was explaining how to identify the stars, planets and constellations visible from Bradenton.

In addition to Live Star Talk, the Planetarium offers a number of shows, including Two Small Pieces of Glass, which explains how the telescope has changed the way we look at our universe; Extreme Planets, which explores the fairly recent discovery of planets orbiting other stars in our Milky Way; and The Ultimate Universe, a stunning 80-quadrillion mile virtual journey through the solar system.

Bishop Planetarium is located at 201 10th St. West in Bradenton. Show times are: 1:15 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday; 1:15 and 8:15 Friday and Saturday; and 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $15.95 for adults, $13.95 for seniors (60+), $11.95 for children 4-12, and free for children under 4, and includes entry into the South Florida Museum and the Parker Manatee Aquarium as well as the Planetarium.

Photos courtesy of South Florida Museum

John and Mabel Ringling Art and Circus Museum, Sarasota, Florida

by Barbara Ann Weibel at Hole In The Donut Travels

In the world of museums it would seem unlikely if not downright preposterous to find circus artifacts mingled with fine art, yet that is precisely what visitors find at the John and Mabel Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida. With a name like Ringling, the circus connection is not surprising -  the benefactors of the museum are the famed couple who owned and operated the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus for many years. What does surprise is the impressive collection of European, Asian and American paintings and sculptures.

With the great fortune amassed through their circus, John and Mabel Ringling traveled extensively throughout Europe. In Italy, especially, they developed a passion for fine art, which led to John becoming a regular at New York and London art auctions during the 1920’s. He purchased masterpieces by Rubens, Titian, Velazquez, Hals, Van Dyck, and Gainesborough, as well as a collection of Cypriot, Greek and Roman antiquities from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. By 1931, Ringling had built a museum designed after the Renaissance and Baroque palaces and museums of Italy to house their ever-growing collection.

Immediately inside the front doors of the museum hang five enormous paintings by Peter Paul Rubens from the series titled The Triumph of the Eucharist. At a time when the Catholic Church was losing membership to the newer Protestant denomination, Isabella Clara Eugenia, a devout Catholic and daughter of King Philip II of Spain, commissioned Rubens to paint a set of 11 scenes depicting the Catholic celebration of Eucharist or Mass. The paintings were produced for weavers of the day, who used them as templates to create tapestries that hung on the walls of royal palaces and homes of the wealthy. After Eugenia’s death in 1633, the paintings were dispersed throughout Europe. Four of the originals were destroyed in a fire, two eventually landed in the Louvre Museum in Paris; the remaining five were purchased by the Ringlings in 1926, becoming the only large-scale painting cycle by Rubens outside of Europe.

Gallery after gallery display the collection of more than 600 paintings by Italian, Flemish, and Spanish artists; indeed the collection of Old Masters, highlighted by the 17th century Baroque period, is considered to be among the finest in the country and does not suffer in comparison with the collection of the Uffizi in Florence, Italy. Even the outdoor courtyard in the center of the museum is filled with art. As in Vatican Square, sculptures ring the roof of the museum and gaze down upon the courtyard, which features casts of original antiquities and renaissance sculptures, including David by Michelangelo; the Fountain of Tortoises, one of three replicas from the Piazza Mattei in Rome; and Oceanus Fountain, copied from the 16th century original by Giovanni Bologna in Florence’s Boboli Gardens.

Beyond the art museum is Ca d’Zan, the 36,000 square foot, 56 room mansion that was once the Ringlings’ personal home. Built in the style of the Venetian Gothic palaces they so loved, it became the cultural epicenter of Sarasota upon completion in 1926. Cà d’Zan was constructed from terra cotta “T” blocks, concrete, and brick, covered with stucco and terra cotta, and embellished with glazed tile. The original roof was made from imported 16th century Spanish tiles and the bayfront terrace is paved with domestic and imported marble. Lavish parties featured full orchestras on the marble terrace overlooking Sarasota Bay, where their private 70-foot yacht was tied up. Today the mansion, filled with art and original furnishings, is open for public tours.

Two additional buildings on the grounds of the Ringling Art Museum house the Circus Museums. Though a visit to these facilities on the heels of the Art Museum and Ca d’Zan is somewhat like stepping into an alternate universe, the Circus Museums house a fascinating array of memorabilia from this bygone era, as well as authentic circus wagons, caliopes, rolling animal cages, boxcars, costumes, and even the original Pullman train car that carried the Ringlings to Big Top sites around the country.

The Tibbals Learning Center is home to the world’s largest miniature circus, The Howard Bros. Circus Model. This 3/4-inch scale model is a replica of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus when it was at its largest (circa 1919-1938). Occupying 3,800 square feet, it contains eight main tents, 152 wagons, 1,300 circus performers and workers, more than 800 animals, and a 57-car train.

