A Miami New Year

We've been enjoying Miami for the past month; the sights, sounds and vibe. Miami is unlike any other city we know.  At night the buildings light up in full color, the cruise ships are alongside the busy downtown, and the weather (of course) is semi-tropical most of the time.

After a lovely holiday season and a very comfortable marina berth, we are looking forward to heading out for some sailing in a few days.  We have loved being here at Dinner Key Marina in Coconut Grove.  It has very nice accommodations, a beautiful park area, close enough to walk to the village of Coconut Grove and easy parking that allows us to have our car with us.  The bathrooms and showers are four star!  The staff has been very accommodating and kind and we love our neighbors!

The holidays start the busy "snowbird" season here in Florida and we have been fortunate to share time with several friends that come south for the winter.  Jon and Mary Ellen hosted us at their club in Boynton Beach for a lovely brunch. A few days later they braved the drive to Miami to visit our home and share another brunch with us at Lulu's in the heart of Coconut Grove.  It was so great to see them!  Kevin and Debbie met us in Delray Beach at El Camino for a yummy "Tuesday Taco" night.  The surprise of the night was when friend Ken joined us from Fort Lauderdale.  Delray was jammed on Tuesday night January 3rd!

We met Marilyn and Bob Stasonis at the Loggerhead Marine Center in Juno Beach and checked out the varying stages of turtles in rehabilitation there.  This place is super cool and they do great work getting sea turtles rehabbed and back into the wild, or bringing the babies that didn't make it to the sea, up to a point where they can also go back to the wild.  Here are some of their patients.

Turtle ready for vital signs and health progress tests

Apparently they chew on each other if left
together in the pool

After checking out the progress at the "Turtle Hospital" we enjoyed lunch at a fav spot in North Palm Frigate's.  Unfortunately, the rain was pouring down, so we had to eat inside.  But, conversation was lively and we spent a good long time enjoying Marilyn and Bob's company.  

In addition to seeing lots of friends -

We attended the spectacular Christmas Pageant at First Baptist Church in Fort Lauderdale with our daughter, Courtney and her fiance', Paolo.  The show was extraordinary with live animals, live flying angels, fire works, and over 100 voice choir.  It'll be tough looking at these and thinking this is a church!

We made a return trip to Wynwood (see previous blog entry) and really enjoyed seeing the art there. This time we walked for a few hours to see everything we missed before.  Most of the pictures here are entire outside walls of large buildings!

This was inside a gallery.

This and the one below were in the same gallery.

We toured Vizcaya - James Deering's estate and gardens (founder of International Harvester).

Greg forgot to take his foot out of this shot! See Sharon?

We visited the Design District in Miami and gawked at the unusual fashions and furniture. This district houses all of the top end fashion, furniture, and watch designers.  Meet you at Tiffany's?

We shared the spectacular treat of a dinner at the Jean-Georges restaurant Matador Room in Miami Beach with daughter Courtney and soon to be son-in-law Paolo.  We have had the significant treat to be able to show up at Courtney and Paolo's house pretty much any time and have access to their backyard pool, cable internet for downloads and updates, laundry(!), great kitchen for sharing meals and backyard grill.  They are wonderful hosts and we love sharing time with them.  Thanks so much Courtney and Paolo!

It has been fun exploring Miami and checking out all there is to do and see.  However, what we won't miss is the traffic!

We are excited to head out and sail a bit.  We plan to leave in a few days after the present northern cold front leaves the area.  Northers bring very strong winds, which bring big waves.  So, we'll pick a weather window that's best for our week long sail to the west coast of Florida.

We plan to sail down Biscayne Bay to Key Largo and anchor in the lee of the island which should work well with the East wind.  Then, we will head out into Hawk Channel (the channel that runs between the reef east of the keys, and the Keys). Then we'll make our way down to Channel Five bridge where we can cross into the Florida Bay, the west side of the Keys.  We hope to ride the East wind across the Bay, around Cape Sable (SW tip of Florida) and up into the Little Shark River for one evening's anchorage, and then on to Marco Island.  From there, we will take our time working our way up the West Coast.

As always, you can track our progress by clicking on the picture of our boat at the top of this blog and see what the SPOT tracker tells you.

'Til next time -