| Miami is definitely different. If we had come from
another country, we would most certainly think that we had
landed in South America. Nobody working on the docks speak
English! Even the Chinese girl working in the marina office
speaks English with a Spanish accent. And no wonder. She's from
Honduras! Most of our
boat neighbors speak Spanish. One would think you can just go
and take a Spanish class. Apparently not. Most offer English
classes instead. Guess that's a good thing. Our marina in the beautiful island of Key Biscayne overlooks
the Miami skyline, but because it is situated pretty close to
the waterway and the inlet, we catch the wind and rock and roll
much of the time, especially on the weekends when all the local
boaters show up for some sun and fun. In some ways, the
cosmopolitan city and its skyline remind us of Boston - a city
with lots to offer yet small enough to not overwhelm the tourist,
er traveler, albeit with a Latin twist. Our
insatiable appetite for Asian food was fulfilled at N. Miami
Chinese restaurants serving sumptuous dim sum and seafood buffet
at very reasonable prices. We were pleasantly surprised at their
quality and authenticity and at the number of
Chinese supermarkets available. Additionally, we got a good dose of
Latin American food, which this time around, was pretty good. We
spent Christmas with relatives in Tampa. In January, we ushered in the new year with the Dias at Bayside in
downtown Miami. It was jostling with all kinds of activities,
culminating with a fabulous concert performed by Ziggy Marley,
2002's reggae Grammy Awards winner and with the orange
reaching the top of the Intercontinental Hotel and fireworks
going off at midnight. In
February, the biggest boat show in the
country was in town. We only checked out the catamaran/trawler
section and met up with Greg and Monica of American
Tugs. These
people are our inspiration. They spent their summer in Alaska. When we saw them, their
boat was laid up in Mexico. Come spring, they will be crossing
the Panama Canal to the Caribbean. Yet another one of our dreams
is to explore the northwest...some day.
During our 4 months' stay in Miami, we had a total of 12 sets
of visitors. It would have been 16 had we got the energy to
drive to Key West to see Alice (our friend from our good ole
Philly days) and her family, or had we known several others who
were in town during our stay here! Can't blame all these folks
for coming south for a brief respite from the "winter
wonderland" and the bitter cold up north. Boater friends Firecat
and Trident stopped by on their way to Marathon and
Bahamas, respectively. We got acquainted with several neighbors,
most notably Emily and Kevin on Coqui and Eddie and
Astrid of SSMac. One night, we even got together and
hosted a dock party and 20 people showed up! In addition to our
fun times, we also worked hard to cross off several projects off
our "to-do" list. The first mate sew several items for
the boat, sanded and stained some of the boat's wood interior. The captain
attacked several leaks in the plumbing system and other
maintenance tasks.
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