OCR Text |
Show Highlights Of Cuban Trip . .. By Mrs. Maiiie J. Edwards Tt was six happy and excited 1p who after a month of pfnnin" boarded the bus at 1 Selt, Sept. 9th; the group ludcd my son, Bill, his wife, Snnna Kse; my 3 grandsons, K Cook, Miles Nelson, Val ubrum, and myself. Donna Rose said' "Well, other, there is one thing, we n!jll not have a dull moment rith the boys along." We didn't; Lv made the moments fly ;.jt'h their interesting comments ,d unbounded energy-. Since 4ev are nearly the same size j n(j were dressed alike, gvery- one thought they were triplets ; winch caused a great deal oi comment. , Just before arriving in Denver Den-ver Miles became ill and com-I com-I plctely covered himself. Bill ; took him to the rest room, un-i un-i dressed him and wrapped him in a blanket, bringing him through the corridor to the car which was waiting for us My sister, Mrs. Ray E. Dillman, met us at the station, but had to leave us to go to Grand Junction Junc-tion to be with Mr. Dillman who had been injured. Miss Lois Meyer, our cousin Louis Merril and Walter Crump' missionaries to the Western States mission, took us to the beautiful mission home, really a mansion, where a delicious turkey dinner awaited us. Lois and the missionaries entertained us royally, showing us the most interesting places in Denver, among which were the newly remodeled and decorated museum, mu-seum, which is really worth seeing; the' Red Rock Theatre and the , lovely canyons surrounding sur-rounding Denver. We also went to Kittridge, where Miss Meyer has her summer home and in which is a veritable museum ol equisite vases, linens, bowls, etc., which have been collected from all over the world. The boys enjoyed playing suffle-board suffle-board while we enjoyed the lovely collection. Back to the mission home we went and Lois and the missionaries mission-aries took us to the plane. While on board, the stewardess took a liking to' the boys, called them by their first names, let them serve gum to the passengers passen-gers and help serve the dinner, gave each a pair of pilots wings and a junior stewardess pin for their sisters. In Chicago, we set out to see the town, even though we had arrived late. We rode the subway, sub-way, the elevated, and the taxi took us around the lovely Michigan Mich-igan Boulevard on the water front; we visited the Merchandise Merchan-dise Mart, some of the parks, Marshall Fields, and then caught the Illinois Southern Electric to Southbend, Indiana to get our car. Our Conoco' Touraid was a great help to us to see some of the interesting places which we would probably have missed without it. Arriving in Washington, we visited the Capitol, the White-house, White-house, the Washington Monument, Monu-ment, the Lincoln Memorial, the Arlington Cemetery, the Smithsonian Institute and many other interesting places. The boys insisted on climbing the 800 steps to the top of the Washington Monument, but the rest of us took the elevator. While at the top of the monument, monu-ment, a large number of helicopters heli-copters came very close, giving us all quite a thrill; also we were fortunate to' be at the grave of the unknown soldier in Arlington Cemetery when the guard- was being changed an impressive ceremony. Leaving Washington, we stopped stop-ped at Mt. Vernon, Washington's Washing-ton's home; then on to Durham, North Carolina to visit my niece, Mrs. Kenneth Duke, who showed us the Duke University,; the large carillon consisted of fifty bells in the tower of the Duke chapel; the tobacco market mar-ket where the tobacco is auctioned. auc-tioned. From there we went to Columbia, South Carolina, visiting vis-iting Mr. and Mrs. Bill Boren, brother of Donna Rose. Bill took the boys to the army post and to a large swimming pool there. Every time we passed pass-ed a place where the boys could swim, we were urged to stop, however, when I insisted that they take a shower every morning, they objected. They counted the times they did and said when they got home they could skip that many showers. Hurrying through Georgia, stopping only to see a few interesting in-teresting sights, we arrived at St. Augustine, - Florida, where we saw the oldest school house in the U. S., the old fort where Geronomo and other Indians were imprisoned. The walls are about sixteen feet thick and very small windows very high, but these Indians escaped. Among other places we saw were the Wax Works, the museum mu-seum of Ripley's "Believe It Or Not," the Ponce De Leon Fountain Foun-tain of Youth no signs yet of the miracle waters the world's largest alligator farm, where there are thousands of alligators, all sizes, large gala-pagos gala-pagos tortises over 500 pounds each, peacocks, wild deer, rare birds and venomous snakes. On our way from St. Augustine, Augus-tine, south,, one of the most interesting in-teresting places we visited was the Marine Studios, where over a thousand different forms of sea life are displayed in a building build-ing with portholes in three different dif-ferent levels in which you can see sharks, turtles, barracuda, sea horses, etc. A diver feeds the marine life in this building. An attendant from a platform plat-form about twelve feet above the surface of the outdoor pool feeds the dolphines or porpoises forcing them to jump for the small fish which he holds in his hands and sometimes in his mouth for the dolphines to take a very interesting sight. Stopping at the Frances Hickman's Hick-man's Mrs. Hickman is the former Thelma Eldredge for a short visit, we journeyed on to Miami, taking a swim in the Atlantic Ocean at the famous Miami Beach, then on to Key West over bridges and bridges connecting the islands between Miami and Key West one bridge over seven miles long. If you ever get to Key West, don't miss the delicious Key Lime pie; it is well worth while trying. From Key