Dinner in Arkansas

Our dear friends took us to dinner with them in Arkansas last weekend. (Notice the iPad with our pic.)

Jesse & Stephanie will be here in the next four hours! Woot!

Round 2

Before we knew it, our next round of guests had arrived! Bill & Steph flew in last Thursday around noon.  After lunch and some downtime, we went to an afternoon showing of The Avengers. We sat through the credits for the "extra" scenes at the end. There are two. The last one was at the very end... so we sat there for quite a while, and it was terrible! So wasteful. If you go see the movie, I recommend staying for the first "extra" scene only. It was after the first round of credits and sets everything up for a second movie. For dinner, Steph was looking forward to some seafood and picked Joe's Crab Shack.

Friday was kind of rainy, so we went with the standard rainy day activity-outlet mall shopping.... Followed by a trip to Jaxson's for ice cream.

We then decided to make it a double feature and headed to the theatre for Snow White & the Huntsman (because it was still raining). The movie was better than I expected and not really scary at all. (I avoid the scary movies like the plague.) It had a different interpretation and Charlize Theron was wonderful. I enjoyed it very much... and so did the rest of the audience. They broke out in applause more than once during the movie. There was even cheering at one point. So strange... I don't know why I felt embarrassed that everyone else was cheering...

Saturday we drove the A1A (I can't help but sing "beachfront avenue" in my head every time after we say A1A... you know, from Ice Ice Baby?) from Hollywood to South Beach. We lunched on Lincoln Road and walked down to the beach for a bit before strolling back to our car along Espanola Way.

The afternoon was a TREAT. We took a 2 hour boat tour with Ocean Adventures on this little gem:

Ha ha. Just kidding. But we did see lots of yachts... including the one that belongs to the owner of the Miami Heat! This is the real boat we rode in:

This was such a neat tour... I don't even know where to start. First we drove around Star Island. It's a man-made island off of Miami Beach which only houses private residences. I think our tour guide said there were 34?? Lots of famous people have lived on the island and our guide pointed out the homes owned by Gloria Estefan, Rosie O'Donnell, and Shaquille O'Neal's former place.

We also saw this cool Coast Guard ship that had a wicked machine gun mounted on the front...it's kind of hard to see in this pic.

Next we drove around Fisher Island. I thought Star Island sounded VIP until I heard about this one. The only access is by private boat or ferry and you can only come to the island if you are invited by a resident or are a guest at the hotel! Nuts. This is where a lot of the tennis players stay when they come for the Sony Ericsson Open tournament. Some famous names of residents our guide threw out were Oprah and Julia Roberts. The building below looks like apartments, but it is deceiving. Notice how the middle section has the hurricane shutters up? That is likely one residence. The owner has left for the season.

Next we cruised past the place where cargo containers are loaded/unloaded. It made me feel tiny (because it was so huge) and like a greedy, materialistic American (because why do we need all this stuff anyway?). Our guide pointed out the fancy machines they have to move the containers... and noted that they were the inspiration for the Star Wars Walker/Transporter things...

He also told us they are expanding the port and Disney is moving their Los Angeles fleet to Miami! (Cynthia, are you excited?) When I google, it sounds like Disney is only moving one ship, but one is still exciting!

Stiltsville was the next stop on the tour. It's a group of wooden homes built on stilts off Key Biscayne. Back in the 50s and 60s there were as many as 27 buildings, but only 7 still stand today (hurricane Betsy wiped them out in 1965). This used to be the party spot for wealthy people from Miami. The buildings were meeting places for social clubs. Here is a pic I found on google images from the past:

Here are a couple pics of what it looks like today. The water just around that area is only about 2' deep.

I love hearing stories like this about the past! It makes me wish I could go back in time to see it in action... And it makes me wonder what future generations will look back on today and marvel about. It also reminds me how temporary our world is... all of that was washed away by the hand of God. Thankful to know the One who never changes and who holds my forever future. 

On our way back, we had some visitors!

There were 5-6 dolphins swimming near the boat!

The last destination on the tour was the place where the Miami River meets the ocean. The water was very calm and beautiful here...

And lastly, here is a pic of the Miami skyline.... 

We had a great time hanging with Bill & Steph. Only 3 or 4 more weeks before the next round of visitors arrives! Woot! 

Gators, Food and More Food

We were excited to welcome our first guests late last Friday night. My parents arrived at the Ft Lauderdale airport around 11pm. After a refreshing night's sleep, we took them out to eat and then headed to the Everglades for an airboat tour.

Despite the rain we've been drowning in, Saturday was sunny and lovely. Right off the bat our tour guide spotted the gator in this pic. He's kind of in the middle/right side of the pic. See if you can find him...

We only saw two gators on the airboat tour, but then we went to the exhibit and saw this big guy in action.

Dad and Adam each had a turn holding a gator. Mom and I politely declined the opportunity. I think he's smiling in this pic... the gator.

The next day we brunched at Grand Lux Cafe and then hit the outlet malls. That turned out to be a good idea because it was pouring rain while we shopped. Monday we had lunch at Le Tub near Hollywood Beach. It's on the water and famous for burgers. This was the view from our shady table:

Mom n Dad looking all relaxed and happy because they're on vacation...

After lunch we went to the beach and people watched for a bit. We found my dad's doppelgänger, but didn't get a pic.... :-(   

Apparently, most of this trip was spent eating, because after a while at the beach, we went for dessert at Jaxson's. It's been featured on tv for awesomeness. This is what Adam and I shared...

BEFORE

AFTER

My dad still hadn't had any "real" seafood on the trip, so for dinner we drove down to Key Largo. The sunset was beautiful and afterwards, they let you buy little fish to feed the big fish.

It was so great having someone here to share the Florida fun with. We were sad to see them go Tuesday morning. 

In other news... did you hear about the Face Eater? Google it. It happened... here. Nuts.