Strangler fig, Naples, January 2005
It's hard to believe I've been vacationing in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida for 10 years. In 2005, Dan and I decided to spend a day there before traveling to Sarasota, where I was scheduled to give a talk at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens. I hadn't been to Florida since I was a kid, and never to south Florida at all, so I arranged a whirlwind tour that started in Ft. Lauderdale, stopping in South Beach on our way to a tour of Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden in Miami, driving across the state to visit my parents and aunt in Naples, up to Sarasota and Selby, then back to Naples for more family time and finally flying out of Ft. Myers, all in the space of 5 days. In retrospect it was insane, but we enjoyed that trip immensely. Here are a few more photos from that trip (although oddly enough, I have none from Ft. Lauderdale!).
