Our good friend Paul whom we went to college with picked us up from the airport. Damn it was hot! Miami has a stickiness factor on their weather programs. It wasn't sticky...it was a spider web! We saw the opening of Dark Knight on Friday the 18th. My grandmother tried to make us a roast in the oven but her oven blew out. She transferred the roast to the microwave and killed the microwave. We never did find a replacement microwave for her while we visited. During our visit we cut bushes and hacked vegetation for my grandmother and mother-in-law. Plants grow REALLY well in subtropical climates! Paul took us out to eat and I got a really expensive King crab dish because Florida Lobster wasn't in season...sorry Paul!
Paul also took us to Fairchild Gardens, a top notch tropical botanical garden. I really enjoyed it. We also went to the Monkey Jungle where the monkeys are running free and the people are caged. Sadly, the Monkey Jungle has suffered a lot of damage from the various hurricanes that have hit it. Much of the Rainforest canopy is gone. They used to have Orangutan and Chimpanzees. I don't know what happened to them. Anyway it was still fun, if somewhat less impressive than in the past. We took a trip to the Everglades National Park and saw alligators and crocodiles. I'd never been to the park before so that was a great experience, if somewhat mosquito filled. We also traveled to the Miami Seaquarium. I think I enjoyed that day the most. It was just me and Zoe and we had her sister's Prius. About the Prius...I don't think I will ever get used to a car that doesn't make any noise even when it's on. Not having to turn a key to start the car and pushing a button to put it in park were also turn offs for me. It was nice to get 50 mpg while driving in downtown Miami though. After a long day at the Seaquarium we headed off to Bill Boggs State Park on Key Biscayne. I'd never been there before either and enjoyed what I saw of the park and the lighthouse. On our last day in Miami we decided to go to Shark Valley in the Everglades and take a 2 hour interpretive tram ride through the park before heading back to the airport. The sky was blue. We took my grandmother and mother-in-law. It was a nice ride although I found the guide to be annoying. Near the last 15 minutes of the tram ride we had a thunderstorm roll through. We were getting drenched by cold hard-blown rain with the threat of lightening. Our brilliant guide decided this would be a good time to STOP and teach us more about the ecosystem. He got out of the tram, took off his shoes...I am not lying, and walks out into the water with lightening all around us. Meanwhile we are getting soaked. After the show and tell with some spongy plant substance we finally start back only to have lightening strike right in front of the tram. I actually felt two of my fingers go numb. They ached for about 20 minutes. We survived, and the next group looked at us in awe as if we were returning from the flying dutchman. We dried off and got to the airport on time, only to have to sit in the airport and extra hour for some reason. We got home about midnight Saturday. What an adventure! I found a dead bat in a bucket when I got home and a few plants in the yard may be dead from lack of watering but all is well.
You can find photos from the trip on Flickr. It may take a few days to get them all up. http://www.flickr.com/photos/47113880@N00/sets/72157606404384224/
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