Coral Castle

A few months ago I visited the Coral Castle while down in South Florida. It's a really interesting place where a large structure was constructed using locally quarried rock, supposedly by a single man. The short version of the story goes that a man named Edward Leedskalnin was set to get married. He ended up being ditched, and moved to Florida to build a stone tribute to win back his long lost love.

Multiply that admission price by 100 to get closer to the current admission.

The most recognizable scene from Coral Castle are these giant carvings of various astronomical bodies (or astrological, depending on what the tour guide says).


Edward Leedskalnin must have had a thing for astronomy with his moons and planets. He also built what is now being called a telescope. If I remember correctly, it points to Polaris.

And a working sundial. It was just after 3 when I took the picture.

The original name of the Coral Castle was Rock Gate Park. This is the namesake rock gate. The large rock was originally so perfectly balanced on it's pivot that it could easily be spun. Eventually it stopped working and the group of civil engineers that came to fix the gate were 'baffled' at it's workings and weren't able to get it to it's previous condition.

There was a well which also served as a refrigerator.

An oven out of car parts.

Delta IV

I drove out to Port Canaveral to watch the Delta IV rocket launch on November 21, 2010. With the weather, I really didn't think it was going to go, but it did indeed launch. The rocket wasn't in view for long before disappearing into clouds, but it was still very nice. It really is thrilling to watch these incredible feats of engineering fly, especially as close as I was (7 miles). I also think I found a new favorite spot to watch the launches!

Lake Eola Fountain

I'm glad it's working again...

St. Johns River Shipwreck #1

I came across this sunken boat that had washed up against the seawall in Lake Monroe along the Sanford Riverwalk. I've always found shipwrecks, even with relatively small boats like this, to be both intriguing and creepy at the same time. What's the story behind what caused the boat to go down? Who did it belong to? What happened to the rest of the boat? And then there's the creepiness of having a large, mostly submerged object, just sitting there in the dark water, creaking with the currents.


A few months ago, I noticed a few sailboats that had sank a few hundred feet off shore. They were gone when I came across this boat. Perhaps this is part of one?

Seminole County Fair 2010

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