Even the grounds of the museum are stunning, featuring behemoth old-growth Banyan trees sprouting a dense tangle of air roots; gnarled oaks draped in Spanish moss, lush groves of ferns; and an exquisite rose garden originally planted by Mabel Ringling in an authentic Italian wagon-wheel design.

When John Ringling died in 1936, he bequeathed his art collection, mansion and estate to the people of the State of Florida. Now managed by Florida State University, the Sarasota Bayfront site is open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., with the exception of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Days. Admission is $20 for adults, $17 for seniors (65+), $7 for students, Florida teachers, and military, and children ages 6-17 (free under 6). However, Ringling’s bequest mandated that admission to the Art Museum be free one day a week, in perpetuity (does not include free admission to the Cà d’Zan and Circus Museum). Although the Museum does not divulge it on their website, there is no admission charged for the Art Museum on Mondays, and (also a little known fact) the grounds can be wandered for free any day of the week.

Photos courtesy of Barbara Weibel

Busch Gardens in Tampa, Florida - The Perfect Day Trip

Sometimes, even when you live in the city that tourists love to flock to, you find yourself wanting to just get the heck outta town. Seeing as we live smack dab in the middle of Florida, we have plenty of places to choose from. My teenaged son has found a new love of riding roller coasters, and we had just been to Universal Islands of Adventure and rode all of those, so…

Off to Busch Gardens we went.

We purchased tickets that allowed us to pick two parks to visit using the “Pick Two” feature. This is actually a pretty sweet deal, because you get to use the tickets anytime you want at whichever two parks you want. Our choices were Busch Gardens and Aquatica. We plan to visit Aquatica, Sea World’s water park, later in the summer. You know, when it will be really hot and jam packed.

We’re awesome like that. And we’re Floridians, and it’s always hot.

Seriously though, one of the great things about the Anheuser-Busch parks are the intimacy of them. As you approach the parks, there are a lot of local shops and places that make you wonder if you are in the right place. Then, when you enter the parks, you get lost in the moment, and you forget you are in Tampa. You are in Africa.

And it is beautiful. Wander the park at a leisurely pace. Trust me, the kids won’t mind. Take lots of photos. Your camera will thank you. There is lots to see and do here, and the park is laid out so there are things to see and stop and do. Some of our highlights:

• Gwazi - The largest double wooden roller coaster in the Southeast. The ride is not necessarily very smooth if you have ridden metal coasters, but it is quick and fun. (Side note: if your older child falls in love with roller coasters and your younger one is wanting to be like his older brother, DO NOT make this the first roller coaster your 7 year old rides. It WILL blow up in your face. It will also keep your 7 year old from wanting to ride any roller coaster EVER AGAIN. True story.)
• Land of the Dragons - This is a three-story play area for kids to run, jump and play in. There is an area for smaller children only, but the rope bridges that span the area for the kids to run across are a huge hit. What is great about this place is so often if you have children who are not close in age, usually one child gets left out. Land of the Dragons makes it easy as a parent to sit back, relax, and watch your kids burn off that energy.
• SheiKra - We loved this not because we rode it, because we didn’t. The best part though of this ride is the watching of it. If you stand in the right spot, you can also get quite a soaking. From many places in the park you can see the tallest “hold point” of the ride, where it takes you up and then, at the very top juuuust before you drop 90 degrees down, it stops and you just dangle there, until it lets you go. My husband and son plan to ride it when we return. And we will return.
• Zambia Smokehouse - Usually we dread eating at theme parks, because we know that most of the food is fast food, and it can leave a lot to be desired. So when we smelled the delicious smells while we were passing SheiKra, we thought “Oh no, here we go again. Good smells, but bad food.” We were pleasantly surprised at how good it was! It is buffet style, with many options for sides, and a few choices from the carving table, and sandwiches. They also have a selection of beers from (wait for it..) Anheuser-Busch. The portions were filling, and the kids got a cute plastic lunchbox with their meal that came in handy since they didn’t finish all of their lunch. It made taking the leftovers incredibly easy!
• Kumba - Again, only my eldest son and my husband rode this, but they said it was awesome, and I took some amazing photos of them on the ride.
• Stanley Falls Flume - I have a seven year-old, and scary fast rides he has decided he’s not going to ride them. (that will change, trust me)  This is a really fun family ride. You are seated by twos, and you just sit back and ride the flume tubes to the bottom. You have an option to buy a photo of you as you go down the last drop, so don’t forget to smile!
• Jungala - Another kids play area with a kids-size zip line ride, a kid-friendly launcher, and caves, slides, climbing nets and water areas. Also, seating for mom and dad.
• Bumper Cars - Something so simple, and yet, the perfect way to bond as a family. Nothing says bonding like chasing your family members and bashing into them. That’s love, people. And we partook. And it may have gotten cutthroat. Or I may have put several people between us so as not to get “bumped”.
• Skyride - This is the best kept secret of Busch Gardens. Arial views of all of the park, a teaser view of their waterpark just next door, and if you take the ride from the Kumba area to the Egypt area of the park, you basically get a free ride to the exit of the park. We employed this tactic when we went to the park. It was the perfect way to end the day.

