We had a marvelous week visiting friends in south Florida. Much to our relief, the Prius performed flawlessly and we were happy to average around 50 miles to the (US) gallon (21 km/L). The weather was cooperative with sunny skies and pleasantly warm temperatures, and we had no difficulty finding any of our generous hosts.

The day before we left, Randall visited his dermatologist to have Mohs surgery to remove a pencil-eraser-sized basal cell carcinoma from the side of his nose. He had been expecting the dermatologist to tell him to wait for this treatment until after he came off the blood-thinning drugs in July but Dr. Doshi was confident that they could control blood flow from the site and quickly made appointments that fit around our travel schedule. It was very good to have this dealt with sooner than we expected but it did mean that Randall spent the week in south Florida with rather prominent bandaging on his face.



Alison and Sue when we met in Orlando in January

Our first stop was to spend a couple of nights in Jupiter with Sue and Jerry. We had seen Sue briefly in Orlando when we had first arrived in Florida, thinking that we would only be there for two weeks. It was good to see Jerry again and to see the lovely remodeling that had been done in their house since our last visit in 2010. We were very fortunate that Sue could take a day off work to hang-out with us and our stay included meeting with another good friend, Mike, for lunch and seeing various species of rescued marine turtles at the Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Jupiter. We also visited the Manatee Lagoon and FPL Eco-Discovery Center in Riviera Beach. This is located beside the warm-water outflow from a power-station which can attract more than 40 manatees during winter cold-spells. There were no manatees present during our visit because the warm weather had allowed them to disperse to better habitats with more food.

Passing through Miami, on Friday (April 8th), we were able to meet for lunch with one of Randall's former graduate students, Jennifer. She is employed by the Fairchild Botanical Gardens and it was very encouraging to hear about her work on threatened and endangered species and habitats not only in south Florida but also in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.



Jennifer and Randall (post removal of carcinoma from his nose)

We ended the day having driven about 70 miles into the Florida Keys, including the scenic drive over the Seven-mile Bridge. It was easy to find Kathy and Dan's house perched on robust stilts and bordered by mangroves at the end of a canal on Little Torch Key. Despite only having moved-in a couple of months before, Kathy had already created an attractive and comfortable home and Dan had started substituting native shrubs for some of the non-native ones in their small yard. Dan is also one of Randall's former students and they had moved to the Keys after spending two years on Midway Island, where Dan was the National Wildlife Refuge Manager there. He is now the manager of four refuges in the Keys but we did not get to see him because he had just left for a two-week stint in California as a Commander in the US Coast Guard Reserves.

Although we would have loved to have seen him, it was wonderful to hear Kathy tell us all about their time on Midway. Having briefly visited the Island with Dan, when we had all been staying in Honolulu, it was easy for us to imagine the places and people in her stories. We also spent a fun day in Key West. Seeing the beautiful clear water on the drive there and enjoying the exhibits at the Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center made me long to go snorkeling, but Randall was not able to swim due to his stitched-up nose and we did not really have time so I just had to day-dream about all the fish and corals we were missing.



Kathy at their Florida Keys house which is built on stilts, as is typical for the hurricane-prone area

After a couple of lovely nights in the Keys, we took Alligator Alley across the Everglades to reach Sarasota. Here we found Valma and Eddy, cruising friends we had not seen since we were in Panama. In the subsequent five years, they had reluctantly sold their beautiful SV Navy Blue but had bought a camper-trailer in which they had searched for the perfect place to live. They had loved living in New York State in the past but now they both enjoyed a bit more warmth and Eddy was ready to start teaching sailing classes again, so Sarasota had seemed like the ideal place for them. They had found a perfect house with screened-in swimming pool and a spacious wedge-shaped yard and, as always, they continue to be the most affectionate and adorable couple. We thoroughly enjoyed being reunited with them and they generously fed and entertained us, although the great white egret which has befriended them failed to show-up during our stay, which was a source of some disappointment to Valma.

The following morning, we explored the coast near Valma and Eddy's, taking the road along Long Boat Key and walking out on the Anna Maria City Pier (built in 1911). Returning to the mainland through Bradenton, we then headed to Clermont to visit Wendy and Michael again. Wendy was a bit tired and sore from the change in medications she had received having just started a trial for a new cancer-treatment. Their young puppy, Ridley, was also supposed to be taking it easy because he had recently undergone surgery to remove a sewing needle that he had mysteriously swallowed. Initially, I was not sure if our presence helped these situations, especially as Ridley was so keen to play with us. As always, however, we were soon encouraged to relax and their delicious food and lovely company made an excellent ending to our lightning tour of south Florida.