Thalatta Estate

Today's mini adventure was to check out the Thalatta Estate.  

         

It's a 1925 Mediterranean-Revival house on a long piece of land that ends in Biscayne Bay.  The Deering Estate is it's neighbor to the north.

The place is set up as a venue for weddings and large parties.  No playgrounds here!  Odds are I'll never go back there again, but I am glad we finally stopped in to check it out.  The fact that there's a cache there didn't hurt, either ;)  Though the house there is pretty cool, I just couldn't get any decent picture of it.

What was more fascinating to me was the house immediately next to Thalatta...That place is HUGE!  I remember Hurricane Andrew pretty much tore it to shreds and I'm glad that it's been fixed up...but for all the times I've seen it, I have yet to see any signs of life there.  There is a running fountain up the front steps, and what appears to be an awesome pool out back...but no cars, no people, no nuttin'.

Right across that canal is where we put our kayak in to go over to Chicken Key.  This area is known as Snowden's by the local oldtimers and I was happy to see a bunch of teenagers jumping off the bridge there today.  It's tradition - you jump and jump and jump until the cops come and run you off.

Overall, I'd say Thalatta would be a nice place for a wedding.  It has a killer view of the Bay, but it is severely lacking in shade and I HATE the fact that there is no mention of the home's history or anything anywhere that I saw.  But I give the Village of Palmetto Bay 2 thumbs up for preserving it.  Much nicer than a bunch of cookie cutter homes or condos, that's for sure.