MEXICO...

Off to Mexico tomorow......
More on the return....
I have to tell you about our AMAZING airboat tour through the Everglades.........
FANTASTIC
talk with you soon

A REALLY REALLY REALLY BIG AVOCADO

We found a great market about 15 minutes from where we are in Florida City...it is owned, managed and run by a group of Mennonites. They have u pick strawberries and tomatoes. As well as a variety of other absolutely wonderful tasting fruit and veg. And all of their stuff comes very nicely cleaned and packaged

Here is a "little sample of a medium sized avocado I picked up yesterday. Softball anyone?

I put it in a bowl with some lemons and limes that are also very abundant and inexpensive here...I dont think you can see the ruler but the avocado measures about 5.5 inches in height...

It only cost $1.00
And, they taste soooooo wonderfull

South Beach Afternoon

So, what to do on a monday afternoon in beautiful Miami Beach?????
Well, we headed back into South Beach to check out the architecture again....
As you can see, it is full of refurished old hotels, some of which have very funky lines....notice the curves of the buildings


This area runs from 5th street to just past 11th st on Ocean Drive.... the beach is across the road and past a little park.
You can see all the cute little restaurants here along the sidewalks....great colors on the buildings as well

The old Colonly Hotel.........just brings you back to the days when....things were grand....check out the old car in front of the pic below...I can just see the movie stars coming up the road in one of these old beauties.
Very fine detail work on a lot of these old buildings
And look at the colors involved ....funky hey?

More circles...and this actually had a whole bunch of neon signs of tropical stuff on the round part of the building. I bet that at night this would be so fun to walk up and down.
We arent sure, but doesnt this look like Versaces house where he was killed? Remember the steps where he was shot? Looks like it to me....can anyone help me with this?

The home itself took up half of the city block. Quite beautiful with nice courtyards behind the gates , including sculptures and seperate seating areas...I know cause we poked our noses in the gate....lol

And, it is a very pretty gate at that...

Little Havana and Key Biscayne

We headed closer into Miami the other day, and decided to go to a Cuban restaruant...the food was yummy and very different from our regular daily fare...I enjoyed a flank(that they minced up a bit) steak that they grilled and served with Chimichurui sauce. I have enjoyed this sauce once before at my friend Jeanette and Bruces place...very good
Daniel enjoyed a plate of Cuban samplers...pulled pork, ground beef with lovely warm spices, croquettes, deep fried plantains, white rice with yummy black beans. And some yucky Yucca...yikes

As you can see the restaurant is large. It has a bakery, cafe,restaurant, coffee bar that you can order from outside, as well as pick up a cigar or some gum. We had a cup of Cuban coffee. Kind of like a expresso but sweet. So, when you leave Miami and head to Key Biscayne the difference is incredible...check out the skyline
And then you go into Key Biscayne...over a toll bridge The homes on Key Biscayne are beautiful
An example of what I think of for Miami Florida homes...this one is still in progress
And then the great beach...Where you can drive right to where you want to spend the day....with a fully loaded car of snacks and drinks. Life is good while on vacation

OH HAPPY DAYS..............................

OH LOVELY KEY WEST FLORIDA

As the song goes..."off to Florida Key's".... I have to tell you, it is true. The whole world slips away when you are in Key West. It is realistically a tourist town but the whole show is about being laid back, chillin out and just being...

We left about 9 in the morning and headed south to the most southern point in the USA...or as Daniel says, about as far south of Qualicum Beach as possible...lol

This is a shot of the 7 mile bridge between a couple of the Keys...Florida Key's are actually a bunch of little islands linked togeather by bridges. The whole trip down from Key Largo to Key West is about 120 miles. But since it is mostly a two lane highway, it takes about 3 hours. You can imagine the accidents that happen on this road. Imagine a day in the sun, on a boat and having a few cocktails, the weather is warm all day and into the night, then a two lane highway where everyone wants to just get home quickly. Can be very disastorous...
They have a sign at the start of the drive that lists the number of fatalites on the road to date. We headed down on the 8th and already there was one person killed. Crazy hey? That is why we stay away on the weekends. Never mind that it would probably take 4 or more hours to get there with heavy traffic.

