Here is Jay stealing a sip of my Americano at The Conch House where we had breakfast in Key Largo Saturday morning.  This is where Rhonwyn and Steve always breakfast when they go down there.  The coffee was OK but not great.  Jay had macadamia nut pancakes and thought they were really good.  We spent the night in Homestead at an Econolodge motel.  then came on down to Key Largo where Jay fished in the gulf AND in the Atlantic.  The highway is so narrow going south  from Key Largo that Jay said he could have fished both at the same time, the gulf on the forward cast and the Atlantic on the back cast.  He probably would have hooked someone in a car going by though so it's good that he didn't try.

 We stopped again at the Wide World of Sports just so we could look at Hemingway's boat, The Pilar.  Here Jay's sitting in the EXACT SAME SEAT that Hemingway sat in to catch some of those big fish he's always posing in pictures with.  Hemingway didn't actually own this boat, he just fished in it and liked it so well that he had one built just like it.  On  our way back to Miami from Key Largo we took a side highway, Card Sound Road, so we could eat lunch at Alabama Jack's.  They have really good Conch fritters and Conch Chowder there and there's a deck built right over a canal shadowed on the other side by densely growing Mangroves.  So we had lunch  and sat there throwing crumbs over the railing to the needle fish and some other kinds too.  We also lucked out and saw a manatee swimming by.  I said it was the size of a man but Jay thought it was bigger.

 Today, we met Bryan and Karen for brunch in South Beach.  We were going to go to a Starbucks by the ocean for our after brunch coffee but it started pouring down rain so we went back to The Lincoln Road Mall, which is what they are standing on above, and sat in a Starbucks there.  Karen is on the left above and that's Rhonwyn with the Madeline hat on.Karen is Rhonwyn & Steve's sort-of adoptive daughter.

I'm getting worse at this instead of better

Here's another blog that I can't even download pictures to without some other weird thing going on so you're just going to have to put up with these things I guess.  Though I don't suppose I have to let you know it's been posted.

Well, I didn't mean THAT!  Sorry Jay!

More video

Here's another try at publishing a video.  Can you hear Jay happily whistling there somewhere nearby?  Anyway, it's another couple of alligators.  Hope you can see it.  It's shorter than the last one I tried to get on here.

Everglade Nat'l Park

I am trying to put a video on here as an experiment.  I have trouble with this so I hope it comes out OK. (Alright.  I put it on again so I hope you can see it now.)  This was a place we stopped at in the Everglades National Park on our way down to Flamingo, Florida.  There were so many alligators there that we stopped looking at them unless there were a lot.  I don't know how many were here but there had to be over twenty.  We didn't know why the vultures were hanging around them.  They kept fighting with each other .  Once again, the alligators didn't do anything besides just lay there.  We drove down from Miami about 70 miles to here and are staying in Homestead for the night.  In the morning we will head on down the Keys to Key Largo  where Jay will fish in the gulf and I will visit Lori, Eric and Ben.

Cousins & Alligators

 Today we rode the bikes to Coco Walk for coffee (naturally)  and sat and read for awhile.  Starbucks had music playing that Jay liked better than yesterday, so instead of hearing, "What is this song?  I don't like this kind of music.  Is that K.D. Lang?"  I heard, "This is Miles Davis.  I wonder if that's... is this John Coltrane?  I think this is Coltrane.  Yes it is."  Then he paused in reading snatches from The New York Times to say, "This is Monk.  Do you know what his middle name is?"  I said, "Thelonius."  just to be saying something.  Seriously, why would I know that?  So, then he told me Thelonius Monk's middle name.  "Sphere."  So, anyway, that's what we did this morning.  This afternoon we drove out to Mathison Hammock Park, or whatever it's called.  It's where Jay's mom's memorial was held.  It was one of her favorite places.  It's right on the ocean.  The picture above is him standing on the walk with a regatta of sailboats behind him out on the water.  He fished along the shore but didn't catch anything.  A coon came up to me where I was sitting at a picnic table but I only had a bottle of water so it went away into the mangroves.

 On our way back from Naples we saw an information center along the canal through the everglades and stopped.  There was a boardwalk up a couple feet off the canal and when we went up on it we saw a bunch of alligators sleeping on the bank.  There were 17 in all.  Only a couple moved the whole time we were there.  We weren't sure what the reason for that was.  A few laid in the water or half in anyway.  Very reptilian behavior.

Once again, I meant for this picture to be the first.  You'd think I would learn, wouldn't you?  We're standing on the Naples Pier with Jay's cousin Betsy and her husband Andrew Decker.  They are really nice people and it was so great to see them again.  We want to go visit them in Sarasota next time we're down here.  It's amazing how you really FEEL that you're related to someone even though you hardly ever (or in my case, never) see them.  Betsy's father and Jay's father were brothers.
Jay wondered about the place there that says Ann Arbor . Naples so he went in to ask what the connection was.  All he got was what exquisite taste the owner had, how elegant her vision was, how inspired and blaa, blaa, blaa everything she had in her stores in Naples and Ann Arbor were.  You just wanted to say, "Was I talking to you!!!???"  to that rediculous guy sitting there at the counter, and not BEHIND the counter but at it.  The lady behind the counter was at least somewhat helpful.  I have to say, Naples is a wierd place.  It's, like, totally new!  You feel like you've gone to a fake village where all the buildings are pre-fab construction.  For those of you who are interested in this sort of thing, there was not ONE book store!  Tomorrow we are going to Flamingo.