West, the plane ride over the Gulf of Mexico is a delightful experience. The advertising calling Cuba the land of fascination, is not exaggerated. The Cubans are very hospitable, going out of their way to make your stay there enjoyable, which it certainly cer-tainly was. For instance, one evening when we tried to order some food, a gentleman who sat near us, intrepreted our orders for the waiter, instead of having hav-ing him call one who could speak English, and started to talk to us about our stay there; he told us some places to see and especially about a radio broadcast of an internationally known man, who was broadcasting broad-casting that evening. He offered to take us to it, but I told him we had a party of six, and was afraid it was too many, but he. insited on taking us in his lovely big car, going quite a long way around, showing us many interesting things before letting us out at the broadcasting broad-casting center. Among the many delightful places which we saw were the Cathedrals, the Morro Castle, National Boulevard and and Sea Wall, the Columbus Cemetery, Flower Market, the cigar factory, fac-tory, the rum distillery, the Cuban Capitol biulding, centered center-ed beneath the dome of which is a 24 carat diamond. We had been talking about not wanting to miss seeing that diamond, but when we leaned over the enclosure, Val had a .disgusted look on his face. I said, "What's the matter Val?" He looked up with a grimace and said, "My gosh, is that all the big it is." The perfume factory which we saw on the tour we took was only one of the many things going into the country for a fifty-mile drive through smart residential suburbs, passing the Havana Yacht Club, Country Club, stopping at a typical Cuban Cu-ban farm, the home of a peon, plantations of coffee, tobacco,' sugar cane, pineapples and cotton; cot-ton; included in this tour also is a thrilling' cock fight and Royal Palm climbing. And the Prado it was a delightful experience to' walk along the 60-foot tiled walk over ten blocks long in the center of the street, about 2 feet above the roadway on either eith-er side and trees lining" the walk; then on each side, sidewalks side-walks covered with the porches of the shops, hotels and buildings. build-ings. While Spanish naturally is the national language, English is widely spoken and we did not have any trouble in getting around. We just walked up to a policeman with "Tourista" on his badge and asked im what we wanted to' know. In every store and shop and restaurant are clerks and waiters who can speak English. Shopping in Havana is intriguing; intrig-uing; there are many interesting interest-ing places among which is the Inglaterra Shop, the Blanco Bros., owners, who were especially espe-cially courteous to us. The greatest thrill the boys got out of shopping was trying to get things for less than the marked price. I do not know which of the boys was the best, but at least they got their, shoes shined each day for a I nickel, and Val and Homer made their money go a long way; Miles wasn't far behind them. Havana is a most intriguing city and one of the most beautiful beau-tiful I have ever seen. The Cubans Cu-bans endeavor to help you see their wonderful city. After spending three breathtaking breath-taking days in Havana, we returned re-turned to Key West by plane, motored up the west coast of Florida, stopping at the Parrot Jungle, where we saw trained parrots, Banyon trees, lovely flamingoes, many tropical fruits, trees and birds. The Seminole Indian village, where 'an Indian wrestles with an alligator, displays all types of Indian handicraft and gives you a picture of the primitive and original village life. And the impenetrable and fascinating Everglades we will never forget the mysterious wonderland in which is the large 12-foot alligator, weighing weigh-ing 600 pounds. Whenever I thought of the Everglades, I pictured egrets and I was most anxious to see these remarkably lovely birds. They came up to my expecta-I expecta-I tion. Back in the U. S., we hurried hur-ried through Alabama, Missis-3utddo;s Missis-3utddo;s 'BUBismoT pue iddis in New Orleans for refreshments refresh-ments at the French Quarter, enjoying the old French section and many other attractions of charming New Orleans. Across the Mississippi river, through Texas to the Carlsbad Caverns we made a quick trip. The caverns are, of course, a marvel of nature; going dovn an elevator 750 feet to a large cavern in which there is a gift shop and all kinds of refreshments, refresh-ments, the guide took us even down lower . below the earths' surface and told us of the many formations which were lit up to make a magnificient view. You could either take the eleva- tor up or walk the one and a quarter mile to the surface, the equivalent of seventy five stories. stor-ies. I decided to walk inspite of the guide's warning that it was a difficult and steep climb; however how-ever it was well worth it as the formations were most interesting. inter-esting. In Santa Fe where the oldest government building is situated, the first fiesta was being staged; all along the porch of the government gov-ernment building the Indians had their wares displayed to sell; it was a colorful exhibition. From Santa Fe we returned home having gone seven thousand thous-and miles, in a bus, on an airplane, air-plane, in a subway, an elevated train, an electric train, on a boat which we took in Cuba and in a car. We had many unusual un-usual and fascinating experiences, experienc-es, especially shopping in Cuba where Homer, Miles and Val purchased alligator purses, belts and stuffed alligators, and having hav-ing their shoes shined on the Prado' by boys who taught them some Spanish. The only unpleasant incident on the trip besides Miles' mishap mis-hap was being picked up in Florida for speeding; I wasn't driving, though. |