Coral Castle

We happened to have an opportunity to make it to the  Coral Castle in miami, fl last week!  pumpkinbutt has been reading and watching everything he could about it for the past month or so and was super excited.
to put it breifly, the coral castle was "built by one man, Edward Leedskalnin. From 1923 to 1951, Ed single-handedly and secretly carved over 1,100 tons of coral rock, and his unknown process has created one of the world's most mysterious accomplishments. " he did all of it for his lost love, he called "sweet sixteen". (more on this topic at end of post)

 Admission used to be 10 cents!

 there are several areas to the grounds. one being the bedroom. seen here are two twin beds for him and his "sweet sixteen". nearby are a few smaller beds for children.

                                                                      the bathtub

the grounds were the background for billy idol's music video "sweet sixteen".  and were used for a horrible movie from 1958 called Wild Women of Wongo. the best thing about the movie is getting to see some of the coral in action.  there used to be many features that moved very easily (gates and doorways) despite that they were made out of 9 tons of coral.

pumpkinbutt relaxing in one of the coral chairs.

years ago, several of these seats were rocking chairs, but over time, they have flatten out and settled.

now let's dicuss his "sweet sixteen"

so the dark side of this... we bought a copy of a booklet written by ed.... i am still in the process of figuring all of this so called "sweet sixteen" jazz out. let me point out that on the grounds of the coral castle ed built an "repentance" area for him to sit and for "sweet sixteen" to put her head through, like a stockade, and for him to reprimand her for whatever she did wrong... along with his mother-in-law. in his booklet, entitled "one in every home" he goes into a bit more detail about his requirements of this "sweet sixteen"... pages on end about her remaining "sweet" for him and staying clear of fresh boys.  but fresh boys need not worry because ed says it's totally cool and acceptable for these fresh boys to use the girl's mother for practice!  yeah, it's ok because the mothers are pretty much damanged goods.  he also went on to blame picnic gatherings and even churches for encouraging boys and girls to mingle which only leads to you.know.what. those damn fresh boys!

soooo.... miss sweet sixteen made a good move by dropping him before the wedding...but the castle in general is super cool!

btw. spell check is not working so deal.