Downtown Miami at Sunrise

These pictures were taken from the Royal Caribbean Explorer of the Seas cruise ship in 2005. They are on the upper decks of the ship as it was pulling into the Port of Miami at sunrise.

Cheyenne Saloon

As a cross post from my Food Blog, I am posting this here on the Florida Everyone Forgot Blog. Not necessarily for the food, but more for the great building that this restaurant is housed in...

I ate at the newly reopened Cheyenne Saloon on Church Street in Downtown Orlando on July 4th. Back before the Orlando theme parks built their nighttime entertainment complexes (Pleasure Island, Boardwalk, Citywalk, etc), Church Street Station was one of Orlando's most popular attractions. This area was filled with shopping, restaurants, and clubs. There was other types of entertainment here as well, like a Q-ZAR Laser Tag, a haunted house called Terror on Church Street, and a large arcade. At nighttime there would be street performers juggling in the streets, and the area was always packed with people. Slowly, the crowds began to disappear and all of the activity on Church Street began to close. For a while, Church Street was completely dead with almost nothing open in the area that was once bustling with people. Slowly though, it seems to be coming back to life. A skyscraper with a few restaurants called The Plaza has recently opened on the site of the old Bumby Building, where Terror on Church Street once was. Another building called 55 West is almost complete. It looks like this building will have street level shopping as well.

One of the more recent happenings on Church Street was the reopening of the Cheyenne Saloon. This was one of the original clubs on Church Street, and when it reopened with an added restaurant, I had to try it. It is in a wonderful building, and the food was good too.

The restaurant is on the second floor of a western themed club, all in a massive building with great stained glass windows, balconies weaving all around the upper floors, and western paraphernalia all around.

The menu was somewhat small and consisted of all barbecue, but I didn't have a problem with it. I had a pulled pork dinner that was served with a choice of sides. I chose mashed potatoes and collard greens.


A basket of biscuits was brought out first. They came with butter and honey as a topping, but they really didn't need anything and tasted fine the way they were.

My pulled pork came out soon after. The pork itself was good. It wasn't as finely shredded compared to the pulled pork I've gotten elsewhere and was pulled into bite sized chunks instead. It was very tender and was served with barbecue sauce on the side. The mashed potatoes tasted very boring, and definitely needed gravy, or at least some salt. The collard greens were tender and very tasty, compared to the occasions when sometimes collard greens are bitter and stringy instead.

I thought the Cheyenne Saloon had good barbecue, and the building was a nice plus...

Sanford Marina...

Sanford, FL is located along the St. Johns River in Seminole County. The city used to have a large steamboat industry due to it's location along Lake Monroe. Lake Monroe is the last area that large boats can travel in before the river gets too shallow. The steamboats are all gone, but the city does have a nice marina near where the steamboats used to dock...

Cheap Gas?

I saw this Texaco gas station on Lake Mary Blvd, just west of Downtown Lake Mary, FL. Surprisingly, there weren't any buyers...

Lake Eola July 4th Fireworks

On July 4, 2008, I watched the firework show that took place over Lake Eola Park in Downtown Orlando. The show was about twenty minutes long, but I was disappointed that the park didn't dim the lights or broadcast the soundtrack to the show over the park's speakers. It was still an okay show, although it seemed like Red, Hot, & Boom from the night before shot off a whole lot more fireworks. The environment of watching the show among skyscrapers was an added plus...

Red, Hot, & Boom 2008

Red, Hot, and Boom is Altamonte Spring's annual 4th of July Fireworks show. The show takes place on July 3 each year, over the lake in Cranes Roost Park.

I wasn't planning on seeing the fireworks here this year. I had a bad experience here a few years ago when it took me four hours to travel about three miles after the show because of all of the traffic, none of which was being directed by the police. I just happened to be riding by this year along I-4 when the fireworks were going on. Since the show's music was broadcast over the radio, it seemed everyone decided that the middle of a highway was a perfect place to watch fireworks and the cars all came to a complete stop.

I have to admit, it was a perfect view of the show...

Red-Tailed Hawk

I spotted this red-tailed hawk was sitting on a fence searching for food. It must have seen something because it swooped down into a grassy area before flying up into some trees with empty talons...