Parrot Island

 Sunday we got together with Ken and Jane and headed to Miami to see Parrot Island.  It is a nature park with all sorts of Islands.  Kind of expensive but not when you realize that alot of the monies go to research to help many of the endangered species of birds and animals there.

 As we headed into the Serpentariam we saw this cute pirate ship heading out into the ocean with a full load of passengers.

 Somehow the pirate ship loses a little of its reality when put in front of one of the MANY high rise apartment buildings right on the ocean front.

 This is the serpentarium and we figured it would be a show about lizards and snakes but actually it was a fun active show that took us around the world with all sorts of different animals - from monkies, to alpacas to lemurs, to the Everglades Alligator.

This little guy had just pulled the elastic out of his workers hair - he really like playing in it!

 He was really just adorable though

 Did you know Lemurs JUMP??  They are amazingly agile.  And soft - one of the handlers walked around the whole crowd brushing us with his long tail

After we finished at the Serpentarium show we walked through the park looking at all of the beautiful displays and fun animals.  This was a stream running under a bridge we walked over - we could see a Blue heron under and through the trees but couldn't get a good picture of it. As we stopped and watched the heron we realized the turtles and gar fish were gathering in the water under us

 It was as if they were waiting for us to feed them.  So I bought a quarter's worth of food and boy - it entertained us for a half hour -

Ed took this picture - the turtles head is just above the water after he ate one of the food bits

This is a sausage tree!!  there are some fascinating trees and flowers and bushes in Florida

We got to feed the parrots

If you look in my hand you can see the cup of nectar I fed him with

This is Jane and Ken who went to Parrot Island with us - fun fun couple - good friends of Kitty and Larry who we invited on the trip

Fun picture of the three of us (grin)

I am surprised these guys don't weigh 20 pounds each, they were greedy little buggers!

Cute picture of my boyfriend!

Loved the soft cream coloring of this cockatoo

Isn't this one gorgeous

I am hoping that these flamingoes will look better if you double click on the picture - they look washed out here but were a fantabulous coral in real life

We had a fun fun day.  Yesterday we spent at Haulover Beach in Miami - we are sitting in the lobby of the hotel right now waiting for the shuttle to come and pick us up and my camera is lost in the depths of my suitcase so I can't download those pictures yet.

So long for at least a week until we get internet access again.

We flew to Ft Lauderdale on Monday Oct 17th - it was warm but very overcast.  The humidity didn't seem too bad.   It was rainy when we headed out to dinner that first evening but not too bad.  You can imagine our surprise when we watched the news that night and saw the coverage of the tornado that had hit in Ft Lauderdale.  We didn't worry - its a big city...until Ed got online and discovered that the tornado had hit less than five miles away from the Hampton Inn we were staying at!  I guess all in all about 20 homes were demolished.  A few people were injured but thank Heavens there was no one killed.  About the time we were trying to go to sleep I heard a low rumbling outside and jumped out of bed expecting to look out the window and see another tornado heading towards us and it was barely raining...it was a truck going down the street.

Since it was too rainy the next morning to go sightseeing or to the beach we decided to drive down through the Keys.  It was a fascinating drive.  It took us all day long but was definitely worth it.

This is one of the many bridges - we are heading up and over the bridge to another key.  I had no idea there are that many different islands...some are big and some are teensy.  

This is one of the teensy ones~

I just noticed the date is wrong on these pictures.  This was Tuesday the 18th.  As we drove through the many keys we found it was difficult to see past the 8 foot tall wall of greenery that was growing - actually large bushes that totally hid either ocean (or gulf) or houses.  We got pretty good at picking out the larger islands very quickly by the quality of stores along the highway.  If they were rundown and dilapidated looking then it would be a little island.  If there were nice stores and banks and hotels then we could see that behind all of the greenery there were streets and homes.

There were some gorgeous homes right on the ocean - I can imagine the cost of property anywhere along the keys.  One thing we did NOT see were any beaches.

I heard that the keys got about 21 inches of rain Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.  There was water standing everywhere we looked.

If you look closely you will see that 10:28 am that morning the temperature 78 degrees.    By 2 o'clock that afternoon it was still looking like this (heavy heavy rains) and 84 degrees.   Everytime we stopped the car to get out we expected it to be cold but it was soooo warm instead.


We Finally got to Key West about 3 1/2 hours later - found a cute little restaraunt and had some fantastic sandwiches.  We walked down Duval Street to the end - Ed took a picture of me in front of marker showing the most farthest South point of the continental United States.  Of course - that picture is on HIS camera.  There was a little bitsy beach with actual sand there...but we figured they probably brought it in.

So then we walked back to the car and drove the last two blocks a different direction to the end of US Highway #1....note the green mile marker showing "0".  We finally got back to the hotel about 8:30 that night ....long day!

Wednesday morning it was still rainy so we called Ed's brother Allen and got the phone for our niece and her family.   Melissa and Beau moved to Naples Florida this last Spring.  Looking at the map of Florida we realized that Naples is almost straight across the state from Florida.  We talked to the Manager of our hotel and he said it would be a straight shot due West across the State.  He said it was not a pretty drive and we just looked at each other and said - how many times have we driven across Utah or Idaho.  We talked to Melissa and decided we would aim for about 5 pm.  We had some time to kill before we headed to Naples and with the wet weather we wandered through a huge mall in Ft Lauderdale.

We drove the two hours due West across Alligator Alley (didn't see a single alligator the whole day!!) and had a fun visit with Melissa and her girls and Beau.  Avenley and Paisley very quickly as another set of grandparents.  They had a beautiful apartment and we were quite impressed with the areas of Naples that we drove through.  

We took them out to dinner at Moe's which is very much like Cafe Rio only without the barbacoa pork ---but it was delicious anyway.  We had a wonderful visit with all four of them and they seemed tickled that we would take the time to drive to Naples and see them.

After dinner we headed back to Ft Lauderdale and got back to to hotel about 9:15.  Long fun day.

Thursday we checked out of the hotel and headed North to Palm Beach where we had reserved a cabin at a resort.  It was sunny and in the mid seventies and it was hilarious to hear the complaints of all those around us concerning how cold it was!!  To us it has been just perfect - not too hot, not too cold.

Thursday was quiet and Friday much more busy.  Friday night I got to go to a 'gong temple' and have a sound wave relaxation therapy.  It was relaxing and quite beautiful.  I lay on a massage table with a huge gong on each side of me and the couple that did it created some gorgeous tones with the gongs.  I could feel the stress roll out of my toes!!  Quite interesting.

Saturday Kitty and Larry and Ken and Jane and Lee all showed up at the same resort.  We knew they were coming.  All of us are from Utah - and we are all going on the cruise together.  We will all head back to Ft Lauderdale tomorrow - the cruise is on Tuesday.  We haven't decided what we are going to go do or see tomorrow - it would be nice if we could find an LDS church to go to.

More to come....