Jay fishing Key Biscayne

 We went out to Key Biscayne to a state park there where there was a sea wall  you could fish off of.  Below where Jay is standing is a steep drop off (no beach here) with huge boulders along below.  He hooked a big fish but his knot came untied and he lost it.

 This is the light house that is apparently a tourist attraction because Jay is pointing at it.  It was closed so we couldn't go inside the fence to see it up close.

This is the Starbucks we went to the first time I came down here to Miami.  It's right across the street from the University of Miami.  We rode the bikes here and met Bryan for coffee.  It's late now, but we are going out to eat somewhere with Rhonwyn, Steve and Bryan when we all get around.  Tomorrow Jay and I plan to drive over to Naples to meet Jay's cousin, Betsy, and her husband for lunch.  Hopefully we will see at least ONE alligator this time!  I don't know if we will be going over on Alligator Alley or Tamiami Highway... but both have to cross the Everglades.  Which is alligator heaven.

 This is a Miami landmark, started selling lemonade here in 1978.  It's on Bayshore Drive.  We rode our bikes to Starbucks and sat there for awhile then rode around till we saw this guy selling iced lemonade and, since we were getting really hot, we stopped and bought a couple.  There are great bike trails around Coconut Grove and everyone is really used to joggers and bicyclists it seems.  But this park here had an old guy that told us we weren't supposed to ride there.  He yelled, "Didn't you see the sign?"  But there wasn't a sign and he was just an old jerk.  I asked Jay why he didn't go over there and punch the guy but he said he didn't think it was appropriate.

This should have been the first picture, but I'm still trying to get the hang of it.  I thought I HAD gotten the hang of it, but apparently not.  Anyway, this is the place where one of the Burn Notice shows was filmed and this is like the seat they were sitting on... or one of them.  There are a lot of these red velvet loveseats  all along the sidewalk.  It's mostly outside seating.  There's a big warehouse down by the waterfront where Rhonwyn says that Burn Notice has some of their filming.  I still haven't seen that big old building where Michael lives.
Jay wants to go fishing and we spent half the day trying to find a place that sells fishing licenses.  We finally had to drive ten miles way out south and west to get one.  Walden has four places within two blocks that sells fishing and hunting licenses and Miami has one within one million blocks that sells them.  We couldn't figure that out.  But we got a consolation for having to travel forever out there, there was a Denny's in the same shopping mall and so we got to eat supper at Denny's.  Both Rhonwyn and Steve gagged when we told them what we did.  It IS kind of embarrassing!

 Here is our rental car, parked in Steve's Porsche's spot because it's at the garage for it's annual checkup.  Rhonwyn has a Porsche now too... but it's only a two seater and we take her Acura when we all go out together.  She says you have to drive a Porsche to understand what it's like to have one.  I said I would love to!  But... Oh, well.

 Here's the front of Rhonwyn & Steve's house.  It is sunny as you can see, and 78 degrees outside.  This morning we went out to eat at their favorite restaurant... which was in one of the Burn Notice episodes this last season.  I'm going to go down there and get Jay to take a picture of me in one of those seats that I recognized in the show.  Maxine, you have to show Jaclyn the picture.

Here is Jay playing the piano that Steve's parents gave them as a wedding present.  That's their kitchen in the background.  We got here about 5 yesterday evening.  the flight was fine except I asked for a window seat and there wasn't a window in that part of the plane.  Who knew there was such a spot.  Jay didn't care but I did.  Jay didn't remember to bring a book and had to read one of mine to go to sleep the night before when we stayed at Motel 6 in FT. Collins.  It was an Alistair MacLean  book for those of you who are interested in such things... "When Eight Bells Toll".  I don't think he minded it too much.  I packed it in the checked bags though, so he had to read the Georgette Heyer book that I had on the plane.  He said it was kind of like a Scooby Doo mystery.  I had never thought of that, but it is a little.  These two sisters and a brother have inherited a big old manor house that they've moved into and there is a really frightening monk sneaking around the neighborhood that has the locals all spooked.  It's  called "Footsteps In The Dark" for those of you, once again, who care.  Rhonwyn and Steve are really busy with work all week so Jay and I are planning excursions on our own mostly I think.  We are going to go see a winery on the way down to Flamingo, Florida.  Right now Rhonwyn is in the kitchen yelling at her phone.  It's an I phone and to call someone you yell the name into it.  When she calls someone, it's a little disconcerting at first.