Florida Trip July 2007

Warm waters and undersea life seem to call to me in the same way that tropical rain forests do. Every year or two I'm drawn to explore some new spot unique and beautiful. This year was no different Annie and I decided to visit southern Florida and the Keys. Our parents graciously offered to tend the kids so this trip became a mini honeymoon 7 1/2 years removed.

The trip began with a flight to Miami we immediately felt the humidity and muggy heat that comes with 90 degree heat and 90% humidity. It took us a minute to gather our bearings in the rent a car and figure out which direction was East in order to find our way to downtown where our hotel was for the next few days. We never found a proper freeway and ended up taking backroads through the heart of Miami with some neighborhoods looking more similar to those of Mexico then the U.S. with iron bars guarding windows. As we passed the Orange Bowl home of the Univ. of Miami Hurricanes I wished that we had scheduled the trip during college football season since I've been a fan of the canes since middle school.

We arrive at the downtown Marriott on Biscayne Bay blvd. Our room had a nice view of the Bay as well as Dark thunderstorms rolling in from the west we would see more of later that evening. Annie and I left to find food since Northwest didn't provide snacks on our flight from SLC thru Minnesota and then onto Miami.

We found an outdoor mall downtown just past the basketball arena. As we arrived the rain had just started to fall but it was light and warm so it didn't bother us too much. It was quite an international scene where the locals seemed to be Haitians, Cubans, Puerto Ricans and Mexicans and the tourist were Columbian, Spaniards, Germans and Brits. We tried an all you can eat Argentine barbeque called the Knife and found the meats to be quite good. The entertainment for the evening was provided by mother nature as some impressive thunder storms engulfed the bay.