When we went, we arrived just as the park was opening, and it gave us a great head start into the day. The lines we encountered were short, no more than a 10 minute wait. We also went on a Sunday, and on a non-holiday weekend. As the day progressed, we noticed longer lines and one of the longest was for Rhino Rally, which we have ridden before. If your trip will be for the first time, it is a ride not to be missed.

So we bid adieu to Busch Gardens around 3pm and headed home. It took us under 2 hours to go from parking lot to driveway. That makes it perfect to sneak back down there for some roller coaster action…

…like, maybe tomorrow?

Siesta Key Drum Circle, Sarasota, Florida

by Barbara Ann Weibel at Hole In The Donut Travels

Every Saturday evening for the last twelve years, a group of committed musicians has gathered on Siesta Key at sunset to conduct a free drum circle. The event was small at first, attracting only a few dozen people. But as word spread about the event, more and more people came down to the beach to see what it was all about. Over the years, the Siesta Key Drum Circle has attracted belly dancers, fire spinners, acrobats, and hula-hoopers, in addition to tourists and residents. Eventually it grew so large that the event had to be moved from its original location to the Siesta Key Public beach in order to accommodate a regular attendance of several hundred to several thousand people.

On a recent visit, I watched half a dozen rag-tag hippie musicians beat out a rhythm on tambourines, smaller drums carried underarm, and bongos. One young man even hauled a traditional drum set down to the beach, complete with bass and cymbals. As the last of the daylight faded, the intensity of the drumming ratcheted up. The crowd was perhaps twenty or thirty deep around the drummers. Bikini-clad teens and belly dancers in silk scarves pushed their way into the center of the circle and begin to trance dance, while tattooed bikers stood at the periphery, hoping to catch a glimpse of the more scantily clad dancers. Many of the spectators brought instrument as well: flutes, maracas, drums of their own. Under the cover of darkness, they lost their inhibitions and joined in, gleeful in their anonymity.

Today, the Siesta Key Drum Circle is one of the largest in the nation. Although its popularity may have something to do with “freak factor” - with their long dreadlocks, raggedy T-shirts, and expressions of transcendental bliss, the drummers are a sight to behold, and many of the spectators provide additional eye-candy. But my theory is that the Drum Circle; by its very nature free, uncontrolled, and spontaneous; is an event where people can forget about their daily stresses, walk on a beautiful beach, bang on a drum till their hands hurt, and dance to exhaustion.

Siesta Key is one of several lovely Gulf Coast barrier islands located within the city of Sarasota, Florida. In addition to hundreds of attractions and events held throughout the year, the area boasts some of Florida’s finest beaches and provides accommodations to suit all budgets.

Photos courtesy of Barbara Weibel

Secondhand Shopping In Sarasota, Florida

by Barbara Ann Weibel at Hole In The Donut Travels

Everyone knows that Sarasota, Florida is a mecca for upscale shopping. One-of-a-kind downtown shops, designer stores on St. Armands Circle, and an outlet mall with top labels draw residents and visitors year-round. There is, however, another unique shopping experience available in Sarasota: the city is home to an uncommon number of secondhand stores and antique shops.

Perhaps the largest concentration of the thrift and antique stores lies between Central and Orange Avenues along Fruitville Road, which forms the northern boundary of downtown Sarasota. Here customers will discover a row of historic, brightly painted single story buildings with titillating names like The Mustard Seed, American Pie Antiques and Collectibles, and Sparcc’s Treasure Chest. Each is crammed from floor to ceiling with used cookware, dishes, glasses, paintings, books, clothing, shoes, antiques, vintage clothing, accessories, jewelry, tools, toys, and much more.

Another collection of second hand shops is mixed in amongst the sidewalk cafes and art galleries of the Burns Square and Laurel Park neighborhoods on the southern edge of downtown Sarasota. Two well-stocked used bookstores are found on Main Street, in the center of downtown. Further afield are the obligatory Goodwill and Salvation Army stores, and second hand furniture stores are scattered all over town. One recently opened thrift store on Bahia Vista Drive in mid-town specializes in designer clothing that is sold for as little as $2 or $3 per garment.

There is just no end to the bargains that can be found by digging through merchandise heaped on tables and crammed onto old shelves. So if you’re planning on visiting the Gulf coast of Florida, set aside some tme to snoop through the scores of thrift and consignment stores in Sarasota. Who knows - you may even find undiscovered booty.  Because as everyone knows, one man’s junk is another man’s treasure!

