Royal Poincianas blooming in Coral Gables

Greetings Patient Readers!

Today I want to tell you about one of my favorite things about Coral Gables, and Miami in general…the blooming of the Royal Poincianas.  Every year around the end of Spring these gorgeous flowering trees pop their bright orange flowers and turn an ordinarily plain and unassuming tree into a fiery explosion of color and gorgeous flowers.

The trees are not originally native to Coral Gables, or even to America for that matter, as they were introduced to the Americas by Phillippe de Longvilliers de Poincy (de what?) who was a French nobleman that brought them over from Madagascar in the 1600’s.  Thanks to Mr. De De De, and the tree’s natural beauty, these trees spread throughout the country.  They have taken up a substantial residence in South Florida as our tropical climate is just right for their liking.

If you drive around South Florida this time of year you cannot miss them, but Coral Gables has some of the most beautiful specimen, see if you agree…

Up close the flowers are spectacular

Full view of the tree

Closer…

And even closer

Ready for her close up

Work it you sexy tree!

Ok I promise this is the last close up!

Some of the buds are still waiting to pop

The Coral Gables Blog patent pending “Through the Trees” shot

Some of them are aggressive and attack others!

Well I hope you enjoyed our tour of The Royal Poinciana now bow down and pay homage to your tree king, lest you be attacked by an aggressive one!

Thanks for reading!

Joshua T. Reich

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Published in: on June 14, 2012 at 2:17 pm  Comments (1)  
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The Venetian Pool in Coral Gables

Hello again famous readers!

Today I passed by the excellent Venetian Pool in Coral Gables.  In case you have been living under a rock and did not know, this pool was originally a rock quarry “from which limestone was taken for the construction of early Coral Gables Homes.”  These days if you give the lifeguard $50 he will let you take home some of the pool for your own house… please note that the previous statement has been deemed false upon further investigation.

You can read more about the pool in the first picture but I wanted to give you my impression as a man on the street with a front row view.  I loved it, you feel as if you have been transported to a bygone era where even the public pools were grand and impressive.  The building was ultra-Coral Gables with the same great architecture and attention to detail found in the city’s other landmarks.

It was a very calm atmosphere (of course it was a Tuesday) and there were a few groups of people scattered about the property and some sun-bathing by themselves.  There is actually a very nice little sandy beach area but there were a lot of people sunbathing so in my ever present overabundance of caution I decided to avoid snapping the pics directly at any people.  You cannot be too careful these days!  But the overall experience was very nice and I look forward to going back again.

Here are some of shots of the pool hope you enjoy!

The entry sign

Walking in...

This nice fountain welcomes you inside

Get some perspective

The obligatory pergola

The courtyard

Twas a gorgeous day to look at cool old buildings

Finally the pool!

A nice shot of the tower

One of the only natural waterfalls in Florida 😉

One of my favorite shots

An old cave that is unfortunately no longer in use

Thanks for reading!

Best regards,

Joshua T. Reich

Published in: on February 28, 2012 at 5:50 pm  Comments (2)  
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Secrets of the Granada Sisterhood

This past week I was visiting a few fantastic Coral Gables Broker’s Opens by fellow RE/MAX agents and I passed by an unassuming little park called Granada Park.   The park is much more important than one might first guess as it is a representation of the relationship between the City of Coral Gables and the City of Granada in Spain.  These two Sister Cities have a special relationship as half the things in Coral Gables are named after Granada so every time someone drives through the Granada Entrance, the City of Coral Gables has to send  a Big Mac to the Mayor of Granada, Spain.

Ok so not really, but it’s my blog so I can say whatever I want.  In reality the relationship is very cool and has resulted in this beautiful While Marble Pomengranate, which was a gift from Jose Torres Hurtado, Mayor of Granada, Spain.  The statue was created in Spain and just to make it perfect, it is surrounded by Antique Cobblestones donated by Emma Dolores Broad and Sara Marlee Broad in May of 2008.

Here are the pictures, enjoy!  As always click for the bigger pic!

Where else besides Coral Gables?

Sisters

I want one

Just in case you thought they took your antique cobblestones…

Said cobblestones…

Through the trees

Wide view

Wider view

Widest view

 

Thanks for Reading!

Joshua T. Reich

Published in: on November 3, 2011 at 8:31 pm  Comments (1)  
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It’s Raining Photos (Best Coral Gables Photos Updated)

So if you have not been living under a rock lately in South Florida, then you are probably soaking wet.  One Coral Gables resident described the rain this way,”I can’t remember the last time it wasn’t raining.”  In reality it has only been raining for about 6 days, but for the Sunshine State it is a strange phenomenon.  Normally a major rain event is some form of tropical storm or wave, or one of them there ole hairicanes.  But this time this low pressure system has just been planted here for about 6 days, but don’t worry tomorrow is supposed to be gorgeous dry and cool finally!

