CORAL GABLES

Yesterday was just beautiful so we drove over to Coral Gables for the first time. We walked down Miracle Mile passed all the shops and neat restaurants. One thing we noticed is that there are many, many, many bridal shops along the way. What's with that????? It was like the mecca of bridal dress shopping.
We ended up at the Coral Gables Blues Festival. Of course,we sat down, ordered a nice cold beer, and listened to some great Blues played by various bands.
We are starting to meet a lot of people on our dock now. It's like a small neighborhood.
The dog stroller is working out very well for Dorsey.  She gets rides to some very nice grass areas.

EXPLORING THE HOOD

Top news of the day down here was the arrest of Justin Bieber in Miami last night. It was a huge news
event !! We are amazed at the attention this got.

We drove to the Brickell area of Miami today. Supposedly a real trendy hot spot. We had lunch at
Tobacco Road......oldest bar in Miami. Neat place! Tried to post a pic from Google Images, but couldn't get it to work. Google TOBACCO ROAD MIAMI for more info. It is has a lot of history.

OBSERVATION: There are not many SUV's or pickup trucks here....mostly sedans....so different from Texas!

SETTLING IN

It has been a busy week so far. Yesterday, I took a tennis drill at the Grove Isle Resort and Spa. It felt wonderful to get out on the court. Sure was tired last night, though. I signed up for a series where I will take a drill there 1x week while we are in town. It will also be a good way to meet some other players.
While I was out , John began his boat waxing task. He waxed and buffed for 5 hours. He also was one tired and sore pup last night.

VIEW FROM TENNIS RESORT

37 YEARS AGO TODAY....HAPPY BIRTHDAY KRISTI

Yup, 37 years ago today I was giving birth to Kristi, listening to Jimmy Carter get sworn in.
 Today, I rode my bike to a yoga class in the morning. This afternoon we drove over to Key Biscayne and did some sightseeing. It was a wonderful, warm day for it.

NO NAME HARBOR, MIAMI IN BACKGROUND

KEY BISCAYNE BEACH

FLORIDA CAPE LIGHTHOUSE 1826

Movie and Panoramic View!

Yesterday, we walked to the movie theater in Coco Plum, about a 15 minute pretty walk. Afterwards, we went up to the Panorama Restaurant on the 8th floor of the Sonesta Hotel. The view was spectacular.

LOOKING OUT ON OUR MARINA IN DINNER KEY

LOVIN' IT !

Thus far, we are loving being here in Coconut Grove. We can walk to just about everything and it is all so beautiful . Yesterday, we went to the grocery store. That was an interesting experience with all the unusual foods, etc. It is kind of like being in a foreign country, at times. The Miami Area is heavily Cuban, and by the end of 6 weeks here, we'll be speaking Spanish, I'm sure. 
We rented a car and another observation we've made is that everybody honks at anything all the time. It is really amazing. No one is hostile, but they just honk at the least traffic issue. 

Today we took Dorsey to the opthamalogist and got some more drugs for her ulcerated eye. She seems to be doing better tonight.
This afternoon, we drove over to Grove Isle.....a gorgeous resort and spa. The grounds are spectacular. They have a marina, as well. Tonight, we took in the happy hour at a couple places. We sat at the bar and enjoyed talking to some real friendly bar tenders that filled us in on all the fun things to do here.  We ended up at the Sand Bar Sports Bar.There were lots of young people and the big deal was team trivia... teams of tables competing for prizes. All participants had to put their cell phones in a bucket so as not to cheat. Not only was the food good, but the energy of the younger group was a lot of fun!

WE'RE HERE!

Happy to say , we made it to Coconut Grove this afternoon. We are ready to relax for a while. Yesterday, we had 14 bridges, today 23. We made it under about 1/2 of them, but required an opening on the other 1/2. Some only open at certain times after the hour. It is a lot of waiting around doing circles in the water. We only had 38 miles to go today, but it took us almost 7 hours....very slow going.
Just north of Miami, a police boat came over to us and told us we had to hold up for about 10 minutes. A movie was being shot at a home along the ICW and we were not allowed to pass by. See the pics below. you can see the big lights and all the crew waiting around.

MOVIE CREW

NOTICE BIG BLUE LIGHTS