Miami - November 06

Mom, Dad, and I flew down to Miami to see Jim and Ann. It was Dad's first time to fly. I was a bit worried that with his ear problems that he would not like it, but he loved it. As we were taking off from Dallas, he watched intently out the window and you should have seen the smile that he had on his face as the plane took off and headed up to 39,000 ft. It was a smile of wonder and amazement that I don't think I've ever seen. Ann and Jim...thanks for putting it there...

Dad watched intently out the window as we got over the ocean. And we saw the Everglades as we started descending into Miami. We got in to the Miami airport around 11 AM their time and our adventure began.

Ann and Jim's house is gorgeous and the back yard is full of tropical trees and flowers that Jim has planted. The bougainvillea in their back and side yard give it a real tropical feel. I took so many pictures while I was there that I put them on my webshots page. So you can see pictures that I took by clicking here to go to that album. I won't put many of them here since I have them there.

Ann and Jim had our days all planned out so we could make the most of our time there. Saturday we drove to the Fairchild gardens. We wandered through the gardens and saw some beautiful flowers. I did not have my good Nikon macro lens with me since it is still at Nikon getting fixed after it's accidental dunking at Lake Catherine. So I did not do much closeup photography. I think my favorite flower picture is of this very unusual flower that we saw climbing up a building at Fairchild Gardens.
After we left Fairchild we went to Vizcaya Museum and Gardens that was built by the agricultural industrialist James Deering. It was more like a castle than a home and it reminded me a lot of the Hearst Castle. It had pools and gardens surrounding it that were beautiful. While we were there photographers taking pictures of the young Mexican girls who were in long white gowns dressed up to celebrate their 16th birthday. The surrounding garden/pools area was very restful and we enjoyed our walk through it.
Sunday morning we got packed up and got the 3 kayaks loaded and we headed out for our visit to the Keys with a side trip as we drove down to the Everglades. I got more pictures of birds in the Everglades than I have ever gotten. The birds just acted like we were not even there as we walked the mile pathway through the glades. The path is a wooden raised walkway above the glades so you are not walking on the ground at all. Thank goodness...I really would not have like to be food for those gators.
My favorite picture is of the green heron. I have never seen a green heron that was really green. We saw some that were iridescent green...so pretty.
And, I have never noticed how birds can look down at the same time they look out. Weird... They must have close to 360 degrees of vision.
We left there and headed down to Islamorada in the Keys where we stayed until Tuesday. We got there, got unpacked, got the kayaks down and headed out. Ann, Jim and I kayaked out to some buoys about a mile and a half out in the Atlantic.
Jim did some snorkeling there, but I was not sure of my ability to get back on the SOT in deep water, so I just stayed in the yak and just looked as did Ann. I had never paddled a SOT before, and it was quite different than my sit inside yak. You sit much higher in it than you do in mine.

We saw Manta Rays jumping out of the water and flying fish while kayaking. Jim and Ann posed for a picture before going back to shore.
After a while, we headed back to the hotel so we could get some supper. Jim cooked most of the time and he is a really good cook! And he cooks healthfully so, thank goodness I did not gain any weight while down there.

Monday, Jim rented a 24 ft party barge and we all went out for a half a day. First we went out to the beacon which you can see at night as it's light rotates around for the ships to navigate through the area. When we got there Ann, Jim and I put our snorkel gear on and went snorkeling around the coral reef and the bottom of the beacon.
The water was beautiful aquamarine and the visibility was incredible. I wish that I had bought an underwater camera. There were more fish there than I saw in the Bahamas when I did my one and only scuba dive. We saw parrot fish, yellow fins, manta rays, a moray eel, two nurse sharks, barracudas, and lots more that I don't know the names of. It was just incredible! That was THE BEST TIME that I have ever had snorkeling. And with my lasik working ok now, I was able to see great underwater. While we snorkeled Dad did some fishing, but he didn't catch anything and Mom sat and enjoyed relaxing in the shade of the boat awning.
Dad got to sit in the captains seat as Jim took up the anchor We headed toward the seven mile bridge further south in the Keys. We tooled around some then headed back in to clean up and do a little shopping for supper.
That afternoon while standing out in the pier area, we looked up and to our amazement saw a perfect hole in the clouds. It looked really weird. It was just a circle punched out in the clouds and you could see blue sky through it. Really weird...
That night Ann and Jim took the flashlight and went to the dock area to see what they could find. They found a beautiful red crab who was resting a a rocky crevice right where we put the yaks in.
Ann spotted a Moray eel close by the crab. He wasn't as big as the one we saw under the beacon, but I was able to get a picture of this one by using the manual focus ring on my camera...even if it is a bit blurry...

The next morning we all got up early so we could see the sunrise...which turned out was behind a bank of clouds...so there wasn't one. But Ann wanted to go fishing and when she got out the shrimp to use a bait, an egret decided it needed some too. It stayed there for the longest. Jim finally fed it some shrimp and I got a picture of it as it caught one of the shrimp. Then it flew off a distance to eat it.

We left after getting all packed up and went to Long Key to eat lunch sandwiches and to have a nice milk shake from the gift shop there. Then we went on a short hike out to the end of a bridge over the confluence of the Atlantic and Gulf. From the bridge we saw several sharks as they came through the area. We also saw a huge sea turtle and an Eagle Ray as they cruised under the bridge. The pictures that I took of those are on the webshots album. While we were on the bridge I got a picture of Jim, Ann, Mom and Dad that I really like. Dad was wearing his new shirt that Jim had bought him.
Then we went on down to Bahia Honda. The beach there was beautiful and the water was a gorgeous aquamarine. We got the kayaks out, and I went out for a while alone. Jim taught Dad how to snorkel and they did that for a while. Ann joined me to kayak around the island, but we didn't quite make it before we felt we need to go back. While we were out, Jim got Dad on his kayak, I was happy to see it. I know he was disappointed when he could not balance enough to get in my sit in kayak. He looked like he was really enjoying it. I guess he was remembering the good days when he used to go out on his pirougue.

Ann, Dad, and I got together so Jim could take a picture of us.

After having lots of fun there, we packed up and went to eat at a place on the water. Then we headed back to Coral Gables to clean up and get ready for our trip home the next afternoon.

Wednesday morning Jim said we had to make one more trip to the ocean, so he took us down to Virginia Key. Ann and I got the kayaks out for a while. It was very windy and choppy that day, so Jim let me use his 17 ft Ocean Prowler. That Prowler was much easier to use than the Perception Koho. It cut through those waves easily and was a dream to paddle. It was kind of neat to be out in the bay so close to the Miami skyline that I always see in CSI Miami.
After a while it was time to head back to their house to clean up and get ready for our flight back to Dallas. I hated to leave, but I know vacations can't last forever...just wish they did...

Ann and Jim did a wonderful job of giving us a trip to remember for the rest of our lives. And I just cannot tell them enough how much I really appreciate all that they did for us.

Cathy