Dolphin Research Center, Grassy Key, Florida

by Barbara Ann Weibel at Hole In The Donut Travels

Mankind been fascinated by dolphins since learning of their existence. Initially, humans were focused on hunting dolphins. By the 1950’s, intrigued by their seeming intelligence, we began capturing dolphins for research, entertainment, and profit. Among the institutions involved involved in this practice was Santini’s Porpoise School on Grassy Key in the Florida Keys. Milton Santini, a local fisherman, began capturing and training Atlantic bottlenose dolphins. Santini was best known for Mitzi, the dolphin that starred in the original pilot movie Flipper, which was actually based on Santini’s close relationship with Mitzi. When Mitzi passed away in 1972 Santini sold the school, which eventually evolved into the present-day Dolphin Research Center.

The DRC is dedicated to dolphin research and education and manages a dolphin breeding program. Currently, 19 dolphins live in the center’s ninety thousand square feet of pristine seawater lagoons, with low fences separating them from the open waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Raised platforms and benches surround the various pools, allowing guests an excellent view of the marine mammals during and between regularly scheduled narrated shows, which begin at 9:30 a.m. and run concurrently throughout the day until 4 p.m. Presentations such as “Dolphin Fun Facts,” “All About Babies,” and “The Secret Lives Of Dolphins” are included in the general admission. Interactive sessions, available for an additional fee, include activities such as “Paint With A Dolphin,” “Play With A Dolphin,” “Trainer For A Day,” and the popular “Deep Water Dolphin Encounter,” where guests are pulled around the pool as they hang onto the dolphin’s dorsal fin.

Guests can also witness a fascinating array of training exercises conducted with the dolphins. One dolphin is being trained to “recycle - she searches the pen for trash, retrieves a plastic water bottle, and deposits it into a bin on the edge of the floating dock. Other research is attempting to measure whether dolphins have specific math abilities. Dolphins are even being trained by the Navy to locate underwater mines and patrol for terrorists who might attempt to attack a ship from beneath the water.

The Dolphin Research Center is open seven days a week, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Admission $19.50 for adults, $16.50 for seniors 55 or older, and $13.50 for children aged 4-12 (children under 4 free), but an additional discount coupon is available on the DRC website. Interactive programs are priced from $25 (”Meet The Dolphin”) to $650 (”Trainer For A Day”). DRC is located on Grassy Key, just north of Marathon in the Florida Keys.

Photos cortesy of Barbara Weibel

Coral Castle, Homestead, Florida

by Barbara Ann Weibel at Hole In The Donut Travels

Often referred to as America’s Stonehenge, Coral Castle was hand-sculpted from over 1,100 tons of coral rock. In addition to two story block walls, the native coral was carved into a variety of objects, including a rocking chair, fountain, dining table in the shape of the state of Florida, sundial, and a nine-ton gate that could be moved with the pressure of just two fingers. This might not be so extraordinary except for the fact that all this work was completed by a single man, Edward Leedskalnin, who stood just over five feet tall and weighed only 100 pounds.

The coral that he worked on was sometimes 4,000 feet thick, yet he cut and moved huge coral blocks using only hand tools. Even more mysterious, during the 28 years Leedskalnin labored on the project, no one ever witnessed him move a single piece of coral into place. He worked mostly at night by lantern light, and had an uncanny sense of when he was being observed. Whenever he was questioned about how he accomplished these feats of engineering he would only reply that he understood the laws of weights and leverage.

The monumental project is often said to be a tribute to Leedskalnin’s true love, who left him at the altar the day before their wedding, however others speculate that this story was a cover for much more mysterious purposes. At various locations around the site numbers and symbols are carved into the coral; some believe the numbers, if thoroughly understood, would explain the methods Leedskalnin used to build the castle. Some claim the giant obelisk with a circular hole in the top that lines up perfectly with the North Star is proof of astrological significance. Still others point out the eerie similarity of many carvings to Masonic symbols. Spiritualists insist that nine ley lines - electromagnetic bands that circle the earth and are said to steer birds on their migrations - converge at Coral Castle, making it a powerful energy and meditation spot.

We may never know the true significance of the site, since Edward Leedskalnin took the secret with him to the grave. But it is great fun to sit in the giant coral thrones, puzzle over the working sundial, and lie on the coral beds while wondering how one diminutive man could possibly have achieved such a feat.

Coral Castle is located in Homestead, Florida. The facility is open Sunday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., year-round. Admission is $9.75 for adults, $5.00 for children ages 7-12 (under age 6 free), and $6.50 for senior citizens (62+).

Photos courtesy of Barbara Weibel

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