We planned a long time ago our trip home to the USA to visit our children and grandchildren, family and friends and have a check-up with our doctors. Since our family lives in Texas, a lot of our friends in South Florida and current doctors are in the Miami area we split the trip in two parts. We left Grenada after leaving our boat in good hands with Sean on August 6. We stayed for 2 days in Miami to drop off all kind of items we did not need on the boat anymore and do the blood work for our health check. Our dear friends Barbara and Scott offered us a great place to stay in Key Biscayne and they organized a dinner get-together with Gail and David, who recently returned from their Caribbean cruising trip to have a nice evening with cruisers stories. You can find their blog at http://www.sailblogs.com/member/wildestdream47/ and read some amazing stories.

On August 8 we flew to Texas and our son Robert picked us up from the airport in Austin to drive to his home in New Braunfels. It was so great to see the family again after such a long time. The children have grown so much and it was hard to realize how much we have missed by not being close to them. Jack and Max are very good wake boarders and spend all their free time at the Texas Ski Ranch http://www.texasskiranch.com/. The Texas Ski Ranch is a 70-acre action sports paradise that has something for everyone. You can spend the day out on the cable lake wakeboarding and water-skiing, hit the skate park, rock climb or simply lounge around snacking on the best fish tacos in town. In the picture segment of our blog we have posted some pictures of our grandsons Jack and Max that show a few of the most daring tricks they are doing on the boards. We spent several days along the lake in over 100 degree temperatures to watch the boys and their friends on the water. We took our granddaughters Kristin and Katelynn to this place and they spent a lot of time in the skate park on the trampolines.

We met the girlfriend of our oldest grandson Justin and visited the house they just rented in one of the older subdivisions of New Braunfels close to the famous Landa Park and Comal River. Justin is so proud of his new home and we wholeheartedly share that feeling. Robert our son was training very hard in preparation of the Vancouver Triathlon that was held on August 25. Unfortunately he got an injury after completing the swimming and biking part half way the marathon and had to drop out. Jack and Max in the meantime found a new sport in the mountains that is called downhill bike crossing.

We did some sightseeing trips in the Texas Hill Country and realized again how beautiful Texas is. We passed along Medina Lake and saw with our own eyes the impact of the incredible drought in Texas over the last 5 years. The lake is only filled for 4% and it is horrible to see the lake at this stage. We had our home on the lake for over 11 years and with so many great memories of a full lake it is hard to see it in its current condition. We visited the San Antonio River that is one of the great tourist attractions and it is still a very nice place to visit and the river conditions are so very much improved that you can feed an abundance of fish and ducks. We had a great time visiting friends including our former neighbor Robbie who was in the hospital recovering after a knee replacement.

When we lived in San Antonio Sea World was built in 1988 and encroaching in our neighborhood that turned a few streets into dead ends. Robert our son skied professionally for many years in Sea World and thanks to the fact that the park was so close by we attended many shows, got to know many skiers and a few even lived in our house and many of them call us mom and dad. The skiers of the 1988 "class" organized a reunion that was attended by many skiers with their families; we attended a few of the events. It was great to see these people again and hear about their accomplishments in life.

Then it was time to return to Miami and start the visits to our doctors. For me it was all great news until my visit to the world famous Bascom Palmer Eye Institute where my doctor, the Director of this Institute confirmed to me what I already expected that my current (5th!) corneal transplant is in rejection and I will lose eyesight in my left eye again. We set up a plan for comfort treatment and hope that the inflammation can be controlled. However, the biggest setback on this great and pleasant trip was when my heart specialist discovered a few tumors in my right lung that he expected to be an indication of lung cancer. To complete all the needed tests including a needle biopsy we had to cancel our trip back to Grenada, but the test concluded that the tumor is benign and no immediate surgery is needed. I need to have regular CAT scans to keep a close eye on this tumor. We stayed with our friends Gail and David and when I needed to visit the Mount Sinai Medical Center our friend Bryan allowed us to stay in his condo in Miami Beach. To get away from the depressing feelings during the testing and waiting for results we visited The Florida Keys including Key West over the weekend. It is for us always a fun thing to visit Key West. Besides the normal tourist areas we visited the African Cemetery and this is the story about this historic location:

"In the spring of 1860, three slave ships intercepted by the US Navy in its efforts to stop the illegal trade in humans were brought to Key West. These American-owned ships were bound for Cuba, where the slave cargo was to be sold to the thriving sugar plantations. A total of 1,432 Africans arrived from these ships, and they came with nothing. The 3,000 citizens of the island, led by United States Marshal Fernando Moreno, came together and built housing, donated clothing, and provided food and medical attention for them during their stay. For eighty-five days the newly liberated refugees found shelter at Key West. But because of the horrific conditions they suffered aboard the slave ships, many of the Africans were quite ill, and 295 of them died. They were buried in shallow sand graves on the southern shore of the island."

The adjacent fort is now a botanical garden; it is very beautiful and a pleasure to visit. We visited Big Pine Key and saw a few nice houses we might consider after our sailing days are over, but still want to live close to the water with a small boat.

We met many of our friends and former co-workers and we spoke many times on the phone with our friend Nelson who was in the hospital for many days to support his 85 year old dad who had open heart surgery and his stories about his dad helped me a lot to turn my negative and depressed feelings around.

On Saturday Bryan invited us to visit the Fairchild Tropical Garden which has as its mission to save tropical plant diversity by exploring, explaining and conserving the word of tropical plants. The garden has recently opened a new exposition with non-local butterflies in an enclosed environment into the addition of their outside local butterflies. The garden is 83 acres area with lakes, tram tours and walking tours. The plants and trees are collected from all around the world and the garden has field programs in over 20 countries and botanic garden development and renovation projects in South and Central America, the Caribbean and the Middle East. The garden has trees and plants distinct in their original location. This was a wonderful experience and a great conclusion of our trip back to the US.

And with the outlook to continue our adventures we will fly back to Grenada and our dear Island Girl on Sunday, September 1, 2013.