So the moral of the story is I had some time while avoiding the unsafe driving conditions to check out the stats for The Coral Gables Blog and I was not surprised to see that the most visited page is the Best Coral Gables Photos page.  This makes me feel better because it means my readers are like me and much prefer pictures to reading…with that said I’ll shut up now and give you the news that I have added a ton of photos to the page to satisfy your rabid demand, so Click Here to Check Out the New Photos (they are at the bottom under the old photos).

What may happen to you if you pour concrete in the rain

Stay dry!

Joshua T. Reich, P.A.
Broker-Associate
“Knowledge, Professionalism, Diligence”
RE/Max Advance Realty
305-283-4470
Josh@GreatCoralGablesHomes.com
www.GreatCoralGablesHomes.com < Search Coral Gables Homes
www.TheCoralGablesBlog.com < Read all about it

Published in: on October 19, 2011 at 5:07 pm  Leave a Comment  
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I hired a bird to take some Aerial Pictures of The Biltmore

The problem is that when you deal with a species that cannot communicate effectively and does not understand the concept of money it is very hard to get your deposit back.

So after multiple phone calls to We Fly U Bye Inc. that resulted in nothing but incoherent squawking I decided to just “borrow” some aerial pictures from Bing (aka Microsoft) and 1 street view from the all knowing Google (all hail).

The Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables is one of the most beautiful and charismatic hotels in the world, in my opinion, and I wanted to give another view of it from the air.  For those of you who don’t know you can get some really great “Bird’s Eye” views by using Maps.Bing.com.  Often when I am working with someone who is looking for a home in Coral Gables I will send them a link to the Bird’s Eye view so that they can get a better idea of what the neighborhood looks like and what the property is close to.  The Bird’s Eye view is better than the Aerial view in most cases because you can see at an angle rather than from straight overheard.  But in this case I am just using it to give you a nice view of one of Coral Gables most famous buildings.

Ok so that should be enough promotion of Bing.com AKA the former Live.com AKA we should just give up and let Google (all hail) have the Search Engine market because now we are a 2nd class OS to a company that we once bailed out.  Sorry you had to read all of that just to get to the pictures…

What a very cool and stately hotel

The bird that took this shot was flying south for the winter

The Famous Biltmore Pool

This shot of the entire Biltmore Golf Course was taken by a top-notch spy bird

This bird landed and gave up flying for a life of luxury

The Coral Gables Blog is your eye in the sky!

Joshua T. Reich, P.A.
Broker-Associate
“Knowledge, Professionalism, Diligence”
RE/Max Advance Realty
305-283-4470
Josh@GreatCoralGablesHomes.com
www.GreatCoralGablesHomes.com
www.TheCoralGablesBlog.com

 

Published in: on October 4, 2011 at 8:20 pm  Comments (2)  
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Coral Gables City Hall Part 2 – Scary Face of a Stormy Day

This post wraps up our visit to Coral Gables city hall, the pictures were taken on a less then perfect day but oddly enough seemed to fit the architecture nicely.  I will start with my favorites here which are definitely the strange face on the wall and then the storm shots of Mr. Merrick.  At the end are some other shots of the exceptional features of this building.  Enjoy and remember to click for the mas grande view!

A foul wind doth blow!

A step back but not out of fear

Merrick surveys the scene

Keeping his head out of the clouds

Sorry for the repeat just really like the light on this one

Feels like Ghostbusters

Could it be?

Yes! Another cool lantern!

Thanks for reading and viewing!

Joshua T. Reich, P.A.
Broker-Associate
“Knowledge, Professionalism, Diligence”
RE/Max Advance Realty
305-283-4470
Josh@GreatCoralGablesHomes.com
www.GreatCoralGablesHomes.com
www.TheCoralGablesBlog.com

Published in: on September 6, 2011 at 5:12 pm  Comments (1)  
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Coral Gables Granada Entrance Part 2 (The Legend of the Wooden Snakes)

Welcome back to the much anticipated conclusion of the photo tour of the Coral Gables Granada Entrance.

In this edition we will be focusing on the Details and on the West side.  Another way to say this is that these are all the photos that I didn’t have time to upload in Part 1.

And so…Zee Photos!!!

Down to Earth

Coral Gables Specializes in Cool Lamps

I should see if they are looking to sell...

I tried to get the listing but nobody was home

What is the West side's story?

The story is that these wooden snakes were once real snakes and they were friendly snakes so they helped George Merrick build the Granada Entrance but when they fell behind schedule and went over budget he had them turned to wood to help support the parts of the Entrance that they did not finish...I think.

Thanks for reading!