Thank goodness, we were safe both coming and going...and while we were there. Lots of fun




In Mallory square...a cute little shopping area near the peir. See how far Havana is from there?The big Mile 0...or the end of the road. Or the start depending on where you are at... As you can see we rented some scooters and had a BLAST...now that is the way to travel around a cool little seaport town like Key West. Mine has some funky hibiscus flowers on it. I did have a hoot when I was riding it. I did however keep looking for the clutch and back brake ... LOL


And here, is the most southern point in the continental USA...only 90 miles to Havana Cuba and just over 150 to Miami FL...fun

Some local architecture....so nice
and a landmark. Good old Earnst Hemmingway lived here in this house. He wrote from here as well.....paradise for everyone
And then for our friends Joe and Julie....when in Key West, you have to go to Margaritaville. LOL
We had lunch at a place called Fogarhty's. Very good. They serve alot of Dolphin....I know I freaked out too but it is actually a fish which is not a propoise. It is more commonly known as Mahi Mahi or in Mexico, Durado.
We spotted this brave rooster in the restaurant...I thought of Jackie in Las Vegas...but it was funny because there were roosters and chickens EVERYWHERE in Key West. In the bushes at the gas stations, on the lawn in front of the town hall, cruising down alleys. I mean everywhere! When we head back down, I will ask someone what the heck that is all about.

So, of course we wanted to walk the boardwalk and check out the sunset. We were nicely surprised at what we found. Around the sunset hour, it seems like the whole town heads down to the boardwald or seawalk. And, although no one knows how it all began, some how a sunset celebration started. There are buskers, musicians, bag pipers, jewelry makers, food stands (grilled pretzels, sausage kabobs, popcorn ect. As well as people selling beer, fruity slushy drinks, and other cocktails...
Some of the hotels have patio's set up right at the railing so you can enjoy dinner and watch the most romatic sunset I have seen for awhile.

One of the fellows busking is called The Cat Man and he is like a flunked out lion trainer. But he has the cats trained to do all kinds of things. Like jumping from one tall seat to another and actually jumping through a ring of fire.
If you look on the rope, you will see a calico kitty stretched out on it....Kinka cool


They also had bi-plane tours of the sunset
Or, you could take a sunset cruise on a clipper
It really was a romatic spot for us....here is my smiling boy
And here is our beautiful Key West sunset...I feel like it was made just for us. BEAUTIFUL

Notice the tall ship directly in the middle of the setting sun

South Beach, FL

A quick trip to South Beach the other day...this is the area that is called the Art Deco section of Miami.
Very cool place...we will go back again next week. There are very cool looking restaurants there along a road called Ocean drive that runs about 6 blocks. This area has a whole bunch of very funky art deco old hotels on it. If you have seen the movie "The Bird Cage" with Robbin Williams, you would know the area, as it was filmed in this area.

This is a example of the funkiness here. A life gaurd station on the beach. Fun isn't it?
The "tourist shot" LOL Notice the tempature... just over 80 degrees. Life sucks here I tell ya!!!!

Schebly winery

The new addition to the winery in south Miami...the new place will be gorgeous. They are building a new 5000 sq foot tasting room as well as a wonderful outdoor area full of buildings called Chichi's (kind of like a palapa in Mexico)
Inside this area is a beautifull water fall and lovley greenery. Chichi's are built by local Seminole Indians and are apparently the only ones allowed to build them (by law they must be liscenced)

Florida is full of gorgeous tropical fruit that is indigenous to the area.

A smart guy and his wife (who own a fruit and veg distributorship) opened up a winery close to where we are staying.