Joshua T. Reich, P.A.
Broker-Associate
“Knowledge, Professionalism, Diligence”
RE/Max Advance Realty
305-283-4470
Josh@GreatCoralGablesHomes.com
www.GreatCoralGablesHomes.com
www.TheCoralGablesBlog.com

Published in: on August 11, 2011 at 4:45 pm  Comments (1)  
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Coral Gables Granada Entrance Part 1

The Granada Entrance to Coral Gables is one of the most beautiful and historic entrances in Coral Gables.  The entrance is situated at the intersection of SW 8 ST and Granada Blvd (click here for Google Street View) and it is made of coral rock probably quarried around the time of the city’s founding in the 1920’s from the nearby Venetian Pool.  The city’s founder, George Merrick, offered this rock for free to be used in the construction of homes and major landmarks.  Mr. Merrick actually originally envisioned similarly designed entrances at the 7 main entry ways to the city but the Great Depression put those plans on hold and only a few of the entrances were completed.  Much later (as in only in the last couple of decades) another wonderful Coral Gables resident, and president of The Coral Gables Garden Club, made it her mission to complete a few more of the entrances and The Coral Gables Blog will be featuring more information on these in an upcoming blog post.

This entrance is one of the original that was finished and when you walk up to it you feel as though you are going back in time to a more enchanted era.  Thousands of people drive past and through this entrance every day but most or maybe none of them take the time to stop and actually walk through this fabulous piece of history.  So without further polluting this article with my writing here is Part 1 of Coral Gables Granada Entrance….enjoy!

And as always click the images for larger view…tomorrow Part 2, the West Side and Detail Pics!

I decided not to play Chicken with this car

Even the sign is cool

Love the keyhole perspective

Work it you sexy arch!

What is that to the left?

Wooden snakes are common in these parts

Patented Sky Shot - Don't Try This at Home!

What can I say I love this shot I think I'll edit out the car...

Much better

Coral Gables is Awesome

Coral Gables is Awesome 2

You have reached the end of Part 1 please flip the cassette over...

Think…work with Joshua… and Grow Rich!

Joshua T. Reich, P.A.
Broker-Associate
“Knowledge, Professionalism, Diligence”
RE/Max Advance Realty
305-283-4470
Josh@GreatCoralGablesHomes.com
www.GreatCoralGablesHomes.com
www.TheCoralGablesBlog.com

 

Published in: on August 9, 2011 at 7:31 pm  Comments (1)  
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A Visit to Phillips Park

I was showing a few homes in the area on an overcast and somewhat rainy day in Coral Gables and I happened upon Phillips Park, one  of the many little public parks scattered around the city.  It is quite a useful park with tennis courts, basketball courts a multi-purpose field that includes a backstop for baseball, softball or even kickball if you want to really get crazy!

It also has covered area for parties and a playground for kids that was marked off with yellow tape… the caution type not the crime scene type thankfully.  As I arrived there were a couple of kids playing basketball and some little girls and their moms were arriving to meet the soccer coach for practice.  It’s just another day in the park in Coral Gables, here are some pics enjoy!

Remember to click for larger views…

"I got the city to buy the Biltmore Hotel and all they gave me was this plaque"

Sheika is not happy about this sign

It seems perfectly fine I think I'll get on...

My safe zone from the rain

A field of dreams

Nice curving path

Not a day for tennis

Where LeBron met DWade

Thanks for Reading!

Joshua T. Reich, P.A.
Broker-Associate
“Knowledge, Professionalism, Diligence”
RE/Max Advance Realty
305-283-4470
Josh@GreatCoralGablesHomes.com
www.GreatCoralGablesHomes.com
www.TheCoralGablesBlog.com

Published in: on July 21, 2011 at 4:31 pm  Leave a Comment  

Inside The Alhambra Water Tower! Part 2…Outside

In part 2 we are going to explore the outside of the Alhambra Water Tower.  Only The Coral Gables Blog gets you this exclusive access to the outside of this famous landmark.  Ok enough shameless promotion.

The tower is honestly one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a while.  If you did not read the sign on Part 1, you did not learn that the edifice of the building was actually constructed to resemble a lighthouse so as to hide the horribly hideous sight of a water tower.  It is one of the earliest examples of Coral Gables taking it a cut above the rest, enjoy the pics and remember to click for larger views!

The Alhambra Water Tower / Lighthouse

Note The Original Port-a-Potty Circa 1929

Cool Windows and Detail Work

You Can Cycle at Night Thanks to the Lighthouse

Cute Spot for The Garden Club Plaque

Close Up of The Coral Gables Garden Club Plaque

The Royal Poinciana Planted by The Coral Gables Garden Club

Thanks for reading!

Joshua T. Reich, P.A.
Broker-Associate
RE/MAX Advance Realty
305-283-4470
Josh@GreatCoralGablesHomes.com

Published in: on July 9, 2011 at 4:29 pm  Leave a Comment  
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