It is called Shnebly winery and specializes in different wines such as Carambola (star fruit, which by the way actually tastes good here. Not like the ones at home that we only use to decorate dinner plates with) Mango wine, Lychee wine, Guava and Passion fruit wines. They also make two sparkling versions of wine as well. One is from the Carambola wine and one is from the Passion Fruit.

They actually even made an attempt at avocado wine, not bad, but a little green tasting.

See the waterfall to the left. So nice. They were working on getting the water straightened out so they could add some fish. Notice the rocks? This is actually dug out coral. Like I mentioned before, this whole area is coral reef.
This area will be for picnics and they make it lovely with gentle music piped in everywhere.

I thought of my friend Teresa, I think she may have enjoyed some of this different wine.

So, there is another adventure....lol

Sugar and Spice Park

So there is a local state park here in Florida City (south Miami) that has fruit as well as spice plants from all over the world. We spent a little time there one afternoon.I have no idea what his flower is but it is beautiful and was so colorfull.

The park had different areas dedicated to areas such as Africa, Asia, South America, Central America as well as local produce.

This cool flower is from the Ylang ylang plant. One of my favorite scents, and surprisingly delicate looking flower. The scent was lovely.

This cute little plant looks like it has a pepper growing from it but actually it is not a pepper at all. It is called the miracle fruit. Why, because this fruit has the ability to make anything taste sweet. If you tasted some lemon and then ate this fruit, then some more lemon, it would taste sweet. I have no idea how it works but it does....cool hey

This fruit is called a elephant sausage...it grows very large and as you can see from the face here, it is also very heavy. They are called elephant fruit because elephants are about the only ones big and strong enoough to break it open and eat the tough pulpy insides...
They also have a section of poisonous plants. This plant is a oleander tree. I didnt know that the whole tree is poisonous. I thought that only the leaves were but apparantley not. And the little creature on the leave is a catapiller that is also poisonous. They are very brightly colored and oddly enough the birds know not to eat them. The can tell from the color....neat hey? Good old mother nature.
This funny looking thing is actually the start of a banana bunch growing. See at the top of the long stem....those are bananas. They will grow all the way down the stem right up to the bright red colored flower.This little gem is called the lipstick fruit. Not a very imaginative name considering that the use of this fruit was used exactly for that. Lipstick or coloring for makeup

Sorry, the pic is blurry but you can see how the seed pods stain your hand, or whatever you would put them on....

So, that was a cool afternoon .

HAPPY NEW YEARS EVERYONE

So, we spent the New Years Eve day checking out the surrounding area.... Imagine wearing a bathing suit on Dec 31st. The picture here is one taken at Pennekamp state park. We are walking on a board walk through a mangrove. Very cool trees that thrive in swampy moist sandy or corally ground. They reroot themselves kind of like a banyon tree does. There were 3 different type of mangroves in this park.

We found that the whole east side of the Florida "Keys" is a large coral reef. So as you can imagine, there is a lot of snorkelling, diving, and some glass bottom boat tours. The waters are also abundant with beautiful tropical fish. There is also a lot of fishing going on around here. Private and tours....

And, as Hercules is showing you here, the trees grow in funky ways. Not just straight up but curving around and twisting.

We enjoyed a lovely lunch at here at this restaurant...some pan sauteed yellowfin tuna and seafood enchilads. Beautiful view dont you think....

Notice how the mangrove are right in the ocean. This is actually the Gulf of Mexico. It is funny when you are driving down the "Keys" that the Atlantic is on one side and the Gulf of Mexico is on the other. With sometimes as little as 200 feet in between them. The road has only two lanes for most of the way....

The evening was quite for us. We went for a quick dinner and then we took in a flic. We watched Charlie Wilsons War, and found it cute and light hearted. Which is what the doctored ordered...

That night, back at the ranch (lol) there were a million fire works all around us and tons of Spanish music playing in the neighborhood. (I think this is all just to get me ready for Mexico, lol)

All in all, a great day. Sunshine, beautiful places, great company, and some entertainment...

So, HAPPY NEW YEARS EVERYONE...All the best to you all

Shannon and Daniel